Chris' ICM 1/48 Spitfire Mk.IX

[langy71]

That is looking real good Chris!!! Love the IP a lot, but what is the lollipop with the nose behind it. Overspray or something???...Looks cool though. Drive on Sir....

Prost
Allen

lol, is where i attached the bulkhead to a stick for painting...must remember to touch it in...lol

 

[langy71]

"A bit of progress" he says.... That`s more in less than two days that i`ve managed in a WEEK!!
Looking very nice there Chris.... the control panel in particular.... did you hand paint that?
Good stuff mate,
Andy

yeah mate, i did contemplate grabbing a replacement panel ,but thought i'd throw some paint at it first and see where it ended up.

 

[langy71]

Update time,
a couple of hours work and she's at this state....
main job today was knocking up a set of seatbelts from tamiya tape and tiny loops...far from perfect but i guess it'll be hard to tell the difference from three feet....

 

[Gern]

Lookin' good Chris, but I gotta agree with Dave. I can't see any way you're going to get the engine cover to fit.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Looking very good Chris. Spitfire dihedral in the offing I see……

 

[langy71]

Lookin' good Chris, but I gotta agree with Dave. I can't see any way you're going to get the engine cover to fit.

It does look like it's gonna be a bit tight, but I'm figuring with a bit of good ole brute force and superglue to grab it I can hold it long enough to flood the area with TET.

Although, whilst doing fitting tests as I built up the front end it seemed to only have a tiny gap along the top of the exhaust manifolds, so maybe I should sacrifice one of the tiny 'not needed' parts to the model gods and pray they're looking the other way when I pop it together......

And just like @dave had already mentioned those cannon covers on the wing were an absolute pig to get in, god knows how much sanding and shaping of the inside edge of them I did to get them in....(they're not 100%perfect now, but they're as close as I could get them with resorting to re-cutting the inserts out a bit more...)

 

[Mark1]

Looks like it's all going the right direction nice job on the seat belts.

 

[Jim R]

Very good progress Chris. The cockpit looks fine and the seatbelts are excellent.
Jim

 

[colin m]

Great work Chris. The harness is most effective. Did you have to correct the dihedral, or just being safe ?

 

[langy71]

Thanks for all the comments guys, good to know you folks are following along....

so.... into the shed for a splash of paint....







a mist of the base colour to blend it all back in....


needs a quick 'polish' and it's ready for the uppersides to begin

 

[langy71]

Great work Chris. The harness is most effective. Did you have to correct the dihedral, or just being safe ?

Colin, Glad you like the harness, it's the first time I've attempted to make one, the wing dihedral looked about right, so it was more about making sure nothing moved whilst the glue hardened off.

 

[langy71]

And a splash of paint on the top sides,

 

[langy71]

And a few more hours at the bench and we have some invasion stripes....I'm not 100% happy with them, the measurements might be a bit off in places, and I've overdone the chipping in some places.....nothing that a quick touch up wont cure, I figure they'll look better after the weathering that's to come....

Also managed to spray matt black all over my watch strap...took ages to clean that off.....lol

 

[The Smythe Meister]

Blimey...
That looks excellent Chris
Loving your paintwork there mate.... And it looks like you overcame the engine cowling problem with ease!
Great stuff buddy

 

[Dave Ward]

Chris,
If I recall, all the D-Day stripes were applied to all the aircraft involved in the space of two days, and I bet some of the paint jobs wouldn't bear close scrutiny! - and I bet only the best paint jobs had photos taken!
Going very well!!
Dave

 

[langy71]

Blimey...
That looks excellent Chris
Loving your paintwork there mate.... And it looks like you overcame the engine cowling problem with ease!
Great stuff buddy

Yeah buddy, it literally went together with no probs whatsoever, i would advise folk do plenty of dry fitting before nailing these bits together,
glad you like the paintwork, first time i've ever done invasion stripes....quite a way away from doing armour..

 

[langy71]

Chris,
If I recall, all the D-Day stripes were applied to all the aircraft involved in the space of two days, and I bet some of the paint jobs wouldn't bear close scrutiny! - and I bet only the best paint jobs had photos taken!
Going very well!!
Dave

Thanks Dave... It's good to know i wasn't totally out of the park with how they ended up looking,

funny thing is though I did read somewhere that most of the invasion stripes on aircraft were removed within a month of D-Day, and yes it seems that only the Sqd leaders and other higher ranks had perfectly painted Stripe, whilst the 'regular' aircraft were just, for want of a better word, slapped on...

 

[peterairfix]

Good work it's another one from me.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Slapped on is the word. I’ve read memoirs where yard brushes and whitewash were used, especially on the big stuff like Dakotas. Later on they became part of the standard markings, but only on the bottom half of the aircraft. My Mark XII is going to have those markings…..

 

[langy71]

Slapped on is the word. I’ve read memoirs where yard brushes and whitewash were used, especially on the big stuff like Dakotas. Later on they became part of the standard markings, but only on the bottom half of the aircraft. My Mark XII is going to have those markings…..

I'll be sure to keep watching buddy, your build is turning out gorgeously