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Airfix Spitfire

paddy

paddy

Well-known member
I keep looking at Airfix' s new 1/24 spitfire....The price seems to drop by the month now and its nearly cheaper now than their 1/48 Buccaneer

My problem is I'm not sure the world needs another Spitfire build and not sure their is anything you could do with it thats not already been done 1000 times.
I have looked at old pictures of crashed Spits which is a possibility and also wondered about opening up all the access panels. I could do it in a realistic war weary condition or a modern restored bling version. I would like to build one, i dont have anywhere to put it so it would not be a keeper...I just need inspiration to build something other than just another spitfire.
Right now i am thinking.... open the panels and add detail if i can find enough detail to add behind the panels. :)
 
The Kotare kit will be my first Spit in probably 30 years. Even if the world doesnt need another Spitfire Its an iconic part of history and a gorgeous bird that deserves to be built :)
James
 
No disrespect to the spit6fire :) I'm just trying to find inspiration by finding some way of making the build more attractive ?
Is the Kotare really better than the Tamiya now the Tam price has come down ? I suppose if you want aMk1 it is.

Anyway i have ordered the Airfix 1/24 in the hope it excites me :)
 
paddy said:
No disrespect to the spit6fire :) I'm just trying to find inspiration by finding some way of making the build more attractive ?
Is the Kotare really better than the Tamiya now the Tam price has come down ? I suppose if you want aMk1 it is.

Anyway i have ordered the Airfix 1/24 in the hope it excites me :)
Click to expand...
There is a fellow I met on a WWI page who is Making and remaking the WNW Albatross. He is working on the 1/24 Spitfire. If you want to see some insane stuff I'll post the you tube link. I think he is selling some corrections for the Spitfire in 1/24. He has been making corrections for the Albie that are amazing. I have some of his earlier stuff but the new stuff is even better. BTW he has lots of interesting tips. such as the exhausts were made of Inconel and so can not rust. Something I did not know.
James
 
I will have a look at the kit parts and see what they are like, so often you buy all this after market and you really didnt need to :)
spitfires can be a world of pain on Forums. Many a clash between Forum anoraks and normal people has ended in pistols at dawn.

I dont claim to be an expert but i do have a lot of reference books and if i had a specialist subject it would probably be the Spit but i was drummed of Britmodeller for daring to question the under side colour of a Mk1 :) . I was basically told to shut up as there was no question the resident know it all was wrong....ha ha.
I never understood why people seem to gain this self importance because they think they know more than the next guy, i can only think they have an inferiority complex they are trying to hide.
 
I too have a lot of books but only one is really needed (unfortunately a fortune for the print version but well spent). Link to e-book:

1680008238924.png
 
I have been experimenting with MRP RAF interior green. Usually i would use Tamiya XF71 interior green which always look good but is actually a Japanese interior green . I want to try and get this spitfire right.
I think because of this people think the RAF colour was lighter than it really was and the Jap green plays too that.
Original colours can be a can of worms especially SKY :) Fortunately my Spitfire will be a later MkIX so will not involve sky :)
This might be a tenuis link but i worked for 36 years as a tool maker in the same workshop. The business was set up during the war to produce small items for larger work shops. Parts for Aircraft production were dispersed to thousands of small workshops like mine in towns and villages to make disruption from German attack very difficult with the parts all coming together for assemble only at the end.

The machines, lathes , mills , drills etc were all war time or earlier when i went there in the mid 70's and they were all different colours with paint being in short supply.
The colours were all semi gloss but drab colours , its hard to describe but they were not modern shades, they didnt have the brightness or the luminosity of modern colours. The bright red was like a Red lead colour Greens were dark greens, Blues were like a dark royal blue.
I suppose the way to describe them was they had a std Blue/Green/Red/Yellow etc and just added Black or white to alter it where as to day they might mix a dozen colours to change a shade.

_DSC6637.JPG


This is MRP RAF interior green MRP-111

It looks dark but i suspect based on what i said above its probably about right. It also probably varied a lot like most things at the time.

this picture looks original but polished rocker boxes ??

22494e19e1221ea0d8b1c9f948462df3.jpg


Does anyone know what the material is that is lining the frame work that the side cowling fits too ? Is it wood or leather ?

Spitfire MK9 4.jpg


You can see strips riveted over the green frame
 
paddy said:
Parts for Aircraft production were dispersed to thousands of small workshops like mine in towns and villages to make disruption from German attack very difficult with the parts all coming together for assemble only at the end.
Click to expand...
Would love to see some photos of your shop Paddy. Show off your digs man!

I would suspect that is metal that the panels mated up to. I surely don't think flammables would be used as a buffer. Look at the sheen on the run above the that tank, oil tank maybe? That's a metallic sheen.
 
I stopped work there 10 years back and its demolished now, It was the grain store for the adjacent water mill and was listed in the Doomsday book in the 11th century :)
Spitfire MK9 3.jpg


I think these riveted strips are to stop metal to metal contact, my guess is leather ?
 
Come to think of it I have seen canvas like material used also, but those don't have the signature texture of canvas.
James
 
I don't know for a fact what these are but old engine seals were made from rope material . Don't know what the actual rope was made from but in this time period , it seems possible .
It would be cheaper than leather and more compressible. Don't fixate on the color.

TTFGROPE-2T.jpg
 
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