Spitfire MK.XIV by Evgeniy Polovinnik, 1/33

[Don Boose]

Looks very good, indeed. Many thanks for the detailed building report.

Don

[sparrowhawk]

Kudos to the designer, please. So far, building is a breeze if you got a few models under your belt.
Today, the "power bulges". With the real thing, these got necessary because the Griffon engine had some 37% more displacement than the Merlin, thus larger cylinder banks which had to be integrated into the basic structure of the Spitfire.
Here´s how I did it:
- Pre-shaped the parts until they kept the shape.
- Closed the spherical parts in the front and the rear by keeping them together with very small clamps, then applying CA glue from the inside. Let it dry.
- In the meantime, I cut 4 narrow strips of 1.0 mm cardboard and glued them to the white areas that will be behind the bulges. This will give some support to the long sides of the bulges, helping to make them perfectly straight.
- Glued the bulges to the supporting strips, exerting some gentle pressure in the process so the bulges sit snugly on the strips.
- The brown stripe on the 3rd picture is the backside of the exhaust stubs. I want to let it dry overnight.

I did not yet do the exhausts because I am a bit tired from today´s work and I want them to line up well. But I did the fairings between the rear fuselage and the stabilizer, making them from printed parts that originally were provided for separate aileron parts.

BTW: That little airscrew on one of the pictures comes from a styrofoam glider. It serves me as a miniature spatula to apply glue. The UHU glue does not stick to the airscrew, so I use it for more than 2 years by now.

Cheers, Martin

[sparrowhawk]

Today´s work: Exhausts glued to the sides of the cowling.
1st pic shows how I painted them whilst still being attached to the sheet of the kit: Every "free floating" minute less is a minute less to lose them!
3rd pic shows the doors of the retractable tailwheel. Like all my Spitfires, I build this model with the landing gear retracted. This is a matter of personal philosophy: If an aircraft designers team puts considerable time into making an aircraft as sleek and streamlined as possible, then why have the model stand on a spindly landing gear all the time? This is especially true for the Spit and the Me109 with their narrow landing gear.
4th pic shows a first comparison with the Seafire MK.XV from Modelik.
Next big step will be the wings.

Cheers, Martin

[Royaloakmin]

It's a perfect nose, Martin!

[sparrowhawk]

Last days, I have been busy with the wings. Again, no landing gear. Construction is quite straightforward. I built it without any changes, except for short cuts at right angles to the leading edge in order to make forming easier.
To get the position of the glue lines inside the wing skins right, I placed the wing skeleton on the inside of the lower wing skin and drew lines with a thin drop action pencil into it. Helped along with aligning the wing skeleton once I had glued the lower outer wing panels to the center section.
One more caveat: Wing halves are connected by placing a reinforced rectangular piece of cardboard bhind the stubs of the main spar that protude from the root rib towards the centerline. This means, this particular area is of 2mm thickness. The slot to recieve the wingspar as provided is only 1mm. no problem, but take care.

Cheers, Martin

[milenio3]

thank you for sharing this report, Sparrowhawk.

Very clean indeed!

Now, I can see that the printout of your model seems very smooth.
Did you print it in a laser printer?

[sparrowhawk]

Hi Gerardo,
yes, I printed it on a very good laser printer. I can do it from my office, for a small fee. I get a very smooth semi-gloss finish with the paper I use which enhances the beautiful lines of this bird.
Building has progressed a bit since I last posted here, but I left my camera in the office. I will catch up on this ASAP.
Cheers, Martin

[milenio3]

Nice!! "Small fee" sounds good... Over here, is around $1 per page.

[sparrowhawk]

20 Euro Cents here. But I also do some every days maintenance on the copier, so this is a small compensation.
I have been terribly busy those last days, but the Spittie is finished. For quick preview look at the german thread Spitfire MK.XIV, Evgeniy Polovinnik, 1:33 (fertig) - Abgeschlossene Bauberichte Luftfahrt - Die Kartonmodellbauer
I will write more tonight, together with some decently sized pictures.

Cheers, Martin

[sparrowhawk]

Now here are some pictures: 1 and 2: Closing the upper sides of the wings. My assumption was the interference fairings between the fuselage and the wings to be glued directly to the inner edges of the wing skins. This was unnecessary, the fairings are actually glued to the upper wing skins.
Next 2 pics: Wings are mounted to the fuselage: The shape of the thing starts to emerge.