supermarine Spitfire Vb Trop (Kartonowy Arsenal 2/2008)

[iedzjee]

Inspired by the paper modeling of my son and Lukasz fantastic Spitfire I decided last year to try to build a paper model myself. In the X-mas holidays I started and since then I am enjoying myself tremendously with it. It is an awfull lot of work and it proceeds very slowly, but I am not in a hurry. Because I enjoy reading the posts on this forum very much and it is very inspiring I decided to put some pictures of my project in. I hop it will be inspiring and maybe usefull to the community.

It started with the kit. I choose the Halinski Spitfire after downoading and comparing several scans fom various designers. I did a bit of trying out on prints of the scans and decided that cutting the frames was the most tedious and was looking for a kit with lasercut parts. I really like the way Halinski kits are detailed and the weathering gives it a look I like. My son has been building the Trop Spit in plastic and I am also building one as an RC-model, so the then new Spit Trop was an obvious choice. I ordered the kit, the lasercut parts and the canopy.

This is the kit.


I started with the seat. The tubes of the frame are made of plastic rods.


The seat and the bulkhead. Pitty is that the cockpit bulkheads are not lasercut. Specially these are hard to make.


The instrument panel is mad up of the one in the kit, a thin sheet of plasic and a plastic sheet with the holes drilled out. I have tried, but haven't found a way of cutting precize crircles of 1,5mm radius in cardstock.


The stick has a central plastic rod an a wire handle. The rest is from the kit. I added two triangular pieces under the handle, as one can see on photo's of the real thing.


Rudder pedals as from the kit. rods are plastic again, with paper around them.


Cockpit right side with all the interior boxes.


And from an other angle.


And the left side. The oxygen bottles are made of rolledup paper. The ends were first sanded in the shape and then soaked in cyano glue and sanded again.


Putting the two cockpit sides together is a tricky moment. It should be done wit utmost accuracy, otherwise the rest of the fuselage won't fit. In my cockpit a 3/4 mm gap was left at the bottom. This meant that I had to cut the covering in front of the cockpit and add e 1mm strip an had to fill a gap of 3/4 mm behind the cockpit in order to correct this.
The antennaconstrcution is copied from Lukasz.


Because the rudder is fabric covered, I draw the places of the ribs on the back of the covering and pushed the ribs gently in, so they will show a bit.


The framework of the wing


And the last panel preformed before the tips went on.


And then I accidentaly pushed to hard near the rear spar on the wing covering. It dented and gave a very ugly ridge on the wing that was not possible to correct. I tried everthing. Wetted it with steam and tried to suck it out, punctured a hole and tried to pull it up. etc. Because the kit contains two versions, I decided to tear the top of the wing of and replace it with an english skin. Have to paint out the roundle, but that was done at the real plane as well. This photo shows the partly removed skin of the wing last night.


When the Spit is finished, I will add the rest of the story.

[pahorace]

Hi,
Excellent construction.
Pity about the incident but I'm sure you have enough experience to fix it.
Wishes for the continuation.
Expect to see the finished model.

Orazio

[Don Boose]

Very fine work!

Don

[Zathros]

I showed my 9 year old son this thread and he was so amazed and asked, "Why would you put all that stuff on the inside if you can't see it?". I said because you know it's there and most of the fun is building it and learning from the build. Your model is awesome and has a realistic, not "too new" look to it.

[Wily]

My stomach sank at learning of your accident...and it's brilliant; best wishes on finish!!

<S>

[iedzjee]

Hello Zathros,

Thanks for the kind words. Funny, I had the same discussion with my son Karel, who is 11. I gave him excactly the same answer. And basically he agrees, because he happily throws his models away after a while. By the way, This is his site he made when he was about nine. It has to be updated. Welkom

[Zathros]

@ Ledzgee, you son's website is awesome. He has some really nice models there. You must be very proud.

[Bomarc]

Great build so far iedzjee. I applaud your perseverance and fixing the wing. It's not easy having to conduct surgery on a model like that. I think it's harder physiologically then actually using the knife!

And I have to echo Mr. Zathros comments, your son's a phenomenal model builder!

Well done to the both of you!

Mike

[Wily]

Tell your son that his craftsmanship is excellent!

[iedzjee]

Thank you Wily Zathros and Bomarc, for the encouraging words. Skin transplantation went well. I translated your posts for son Karel and he was silently listening with red cheeks and promised to update his site. He is building the Cleopatra from Walden models at the time. Great model!

EJ