Scratch Built Supermarine Spitfire MK.V

[T haf]

Life has been busy. Lots of overtime recently so progress on the spit has been limited. I've got some progress on the engine for ya today. Not much more than that unfortunately. Its come quite far, I'm pretty happy with how V3 is looking. I've got to add a whole bunch of components such as the magnetos, sparkplug lines, wire/tubing, supercharger inlet, exhaust manifolds, radiator tank, etc, etc. My favorite part so far has got to be the cylinder air inlets. I really like how they look sitting in-between the cylinders. The most challenging part was the gearing/ducting for the supercharger. I found a 3d model online that I was able to model fairly accurately. Despite the differences, just based off of how busy the casing is, it still looks really realistic.

[Siwi]

That is a lot of bolts to punch and position. I would just tone down how bright silver they are to a duller steel tone - though I guess you're going to put some weathering on the Merlin including oily washes which would aid this. You got the shade of slightly metallized grey-black just right.

[T haf]

The brightness of the engine is going to be considerably toned down. I'm building this in full "new" colors so that I can back when its all done and weather it as a whole instead of random pieces with mismatch wear

[Mike1158]

How is it but more importantly, how are YOU doing mate?

[rifleman]

awesome just awesome dam fine build

[T haf]

Ya'll will have to forgive me for the long break. I've been busy with work, working on this project, and life. Seems last time I didn't even have the engine completed. Feel free to ask questions about any of the components I've built into the Spit so far. There are a lot of them. Not much more to say this time around. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

[rifleman]

awesome just awesome well done

[abhovi]

Stop building! It would be a crying shame to hide all these fantastic details.

[Siwi]

Firstly, glad to hear you're doing well and have made some substantial progress on this project. I was thinking about this the other day and hoped you were still going with it.
I do have a list of technical questions:
- What is your method for building and shaping the propellor blades - and additionally, what resources have you used to get the correct profile? I find this is something that is hard to get clear and accurate from 3-views and pictures.
- I see you have built a mechanism to operate the control surfaces via levers, similar to your earlier builds. The hinges, as far as can be seen in the pictures, are a roll of paper over a wooden stick. Do you have any advice on how to get these to fit snugly enough they won't fall down but not so snugly that they stick, or get caught in the seam where the paper is rolled? Is there any paper that is especially smooth that is good for this, or do you varnish/coat the insides at all?
- How many layers of paper is the skin?

- What do you use for riveting? I know there are tools available intended for plastic models.
How have you found sticking wires and plastic tubes to paper surfaces? I guess superglue?


I'm not sure the Browning .303s stuck out of the wings though - never seen it in any pictures. The fitters were still putting doped patches over the gunports to keep them clean and prevent icing.

[Erik Zwaan]

Hi T haf, good to see you're back working on your magnificent project. I agree with Abhovi, please do not cover all these magnificent details. Figure something out to have removable panels!

Cheers,
Erik