1/24 Airfix Spitfire (the new one)

[stona]

Fuselage joined.



It's gone together nicely. It's not going to need much clean up of the seams and scarcely a lick of any filler. I'm giving Airfix another point for this :smiling3:

Also, everything you see here (apart from the two fuselage halves) comes from two trees (D and E), that's another point for Airfix. I absolutely love not having several on the go, cluttering up my limited space. Like most of us, I'm just someone who likes sticking these things together and space and time are limited.

Next is supposed to be the tail plane/elevator, but I feel that the wings will take precedence. They look to be quite an interesting project. This will be a minor divergence from the instructions, which I have largely followed. They too are rather good and much better than some. I'm feeling generous, so another point to Airfix.

[stona]

I've made a start on the wings.

Since I'm more or less following the instructions I have built this bit up with no glue. Airfix have you glue in a sort of auxiliary spar at the back (which will provide the flap attachments later) but leave the wing ribs visible here, main spar and wheel wells unglued. I'm not sure why! You obviously need to line up the wheel well walls with the relevant openings. It is vital to get the main spar absolutely centred as the fuselage locates to it, get it wrong and you'll be in a world of pain when you make the wing-fuselage join, but all of this could be done with these parts glued as you go along. Maybe I'm missing something...answers on a post card to the usual address.

Here it is unglued:



When I'm absolutely sure I'm not missing something I'll glue it up

[flyjoe180]

That's a strange method Airfix have provided, Steve. Maybe it is to ensure correct placement of the wing ribs?

[stona]

That's a strange method Airfix have provided, Steve. Maybe it is to ensure correct placement of the wing ribs?

If the main spar (taped with that lovely purple electrical tape) is properly centred, then everything else should follow. The ribs locate on that, and in the case of the inboard ones the aft end locates in a cut out in the lower wing/fuselage. The wheel wells locate on the ribs and, rather obviously, their openings, the latter being the most important and visible.

I certainly do not mean my comments as a criticism of Airfix's instructions, I'm just curious as to why they came up with this method. It works, so it's fine!
I'm not one for slavishly following instructions, but in the spirit of a new(ish) model build I'm sticking to them as best I can. If I think they will cause a problem, I'll ignore them and make the point.

[adt70hk]

That's coming on very nicely indeed Steve.

[Jim R]

Good progress Steve. All credit to Airfix so far.

[wotan]

Steve

Check out Nigel's workbench on Youtube. He is building one of these and has a whole episode on fitting those wing spars.

John

[stona]

Steve

Check out Nigel's workbench on Youtube. He is building one of these and has a whole episode on fitting those wing spars.

John

I'll try to find it.
If he got that main spar slightly out it would have a knock on effect to the wing fuselage join and very probably the fit of the engine, or at least the panels that make up the nose (you should be able to get some play on the engine bearers and engine assembly).
Getting the spar or the firewall at the front of the fuselage assembly even slightly wrong could potentially ruin your day, left right, up and down, fore and aft and in every other direction you can think of
This sort of thing is not unique to this model. I somehow managed to b*gger up the nose of a Tamiya Spitfire by doing something similar wrong.

[stona]

I've not had much time of late (and I'll have less over the next couple of weeks) but I've managed to complete the internal structure of a wing. Once I've done the other one I will decide which looks best and paint that one, so that I could potentially leave some panels open. The other will be closed off.



I'm not going to lie, there was a disappointing amount of cleaning up to do on almost all the parts that have gone into that wing. Several of the ribs had a mold seam running along their length. It's something to be aware of. Otherwise, it all fits very nicely, no complaints at all.

You can see some of the pipework for the gun heating system, bringing hot air from the engine/exhaust to the guns. I've often wondered if any Erks saw the electrical gun heating system used on most US aircraft and thought 'Why didn't we do that?'

[adt70hk]

Looking good Steve but a shame about the clean up...

[stona]

So much to do and so little time!

I did manage to start on the inside of the wing that I might leave open to view. The guns are still in progress, but I managed the cannon ammunition, a 50:50 mix of HEI and SAPI rounds.



I'd like to get the guns done before I have to head off to work for a few days...don't hold your breath :smiling3:

While waiting for the primer to dry on all the shooty bits that will go into the port wing I decided to test the wing-fuselage join.





This is only taped in place (obviously) but I have to say the result is encouraging. More by luck than by judgement I may have avoided any of the pitfalls that some others seem to have suffered! I think I'll give a celebratory point to Airfix in advance.

[stona]

Final update for a few days as I'm off to the aeropuerto first thing tomorrow and will be working away for the rest of the week.

I've attached the lower wing to the fuselage as per the instructions and am pretty pleased with the result. There was minimal clean up, some gentle clamping and just a swipe of material off at the back of the lower wing where it meets the fuselage. I also trimmed the 'lugs' that helped hold the cockpit tub together to allow the back of the wing to sit down properly, but probably didn't need to do that.





So far so good!

[stona]

I've had an hour or so today, in which I've attached the upper wings.

Something was fractionally out, and I mean fractionally, probably less than a quarter of a millimetre. Luckily there was enough play that with a bit of huffing and puffing everything could be manhandled into place.



I made the fuselage join before I glued the leading and trailing edges together, it just gives you the small amount of movement needed and a leading edge is much simpler to sort out than the fuselage/wing join. In fact there is little that will need to be done.
This is a step well known to those of us who build models of aeroplanes and it can be, to put it mildly, a bit of a jostle. This was pretty straightforward, so well done Airfix.

[adt70hk]

Coming on nicely Steve.

Andrew

[Steven000]

Looking good so far Steve, have fun :thumb2: