The Wooksta! - The Plan, a Spitfire Blog

[The Wooksta!]

"What fish!"

The Seafire 45.7 is coming on but the fit of the kit is slowing this down.  I had to do some surgery to the nose to get the 47 lower cowl to fit and the wing roots needed some work too.

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This is earlier on before I started any gluing.  It's got the tailplanes from the 47 here for the hell of it, but it will get the usual tailplanes when it goes together.

The other thing Special Hobby got wrong was the fin.  The contra prop cured the torque issue but introduced critical trim instability. This was cured using the 18 rudder with Z trim tab.  However, whilst the rudder is bigger the fin is shorter by a couple of inches - there's a panel line near the top of the fin on a 14, 21 or 45 that's the start of a wooden block between the metal fin and the rudder itself.

The 14/21/45 rudder is taller than that of the 18 and both rudders in the 21/45 are the same height in the Special Hobby kits, so it'll need a new rudder for the contra prop version which I want. Contraprops are cool.

AZ made the same mistake with their 18, but they did have the revised hatches on the wing correct. It just needs a new rudder, but the revised wing means you can't do the lowback 14s without rescribing the hatches.

Ventura had the fin on their 18 correct but the wing was that of the 14, it didn't have the revised hatches.  It's a late 14, as some had the 18 rudder.

Really, the 14, 18 and the contra prop Spits are a real minefield and the 18 is a tricky one to nail down.  Does it matter?  Depends on the individual modeller.  Personally, I'd like it as accurate as possible on the grounds that the best place to hide a tree is in a forrest. If said tree is an evergreen Douglas Fir in an Oak forest in the middle of December then it's going to stick out as wrong. Especially if covered in glitzy baubles.

I've learned a great deal about Spitfires during the course of The Plan. There's a lot of interesting gaps and roads not travelled to explore.

I doubt it's worth it, given the lack of replies and all that, but comments for those still remotely and vaguely interested, and who can actually be arsed to reply, go here:
https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=34772.msg552036#msg552036

For more information, please reread.