The Wooksta! - The Plan, a Spitfire Blog

[The Wooksta!]

"What about Jelly Botty, where you have to eat 18 curries?"


Decalling all done bar a few small bits on two aircraft and I'll get them done later after I've had a bath and something to eat.  The bulk of the varnishing is all done.  Need to find a few small bits for one or two and we're good to go.

There's quite a few now that I'll stick to the back of the queue for various reasons.  The Egyptian mk 18 just doesn't work, but I think it's down to the decals which aren't geared to go with that particular kit.  And the two Hasegawa mk 8s, but then I really dislike the Hasegawa Spitfires and I don't think I've yet to finish one that I've been entirely happy with, although no, I did quite like the one I converted to a Seafire IV.  The Seafangs just don't work either, although I'm quite taken with the Dutch one.

Got a coat of aluminium on the cloned Eduard Brassin wheels I was given some time back.  The castings didn't look that impressive but the paint has really brought out the detail.  May have to do some moulds for myself!

There's still a lot to do, but it's starting to come together.  Slowly.

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[The Wooksta!]

"We never did get to watch the video!"


Telford's been and gone.  Not a lot of new stuff finished since then and the bulk of the abandoned stuff is still that - abandoned.  Which is some cases is a pity, as the finished models could be rather spiffing.  The Spitefuls need canopies and they are always a pain.  However, one of the lads at the club has some rather interesting resin and a vacform machine, so he's been politely asked if he can copy a canopy.  I've several copies of the old Czech resin kit that Pegasus used as a master, so this canopy should fit.  I'll also twist his arm to do the trainer canopy from the CMR kit, as I know I'll be needing quite a few for the planned T-birds I'm hoping to do this year.

My plan to do several models for a minitheme on 421 recce flight has now blown into a proper family tree, starting with several mk IIs, taking in a PRIV and PRXI before mutating into a proper squadron (546, which never formed) with PR19s and FRXIVs, finally ending with mk 16s as target tugs for the AACU.  The three end models are done, although I'll need to respray the mk 16 before I can get the decals on. Rather pleased with the two NMF 19s but I really want a PRU Blue one to go with them.  I have one in primer that just needs the canopy on and it's good to go to the paint shop.

Hopefully, I'll have a trio of all new things at Bolton, but possibly a few more.  I got one of the last 607Sqn post war aircraft finally finished last night and another isn't too far off.


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[PR19_Kit]

especially those sodding yellow 2 shaped things -  compounded by the fact that they're for a slightly different airframe.

They're the 'Hoist Here' markings, and they're mean to look like hooks. The RAF seemed to be psychotic about dumping them all over their airframes during that period for some reason.

[The Wooksta!]

"Hi, Neil. Is this some sort of sick joke? Why isn't supper ready? You haven't done a bloody thing, have you, Neil?!"

I kind of lost my mojo for some time.  The tour on Lancasters petered out, largely due to a minibreakdown caused by stress at work.  I just haven't wanted to touch plastic for some time since then, but the arrival of september means the clock is running down and I need to look at this year's display.

Having drawn up this year's issue of The Plan^TM, it went in the bin and got re-written as V2.0.  Quite a bit - actually most of it - is written around a great number of stuff part started, assembled and in several cases even primed.  There's a few I'll need to start sticking plastic together for, but not many.  Probably no more than six.  I say that now, but undoubtedly it'll go up as the cogs start turning.

The whole thing revolves around two ideas.  The first being the whole 421 Recce Flight/546 Sqn.  They had the codes LZ- but 66 Sqn had LZ.  Hmmmn, how do we get round this?  Well, I have 607 Sqn reforming on Spitfires after they come back from France having lost their Hurricanes and I kept them in the UK, so 66 Sqn go to the far east in their place, naturally with Spitfires.  So I get to do several far east ones - actually, V2.0 has half a dozen.  This gives me two small themes and bulks out my far east section.

The second revolves around a chance find of a photo of an F21 in the markings of 122 Sqn.  Now, they had Mustangs from early 44 until post war, when lend lease ended and they got F21s before being re-badged as 41 Sqn.  This changes now, so they get a few 'e' wing mk IXs before changing to the F.XIV as part of ADGB and then they get re-assigned to 2TAF, ending the war with F21s in April 1946.  41 Sqn remains as they were in history, but their Spitfire F.XIVs are replaced with Spitefuls before they get Hornets later as per reality. 

This thinking resolves the fact that I gave 41 Sqn Spitefuls some years back, but I realise now that I need to build one in late war 2TAF markings.  Not such a hardship, as I have one assembled that I was never happy with and would be only too delighted to give it a respray.  Failing that, there's a part started one that wouldn't take too much work to get to the primer stage.

I just need to start gluing a few bits of plastic together and start looking at sorting through the boxes with the part assembled stuff to get it into some sort of order.  I have two weeks of assembly time, and not that much that really need assembling.  And depending on the kit, I can through them together *very* quickly.



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[The Wooksta!]

"I must be hallucinating. What's good for a hangover?"

Well, I've got a pair of Hasegawa mk VIIIs on the go.  I don't like the kit at all - lack of detail and the fit is less than stellar - but I had a pair in the stash and they go together reasonably quickly.  I did find an assembled wing too, so that could be useful, although the fit to the fuselage when it's assembled is more challenging as I've discovered in the past.

Out with a pair of mk XIIs - I'd thought about one or two being issued to 122 Sqn as ground instructional airframes when they convert to the mk XIV but they keep one flying as a hack.  I had a pair of part started Xtrakit ones so they were handy.

On looking for something else, an assembled Hobbyboss mk Vb, complete with Vokes filter, revealed itself.  Handy, I think, as it'll do for the 66 Sqn one I'd planned for the far east.  Unless they do a quick tour in the middle east before transiting out later when war breaks out there.  Means I can do another Airfix Vb with the spare Airkit filter that arrived as part of that box of bits I got a few weeks back.  I've a pair of those dug out and they go together very quickly.  It's a kit I've always liked, even if it's a bit long in the tooth now.


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[The Wooksta!]

"Honestly, Neil. Of all the stupid ideas."

Short update.  Virtually everything is together, apart from a pair of Airfix F22s that'll end up as F24s.  One will be the RAF Acklington Station Commander's aircraft and thus very shiny in aluminium, t'other...  I'm keeping tight lipped about it but the back story is humorous and interesting.  It really depends on if I can find the correct red paint and more importantly a specific set of decals.

The Airkit 14 is coming along nicely, I just have to find the other tailplane I'd cast for it as it appears to have vanished off the face of the earth. I need to cast another set for the Airkit F21 I'm salvaging.  That's all tidied up and ready for priming, once I get the tailplanes sorted.  I have a hankering to start another, but that's not really a good idea considering the time element.  I can slot the part started AZ mk IX I acquired off ebay into the plan, given that it was to end up in aluminium anyway and thus a quick spray job.

I really need to start priming soon, but the weather is against me and I need primer, so that's a two hour round trip to Silverlink through the badlands of Wallsend.  I also need Maskol, but that will have to wait until saturday, providing Uncle Frank has any in stock, although Fenwicks in the Toon may well have.

Looking at the list, it's quite probably too long and ambitious for the timescale, so some judicious pruning may well be in order.


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[The Wooksta!]

"Look! Look, when they get back, tell them I'm incredibly sorry!"

Well, again, we have a completed and considered Plan and again, I stick something else into it at the last minute.  This time it's an Airkit Seafire 15, plus a few other assembled things.  Time is now running short and whilst everything is now together bar the Airkit 15 (the fuselage is done), the bulk of the priming is yet to be finished.  All bar one of the things to be NMF are done and finished, ready for decalling.  One needs some sanding before adding the canopy and a final coat, plus the radiators need to go under the 122 Sqn F.21, but a good chunk of The Plan (now at V5.0!) is done.

Given the time element, I'm reluctantly thinking of axing huge swathes of stuff - the bulk of the 66 Sqn stuff is unimportant and the two Dutch aircraft can be quietly sidelined.  I'd really like to get the 421 Flight/546 Sqn, 122 Sqn stuff done and anything else would be a bonus.  Although the 41 Sqn Spiteful could end up looking rather good. And this doesn't include the half dozen decalled holdovers from last year that I *really* want finished, because they work really well  and need to be displayed. 

Said time element is now running down.  I estimate a good twenty days left - five to get the priming done, ten for spraying/masking and another five for decalling.  That takes me to the end of the month, leaving a few days tinkering time.

I've found a use for an Aeroteam F21 that got assembled and abandoned some years back.  NMF finish and it's wearing Type C markings.  I've decided on a 122 Sqn contraprop aircraft.  The rudder was already removed and I've test fitted an F.18 rudder.  Somewhere close to hand is a Rotol contraprop that's the right colour, so with a modicum of work, that'sone long term hangar queen eliminated.

TBH, there's a few other things I'd like to start - another F21 in 122 Sqn markings, albeit with nice glossy post war roundels, plus a pair of 41 Sqn Spitefuls.  I've a hankering for one in the air race colours worn by their OTL F21s.  However tempting these are, they'll have to wait until next year. At least, post Telford

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[The Wooksta!]

"Well, of course you hate it, Neil, it's not finished yet!"

The wings are on the last two - these being the Airkit Seafire 15 and yet another PR21, this being intended as a quick one in overall PRU Blue as the prototype.  The Seafire is intended for a simple two colour scheme of Extra Dark Sea Grey over Sky with the low demarcation with Type C markings and markings for a unit operating off the east coast.  The wing joins of both need some serious filler work, the Seafire especially, but I really need that one done as it's one of the few left to add for a complete line up - I may have to do a Seafire IIc and possibly another Seafire XV but once done, it means that I'll have whiffed nigh on the entire Spitfire family.  No mean feat.

Everything else is primed and much of the remedial work is done, so next is to get the canopies a nice cold bath in some Pledge - you can't get Kleer any more and what little I have is earmarked for decalling, but Pledge works well enough for canopies - and then get them on and masked so I can get spraying.  The intention is to get the bulk of everything assembled to the masking stage for the second colour and then start eliminating anything that's really not essential.  At least I can get some stuff further forward before abandoning it again.

I'll have to start looking at the props soon too, as these generally trip me up.  The bulk of the wheels have their hubs done, so an hour or so should see them done.

Lots to do and hard decisions are going to have to be made.  I do not want to be running down to the wire again.  Been there, seen it, done it and felt the sheer tired stressfullness of it all - and I'm too old for all that balderdash.

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[The Wooksta!]

"I hate these places. They're so depressing. You know, Michael, I would rather go to a lecture than a laundrette."

I detest vacform canopies.  Apart from cutting them out, it's generally a lottery if they'll fit or not.  The two closed canopies stolen from various Airkit Spitfires fitted the Airfix Vbs that I was working on a treat, whereas the Squadron PR canopy did not fit the Revell Vb that's now a mk IV (fuselage crossed with an Airfix 19 wing).  However, I'd been given some Airkit parts by Colin some time back and they included several resin plugs, two early PR canopies being amongst them.  One of the lads at the club did me a load of canopies including said plugs and first time out, they fit.  The aforementioned PRIV and a Vb that's the cannon armed equivalent of a PR1G.

All of the highback canopies are now in place and just need masking up before I can start spraying the upper surface colours.  One or two will have to wait, as I need to cast a few bits and I'm waiting for a new batch of resin.

The Airkit F.21 got it's final coat of Aluminium yesterday and it looks fantastic.  Really looking forward to seeing this one finished.

Thoughts on downsizing this year's Plan to something more realistic given time constraints and other factors are still ongoing, but I'm going to wait until the first colour coats are all on.  I know what I want to do with regards to the camouflaged examples, it's just deciding what are the must haves and the not important enough.



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[The Wooksta!]

"That's just the most completely brilliant thing I've ever seen...A flying shark!"

Well, spraying has *finally* started - and then stopped due to time issues as I don't like running the compressor too late.  Plus I was having technical issues with the airbrush.  I did however give the Dutch 16 lowback a nice coat of medium green - apparently some wore an experimental jungle scheme and I had to give it a go, so much so that there's three rather than two Dutch 16s now in the Plan. I also added another PR21 into the Plan as I liked the idea of one in overall Aluminium in the far east - it'll go with the one I did some years back with the paint partly worn off.  It's a quick and easy one to spray.

I've looked at the spray schedule - all of the Ocean Grey stuff should be done tomorrow, with the 41 Sqn Spiteful first in the queue as I've an image in me head of how it'll look when it's done.  The trio in overall PRU Blue are waiting until I do the undersides of several.

Time is against me this year more than ever.  I started late and work is getting in the way.  I'm hoping that the extra day off next week will help me catch up a bit.  I need to start decalling no later than next wednesday to have a hope in hell of getting anything finished...


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[The Wooksta!]

"God, I'm bored. Term only finished four hours ago and already I'm bored."

After a day of masking off the upper surfaces with Maskol, I've now started spraying the second colours on.  The Seafire 15 was done first, largely because as it's one of the few marks that I *don't* have, it's important to get that one finished and as such it's now got Super Priority.

I'm about a third the way through - I do them in batches of about 6 or so, with two more batches to do.  Largely to let the dust settle, give the compressor a chance to cool down and myself a cuppa.  I reckon there's about another hours work, give the paint a chance to dry and cure fully, then I'll start stripping of the Maskol later and start masking with tape tomorrow.  I've a feeling by the end of it, I'll be happy to go back to work...

IF I'm lucky, I should have all the undersurfaces done tomorrow too, so I can *finally*- start decalling on wednesday.


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[The Wooksta!]

"Snow, snow, bloody snow! I hate the bloody sight of it!"

Now halfway through and ran out of the bottle of RAF Dark green I was using, so ideal time for a quick brew and get the last mk IX masked - it needed some last minute tidying before a quick coat of Ocean Gray before I started everything else.  Once the Maskol's dried, I'll do it as part of the last batch.

And *YET AGAIN!* I add something else into The Plan at almost the last breath!  This time a completed and masked Airfix PR19.  I was going to do it as a modern warbird painted up as a wartime aircraft.  IIRC, an RAAF one in Caldwell's markings.  I've got those in with the Eduard Aussie combo and several spare sets, so it's a quick and easy one to do with an overall Foliage green upper and light blue underneath.  The spinner is white with red stripes, but I'll go for overall red on the grounds that warbirds are never completely accurate anyway and it's representing Caldwell's mk XIVe that he was flying post war.  I've given the RAAF at least one mk 14 and this now opens up the possibility of a few more, plus possibly a mk 21 and or a 22 as a post war evaluation aircraft.  And if the RAAF has Spitfire F22s, then so might the RNZAF.

Well, back to work...


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[The Wooksta!]

"That's OK, Neil. It was bound to happen sooner or later."

Well, the masking came off with few problems, although the third Dutch mk IXe low back gets abandoned as I'm just not happy with it, not to mention the time element.  All of the tape masking to do the undersides is now done after a mammoth session today, interspersed with cups of tea and fortified by chocolate biscuits.  However, it ended just a shade too late to do any actual spraying, which will be later today.  I'll do it in batches again, with the various colours.

The trio of PR21s now have their u/c on.  I've discovered that the Eduard legs will take Aeroclub wheels and I have a number of spare 3 spoke hub wheels kicking about doing nothing, so that's something to remember for the future.  One of said trio is going aluminium but the weather has turned a bit damp for outdoor spraying.

However, that time element is now kicking in with a vengeance due to schedule slippage.  Decalling *may* start today, but don't hold your breath and I lose much of friday and saturday.  Time to start sharpening that axe, but I know what I want to keep and what is expendable.


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[The Wooksta!]

"I was just beginning to enjoy myself."

Well, decalling has begun, despite the fact that I've yet to do any real spraying because I came in from work rather late and after sorting out a pair of PR21s before spraying, I found that it was really too late to fire up the compressor.

I've got nice glossy type D markings on several. The 81 Sqn PR21 looks very nice in overall aluminium and with the later roundels it'll be a neat contrast to the one I did a few years back.  May have to do one in PRU Blue at some stage.  It just needs it's serial and I'll use one from the sheet of cancelled F21s that Kit printed for me last year.  I wish I'd asked him to do several serials for F24s - well, actually I did, but they were for cancelled aircraft that now become later F26s with the Seafire FR47 style cowling - but I can get round that by stealing the decals from a Special Hobby F24.

I did get the undersurface aluminium on the RAF Acklington station commander's aircraft, only to find some bleed through.  It's not too bad and I'm sure some careful painting can hide it, because I rather like the scheme.  I really want to finish the 607 Sqn Spiteful that went in the same scheme last year, because it's one of the few 607 aircraft that will complete that minitheme.  Although the idea of one toting bombs or rockets underneath for armament practice camp is quite appealing.

So, there's a great deal of spraying to do tomorrow, but *IF* I can get the bulk of it out of the way tomorrow, then I can crack on decalling.  There's still quite a few aluminium aircraft to do, but I'm not quite sure just what I'm doing with them, other than they fit at the end of the 545 Sqn theme.  You see, I wanted a rag tag mixture of  F16e's in different schemes and roundel styles to fit that particular period.  However, the whole 122 Sqn theme is a bit more important, largely because I have one of the former and I'd rather have more of the latter.  The post war F21 now has it's codes and just needs a serial, and the later one has the roundels but little else.  That one is a must have, mainly as it's an Airkit one and it looks fab.  That's shaping up to be my favourite so far.



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[The Wooksta!]

"It's probably someone unbelievably boring!"

Well, I'm two thirds through the decalling and I'm losing the will to live.  I've already eliminated five from my enquiries due to a lack of relevant decals, to whit Medium Sea Grey code letters.  All the national markings are on, plus some serials and I've a total of (drum roll, please) six that are ready to varnish.  I should get the bulk of what I want done tomorrow but I'm still thinking of pruning the numbers further.

Whether or not I actually finish anything is another matter, but if I can get the 122 Sqn stuff done, plus the Spiteful and Seafire 15, I'll be reasonably happy.  The Spiteful I'm quite happy with but the canopy could well be the bugbear.  They usually are with them.



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