The Wooksta! - The Plan, a Spitfire Blog

[The Wooksta!]

"Well, I think that should do it!"

I've finished the last two Airkit Spitfires that were on the go - one being an F21 that I got as part of a salvage lot:



It's the grey one with some green on the engine cowling.  The silver F22 is also an Airkit one and that had several goes with Mr Muscle to get the paint off.  I've tidied it up a bit and filled where necessary but I've yet to think of anything to do with it and I've done the courier/communications thing with the F21 twice.

And the other being one I got off Bungle in 2018 and didn't finish in time for Telford that year and it's been sitting there gathering dust. IIRC, it's in the same markings as the first Airkit Spitfire F21 I did back in 1990 and that's still about somewhere but as it's one of my oldest surviving models, I really don't have the heart to strip it and redo it.  Neither needed too much work other than the vacform canopies.  The next few on the completion list are a pair of Airkit Seafires, the 15 having priority as I don't yet have one completed, an Egyptian F18 and the 203 AFS F26.  These have been long term hangar queens and I want them done.

I've got the next few scheduled for decalling sitting waiting, but I'd really just like to carry on building!


Comments on this thread - if anyone still reading it can be arsed to reply - go here:
http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,34772.0.htm

PS  The F.XII in the photo is a hybrid comprising parts from the Italeri V and IX and an unknown source Griffon cowling.  I suspect the vile Modelnews kit.

[The Wooksta!]

" Ah-hah! Just wait one moment, Michael."


Well, that's one milestone passed - the Seafire 15 (early) is finished, which means I only need to do a late Seafire 15 and a Seafire IIc and I've done the entire Spitfire family.

I've just put the finishing touches on the Airkit Seafire 15 and it looks better than I thought it would.  Of course, it was still fighting me to the end - the catapult spools for the underneath were so small and fiddly I just couldn't fit them and after one went ping into the distance, I decided to just stop there and then.  Technically speaking, it really needs an arrestor hook and possibly a whip aerial or two, but I'm calling it done.

So, what's next to finish?  The gypo F.18, because I want something simple!  Then probably the FR26, mainly as it really just needs a prop and teh seat and she's done.  Very happy with that one.


Comments on this thread - if anyone still reading it can be arsed to reply - go here:
http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,34772.0.htm

[The Wooksta!]

"Okay, I'll change it, then! Hello, Cliff Richard!"

Well, I've got the PR Swift on the go.  Bearing in mind it's ye olde Hawk/Testors kit and basic in the extreme, it doesn't take much work.  Few minutes with a file to grout out the intakes, pop in the Airkit ducting and glue the fuselage together.  The nose was lopped off and on with the Airkit FR5 nose. Almost a perfect fit, so it's now got a fair bit of filler slapped on it.  I used the undercarriage to plug the holes in the wings where they actually go - I'm doing an inflight model as it's easy just to throw together.  The Testors kit is so basic that it's not really worth doing much else with it, especially considering the availability of the vastly superior Airfix kit. 

Depending on how it comes out, I may have a bash at another one, possibly in an NMF finish - IIRC, some of the Meteor PR10s wore that scheme so I can get away with it.  I think.

I still want to do a PR6 at some stage, but I flogged off my spare Airfix one a while back, and given that I have a spare Airkit nose I'm thinking about cutting of the nose of the Magna F.7 and using that as the basis for it.  I've ordered another Magna one from ebay to do a camo'd F7 toting Firestreaks.

I've also looked at sticking said PR nose onto an Attacker and one has had the relevant surgery.  Lo and behold it fits, although I'll need to do some filling underneath.  Given that I now need two of these noses, it's going for a bath in some moulding rubber, along with a few other Swift bits.  The intakes blanks from the Xtrakit Swift fit the Novo Attacker well enough to use and I've been meaning to mould them for some time.

I also cut out and sanded one of the Type 545 wings.  One was all I could manage as I was losing the will to live after all that sanding.  Hopefully, tomorrow should be just as sunny, so I'll crack on with the starboard wing tomorrow.  I've a set of spare Swift tailplanes, so I'll probably use those instead of the vacform ones. 




Comments on this thread - if anyone still reading it can be arsed to reply - go here:
http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,34772.0.htm

[The Wooksta!]

"See?...God! Mike's floating! How's that done, then?"

The assembled - well, wings and fuselage anyway - Spitfire F22 floatfire is getting closer to primer.  Not much - the underfuselage strake is all sanded down to relative satisfaction and the rest of the bits should be going on tomorrow.  I've yet to find a suitable intake to replace the standard  undernose intake, so it may return to the backburner.

The early PR Swift is now assembled and awaiting multiple PSR sessions.  It's looking pretty decent and hopefully should be primed in a day or so.  I've the second partially assembled, but it needs a PR nose and thankfully, the bits are in a mouldbox awaiting rubber to be poured.  I've got the nose, two exhausts and the intake ducting in it.  I'm still thinking about how to do the ventral slipper tank - I did have a look on Colin's site but he's got none in stock currently.

I'm somewhat undecided about the second PR as I'm thinking more of converting it into an FGA instead - the Swift was largely useless as a fighter, being about as manouverable as a brick, but was pretty solid at low level so as a replacement for the Venom in the fighter bomber role it may have been a better bet.  IF I could get another Hawk/Testors Swift, I'd be laughing - there's a couple on ebay now but the sellers are charging way over the odds for a kit that at best is really only worth a fiver.  I certainly wouldn't go over that.

Haven't gone any further with the 510 but the 545's starboard wing is now sanded down.  I've decided to use a spare set of Swift tailplanes that was in the box of resin Swift bits instead of the kit parts - they're close enough to the plans I have and if anyone was to say they're wrong, well, MFM and if that doesn't work I have a more pithy response.

Part of me is tempted to drop the 545 wings into rubber to have a basis for the proposed production version, which looks something like an overweight F86D with a crescent wing.  I'd like a second, but I'm not paying the price Whirlybird are charging for the current release - 30 notes for a vacform of something roughly Hunter sized with a few resin bits is not a bargain.



Comments on this thread - if anyone still reading it can be arsed to reply - go here:
http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,34772.0.htm

[The Wooksta!]

"You didn't know I was going to do that, did you?"

I've actually started a Spitfire, the first for three years. Nowt startling really, just an Airfix one that's going to be a 1960s RAF one.  It's spun off from something else I'm working on and will be potentially one of a trio - I only wanted to do the one, but ideas always get out of hand with me. I have a Heller low back that is assembled and without a user, plus a two seater that needs salvage work.

I already have a unit in mind, and a graphic for the unit badge, which I need to do some Photoshop work before asking Kit to do his thing.

Anyone who can be bothered to reply should do so here:
https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=34772.msg552036#msg552036

[The Wooksta!]

Cornflakes. Cornflakes, Cornflakes, Cornflakes, Cornflakes, Cornflakes, Cornflakes, Cornflakes, Cornflakes.

Long term readers of the Stash threads should know I have a vast number of Spitfire and Seafire kits.  I've guesstimated the number to be well over 500, but have never actually counted them as that route only madness lies.

Having said that... 

I recently dug out some HF.VII decals for someone and early Rolls Royce Mk.IXc decals for someone else.  I was astounded at the sheer number of CMR kits (Gold standard until the release of the Eduard kits) of certain marks in the stash.  No fewer than 6 mk 7s and an equivalent number of early 9s.  I'd also gone through the stash of Ventura kits and there was 3.5 A4 boxes full of said kits plus a standard Crisps box too.  Multiples of every release bar one - the sting hook Seafire 15.

I also discovered yesterday that I had no fewer than ten of the late 90s release of the CMR Seafire 47.  They'd got it very wrong, so much so it was really just a Spitfire 24 with a few Seafire 47 features.  Ideal for whiffing but ten?

It should also come as no surprise whatsoever that there are also a vast number of stalled projects at various stages.  What should come as a surprise, nay, an outright shock to the system, is that I am thinking the unthinkable...

Finishing them as real ones.

Nowt too difficult, for now at least, a quartet of PR19s and a solitary mk IXc, just either aluminium or PRU Blue overall.  And I've already searched out the decals.

[PR19_Kit]

I knew SOMEONE had to have all those Spitfire kits somewhere, and your stash is the obvious place Lee. 

[NARSES2]

Finishing them as real ones.

Now't wrong with that at all Lee 

[The Wooksta!]

"Oh God, I think I'm going to be violently and copiously sick"

I had a recount and found that one of the Seafire 47s was actually a CMK I 46, but that brings the total of those in the Stash to at least six...  I also found that I had a similar number of CMK Seafire 45s.  This is borderline insane, compounded by the fact that I have yet to check in the secondary stash...

I'd had cause to find all the fiddly bits to go on all those PR19s that I'm planning on finishing as real ones, by which I mean such niceties as canopies, radiators, wheels, etc, only to turn up another assembled 19, a pair of part assembled and both one converted to a PR21 with a new wing and a mk IX converted to either an e wing 9 or a 16.

The 16 I have a real scheme in mind, but the PR21 is a whiff and has to be finished as such.  But this is the start of a slippery slope and yet another rabbit hole I'd rather avoid for now, thanks very much.  And having to finish the 633 Sqn mk 16 that's miraculously back on the bench is not helping matters...

[The Wooksta!]

"By the way, it was a complete lie about the oil."

It's official - I have fallen down the rabbit hole and am now looking at Spitfires again.  So much so, I've been dragging certain kits out for cross kitting and kitbashing purposes.  Some are to be subtle, others less so.

I just need a bottle of Xtracrylix XA1123 Deep Sky...

[Pellson]

"By the way, it was a complete lie about the oil."

It's official - I have fallen down the rabbit hole and am now looking at Spitfires again.  So much so, I've been dragging certain kits out for cross kitting and kitbashing purposes.  Some are to be subtle, others less so.

I just need a bottle of Xtracrylix XA1123 Deep Sky...

It's really nice something in this world falls out as predicted.. 

[The Wooksta!]

"I was worried we wouldn't hear the front doorbell, so I decided to pep it up a bit."

Having had cause to search for things, I discovered another pair of largely assembled Mk 21s, converted from the Airfix 19 with my own resin wing.  I have absolutely no memory of building them, but it must have been late 2019 or early 2020, certainly in the same timeframe as the other two I did some sanding on last week.  I also have no memory of what they were to be, although as one has cameras it must have been intended for the fighter recce unit, likely 2TAF.  I have a few too many of those, thanks, so it may well go SEAC - although that means bothersome white theatre bands - or perhaps Malaya post war, searching for Mexican bandits.

More current thinking is crystalizing around Seafires, of which I have many kits but not enough finished models.  It's mainly working through some of the more obvious gaps in airframe and engine choices - say a rushed navalised 12, with earlier Seafire III features or a fully navalised F.14c. 

Not as difficult when you consider several manufacturers have done a wide selection of the Spitfire family, which makes this easier. Ventura, AZ and Sword spring to mind. Ventura are very accurate - no one has yet done a better mk 18 (MPM wasn't fit for the bin and the AZ has issues with shape and fit) - but need a lot of work and copious use of the spares box to get the best results. AZ didn't do many Seafires and their kits are a mixed bag - the early ones are rough and need work.  Which leaves Sword, who did a wide variety, especially the Griffon marks, and virtually all of the Seafires without the 20 series wing.

Like many of the Czech manufacturers, Sword seem to be thinking more long term and trying to screw out as much of a mould as possible, so for example, the single stage Griffon Seafires are covered by one definitive late Seafire F.15 sprue, with the early A frame hook 15 and the later Seafire 17 options being added by the simple expedient of a new sprue with the relevant fuselage and a few extra bits.  Much of the box content is largely spare parts, and in some Sword releases, this is both fuselage and wings, as well as spare exhausts, wheels, guns and prop.  Very handy.

Having a good number of the Sword kits, sometimes hoovered up for a relative pittance, it seemed like they are the obvious choice for such mix and match kitbashing. There are several benefits; all the parts are interchangeable between marks (but not all), many of the spare parts add towards various models rather than filling a spares box and they all match in terms of quality.

It's not all plain sailing. The wing to fuselage fits on the Sword 14 is not good - oddly, the AZ mk 8 wing fits better, and that's a knock off Fujimi 14 wing (and I can prove it) - and the 14 lower wings will not accept other Sword wing uppers.  But by and large, the various mix and match approach is paying off, even at the test fit stage.  It's also giving me cause to look at revisiting a few kitbashes I did back in the early days of The Plan, but with better kits than were available then.  I may yet get a low back with the long span tips.

Final comments. This thread is mainly used by me for making notes.  I really don't want replies here cluttering up the place and there's a separate thread for that purpose.  If anyone wants to spout off, go there.  This thread is for my rubbish, not yours. 

Anyone who can be bothered to reply should do so here:
https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=34772.msg552036#msg552036

[The Wooksta!]

"I did that, actually."


One of the other routes not taken with Spitfires was the single stage Griffon, with only the 12 using it.  The prototype, originally the mk IV before that number was allocated to a PR type, eventually wound up with the late wing as the F.20.  Having tried various 20 series wings, I think I've settled on the Airfix 22 as it was to hand and I have many in the Stash.  I did briefly consider crossing the CMK kits,  but that could get pricey although I did get some quite cheap.

This led to thinking about the Navy wanting something similar, using spare Seafire 15 and 17 fuselages.  If I went down that route, I'd most likely use a Ventura 15 fuselages and my resin wing, largely to use up that large stock of Seafire 15 kits littering the workroom, but also as I know they'll fit.  The timescale doesn't quite work, the bulk of the Ventura ones I have are A frame hook rather than sting but a prototype or an in service one presented as a whif on a table at a model show could be amusing.  Real stuff presented as whifs in within a fictional TL are quite metatextual, a whiff inside one really is double bubble.

The other mk 12s in mind are one fitted with a folding wing - the Navy getting the 12 to play with as trainers before they get the 15 and some bright spark in the engineering section tries fitting a Seafire III wing - and one in desert colours, with possibly SAAF markings, as one sent to the MTO for tropical trials and then nabbed by 60 Sqn SAAF for use in the FR role over the Mareth line.

Whilst we're discussing North Africa, there's a pair of 9s going 4 cannon for use with 6 Sqn, they get them to replace their Hurricanes as the S guns are heavy and not much good when fending off marauding 190s (although one of the Tsetse Mosquitos took out a Ju 88 with a shot from the Molins gun!). There's an AZ one for the clipped wing and an Airfix for full span.

The mention of FR types leads to thoughts around some 4 Sqn aircraft just after the war before they were disbanded and 605 Sqn renumbered.  Not sure if the decals I have in mind would fit an FR.14 low back but may well fit a Highback or a PR19 instead.  We shall see, but I need to do some reading up on 4 Sqn anyway.


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.

[The Wooksta!]

"Oh, who cares?"

I did have a post keyed, but technical issues meant I lost it and I couldn't face rekeying a wall of text, even if I could remember it.

Basically, the 4 Sqn idea won't work as they only used single letter codes - I have to check that with the references - and their UP code was carried over from 605 when they were rebadged as 4 Sqn.  Still, their unit badge would fit on a mk 22 fin.

I have got a bit further with a pair of FR22s, using the Xtrakit 22 and the Special Hobby Seafire 46 fuselage. Now I dislike these kits, as the shape is all to cock and the fit is vile, but I have them.  The Special Hobby late Griffon types come with a lot of spares and I've been thinking how  to get the early 47 without the late cowl scoop.
The prototype flew that way and I was thinking of early in service ones but I'd rather something a bit more accurate, so using the Ventura 22 with the wing uppers from their 47, as well as some of the spares from the Special Hobby kits may well work.  I'll tape one up over the weekend.

I did also think about adding some later features to the Seafire 45, but that may be going too far.  Again, taping something up could be fun.  That cowl, plus the big rudder and a contraprop, would look different, especially on a modern warbird. Either that or it's a cobbled together gate guardian or even something built for an airshow static park in the 50s.  The Navy did things like that then.


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.

[The Wooksta!]

"You might have laughed, Micheal!"

Having read the relevant sections on 4 Sqn in various reference books, they didn't have proper squadron codes in the period I'm interested in, just single letters.  Although one aircraft immediately post war before they were disbanded and 605 rebadged is possible,

The idea of trying to get an early 47 by using a 22 fuselage with a 47 wing from the Ventura kits has foundered on the way the kits are broken down and the vile plastic Ventura used.  I think there's a bit too much work involved.  It's easier but vastly more expensive by cross kitting a CMR 46 with a CMR 47 wing, but that may be if and when I do a real one. For whiffery, the Special Hobby will do, even though the kit has some serious shape issues.

The same shape issues affect the Special Hobby 21/45 but if I can live with the 22 and 47 as whiffs, then I probably can with the 45.  Do I use a 47 wing too?  Yeah, why not.  It'll do as a hack or a unit commander's toy.  I'll have to find a suitable naval maintenance unit.  Pity the text in the Ray Sturtivant book I have as a Navy reference is so bloody small.

There's a few other late Seafires in mind, both a 45 and a 46, as shore based types in the far east, although I haven't quite nailed down the colours.  At least one gets SEAC roundels, although I'm not sure if BPF markings were applied to shore based stuff. Aussie roundels could be one way out, they did find their way onto 618's Mosquitoes.

I have to confess I find whiffing the Seafires a lot more daunting, largely because I don't have the knowledge base and the references seem confusing.  At least to my eyes.  I really need to study Sturtivant more, I just find him very dry.

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.