discussion Andy's 1/48 Spitfire Mk1a

[Jim R]

Great choice Andy. Cockpit is looking excellent. These Eduard kits are mostly superb.
CA is strange stuff. Often refuses to stick what you want it to, but get some on your finger and it's like chewing gum on the cat!

 

[Ian M]

That cockpit looks well nice!
Before I forget copper wire if pulled from electric appliances and circuits are often coated with a very fine waxy substance. Try burning heating a bit of the wire, or cleaning in acetone...

 

[Andy T]

…. I’ve gone over to using formula 560 canopy glue for these bits with some success if you are interested.

Thanks Tim. I have used 560 in the past for PE but I can't imagine how long I'd have needed to clamp the belts in place until it dried

That cockpit looks well nice!
Before I forget copper wire if pulled from electric appliances and circuits are often coated with a very fine waxy substance. Try burning heating a bit of the wire, or cleaning in acetone...

Thanks Ian. I ended up bending some styrene rod for the tanks, stuck straight away!

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Looking good Andy. The detail in that cockpit is better than my 1/32 Revell. Shame about the PE fitting issue, I have the same nightmare to look forward to tomorrow on the bench. Think I might go straight for epoxy in light of the CA issues.

 

[Andy T]

Thanks, it's quite an impressive kit so I'm trying hard not to stuff it up

I got the fuselage closed up, using Tamiya thick glue. After leaving it overnight I borrowed a trick from work and wiped the seam with an AK paint pen



After sanding, any black left over indicated a low spot. There were only a couple of minor ones, which got a dab of filler.

I've lost a few of the rivet lines with sanding but managed to keep the panel lines intact, using a tip Tim Marlow gave me once - scribing them deeper before sanding the seam.



I've also built up the landing gear bays. Fiddly stuff as they comprise 13 parts, but I guess that's the only way they could mould them with all of the detail they contain.



The gun barrels were added too. I not sure these will ever be seen, but there they are. The wing was blutacked to an engineering block to stop it moving around while adding all of these fiddly bits