Hi All,

Having acquired some measurements this morning, I have coddled up a balsa wood prototype of the spitfire seat I`m trying to scratch build.

Now I say coddled because it`s not 100% square but is to scale as per the measurements received.

End materials and coverings etc still to be decided.

The black line across the back of the seat shows where the original (incorrect) seat was fitted.

Here`s where I`m at:









So how am I going to move this forward?

Well, my subscription is not up to this point yet, so I`m going to carry on developing the prototype to see what`s possible and then when I get to that point will make the final seat.


Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

Hi Mr T,

Do see your point about the seat back.

It`s 50mm from the top of the black line (top of the original seat panel) to the top of the back panel highest point.

With 17mm below the black line

Allowance of 2mm for thickness of the original seat panel (Smudged black line)

Two possible reasons it looks big,

1: Camera angle

2: I`ve dropped off with the interpretation of the supplied measurements

Please advise if you have further ideas.

Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

Hi All,

Wish I could blame it on the camera angle , but no I dropped off.

So here`s the amended seat back.



Looks a lot better (me thinks ) so onward and upward.

Few more mods to the basic seat to do then will work on the rest of it.

Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

Nice one Del, good to see someone turning a negative into a positive - watching all the way
Steve

Hi All,

Well, having slept on it for a night I`ve made a few minor shape changes to the seat.

I`ve lowered the seat base sides about 2mm, adjusted the curve of the sides accordingly. Then made a slight change to the upward slope of the bottom of the base.I`ve also raised the lower strap on the back of the seat as having checked some data on the subject, it was way to low.

Here`s pics of the changes:





Ok,so I think I`ve got the seat shape about there for a prototype, still have to get to that point in the build to check for a proper fit.
(I`m 2-3 months behind the official build with my subscription)

This morning having finished the seat shape (for now), I turned my attention to the padded back area of the seat.

For this a used good old cocktail sticks split in half along their length, to give the shape.
These were cut to the required lengths and stuck pointed end up toward the top of the seat.

I used five pieces, evenly spaced across the seat back.
It was at this point I`d got carried along a bit to fast and forgot to take a pic, so got one of a couple peeking out behind the covering.



For the covering, I used some leatherette material I had laying about.
This was superglued in place and pressed into the gaps between the shaping pieces using a whole cocktail stick.
The top edge was then trimmed and stuck in place.

Here`s the result:



As a final pic, here`s one for the penny club.



Well that`s about it for now.
Time to turn my attention to the harness.

Comments/Ideas welcome as always.

Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

Hi Martyn,

Thanks for looking in and nice comments, it`s been fun

Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)