Hi Robin
Looking good, your eye for detail is incredible as always
Paul

I've got the same netting, and believe you me it looks a lot bigger in Robins photo's.

Another stunning build session from you Robin, can always guarantee to learn something new from you with every post.... .. Impressive to say the least....

Regards

Alan

Thanks again to Alan and Dave! I'm learning a lot more myself on this one!


On we go!
Photo 1 shows the three sections of the Spitfire’s main wings assembly. As you can see in this shot, there is a bit of painting to be done on the inside surfaces of the wings before they can be glued together. The areas shown painted here were first masked around and the Poundshop grey primer applied to seal the plastic. The cockpit floor region in the large single piece was then painted with the Revell Cockpit Green (Fern Green) acrylic together with the inside walls of the wheel wells. The floor area was given a slight Citadel Shadow Black and Waarrgh Green ink mix but too much as very little of this can be seen once the fuselage is in place. The two upper wing halves need a little more precision to first, paint, and then shadow and highlight the details moulded into the wheel well area. The Airfix instructions then called for the rest of the inner wing to be painted black as you can see in this photo. I hadn’t realised this in the first aircraft and didn’t prime this area but the Citadel Chaos Black covered the bare plastic pretty well anyway. I then realised what this black panel was for; in this new tooling model, the ejection ports for the eight Browning machine gun’s .303 brass cartridges are correctly modelled as open, not simply panel lines as in the older kits, so the black panels help to highlight these ports!
Photo 2 illustrates an earlier section which I hadn’t included a photo of, namely the cut away cockpit hatch. The hatch on the right is as it came away from the fuselage side and as you can probably see, it’s greatly over sized in thickness. The one on the left is after some vigorous sanding down, reducing it to about half the original. This should look far more accurate once they are attached to the cockpit sides later on.
In Photo 3 we have the previously mentioned wheel well detail now visible after the wing sections have been glued together. I had a feeling that those square box things would be chunky metal components which was confirmed after looking through the Deagostini Spitfire Offical Build! These parts were therefore picked out with Citadel Mithril Silver and the Shadow Black ink wash. The wing sections went together really well with just a couple short bits of masking tape to hold it together whilst the glue set. In Photo 4 the kit tail planes have been simply push-fitted into their slots in the rear fuselage. Once again, the fit is so good that they just stay where they’re put, but before gluing in place, a little modification was required! In many of the contemporary photos of the Spitfires and Hurricanes parked up on the airfields, the tail planes are usually ‘drooping’ slightly and from the start, I had intended to add this in to the models. I had also intended to have the main wing flaps slightly down as well but I have yet to find a photo of a Spitfire with ‘saggy flaps’! It seems the flaps don’t droop on a Spitfire so I’ll be leaving them ‘as is’. (They do drop a little on the Hurricane however so I’ll be looking into that possibility soon!) Photo 5 illustrates this very simple adjustment; using a sharp blade the angled slot of the flap was cut through and then with a series of gentle slices the flap itself was removed. A little sanding down to clean up the cut edges and the flap, (after the front tail plane was glued into place on the fuselage) was glued back into position with a slight downwards angle as can be seen in Photo 6. The rudder was also displaced side ways slightly, referring back to Photo 5, you can see the very clever way that Airfix moulded the rudder hinge. Gone are the old double locating pins to be replaced with a lovely hollow cylinder on the back of the tail fin into which the separate rudder locates. This means that you can glue the rudder in at whatever angle you like, straight, or as in this case, offset to one side. If you really want to go above and beyond, you could cut out the trim tabs on the rudder and tail planes too, - however – part of the daily maintenance routine was to check the trim tabs were functioning and then to set them to zero!
Photo 7 shows the second Spitfire’s cockpit just prior to gluing together. As you can see, the Sutton Harness is slightly different in this one, I want to have it either slung over the rear canopy or being held up by ground crew, so at the moment it is just curving down in front to avoid the canopy. You can also see that additional yellow air cylinder which didn’t get pictured in the first Spit. I’ve since found out that the pilot’s oxygen bottle is actually further back down the fuselage, about where the green paint ends, so this one could in fact be the emergency supply for the undercarriage after all!
Photos 8, 9 and 10 show the wings added on to the fuselage and are included here to illustrate the exceptionally good joints on this model. You might remember Jase’s review of the new Airfix modern RN Warship in which some of the joints were horrendous! That gave me the jitters about this kit but I’m happy to report that all the major parts go together like a dream! Much of this kit is almost like a ‘snap fit’ model especially the tail planes. I did think on the first attempt that I had finally found a problem in the fitting of the fuselage into the wing section, I just couldn’t get it to fit down into the wings at all. The instruction drawings don’t give any information on the sequence of gluing all these parts together, the fuselage is certainly stuck together first of course (in section 3) but the section 4 drawing just shows the completed fuselage, the lower wing section, the upper wings and the tail planes and rudder all going together via arrows. I chose to glue the wing uppers and lower together first and fit the fuselage into place the following night. I was all set (and resigned) to sanding down the wing root area to fit the fuselage into it, when I discovered the simple solution. This is such a good fit, that all you have to do is to gently squeeze the open bottom of the fuselage inwards (under the cockpit) and the fuselage then literally snaps into position! This took me by surprise I can tell you, and I had to pop it out again to actually apply some Contacta poly glue and then fit it together once again. As you can see in those photos, the joints are really good – no filler needed there (just as well ‘cos I haven’t got any, other than mixing up some Milliput! ) Of special note is that beautiful clear canopy, again, it was a case of slipping the front into the space above the instrument panel and just pushing down on the rear section to snap it in place. It’s such a tight fit I’ll be Maskol-ing the canopy to cover up the cockpit for priming and air brushing soon (with a cardboard door hatch as well! Actually, it was a wooden one in the end!)
The final Photo 11, with the insert, shows the completed pair of Spitfires ready to be prepared for priming. The last little fiddly parts to be added were as follows: a) the tail wheel on its integral strut, b) the Pitot Tube seen on the right wing tip of the upside down aircraft. (The Pitot Tube is the means by which the aircraft’s speed is calculated; at the rear of the hollow tube is a pressure sensor linked electrically to the airspeed indicator in the cockpit, the faster the plane moves through the air the greater the pressure inside the tube and the further the dial pointer moves). I had intented to replace the tube with stretched sprue but the kit part is so finely moulded there was no need. To the right is c), the two part Carburettor air intake. This is visible under the nose of the Spitfire and why Airfix made this a two part item I have no idea! It was a nightmare to sand the sprue attachments off! It would have been easier to have had it in one piece (especially in a ‘starter kit’). Part d) is the radio mast, only one seen here as the other was already glued on to Spit No.1. Finally e) is the smaller of the two underwing radiators. As you can see here I’ve already painted the interiors in Citadel Chaos Black. One of them can be seen under the upside downer in position. The other radiator is much bigger with a finely moulded screen inside it. I decided to leave them off and paint them up separately, gluing them on once the main colours and panel lines have been completed.
That’s it for the Spits for now, they’ve just been primed (with a kebab skewer stuck up their prop holes to hold them on! ) In their next appearance they should look a lot more colourful (if all goes well!)
In the next instalment I’ll catch up with the progress on the Dispersal Hut up to the trials and tribulations of making micro cast iron window frames!

Until then, Happy Modelling to you all!


Robin

Marvellous work Robin, just love the detailing.....

Regards

Alan

Amazing work again Robin and I remember those window latches, my parents had them but my overriding memory of them was having to polish them with brasso.... .. something my dad always made me do on a Sunday morning.... Thanks for bringing back some childhood memories.... .. Keep up the great work...

Regards

Alan

I do love your comprehensive updates Robin, they take some reading mind.

The windows look great but that brick has blown me away. Keep up the amazing work

The Airfix 40mm Bofors Gun

Another interesting fact!
The Bofors gun was actually a Swedish designed weapon which was built under license by the British. And the Americans and the Germans and dozens of other countries during the Second World War!
It was the most widely used light AA gun and was used extensively as a ship board AA defence by all the major combatants (though I'm not sure about the Japanese?)

When this kit arrived fresh from Ebay, I realised that the 40mm Bofors Gun was not actually the anti aircraft gun I’d been visualising for the diorama! I was thinking of the ‘big guns’ often seen on the history programs, defending London or set up on the south coast to intercept the V1’s. I should have realised of course, those things were probably bigger than the infamous German ’88 and here was the little Bofors weighing in at 40mm – less than half the calibre of the 88 (and that one’s not very big in 1/72 either!)
Anyway, here’s a brief description of the Airfix kit. This is a pretty old kit now but still in production today. There are, according to the plans, 107 pieces in the kit which builds up into a six wheeled Morris CD/SW 30cwt tractor along with the 40mm Bofors. Not all the 107 parts are used however as the gun can be modelled in one of three versions – on tow behind the tractor, in action still attached to the towing wheels and in action in the deployed position (which is the one I’m using here as the gun will be placed in a prepared sandbagged position.)
I’m not sure what the quality of the modern issues would be after all these years but I was really lucky with this kit, not only was it won on the auction for a pretty reasonable price but this is actually a first edition! This can be seen from the ‘NEW’ red star on the box top (with the remains of a now defunct and sadly missed Woolworths price tag on the top!) The quality of the moulded sprues is excellent with only the slightest mould lines to be found. There were unfortunately a couple of nasty sink holes evident but as you will see, there are ways around that!
Photo 1 illustrates the box top art, which marks this kit out as a first edition. The model has been through a couple of picture changes over the years (which I’ll come back to later). The instructions come on a single sheet of paper, printed both sides and a strange shape, about one and a quarter times A4 down and three quarters of A4 across. Another indication of the age of this kit is that the instructions have gone quite yellow, and also that the paint numbers are the old Airfix paints, not Humbrol or Revell. Photo 2 shows the two swinging legs, which join on to the central ‘spar’ of the gun carriage. These have a cup foot underneath and a ‘jack’ handle similar to those on the towing hitch of a caravan on the top (locations shown arrowed).
With those assembled and put aside, I moved on to the gun platform, the main components of which can be seen in Photo 3. As you can observe, there is a tiny amount of ‘mould line’ around the base which was easy to scrape away later. This first section builds up into the platform and half of the side mounting. If any modellers out there are building this kit in the future, please note that that curved bit with the triangle at it’s base should in fact be hollow. By the time I realised that from the web research the thing was glued down and inaccessible! Also, Airfix made a mistake in the two sets of foot pedals which you can see glued in place here. If you are making this ‘out of the box’ it doesn’t matter at all, I’ll point out it’s effect on my up-grading a little later. Photo 4 shows the platform after gluing together.
In Photo 5 we have the main components of the gun itself. You remember that nasty sink hole, it’s hiding under that thin white plasticard ‘panel’. There isn’t actually a panel there on the real gun but once it’s primed and painted it doesn’t look too bad (and was far easier than trying to fill and sand it away!) As I said, I was thinking this gun was a lot bigger and had planned on putting in an aluminium barrel for an improvement, when I saw the actual size it was “forget that!” The improvements I did make were to drill out the muzzle and also a larger hole in the back of the gun as seen in Photo 6. Notice that pointy thing sticking out of the rear, some drawings of the Bofors that I found on the net didn’t have that there. I later discovered that all it was is a curved chute like a bicycle mudguard, that big hole is where the ejected spent shell case comes shooting out and the chute deflects it downwards (probably after some loud complaints from the loader who stands right behind the breech!)
Photo 7 illustrates the gun fixed into the platform, now trapped in between the two pivot arms. That white styrene rod is part of the hydraulics and replaces the ‘L’ shaped kit part seen in Photo 5. In Photo 8 we come to one of the major up-grades; the gun shield. This photo shows the gun with the kit gun shield just pressed into place. There are two things that needed changing on the kit part. The main thing is the thickness of the shield itself, the real thing is not made out of tank armour as this one appears to be, it is actually a double layer of very thin steel plate, only designed to protect against shrapnel and small arms fire. The second part is that bar which joins the two sides together – there isn’t one! It’s not unusual to find something missing on a kit to make it simpler for beginners or just cheaper to produce, I think this is the first time I’ve come across anybody adding a bit in to make the construction easier!
In Photo 9 we have the rear face of the gun shield with the first stage of the replacement parts in thin plasticard, those moulded ‘boxes’ on the shield are where the ‘L’ shaped frame seen in the previous photo locate (to the right of that ratchet thing under the gun barrel and above the two protruding pistons). In Photo 10, the plasticards are further cut to shape to match the original shield whilst in Photo 11, spacers are being glued on to separate the two shields before they are glued together. Again, to anybody making this kit, if you go down this route, I learnt afterwards that the spacers should in fact be a series of simple threaded steel rods with a nut on the outer faces so possibly drilling small holes through both shields and inserting a styrene rod through would be more authentic. Mind you, once the shields go together it’s really difficult to see what’s inside!
In Photo 12, the two glued shields are pictured above the kit part. On their rear faces you can make out the brackets on which they are fixed to the carriage. These are made out of ‘L’ section steel angle on the original and the model versions are cut from a couple of off cuts of thin plasticard, cut to size and glued together to form the ‘L’. You can make out the pencil lines on the new shields, these correspond to the inner dimensions of those little moulded boxes on the Airfix component. The brackets are cut off at that same point so that when fitted on to the carriage, the existing moulded bracket, instead of fitting into the box , now butts up to the new brackets, as you probably can’t see in Photo 13! This was when I discovered the little error in Airfix’s modelling of the foot pedals. In the kit, the pedals are offset by the width of a pedal towards the centre line of the gun, that bar that can be seen coming forward from the main platform should be right in between the foot pedals instead of which it lines up with the outer one on each side. This doesn’t matter on the original kit but in reality there should be a supporting bar coming from the centre of each gun shield back at an angle to that long bar. By the time I realised this there was no easy way to correct it – so I just left the bars off!
With the shields done, the next step was to replace the simplified kit seats for the gunner and aimer. The very basic kit parts are shown in Photo 14 with Diagram 15 showing the new replacement’s construction. The starting point was a pair of small strips of fairly thick plasticard a) (1.5 or 2mm thick I think). Using a diamond dust ball engraving tip I ground away the surface to create the moulded seat effect b) as seen in the pressed steel original. The seat was then cut off the strip and the rear end trimmed and sanded to shape c). A series of very small holes was then drilled around the outer edge and the rough edges smoothed off d). Unlike the solid backs in the kit seats, the real ones have a raised back support, almost like a modern office seat, this was formed from two heat formed curves of plasticard shown at e). The actual completed article can be seen in the small insert photo.
With all that done I came to the most difficult part of the whole model - that flaming gun sight! Going back to the box top art again in Photo 16 you can see the sight as depicted on the cover and also what comes with the kit – ie, not very much! There seem to be as many different gun sights for the Bofors as countries that used them, ranging from a simple ring and pillar arrangement (similar to the box art) to twin telescopics and various others (especially in Naval use) Unfortunately for me, the early British Bofors from Dunkirk to the Battle of Britain and beyond were equipped with this Heath Robinson ‘thing’! I assume all the gubbins on the left side is to allow for deflection shooting at fast moving aircraft. All I can say is that in this scale it’s a real headache of a thing to build from scratch! The basic layout is depicted in Diagram 17, the vast majority of the parts were cut from stretched sprue with the round sights made up from single strand wire super glued together. The curved support bar which holds up that triple barred frame was cut and sanded from a thick piece of plasticard and the whole thing was gingerly constructed onto the basic kit part whilst it was held in a pair of spring tweezers. That same triple frame is shown after gluing together in Photo 18 and the finished thing is perched on the old penny again in Photo 19, and finally fixed onto the gun in Photo 20. There was one last piece to add on which is shown in Photo 21, this is a sprung steel frame which is designed to hold a clip of five rounds ‘Ready to Use’. Some Bofors don’t have this on at all, and of those that do, the majority actually have a double version (like a ‘W’ compared to this one’s ‘U’). I did try a doubled one but I couldn’t quite get it to go thin enough so I settled for the single. It is made from two bent strips of lead glued on to a plasticard platform which sits on top of the right pivot arm on two tiny little legs, again from plasticard. You can also see more clearly how that bar lines up with the foot pedal in this shot.
Finally in Photos 23 to 27 we have the finished model going through the various stages of painting, from Prodriver Grey Primer in 23 and 24 (amazing how that grey brings everything together from the different coloured parts!) The airbrushing in Revell Dark Green acrylic in 25 and finally with some drybrushed Dark Green and Admiralty White mixture in 26 and the close up in 27.
So that’s the Airfix 40mm Bofors Gun all ready to go onto the groundwork in due course. This is a lovely little kit despite its age and I’d recommend it for any diorama in this scale. Incidentally, in the new box top art the gun shield is correctly shown as made up of thinner sheets, but as far as I know, its still the same kit in the box!

In the next instalment, finishing off the Bedford QL Bowser’s big fuel tank!

Until then, Happy Modelling to you All!


Robin