Well done Tony, thoroughly deserved. Great build diary and very informative.

Mark

well done tony on your build of the month, well deserved as the photo and description are excellent.

thanks to everyone for such kind and supporting comments - I feel very humbled.

Tony

ISSUE 28 – FITTING THE LEFT LANDING GEAR (ISSUE 30 follows the same build rules but for the Right-hand side)


PARTS CHECKLIST – PICTURE 17

28-01 WHEEL GUARD

28-02 LANDING GEAR FIXTURE

28-03 LANDING GEAR INDICATOR

28-04 LANDING GEAR FIXTURE

28-05 LANDING GEAR FIXTURE

28-06 LANDING GEAR SPRING

28-07 LANDING GEAR INDICATOR PIN

28-08 FIVE 2 x 4mm PB screws (1 spare)


PICTURES 18, 19 & 20

We take the Landing Gear Fixture (28-05) and line up the hole on this part with the hole in the Landing Gear Bracket (28-04)

Another interesting observation here is (pic 19 and 20) is what looks like a potential issue.

The shaft length between the upward pointing peg and its securing hole looks longer than the part does in the build instruction. Again, no issues and its just the build picture that is slightly at odds.

PICTURES 21 & 22

We then take the Landing Gear Indicator Pin (28-07) and press fit this into place in order to secure the pivot arm in place.

You will not press this in place with your fingers as it’s a very tight fit. The instructions call for a pair of pliers but I found the easiest way was to press down on a hard surface to get the pin in place.

PICTURES 23 & 24

Next, we take the Landing Gear Fixture (28-02) and the spring (28-06).

The spring is placed into the spring holder. Care needed as this part is really small and if you drop this one on the floor chances are you will struggle to find it.

PICTURES 25 & 26

The Red Landing Gear Indicator (28-03) is next added to its slot in the landing gear fixture (28-02).

PICTURES 27, 28 & 29

This next stage needs some care as you need to insert the fork end of the pivot arm into the slot ensuring that the other end of the pivot arm sits on and does not foul the spring.

The bracket is secured into place with one of the supplied PB screws.
We then need to test that the indicator works without snagging.

Pressing down on the pivot arm (as would be the case with wheels retracted) and the red indicator lowers.

Releasing the pivot arm (as would be the case with wheels down) and the Red indicator plate rises.

PICTURE 30

Next, we take the wing section that we assembled last month.

We will be working on the area that you can see circled in this picture.

PICTURES 31 & 32

What we then do is put the landing gear through the hole in the wing section ensuring the Next, 2 pivot arms on the landing gear sit in the matching slots in the wing section.

Holding the wheel leg carefully in position we move it to the retracted state and check (PIC 32) the Next, end of the spring sits as shown in this picture.

We then secure the Landing Gear Fixture (28-02) into place using 3 of the PB screws.

PICTURES 33, 34 & 35

With the wheel strut help in place we can test the indicator works.

Wheels down (pic 34) and the red indicator rises. Wheels up (pic 35) and the indicator retracts.

On the final model the raising and lowering of the wheels will be part of the working functions and it seems the attachment point for any servo will be as indicated in Pic 35.

PICTURES 36, 37 & 38

Last up is the Wheel Guard (28-01). This has 2 holes which fit onto the 2 pegs on the leg.

The instructions call for this to be super-glued into position.

In Picture 38 we can see the part in place from a side view. It looks as if its standing proud but we need to remember there is still an outer wing covering that will be added at a later stage which (hopefully) will ensure this part then sits flush with the lower wing section.

PICTURE 39

With both land gear assemblies in place this is how things are looking so far.

With the springs behind the undercarriage legs they want to stay in this down position so for storage I will put them in the closed position and hold them down with a length of Tamiya Masking tape (as that is not likely to cause any issues).

PICTURE 40

And just to give an idea of what we can expect next time it appears Issue 31 will give us the lower left-hand wing skin.

Interesting to see the roundel already in place so hoping that this is in place as well as the other markings have been so far.


So, until the next time Stay Safe and Happy Modelling.

(Edited out my earlier post as its not with the keeping of the forum)

There will be a further update shortly as i received the next 4 issues (31 to 34) on friday. Interesting areas to highlight in this still to be done update as some fit issues have started to show up.

The last few weeks have been so stressful so i just have to write up my next build instalment as the assembly and pictures are done.

So please bear with me as i will be updating again soon.

Kind regards

Tony

Martyn

Thanks. I am hoping and praying for that.

Tony

HACHETTE SPITFIRE Mk 1A – SUNDAY 29th NOVEMBER 2020

While not evident when assembling this stage, the completed part is a very poor fit when it comes to installing it on the lower wing.

If there was some consolation it’s the fact that several online builders have also had similar issues.

Therefore, as we press on, I will detail my “Correction” update that shows how I have tried to get a better fit on this particular part.


ISSUE 32 – FITTING THE RADIATORS IN THE HOUSING

PARTS CHECKLIST – PICTURE 1

32-01 Angled Pipe

32-02 Radiator Housing

32-03 Radiator Housing Flap

32-04 Radiator Housing

32-05 Radiator Housing

32-06 Radiator Panels (1 to 4)

PICTURES 2, 3 & 4

On the metal etch fret we get 4 grill sections. Two of the pieces have vertical bars and two have horizontal bars.

When joined together you get the grid pattern effect.

Its worth noting that 2 of the parts are slightly smaller than the other 2 so just watch those instructions and use the correct parts.

PICTURE 5

The radiator grids are fitted to the radiator housing ensuring the grills are located behind the tabs as arrowed in this picture.

PICTURE 6

And this is how it looks with the first set of grills in place.

PICTURES 7 & 8

We then put the second grill section together and press fit that into place.

PICTURES 9 & 10

There are 2 side rails that we fix in place. These have tiny pegs that hold the grill sections down into their slots.

PICTURES 11 & 12

The last part installed is the radiator flap. This is just a press fit using the 2 holes on the radiator housing and the 2 pins moulded into the flap.

We end up with the completed radiator housing along with a small pipe that will be fitted at a later stage.

HACHETTE SPITFIRE Mk 1A – SUNDAY 29th NOVEMBER 2020

RADIATOR FIT CORRECTION

I mentioned earlier that the press fit of the radiator onto the lower wing leads to large gaps either side of the piece.

Looking at it I think one of the issues is the fact the lower wing section is quite “flexible” so when you are trying to press fit the radiator into place the wing flexes slightly preventing the radiator from seating properly/

I decided to look at the part and make the following corrections.

Started by removing the lower wing section to make it easier to work on.

PICTURES 1 & 2

One of the first things to notice is that the backing of the radiator grills shows up as white/sky.

My thoughts are that if looking into this section it would be quite dark so on that basis a slip of black paper was inserted behind the grill (Picture 2) to see what it looked like.

I was quite happy with the dark background so replaced the paper test piece and painted the grill support area Black.

PICTURE 3

Another slight issue I noticed is that the 2 grill sections had a tendency to move thereby losing the squared grill look.

Simply remedy for this was to just add a dab of superglue along the top section (arrowed) of the grill parts.

PICTURE 4

The grill sections are then put back into place.

Here you can also see the 2 pegs that hold the radiator in place.

Because there is not tight fit to this, I decided that reducing the height of these 2 pegs so that they sit slightly shallow when press fitted into the lower wing would then allow me to put in a couple of washered screws in the hope that it would pull the radiator tighter into the wing section.

PICTURE 5

Here you can see the result of reducing the peg height. The surfaces now sit slightly lower in the location holes in the wing section.

PICTURE 6

I then used 2 washer headed screws (pays to keep spares from other builds) and putting these in place allowed the radiator to be glued up and pulled tighter into place on the lower wing.

When the glue was dry these 2 screws were then removed.

Net result is that the radiator fit is better (still not perfect) than it was before.