The SAAF Forum

Strongs,

The ICM kit is one Royal B@tch of a kit to build properly, but I suppose one musn't complain at 8 Pounds/kit......

I am trying to do WR/RR as in WW II, but the basic fitting & filling has me stumped.

As for the Harvard, Mirage IIICZ & C-47 builds elsewhere on the forum....WOW guys - keep it up!

I have a 48 scale Vacform Shack lying in wait somewhere in a deep, dark cupboard...suicide might well be a viable option

Where are you struggling with the ICM Spit??

It is a pretty straight forward kit, but it has no locating pins (Which I almost prefer)...

I've built the lowback and found it to have very reasonable fit....

Lemme know and I'll see where I can help.

_________________
When in doubt, use a hammer. The bigger the doubt, the bigger the hammer.

Herewith the photos of my latest update.




Cheers
Rickus

_________________
There's no such thing as a good or bad gun. A gun in the hands of a bad man is a very dangerous thing. A gun in the hands of a good person is no danger to anyone except the bad guy.

Hi Jeffreynic - I'm using the same book as reference. Guestimated the position of the rockets from the photos. Rocket length details got off Wikipedia (what would we do without it ?). Here's pics :

4-off rockets - the photos in the SAAF Spitfire book show stubby concrete noses but I went for a 60lb HE round :



Locations of the stubs - the front ones are shorter, the back ones have rocket track fairings :





With rockets on :

Spity basically assembled . I droped the elevators.



T

Two months are almost past

_________________
There's no such thing as a good or bad gun. A gun in the hands of a bad man is a very dangerous thing. A gun in the hands of a good person is no danger to anyone except the bad guy.

Arrrrrr! that damn clock again
Oh the presure of it all

SO what will be the next theme for May to July? SAAF fast movers maybe, or how about transport/recon/light planes

T

Yup, tick tock !!! If it's fast movers for the next one, I'm already done - see Mir IIICZ under another subject

Here's Spittie with medium sea grey undersides painted and masked ready for extra dark sea grey uppers :

Thanks Mistral for your input. Saw a good picture on this site in the retired section, "Spitfire Mk.IXe", there is a nice clear underside shot of 5534, the one I'm building, surprise to see it!
I will be doing concrete rockets. Where did you get your rockets? I'm getting my ones from my ICM kits.

Well, I was taken aback when I started test fitting. The picture below, the engaging surfaces between cowling and wing appeared to both have flash, and I was not sure how much to trim off. I played around, and it snapped into place after engaging 30 deg. to each other. Nothing to trim off! It won't fall appart.


Yes, well, once I got the hang of this kit, I started to like it. Part of my tail was short shot, add putty. There were sink marks and some ares needed filling.




I glued the upper wing to the fuselage, it fit very well. The lower cowling did not need any persuasion, it just fit like that.



I find this kit fits together well, just a few hickups that can be fixed easilly, it is not a shake and bake kit. It does require skill and some work. Don't know if it is, but it was one of the most accurate 1/48 Spits around.

Those sink marks infront of the ailerons on the ICM spit seems to be a common thing acording to some revies, but easy to fix thoug.
I think I need to get one for the stach aswell, atleast the wing seems to be OK for a SAAF spit

T
ps. do you find the plastic to be a little on the soft side? I did with my ICM F-51d

I would not say the plastic is soft. My ICM high back Spit IX, the plastic is a bit harder than this one though.

Thnx Portamus & Jeffreynic. I eventually managed to convince the Spit to start looking the part. The problems were mostly due to a lack of patience on my part. I've got a few kits sitting on the workbench in various states of completion. Can't seem to get into the mood for serious modelling lately, I maybe should give it a rest for a while before I bugger something up
Meanwhile I'll be watching this thread with great enjoyment!

I agree, though, apart from being an advanced build, the ICM Spit is a very accurate kit. I want to fit my second Spit, also ICM, (Gray SAAF) with circular exhaust stubs. I ordered some from Hannants. (the kit exhausts seem to be wrong for the "later" Evelyn, therefore decided to do the WWII one...)

I also have an Italeri Spit XVI & a Hasegawa Spit V in the stash, but I haven't decided what livery to choose yet (definitely SAAF though).

Rgds & happy modelling,

Andre

Hi Jeffreynic - they are scratch built using plastic card and rod. Took a while but will add some interest to the airie

Lots of Spitfire action on the forum

Here's the masks in the making for the roundels - according to my reference 610mm all round in six positions. Each mask numbered.



Mask applied to underwing :



Mask applied to other positions :



All wrapped up in bog-roll, ready to go for some white paint.....