Spitfire Mk IX Diary, page 10
Head armour and volt regulator
Saturday, 16th August, 2014
Having become preoccupied over the summer with fitting out the cockpit, I have had to remind myself of a more fundamental objective – to complete...
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Thursday, 31st July, 2014
I mentioned the Spitfire’s drop tank jettison equipment in my entry of July 9, when I fitted some obscure components of its control mechanism into...
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Wednesday, 30th July, 2014
The methods I use to make much of the cockpit detail in my large-scale models draw heavily on techniques picked up over years of ‘super...
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Tuesday, 29th July, 2014
Also located on the starboard lower sidewall, and immediately adjacent to the de-icing array described previously, are the emergency undercarriage CO2 bottle and hand lever...
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Monday, 28th July, 2014
The process of fitting out the cockpit in the space below the waist longerons has to be completed at an early stage, because once the...
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Pneumatics 2: some ancillaries
Tuesday, 22nd July, 2014
The arrangement of the pneumatic system varies in the Mk IX, dependent not least on the location of the air tanks. While relatively complex, much...
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Wednesday, 9th July, 2014
While focussed on the nether regions of the cockpit, it seemed logical to tackle the rudder pedals: with these done I could congratulate myself that...
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Wednesday, 9th July, 2014
I described in my last blog the turnbuckles for the elevator and rudder control cables, and how the chances are that they will hardly be...
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Tuesday, 8th July, 2014
Installation of the pneumatic system, plus the addition of a couple of minor electrical boxes, left most of the work in the void behind the...
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Sunday, 29th June, 2014
Come June, I shifted direction entirely and resumed work on the long abandoned fuselage interior, focussing on the section immediately aft of the cockpit between...
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Stories 91 to 100 of 125
Archive
- The sliding canopy frame
- Vac-forming the canopy
- Sliding canopy – the vac-form tool
- Installing the pilot's seat
- The pilot's seat completed
- Painting the rudder and elevators
- Empennage fixtures and fittings
- Rib stringing and taping
- Failed fabric
- 'Printed' pilot's seat
- Compass graphics assemblage
- Custom laser-cut rib tapes
- Empennage: The final details
- Warpaint: The squadron crest
- Warpaint: The 601 Sqn livery
- The Spitfire's tyres
- Machining the main landing wheels
- Fitting the exhaust stacks
- Leading edge wing root fillets
- Assembling the airscrew
- Skinning and fitting the ailerons
- Painting the exhaust stacks
- Undercarriage doors
- Rad cores and farings installed
- The radiator fairing doors
- Navigation lights installed
- A milestone – the wings completed!
- Return to action – the pitot tube
- Radiator fairings resumed
- Wing undersurfaces: Rad 'ramps'
- Wing undersurfaces: Riveting
- Wing undersurfaces: Gun covers
- Wing undersurfaces: Leading edge
- Top wing skin complete
- Some expert help
- Glaring error rectified
- Wing root fillets (upperside)
- Wing root fillets (underside)
- Wheel bay blisters
- Cannon blisters
- Blisters and cam-lock fasteners
- Finishing the flaps
- The wing tip skin
- Frog-eye nav light fairings
- Leading edge wing skin
- The gear strut channels
- Time to fit the wings
- The windscreen - Part 2
- The windscreen - Part 1
- The pilot's door
- Forgotten flaps – a remeidial task
- Lining and detailing the wheel wells
- The Spitfire's armament
- Horizontal stabiliser fillets
- Cladding the fin
- Cladding the stern section
- Installing the empennage
- Stabiliser Skin
- A second near disaster
- Cladding the fuselage
- Fuel tank cover
- The Spitfire's side cowls
- Top cowl and a major setback
- Belly skin and ident light
- An experiment in panel beating
- Finishing the Vokes air intake
- Installing the upper sidewalls
- Assembling the instrument faces
- Grapics for instrument faces
- Fitting out the instrument panel
- Fitting out the stbd upper sidewall
- Fitting out the port upper sidewall
- The chassis selector control
- The throttle quadrant
- Control column - Part 2
- Control column - Part 1
- Near disaster! A cautionary tale
- Fuse boxes and air filter control
- Magnetic compass and tray
- The instrument panel
- Upper cockpit walls
- Switch boxes and buttons
- Exhaust stack
- Oleo strut - Part 3
- Oleo strut - Part 2
- Oleo strut - Part 1
- The Spitfire's spinner
- Fitting out the port sidewall
- Filling gaps in the fuselage shell
- The seat support structure
- Head armour and volt regulator
- Fuel tank jettison controls
- The IFF switch assembly
- Oxygen and carbon dioxide
- Windscreen de-icing system
- Pneumatics 2: some ancillaries
- The rudder pedals
- The devil in the detail
- Rudder and elevator cables
- Pneumatic system 1: Air tanks
- Radiator fairings
- Empennage 2: The rudder
- Empennage 1: The elevators
- Casting the Vokes filter fairing
- Installing the nose section
- 'Sculpting' the wing root fairings
- Oleo strut supports
- Installing the wing centre section
- Wooden wing 2: underside
- Unexpected setback
- Wooden wing 1: topside
- Tail wheel and yoke
- Tail Strut
- An unsought interlude
- The built-up cockpit
- Plumbing preliminaries
- First internal skin panels
- Nose and fuselage balsa blocking
- Heel boards and rudder bars
- The visible fuselage frames
- Engineering or 'sleight of hand'?
- Fire bulkhead - first finished detail
- First cuts
- The planning stage
- Introduction
