Spitfire Mk IX Diary, page 11
Sunday, 22nd June, 2014
By the third week in May I had completed most of the woodwork on the model, except to fine-tune the sanding of the wings and...
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Wednesday, 18th June, 2014
It was my intention from the start to equip my Mk IX Spitfire with the broad chord rudder, primarily as a novelty when compared to...
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Wednesday, 11th June, 2014
With my workshop by now ankle deep in balsa chips, I made the decision come early May to tackle the last remaining woodwork – tail...
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Casting the Vokes filter fairing
Friday, 6th June, 2014
With the nose section now complete, I turned to the Vokes air filter. It made sense to tackle this sooner rather than later, since the...
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Tuesday, 3rd June, 2014
What I have not mentioned so far is that work on the wing root fairings entailed permanent installation of the nose module, with its four...
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'Sculpting' the wing root fairings
Monday, 2nd June, 2014
To my eye the long, sweeping wing root fairing is one of the loveliest characteristics of the Spitfire – a make-or-break feature for any model...
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Friday, 30th May, 2014
My wing centre section and fuselage were now bolted together, but they were still demountable. All that would change once the balsa infill had been...
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Installing the wing centre section
Friday, 30th May, 2014
By mid-April, with the woodwork for the port and starboard main planes mostly complete, it was time to consider joining the major sub-assemblies together, starting...
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Wednesday, 28th May, 2014
With the notable exception of providing for the wheel well openings (and the remedial measures described in my last blog), work on the lower half...
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Thursday, 10th April, 2014
My plans have gone awry. I had intended to set the half-completed starboard wing aside and to turn to building the upper port wing. Then...
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Stories 101 to 110 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
