Spitfire Mk IX Diary
Monday, 20th April, 2020
The frame for my Spitfire’s sliding canopy is made of metal (litho-plate and 0.5 mm aluminium sheet) glued and screwed directly to the underlying clear...
Read more
Tuesday, 14th April, 2020
As outlined in my last diary entry, work to produce my Spitfire’s bubble canopy began with the carving of an accurate wooden pattern and the...
Read more
Sliding canopy – the vac-form tool
Wednesday, 7th August, 2019
It is more than a year since I commissioned Colin Essex to carve the pattern for my Spitfire’s blown canopy. Colin is a true craftsman...
Read more
Tuesday, 11th June, 2019
Broadly speaking, installation of the pilot seat of my model mimics full-size practise: The seat, pre-mounted on its sturdy support assembly, is lowered carefully into...
Read more
Tuesday, 11th June, 2019
Back in December last year I commented on my decision to have the pilot’s seat of my model 3D printed, thereby skating around some particularly...
Read more
Painting the rudder and elevators
Friday, 19th April, 2019
With the completion of the various components of the rudder and elevators comes the painting stage: Two or three coats of grey acrylic automotive primer...
Read more
Empennage fixtures and fittings
Friday, 19th April, 2019
Fabric work on the rudder and elevators concludes with the installation of the several metal fixtures and fittings: principally the trim tab horns and rudder...
Read more
Wednesday, 17th April, 2019
After the disaster in November with the rudder and elevators it was not until March of this year that I psyched myself up for a...
Read more
Tuesday, 9th April, 2019
As has become customary of late, I abandoned my workshop over most of the winter, having ended 2018 on a new and especially morale-sapping low: ...
Read more
Thursday, 20th December, 2018
Anyone who has read my book, ‘Spitfire in my Workshop’, will know that I made the pilot’s seat of my 1:5 scale MkI from sheet...
Read more
Stories 1 to 10 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
