Lancfan's Movie Spitfire ***FINISHED***

[lancfan]

Having enjoyed the first two builds in this GB I have dug out a third model, the Heller Spitfire 16 to be built as one of the aircraft seen in "Reach for the Sky" I Have viewed the appropriate section of the film DVD a number of times and although spotting the serials of the background aircraft was very difficult I did manage to almost identify one aeroplane, which by comparing what I could read with the official serial blocks and using a little guesswork I believe the aircraft coded QV - X may have been RW376. I do have the Heinkel III to build in the Twin engined bomber GB so this will be built alongside that model.



David.

[DazDaMan]

Ooh, another one!

The Wikipedia page gives the identities of all the aircraft involved in the filming:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reach_for_the_Sky;

In the book Spitfire Survivors Vol.2, there are also a few photos of the surviving aircraft in their film colours. Give me a shout if you want any info on them.

[lancfan]

Cheers Daren, this info. was most useful.


David.

[lancfan]

This model will have a closed cockpit door so there is no point in embellishing the cockpit as the kit parts are reasonably good. I began by painting the cockpit ready for assembly.


I next assembled the cockpit and cut off the radiators to be thinned down and re-attached.


The lower nose profile of this kit is too deep and it looks more like the mark eleven than the sixteen. This area was cut away and then blanked off with a former to guide the Miliput which will be used to remodel the nose profile. The picture shows the nose ready for filling and in the background is the wing showing its modified radiators.


When the Miliput had dried the nose was sanded to shape and then model filler was applied to the upper decking to correct the upper cowling line.


David.

[DazDaMan]

I'm gonna have to try modifying one of these the same way you do - at the moment I'm quite content to build them "as is"!!

[lancfan]

The finished nose against a black background.

The wings glued in place onto the fuselage.



David.

[lancfan]

The tailplanes and air intake have been fitted to complete the basic airframe, let painting commence.



David.

[DazDaMan]

What did you use for the seat harness?

It's something I've never tried with any of my models, so I might have to give that a go, too.

[lancfan]

I use very thin strips of painted Tamiya Tape to make my harnesses Daren. I place a short length on a cutting board, paint it the appropriate colour and then cut the strips using a steel ruler, when the strips have been applied to the seat I finish with a thin coat of matt varnish to seal the tape in position.
David.

[DazDaMan]

Ahh, simples! I'll give that a bash, too!

[lancfan]

The colours that appear to have been used on these aircraft are far from correct and my choice has been pure guesswork. I began by painting the undersides in Humbrol 64 and the upper base coat in Humbrol 225, the disruptive colour was Humbrol 30- very different from how a BoB spitfire should have been painted but when viewed in monochrome it doesn't look too far out to the film aircraft.





The paintwork hasn't ended here as these spitfires appeared to have been properly finished in high Speed Silver before the film makers threw coloured emulsion paint at them and the original finish does show through the cinematic make up in places, the next step is to represent this with careful weathering, however before I can do this I have to correct a senior moment as I seem to have forgotten to fit the full-span wing tips.

David.

[DazDaMan]

Looks good, though!

[Molly-new]

Looking good David, the Heller Spitfire 16 is one of my favorites.

[lancfan]

Cheers Daren, Chip.

David.

[lancfan]

Finished, Spitfire LF.16e RW345 used during the filming of "Reach for the Sky"






David.