Kotare 1/32 Spitfire Va as flown by Douglas Bader

[Edbert]

 

[BarleyBop]

Is it someday yet?

 

[Edbert]

Is someday yet?

Don't make me pull the car over!

 

[user 22148]

Eduard?

 

[Edbert]

Kotare.

This is the 5a version, assume I'll build Douglas Bader's plane that never came back.

 

[user 22148]

Kotare.

This is the 5a version, assume I'll build Douglas Bader's plane that never came back.

DB's mk.Va? A very good choice. I'll look forward to that, I've not seen the Kotare kit built up yet.

 

[Edbert]

DB's mk.Va? A very good choice.

I only wish it were a 5b, this kit is amazing, I think half the parts are the cockpit and areas immediately on both ends. Unlike the Zoukei Mura kits, there's no linkages to the rudder nor pistons inside the engine. Heck, there's no Merlin included at all, but I think they left room for one. Suspect that will be released later in some sort of platinum edition.

 

[user 22148]

I suspect they'll do a B or C winged Spitfire at some-point, although it'd require a new wing. I've never actually built a 1/32 aircraft kit but I do like t he look of this one.,

 

[Edbert]

This is an unfortunate casting effort, very hard to photograph.

I think those two "dips" indicate under-pressured styrene into the molds? Not what one would expect from an expensive kit.

 

[Edbert]

I am a bit disappointed with my work on the IP. Hard to capture what I mean but some of the dials are not legible.

 

[Edbert]

There's a 4th seat not shown in the image above. Initially I used the one with molded-in seatbelts. The missing one is being sanded down and re-painted. Reason for that will be shown later.

I read somewhere that 80% of the parts in this kit were cockpit-related. Some really tiny bits in there for sure. But it makes sense when you realize there's no engine parts at all, except exhaust stacks. The wings went together like a work of engineering art.

My IP was just not acceptable to me, so I co I cheated

(Quinta studios to the rescue)

 

[BarleyBop]

Quinta studios

There's a nice looking catalogue to look through!
New to me...

Your IP not quite so crisp, but did have a battle worn look to it!

 

[Littlemarten]

This is an unfortunate casting effort, very hard to photograph.

View attachment 150406

I think those two "dips" indicate under-pressured styrene into the molds? Not what one would expect from an expensive kit.

Or it was removed from the mold too soon. See the distortion in the sprue leg (part No.10) just below?

 

[Edbert]

There's a nice looking catalogue to look through!
New to me...

Whatever you do do not click on the link below, your wallet begs you not to!

Another catalog

 

[Edbert]

 

[Edbert]

Those "holes" on the front of the seat were to hold multi-colored flares. I feel that if I am not going to put flares in there then I should drill the holes out. Perhaps not through, but deeper.

 

[Littlemarten]

Those "holes" on the front of the seat were to hold multi-colored flares. I feel that if I am not going to put flares in there then I should drill the holes out. Perhaps not through, but deeper.

That would probably improve the look.

Flares … on the front of the seat … somehow I think that's a bad idea …

 

[Rockin' Rob]

Coming along nice. I almost bought that kit for my next endeavor but I thought I'd perhaps wait a bit because there was no engine to speak of. Still seems like a great build to do.

 

[Edbert]

Coming along nice. I almost bought that kit for my next endeavor but I thought I'd perhaps wait a bit because there was no engine to speak of. Still seems like a great build to do.

I sorta wish I had waited for the B-wing version myself, but they are about to release a 109 too.

https://modelgeekspodcast.com/home/kotare-1-32-bf-109k-test-shot-build/

 

[Edbert]

Wrapping up the cockpit here, just wanted to show some pics because it is about to all be invisible.

That tank behind the pilot's right shoulder/elbow says "use no oil or grease - they cause explosions" which I thought was interesting.

Just in case any Spitfire aficionados are wondering where the rest of it is (like the side-door), these side panels are only the bottom half.

 

[Edbert]

These were taken with one side panel at a time, during the test-fit period. It is TIGHT, all the parts must align perfectly or there will be gaps.

First two are with the starboard fuselage half in place, bottom three with the port half.

 

[BarleyBop]

about to all be invisible

Thanks for the peek!
Great work on that interior.
I'm frankly surprised at the number of gauges, dials and controls for that era.
In stressful situations such as takeoff, landing and dogfights, a modern eye tracking study would certainly be interesting to see which and how often the 'user' interacted with them. (I guess once a UI interaction designer, always a GUI guy!)

 

[kevin]

Well done.....
I was the same way when I did my two tanks with full interiors. Even though probably 75% will never be seen, I painted and weathered everything as they were built.

 

[Littlemarten]

Well done.....
I was the same way when I did my two tanks with full interiors. Even though probably 75% will never be seen, I painted and weathering everything as they were built.

Why are some of us like this? (We probably don't want to know the reason.)

 

[Littlemarten]

These were taken with one side panel at a time, during the test-fit period. It is TIGHT, all the parts must align perfectly or there will be gaps.

First two are with the starboard fuselage half in place, bottom three with the port half.

View attachment 151059

View attachment 151063

View attachment 151060

View attachment 151061

View attachment 151071

I'm getting jealous …

I wonder if there is a way to make the fuselage open to see the wonderful detail.

 

[Edbert]

The fuselage halves went together great, but I did not take any pictures. I spent 2 days (technically, but probably 30-40 minutes actual "work"), did the back half and had so many clamps on it that I just let it lie overnight. Ditto on the front half, you can see the captured shaft where there would be an engine on many kits. The shaft obviously spins freely but to to the anchors/bearings in the front and rear it is very sturdy and straight.

Those three parts and the door is all I'll need to finish the fuselage assembly. There's a bit to do yet on the wings but I can see primer coming up soon. One thing caused me to have to stop. Have you ever seen (or noticed) "station keeping lamp windows" on a Spit cowling before? They are not shown in the portrait I posted on page 1. They show up in the Kotare paintings, but the instructions are very clear.

It can be found in many photographs, most of them are vintage and quite hard to see in detail due age of the photo, usually just a dark blob like this.

But I'd say an equal number of pictures are clear there is/was not one there. Some of the photos in Kotare's instructions do not have them. But this one with Douglass in it, there it is.

Many of these photos where it is absent are later Marks, even the Vb, but restored versions of the early ones do not typically have them. This one is an exception.

 

[Edbert]

Step 1 = drill 2 holes.

Here's one of the little buggers I have to install.

And pull out the medieval tools.

 

[Edbert]

I ground away a large amount of plastic from the inside, the sheet metal of the cowl would be about 200x too thick for scale, nothing like a little clear window to show that. Each of the clear bits is a square with full shoulder, but 1/4 of that shoulder would interfere with part of the cowl used to locate it correctly.

You can see I am trying to avoid that pin with the tools. I thought I'd just cut it off since locating this part should be easy, but I decided to leave it and cut off a shoulder of the clear bit for clearance.

The hole was easily squared up from the ouotside, and the window fit pretty well too. Gluing it was not easy, I wanted to use super-thin but could not guarantee missing the pane, so I tried the old Testors clear stuff. You know, the thin but milky looking stuff with the long tube?

It looked kind of like this from the inside Not quite true, but while struggling to get it perfect it occurred to me (shutup, I know I am slow) that this glue is often used to make windows. So the pic above is just a blob of the Testors clear cement.

After drying the effect is good, no worse than I was getting with the 2mm clear plastic.

 

[Littlemarten]

After drying the effect is good, no worse than I was getting with the 2mm clear plastic.

How are you going to mask that when painting? Or are you just going to replace it after painting?

 

[Edbert]

How are you going to mask that when painting? Or are you just going to replace it after painting?

I considered trying to wipe the paint off with a detail brush and alcohol. That will only work if I do it before clear coating, and it runs a big risk of hitting the paint I want to keep, and it is in a VERY visible area.

I think instead I'll put a drop of liquid mask on it, and push the blob into the corners.

When finished, it should be barely visible, it will be dark inside. Since these are marker lights, I thought one would be red and the other green, but in all the pictures I can find they are just dark spots, or in some cases (modern color photographs) they appear as paint.

In the end, I think I'll just have a dark, slightly recessed, shiny square.