saramos

Kieth,

Locate a three-view of the MK IX online and download it.
Scale the drawing of the wheel area to match the gear door template on the plans and print it out. Be sure to include some of the rib lines and spar line to help with alignment.
Position the printout on the skinned wing in the proper location and mark through it with pinholes.
Cutout the well holes a little small, mount the gears with the wheels on, and fine adjust the fit by sanding till the wheels just close.

Scott.

CHEF-UK

Sorry I have not updated this build for a couple of weeks for those of you who follow this and give me your input. Had a hard time sorting out the wheel wells etc. Anyhow I am about to do the Top sheeting now, but I need some Spitfire advice.

On the wings, are there any navigation lights, etc, landing lights what have you. I would "maybe" like to think of putting these in, and would of course need to feed the wire in before sheeting. If you have any photos of where the Nav lights are etc, let me know, I cant seem to find anything usefull on the net. I have some photos of Nav lights on the rudder but thats it.

Many thanks

Irish R.Seer

My Feedback: (1)

Keith if you can obtain a copy of this book from Sam Publications in the UK, it will tell you most of what you need to know about the Merlin powered Spitfires.

morro

Keith, I have some close up pics of nav lights and how to install them from a scale mag I have, would you be interested.

Todd

saramos

Keith,

There are small nav lights near the wing tips on full wings, and lights at the front tips on the clipped wings. I have not seen any photos or drawings indicating a landing light. At the least, there are no leading edge mounted landing lights.

Here is a book I came across recently that has a lot of photos of restored Spits.
Spitfire Flying Legend. By John Dibbs and Tony Holmes.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

I have a hard cover version of the book. Great photos.

Sounds like you are going to be passing the point that I am at with my wings. I haven't run the air tubes for the retracts yet, and have not put the top skin on. I've framed the upper fuse and attached the horizontal stab, but not the vertical stab. Been taking a break from the Spit to build a four star 40, do some flying, and work on the house. Scheduling looks like it'll be Sept. before I get back to the Spit in a serious way.

When I do skin my wings, I was going to try a technique that I've read about. You use alphatic resin glue. You apply it to all the mating surfaces and let them dry (like you would using a contact cement). Then, lay the skin on the wing and use a cover iron to "reactivate" the glue. It is suppose to provide a very fast and strong bond. It sounded like once the prep is done, you could take time to position the skin, and once in progress you would not have to deal with time constraints that come with CA, or maintaining contact with clamps and weight bags as with normal gluing.

I greatly look forward to your progress!!

Scott.

CHEF-UK

Many thanks for all your responses. There is of course a few more bits to do before I put the top skin on though.

Saramos, that idea does sounds interesting about the alphatic resin, then reheating it with a iron. Didnt know you could do that. Is it a special type of glue, or do all glues have that property. Would you still wet your sheeting though to allow a bit of a bend in it ?


Many thanks

saramos

Alphatic Resin is the generic term for yellow carpenters glue. Titebond II is probably the most widely used. Sig makes one. I believe that this technique can be used with Elmer's glue as well. I have not tried the technique myself, but have read about it and seen it demonstrated on an RC tv show as well.

Scott.

Chad Veich

My Feedback: (60)

Chef, your Spit gear is more scale than you think. The full size airplane has a slightly oblong shaped wheel well for just the same reasons your model has to have them. Also, the full size airplane has a blister on the top wing skin which is to allow the wheel to retract fully as they do indeed protrude above the top wing skin.

saramos

Chad is correct. I found a number of photos that clearly show a blister for the wheel in the upper skin.
Here are two photos I found online.

interestingly, none of the 3 views that I have show it.

Scott.

Merlin65

Not entirely correct. From MK 7 onwards the undercarriage doors are convex (bulged) and the retraction geometry was changed to prevent the gear from retracting entirely into the wing. This made the wing bulges un-necessary.
The changed geometry also increased the toe-in as tire wear was not a real issue on grass airfields. Post war restorations often spend a lot more time using hard runways and so it's common for these aircraft to revert to the original settings and so the blisters are re-fitted. Your 3-views are likely correct.
--
Merlin65

CHEF-UK

Great advice guys, that would give enough clearence maybe then when the wheels are fully retracted.

Another thought I am having at the moment, is how do you make the gear doors/covers. I was thinking along the lines of covering the retract area with monokots etc, then glassing on top of that, then cutting out the shape following the lines/holes of the retracts and wheels etc. then I would have a shape with the correct curvature. and the rest of the glassing would just pull off of the wing as I would have put it onto the monokote. Is this how you do it. Or is there some other easier way.

Because I am thinking, if you make them flat then they wont sit on the wings with the correct angle etc.


I shall await some of your advice.

PS. Many thanks for all your help. it really is noted and appreciated.

Merlin65

Keith, attached is a pic that shows just how much the gear doors are curved.
It's also worth noting that the wheel cutouts in the wing are actually quite round at the lower skin.
It's where the wheel well walls meet the top skin that they're very much oval in shape. Most modelers make this mistake as they naturally make the sides of the well from a balsa tube and this projects the oval shape from the top skin down through the bottom skin. To make them exactly scale would require an impressive bit of engineering
The attached factory drawings show the MK7 gear door, the red line indicating a perfect circle. The last pic shows the shape in the bottom skin (red) and shape at the top skin (blue).
If you use glass over monocote you will get exactly the opposite of the curvature you need. (The monocote will be flat in the open area)
Personally I would carve balsa masters and use them to produce glass doors.
--
Merlin65

Chad Veich

My Feedback: (60)

Hi Merlin, I was aware of the changes mentioned but did not think it was a feature of most MkIX aircraft due to it essentially being an upgraded MkV airframe. Oh well, seems the only for sure thing about Spitfires it that nothing is for sure! Best bet, gather your docs and model a specific Spitfire. Regards, Chad Veich.

oifvet23

My Feedback: (6)

nice pics and a good choice

Merlin65

Hello Chad, the "D" shape blisters disappeared with the introduction of the universal (or "C" type) wing on the MK V due to the increased forward rake of the U/C. The decreased toe-in, due to operation on hard runways, was introduced at some point to the MK IX. This heralded the introduction of a new teardrop shaped blister on late MK IX as the reduction of toe-in meant the wheels no longer had enough room...again! It's safe to say few MKIX's had blisters during wartime whereas most post war restorations had the teardrop variety if any at all. It's worth noting that only 100 MK V's were converted to MK IX, 52 by Supermarine and 48 by Rolls Royce.
You are quite correct of course! Modeling a specific Spit at a precise time in it's career is the ONLY way to ensure accuracy.
Always nice to discuss Spit's with you
--
Merlin65

mR JoLLy

Building a Mick Reeves MK IX currently and have faced similar considerations for the wheel well. I did not use the template on the plans but factored something similar using Microsoft Powerpoint. This took into account the "drift" in the location of the wheel through the wing area. Some trimming was still needed but it fitted a treat. Decided to install before the bottom skin was installed because I suspect the skin would not fit "cleanly" after skinning.

Pic below shows result, using 1/64" ply. Supported by light ply surround to hold the shape.

Using the Robart 4" wheel I do not need to put the blister in the wing, but I might install for cosmetic purposes. The pictures showing the blisters earlier were from MH434 a well known Spitfire. And I might be following the pattern . . . But I agree with earlier comments stick to a specific example and build to that spec. That can mean to a specific period in time too because of the post war and restoration work conducted on surviving aircraft.

See more on my build here: [link=http://www.hbc.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/models/spitfire/]http://www.hbc.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/models/spitfire/[/link]

CHEF-UK

well I must apologise for not updating this build for a while but i have been busy with other things and doing these damn wheel wells, sheeting etc.

You can see where I am up to on the photos, just playing with the flaps now, doing the bevell edges for them, I dont think I will be able to use the robart hinges on them as they "may" be to big. so I may use the square Kavan hinges (with the 4 holes in each hinge for pinning) as they are a lot slimmer.

I have painted the wheel wells with FLAIR Duck egg green i think its called, not 100% sure if it looks right, what colour are you guys using. I was advised at my LHS that that was the correct colour.

Let me know

Many thanks and Ishall update soon I promise

pranger

Keith,

Question for you, in looking at the last picture, the sheeting on the underside of the center section covers the wing hold down plate, on my kit the doubled ply plate extends past the wing ribs and therefore I would assume the sheeting would have to go round, not over, the plate (I have also seen this on other build threads). Did you do something different in this area?

Ian

squeeguk

Hi Keith

Looking really good. I will be ripping my wheel wells that I created out and starting from scratch again. It seems from looking at a real Spit and getting in under the wing to have a good look that the wheel well walls do go in at the same angle as the wheel retracts. Oh well, more work on that area.

It seems you have a small opening for your robart retracts mechanisms. How do you get them in and out through there. I had to make mine a lot larger. I will be making some sort of cover for them.

Ian, Keith has the same as mine and is as per the plan and instructions. I just cleaned up the area around where the plate needed to go in to ensure it sat flush before bonding it in.

Keep in going Ian, hopefully I can get back to mine in the next couple of weeks once things have settled down after the move.

Cheers

pranger

Luis,

Thanks, my question was prompted from an image from Tubigs spit build (On here and over on RCSCALEBUILDER)... If I could figure out how to insetrt the darn image I would [:@]

Ian

CHEF-UK

PRANGER dont use the quick reply box at the bottom of the page use the REPLY function on the LAST message that someone has posted, then on the bottom left hand side you will see a area marked UPLOAD IMAGE / ADD IMAGE, there you go.


Thanks guys, what about the colour any idea, ?


Luis, the retracts pop in there with no problem whatsoever, I will also be making some time of cover for them, dont knwo how etc, but i will

saramos

Keith,

Robard does make a small hinge that I beleave would fit the flaps. This is their smallest hinge. The problem that I see with this hinge is that the pin is plastic, unlike the metal pins used in their larger hinges.

I have found that Great Planes makes the same style hinge in the small size with a metal pin. I will be using them on my flaps when I get back to my build.

Scott

CHEF-UK

This is the sort of hinge i was thinking of using in the flaps,

what are you views on this particular hinge then please. Cant see the flap needing more than 2-3 hinges per side can you ?

Bit new to flaps, never had a plane witht hem before, so not sure how much stress etc is put on them.

Many thanks

morro

Chef, try using a 1/4 scale hinge from du-bro they are flat, slightly larger and stronger, for my own satisfaction I would use four hinges on each flap, will make the flap sit properly if you have a problem with the flaps sitting against the trailing edge let me know and I would be happy to give you some ideas on how to fix this also try to get your flaps to deploy to 85 degrees stops the aircraft floating to much on landing.

Todd

mR JoLLy

Keith the wheel wells are usually the same colour as the underside of the wing. Attached are a selection of pictures (MKIX's). Lighting not too cleaver on them but I am sure you get the idea.

The standard colour for a Spitfire was a Medium Sea Grey on the underside. If you are going to use the standard colours, then you should paint the well this colour.

JoLLy