Wardbirds Replica Spitfire

[Darren 0]

For those of you who read Radio Control Model Flyer, you'll have seen a review of this kit in the April edition.

 

Given it's the 70th anniversary of the Spit, I've never owned one and everyone is building one, thought I'd get in on the action as well.

 

Kit is here, fuselage assembly has started and I'm making notes and taking pictures as I go. I'll start posting here soon.

[Jimbo 0]

Cooooooooooool!!!!!

[Darren 0]

Was planning to come flying today but we had an occurrence of that dreaded kiddie related thing "dire rear" - I think this spelling is much more descriptive

[Darren 0]

Let's be honest, the majority of people who get into model flying want to fly a Spit. Fortunately common sense usually prevails and something a bit tamer arrives in the hangar first. I've also always been a bit of a rebel and wanted to do something different and for this reason I've had two me109's in my fleet and never a Spitfire. This isn't actually true, I did buy a Top Flite kit but after about 12months and only having found the time to build the stab and fin sold the lot with engine and retracts to Roger and he's currently hauling it around the sky.

 

However as the Spit is 70 this year, just like my Dad, I thought it was about time I built one. When the April edition of Radio Control Model Flyer came through the letterbox my first stop was the excellent Southern Model Airshow write up but the review of Warbirds Replicas new Spit kit also caught my eye.

 

Warbirds Replicas have been producing kits for quite a few years, their attraction is quick build with foam wings, decks and the bulk of everything else precut. The new Spit is different, the wings are already assembled but are now built up with retract plates already in place. All you need to do is add/shape some wing tips and add the leading edge.

 

It's a 56" span and designed around a 52 four stroke which is fortunate as I have one sitting in the garage. Richard Wills says he is aiming this kit at 2nd/3rd model territory and the A4 manual does make the build quite straight forward with step by step pictures. I have one of the first batch and have found a few errors in the manual, nothing someone with a kit build or two under their belt would find difficult, but if this is a 2nd model after an ARTF it might confuse, I'm feeding this back to Richard as I go along

Edited April 10, 2006 by Guest

[Darren 0]

Fuselage is built on a central horizontal lite ply crutch with foam rear deck. Lower fuselage sides are precut balsa (a bit short ? more of that later).

 

With a busy work and family life it takes me a long time to make any progress, it took me 18 months to finish a Wot4, but so far the fuselage build has been really quite swift. After a week, the fuselage is almost complete save the final profiling with my perma-grit bar.

 

The majority of the front fuse is a glass fibre cowl extending well back beyond the leading edge which saves quite a bit of balsa bashing.

[Darren 0]

Not everything has gone to plan, the precut fuselage sides are too short, so I?ve had to pad out the back end a little and I?m not sure that it?s quite right yet. Once the fin and tail post is in place I?ll finish off the fuse sides before the final sanding.

 

The plan is to use Roger?s Basildon bond, pva and paint method with a bit of weathering, the kit includes decals but again being a bit of a rebel I might go for something different.

 

I hope to have the fuse bashed into shape and ready for covering by the end of easter and the wings shouldn?t be too far behind

[Darren 0]

Well the fuselage is coming along and starting to get close to it's final shape.

 

A fair amount of fettling of F1 and F2 was needed to make the glass cowl fit, a bit of a gap to the side cheeks but nothing a slice of balsa won't fill.

 

The fuselage bottom has been attacked with chisel and sanding bar to get the shape most of the way there. Final sanding, shaping of fin & stab is next and that's the fuse done.

 

Oh, managed to break off the ply cockpit loop during the sanding, I'd suggest leaving the fitting of that until later.

[Her Klunk 0]

Looking good Darren.....look forward to seeing it fly at the field....

[Darren 0]

Well. fuselage is done for now.

 

Need the wing before I can finish the wing seat, fill those little imperfections and give it a final sand.

 

Need to build up the profile again where I've let in the tail wheel.

[Peter 0]

Darren,

looks a nice build. However as there now seems to be a rash of Spitfires I am going to have to bring my ME109E to Fickleshole seems to be that we could be having a lot of fun.However first I have to master my new Multiplex Royal Evo 12 transmitter very interesting reading for the last month.

Regards,

Peter

[Darren 0]

Well a little more progress, got to get it done before my 1/4 scale Cap arrives and I get drawn into that

 

Onto the wings the leading edges are now fitted and everything is roughly to shape. Need to get some finer sand paper tomorrow and remove cutouts for servos, retracts etc before joining the panels.

 

Have taped the wings together to get an impression of the finished model - see below.

[Darren 0]

Oh no, the CAP has arrived and only a couple of weeks before my holiday I'm not sure where my efforts will be directed.

 

I suspect that the CAP will win as it should be assembled and ready quicker than the Spit - so please forgive me if it goes a bit quiet here for a while

[Darren 0]

Yes I know it's about time, been seduced by a petrol cap, a shock flyer and a micro heli, but now I'm back.

 

Wing has been joined, pre-marked sections for servos, retracts etc cut out and cowl trimed to fit wing/wing seat.

 

Hopefully I'll get time to do some more over the next week or so.

 

[Darren 0]

Well that was hard work

 

Never had to set up mechanical retracts before, trying to get the linkage just right seems to have taken more time than the rest of the buiild so far.

 

Anyway, with the gear locked up the legs are still proud of the wing, so I'm going to wedge the inboard retract mounting screws which should give me two benefits. The wheels should retract further into the wings and I'll get that slightly splayed leg position when the wheels are down.

 

I've started on the wing fairing and next is to cut out the ailerons and fit all the control runs. Fitting engine and cowl cut outs is all I plan to do before the final sand - it's starting to look like a Spitfire now

[Trevor 25]

Well, since I bought this part finished kit from Darren I suppose I had better continue the build thread Most of the hard work has already been done by Darren (and very well I might add) so mostly what remains is the installation and finishing. I have mounted a Saito 62a which should pull it around nicely. The fuselage is fibreglassed and the cowl is cut out and primed as you can see in the pictures. Next I will install the servos and linkages and start the painting. Not absolutely sure what scheme to do but it will probably be Ocean Grey/Dark Green camouflage with medium grey undersides. Possibly in a Biggin Hill squadron marking just to be patriotic.

[Trevor 25]

I have done some work painting, weathering and finishing, see pictures. Should be done by this months club night static competition. Markings are 302 (Polish) Squadron Croydon/Heston/Kenley that I got from a book with the advantage that the lettering is all straight lines making it easier to cut out templates .

Edited July 1, 2009 by Guest

[Gerard 10]

Looks beautiful Trevor.

[Nutz 0]

mmmmmmm, Nice Spit, you better not let Roger see it

[Trevor 25]

The Spitfire had its maiden flight yesterday, the first opportunity since it was finished that the wind was not blowing a gale. Take-off was a bit of a hit and miss affair, tracking was not too good not helped by the castoring tail wheel. I will try to give it a steerable one. Once airborne it flew very smoothly. Rolls and loops were graceful and slow and straight flight was uneventful. There was a rattling noise from the undercarriage which is easily fixed. Landing approach was fast ending with the inevitable noseover; I need to practise slower approaches once I am more familiar with the stall characteristics. The undercarriage ended up twisted due to being unable to tighten the small grubscrews sufficiently; I need to find a way to fix the undercarriage better.

 

I had three enjoyable flights with it and returned it in one piece which must count as a success.

[Trevor 25]

I added split flaps to try and slow the landings down. They might work or they might not. The plane might just tumble out of the sky when the flaps are dropped or it might float in to a nice soft landing. Either way it will probably be a good laugh . The wing now has five servos and the fuse has another three. Most servos I ever put in one plane.

[Trevor 25]

Had the first flight with flaps yesterday. Conditions weren't too good, very blustery with a cross wind but I just had to try it.

I tried them first at height just in case, but surprisingly they worked very well. Half flaps (about 30 degrees) allowed the plane to fly a lot slower and stall was very gentle. Full flaps (about 60 degrees) made it seem like it was floating. Hardly any elevator was needed to correct for the flaps.

Then came the landing attempt with flaps. When flaps were deployed on approach, the Spitfire slowed right down and on full flaps (with a strong cross wind which makes a smooth landing very difficult at the best of times), it just floated down. Unfortunately the undercarriage dug into the grass and it flipped as usual but I was very pleased and am looking forward to trying it out on a calm day.

[Trevor 25]

Sunday was a great flying day. Wind was light and nice and sunny. An excellent opporunity to try the Spitfire flaps properly and they were a great success. Landing with full flaps was slow and easy and the plane made a perfect landing on three wheels; I even managed to taxi it back off the runway. I tried a different prop, a Masters "K" 13x6 but it didnt give as much thrust as the previous one, a HobbyCity APC clone, so I will swap it back again.

[Darren 0]

Trevor

 

Glad to hear it's working so well, be good to see it for real one day

[Bravedan 106]

Very Nice!!!

 

I have trouble with the Phoenix Simulator Spit nosing over, I'm never 100%..........!!!

 

Suppose you all know about:-

 

http://www.polishsquadronsremembered.co ... adron.html

 

 

Slightly off topic, but recent British National Party literature banging on about Britain for the British used the "Spitfire" card to try to drum up nationalism, unfortunately they used a picture of a Polish Squadron plane, complete with chequer board marking.

 

OOPS!!