Subject: Re: ICM Spitfire VII
From: "Steve Bamford" <[email-masked]>
To: "Drewe Manton" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 03:22:56 -0700

Steve Bamford
Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Drewe Manton" <[email-masked]>
To: "Steve Bamford" <[email-masked]>
Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2001 12:46 PM
Subject: ICM Spitfire VII

>    Okay, we all know my heart is with 1/72nd fast jets, but here's proof
> that I CAN turn my hand to other subjects on occasion!  This is ICM's
> recently released Spitfire HF VII, one of my favourite Spitfires with it's
> extended wingtips and two colour camo. . a nice change from all the
> disruptive schemed Spitfires we always see!
>     The reason I built this model was two fold;- one was that, as I said,
> the subject matter has always appealed to me, which made it an easy
choice.
> The other was that this model has had a pretty mixed press since it was
> released, most generally positive, but one well known modeller has
dismissed
> it as little more than junk, and I was determined to form my own opinion
of
> it, with the nly real way to do this being to build one of them!
>     There were all the sink holes that people referred to to deal with,
and
> I appeared to have benefitted from the whole lot of them. . . in front of
> the Ailerons, rear fuselage and below the windscreen. Whilst hardly
> desirable, I found a little Acryl Blue filler and some patience cured all
> very quickly , and really consider it practically a no-brainer to deal
with.
> The other well reported probelm is unusabe main wheels, but I'm happy to
> report the examples in my kit at least were pretty much perfect, with no
> sinkage/mould misalignment to deal with. People have also reported some
> problems getting all the engine parts under the cowling if you want to
have
> it closed up, and I've discovered that with a little lateral thinking you
> can avoid using *any* of the engine parts bar the exhausts.  I backed the
> exhaust slots with a little plastic card packed out to the correct depth
for
> the exhausts, which eliminated the main engine block. The cowling
underside
> was added to the main wing before adding the wing to the fuselage. With
the
> main fuselage joined the wing can be added and the lower side cowling
parts
> pushed and tweaked to meet the lower cowling before tacking them with
> superglue. Once set, plenty of superglue and accelerator was introduced
into
> the join the fix and re-inforce it before adding the upper cowling piece,
> which was tacked into tplace with Tenax. Some filling and re-scribing was
> necessary at the rear of the upper cowling, but nothing major. The lower
> cowling received little more than a swipe with scotchbrite to be perfect,
> and there you have it, a minimum trouble great looking Spitfire nose with
no
> nasty engibe underneath to get in the way!  Once all dry, the cowling nose
> piece was bevelled until it fitted nicely into the hole at the nose and
> dropped and superglued into place, a little work with a sanding stick and
I
> also had a place for the prop to locate!
>    The wings needed a little work, with the wingtips requiring quite a bit
> of filler and the wing roots needing work- next time I'll glue the upper
> wings to the fuselage before adding the lower wing and transfer any fit
> problems to the leading and trailing edges, but as it was a little elbow
> grease and some re-scribing saw the wingroots right.
>     The model is painted with Xtracolor Medium Sea Grey and PRU Blue,
which
> being gloss needs no preperation for the decals. Beware the decals!  They
> didn't really respond to any of my setting/softening solutions, and after
> the wing walkways silvered I applied the rest sandwiched between Future
> coats, which pulled them down beautifully and ensured *NO* silvering
> whatsoever. Those walkways still neeeded dealing with tho', and in the end
I
> had to resort to applicqations of liquid cement (yes, really!) to melt
them
> into the paintwork. Liquid cement is my decal softener of last resort, and
> can cure problems that otherwise would ruin a model, but it almost goes
> without saying that it needs extreme care and not a little bravery to use!
> Final varnish coat is Testor Dullcote, from my jealouysly guarded stash
> brought back to the UK with me after my trip to California in February. I
> removed some of the flatting agent to impart a slightly shiny finish
typical
> of these high altitude Spits. Weathering was done with an airbrush and
> heavily thinned matt black paint.
>     All in all I have to say I really like this model and would have no
> hesitation in building it again, and ICM are doing some great variants!
The
> new Hasegawa kit may well turn out to be better, but I have my doubts if
> it'll be *THAT* much better, and I also doubt very much that Hasegawa will
> do a bubble top XVI, which ICM have in the pipeline!
>     Try one. . .it's cheap and the shape looks great, not to mention good
> overall levels of detail the equal of the Japanese Spitfires of the last
few
> years.
>
>