SPA Modeler

A minor detail that I forgot to post... the shroud for the leading exhaust pipe is thick and is easily thinned down by carefully scooping out plastic with the tip of an x-acto blade.

John, I still think you must have a factory worth of little-bitty aircraft workers! I am fascinated watching you build, and what great builds they are!

Thanks for the comments!

The circular hatch on the lower front fuselage is always weakly molded on this kit.


Using a circular metal template and a sewing needle chucked into a pin vise, re-scribing the hatch should be very simple. If... you do it right. I made the mistake of working on this when I was rushed for time. The template was not securely attached and slipped slightly as I was scribing... you can see the telltale double edges all around the circle. While it looks fairly good in the photo, it was obvious that the hatch was no longer circular.


So I filled it in with black CA glue.


I offset the scribing template a bit off from the original circle as I wanted to avoid the black CA glue as much as possible. In comparison, you can see how ugly the original attempt was. The new one has been highlighted with a pastel wash and the old one is completely filled with CA glue and should disappear under paint.


Like the tail, the fuselage has been riveted. The pastel wash used here is pure black to maximize contrast but I'll use a lighter wash on the painted model. This is just temporary. Curiously, the wash has caused some stains on the sanded surface... interesting effect.



I'm waiting for the Eagle Editions tail wheel to install before I attach the tail to the fuselage but fit is very good.



After the gun cowling was riveted, I put the riveted components together and put it in the light box for a review of body work so far.

Looking good John! Yeah that panel really stuck out wrong after seeing the perfect one over it.

Thanks Clint!

One of the trickier items to apply rivets to is the circular radiator cowling. I'm happy with the re-shaping and the panel lines have been re-established and it's ready to be riveted. I use a thin strip of white Tamiya plastic tape to help draw my guidelines on the cowling.


The riveting is done carefully and slowly, dividing each run of the riveter into quarter circles.


Here is the riveted radiator cowling added to the rest of the riveted body.



Note the thinned cowl flaps as well as the edge of the small shroud in front of the exhausts.


An aftermarket item that is on the DEFINITELY YES list that I forgot to mention is Henri Daehne's beautiful resin VS111 prop.


Henri's work is the most impressive resin that I've seen so far. The prop assembly includes the spinner, backplate, prop blades, hub assembly and mounting hardware. All of the resin components are cast in dark grey. Some parts like the spinner and backplate have papery excess resin that needs to be trimmed away but are otherwise immaculate.


The detail on the hub mounts is most impressive.


I'm not familiar with the resin casting process and I wonder how Henri produces such impeccable surface quality in his castings. He must do some post-casting sanding and polishing, no?



All resin parts come pre-cut from their casting blocks but still need grinding/sanding to get to their final shapes. This is very straightforward using the well detailed instructions and a micrometer.



The parts are carefully sanded down to their final measurements.




Here is a sneak peak at the HD resin VS111 mounted onto the riveted body. Very sexy.



Next, I'm going to share a neat little modification to the HD prop that I think you'll get a kick out of.

I love the look of these props, I wish he made them in 1/48

Thanks Clint! HD resin props are awesome but his focus is very limited to a few Luftwaffe subjects in 1/32 scale, unfortunately. Since that is my focus too, I've been able to enjoy quite a few of his products.

The detail on the HD prop is mostly hidden by the spinner. And since there is not enough friction to hold the spinner in place, gluing the spinner on and hiding all of that detail might seem unavoidable. However, where there is a will, there is usually a way and I found a neat way to make the spinner removable using tiny neodymium magnets. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes with the smaller sizes having a number of potential uses in modeling. The ones I have are 3mm (1/8") in diameter and 1mm thick... quite tiny but still with a surprising amount of magnetic strength.

This is the prop hub. Since there was no central cannon firing through the spinner like many other Luftwaffe fighters, this modification is much simpler.


After removing the raised bolt detail in the middle, I gouged out a 3mm opening in the hub to accommodate the magnet using a drill bit turned by hand.


A magnet is placed in the recess and enclosed into place with black CA glue. The second magnet will be glued into the spinner.


The raised detail is replaced with discs punched from sheet plastic.


Make sure you get the magnet within the spinner in the correct orientation or it will have the opposite effect and repel any attempt at connection.


The hub has been coated in primer and temporarily attached to the rest of the assembly including the backplate.


Now the spinner simply clicks into place and can be removed at any time! The small magnets have enough force to seat the spinner onto the backplate without any visible gaps.

Man that's some impressive magnets.

Believe me...those neodymium magnets have pretty strong magnetic properties.