Mick Reeves 1/4 Mk IX Spitfire

[stewart clifford]

Another customers project in the form of a half built Mick Reeves Spitfire arrived a couple of weeks ago. I will be posting some pictures shortly and keeping you up to date with its progress. I know not many people are too complimentary of this kit but does anyone know if the normal spinner supplied with the kit is a dodgy look a like of a later Griffon powered Spit or if we have the wrong one as it really doesn't look like a MK9 spinner?

Stewart

fighterfactoryuk.com

[Alan Cantwell 1131]

i looked at 3 views with mine, and it looked ok, there where a few differant shapes, what does worry me, was the whole set up, of a thin backplate, and the bolt through the middle routine, i read on RCU of a guy who lost his, and the model, so, i was going to make a backplate that i could screw through the side, sadly, i decided to sell the kit etc, as i would not get to fly it much, even if it got built, so it never came to fruition,

[Mike Booth]

Stu a word of caution from long experience.
The spinner on a model this size needs to be completely sound in every possible engineering way and sorry but thin backplates and a single bolt are not enough and are asking for trouble.

The first thing that will happen is the tendency to want to over tighten the bolt thus putting excess pressure on the the backplate and bending it out of shape over the prop driver.
This habit will also slowly compromise the strength of the countersunk hole in the spinner nose.
In flight the centrafugal forces are massive and anything slighty out of alinement like that bolt, or a hole too big, will induce vibration, to a point of failure.

If this happens the bolt will soften and fail just above the thread which will lead to one of two situations.
The bolt fails and throws the spinner in which case you may be lucky and have an airframe left to land.
The worst situation is the bolt only bends and now the loose spinner flatens out of shape and the resulting massive catastrophic vibration destroys the entire airframe.

I know you probably know this, but I'm never ceased to be amazed, that this crucial part of a scale model is given so little thought on the engineering side.
My advice would be to turn up a new backplate from the right grade aluminium.
Dont make it too heavy as it does not want to turn into a flywheel.
When making it, design in some raised wall to the outside diameter, so that you can drill and tap this in 6 places to hold on the spinner.
Throw the centre bolt in the bin.
Another small piece of advice I learnt from Richard Scarborough, is to use some Evostick around the heads of screws so there is no chance of anything coming undone in flight.

See ya soon, Mike.

[Phil Clark]

Agree 100% with Mike...........light weight spun aluminium spinners, thin backplates and centre bolts should be avoided at all cost on large models.

Here is a machined backplate for the 1/4 scale Mk.1a we built last year.........the raised lip centres the cone (which was carbon in this case), this is drilled & tapped to take nine M3 countersunk cap heads. (The 'dits' marked by the arrow are balancing marks as this backploate was st/st as we needed the nose weight)

Phil

[Mike Booth]

Perfect Phil, Stu copy that picture.

Mike.

[Allan Griffiths]

Hi,

Yes all that has been written is bob on,

If you get stuck we can help. www.cestrianrc.com

Allan

[stewart clifford]

Thanks everyone. Although my original post was about it's shape I was also concerned about the 3mm backplate but I was hoping as it was the spinner supplied in the kit it would have been tried and tested and be up to the job. I checked the Reeves website and saw the offending spinner on some completed models and yes not quite a merlin spinner not quite a griffon spinner. Now without offending anyone, you have to ask why isn't it right? and why isn't the backplate thicker?

[stewart clifford]

Heres a few pics of it just after it arrived

[Jason Griffiths]

Nice project

Good luck with her.

[Jason Griffiths]

I see Mick Reeves has a new Fuselage coming out soon

[stewart clifford]

Just a little update. The port wing has had to be rubbed back in order to remove all of the non scale mushroom head rivets and also to have some horrid lumps an bumps sorted out. The starboard wing also required some attention as it hadn't been glassed very nicely.

Some of the radio and air system has been installed and now I have to modify the firewall in order to accomodate a change of engine to an MVVS 80.

Most of the airframe has been primed and now needs rubbing back.

I have made an inspection hatch in the rear of the fuselage for access to the tailwheel and another one behind the cockpit(in the scale position of fullsize) for the switches and air valve.
The customer didn't want a great deal of detailing so it shouldn't be long before it gets some air under it's wings.
Pictures will follow shortly

[Jason Griffiths]

Hello

Im looking forward to seeing some more pictures of the progress.

[Mike Booth]

Good luck Stu, Im sticking with composite.

Mike.

[stewart clifford]

Hi Mike, composite is great but think about all that dust your missing out on.

Stewart

[Mike Booth]

Hi Mike, composite is great but think about all that dust your missing out on.

Stewart

Ive had 40 years of dust, from my Minimoa glider in 1970, through Airbus/ Silverstone to current.

Resin fumes dont show on your tee shirt when you go out.

Hope to see the 109 before too long, I'll be right on your tail.

Mike.

[stewart clifford]

Just a couple of pics, one showing the hatch covering the switches/charging jacks and air filler valve.

The other of the primed fuselage which will be having the surface detailing added in the next few days.

Slight backward step with the wings as the only way to get a good finish on the port wing was to strip off all of the paint applied by the original builder the picture might give you some idea as to how thick the many layers of paint were.

[Jason Griffiths]

Coming on nicely

[stewart clifford]

Finally back to the spray shop. Everything has been installed now, just got to finish of the surface detail before the top coat of paint is applied. The exhaust and tailwheel leg are currently being made and a very nice set of paint masks have arrived from Flightline Graphics. The model will be finished in standard grey/green camoflage and will represent MH884(Not MH434) code letters "DS".

[stewart clifford]

All the camoflage and markings have now been sprayed on with the aid of some excellent paint masks from flightline graphics, just got to put the code letters on tomorrow. Should have some new pictures of it over the weekend.

[Alan Cantwell 1131]

did this spitfire originate from Oldham by any chance??? built by Chris Riley?