Updated....April 2009.

SPITFIRES
Utube videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNA06f5sQQQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWPhmS0x3Bo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFb3T5eQiqU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrCow_no4pA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA9MNjAlbWs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiGXkCTBVb4
Exact scale SPITFIRE Mark IX.



Micks 1/6 spitfire at the World Champs, Reno, Nevada.
This model won the top score in static at one world championship.
It won the best flight at another world championship.
Renowned for its good flight ability.

2009 model, rebuilt after two bad crashes. Winner of Scottish Nats.2009
I have now reduced the movements on Elevator to 1 inch and Ailerons to 3/4 " each way. We now sell this prop, 24 x 12 on accessories page.		  
1/6 SCALE

Span 74 inches. Engine. 10 to 20cc. Weight. 12 lbs.
Semi kit with full epoxy fuselage/cowl , CNC cut wing ribs and tail parts.
Formers. Canopy. Spinner. Wheels. Plans. Mouldings. Engine mount.
Wing joiners. Pilot. Dash. Bolts, horns etc.
You provide sheet and strip balsa etc. £268.00. post £12.
Alternative semi kit as above but with epoxy cowl and CNC cut  
formers for wood fuselage. £178
EXTRAS. Mechanical retracts.(spitfire angles) £55.00. Retract servo. £50.
Sprung oleo legs.  £28 pr.      Self adhesive Decal set. £17.50.   Scale prop kit £7.
Plans alone £18.

Main balsa wood required to complete the kit.
16 - 3/32 x 4 sheet.       8 - 1/8 x 4 sheet.       4 - 1/16 x 4 sheet.       4 - 1/4 sq strip.             
3 - 1/4 x 1/2 strip.         2 - 1/8 sq .strip.         2 - 5/16 sq strip.          4 - 1/8 x 1/4 strip.
1/4 SCALE

Span 110 inches. Engine 60 to 100cc. Weight from 30 lbs.

Semi kit with epoxy fuselage/cowl, Plans, Canopy, Wing and tail joiners, Vac Blisters.
CNC cut wing ribs , formers, and tail surfaces. Dash. Scale exhaust. radiators. U/C doors. £466

Alternative with wood fuselage, epoxy cowl , Plans, Canopy, Wing and tail joiners, Blisters,
CNC cut wing ribs , formers, and tail surfaces. Dash. Scale exhaust. radiators. U/C doors. £285,
EXTRAS.
Alloy spinner (see below). Retracts, air up, spring down. £195. Sprung oleo legs. £55.00 pr.  
Wheels (see below)    Decal set £35, Canopy rails £6. rib tapes £6
Scale detail set . Rivets £4. Panel lines £3, Oxygen hose 50p.

Photograph shows epoxy fuselage and cowl, and also the ready cut formers for
building the wood fuselage.

36 inch Balsa needed for wood fuselage version
12 -1/4 x 1/4.     3 - 1/4 x 1/2.        6 - 3/16 x 3/8.       6 - 3/16 x 3/16.      12 - 3/8 x 3/4.
4 - 1/2 x 1/2.       6 - 3/8 x 3/8.       8 - 1/16 x 4.        40 - 1/8 x 4.             16 - 3/16 x 4.
4 - 1/4 x 4.          2 - 3/8 x 4.          1 - 1/2 x 4.
Many of this model have been built and flown worldwide. The most popular power
units used are Zenoah 62, Zenoah 62 with Torquemaster reduction unit, Various 60 cc to 100 cc
single engines, and several inline twin engines. Reports suggest that all these options give
good results, and modellers are delighted with the flying qualities of the model.

  

 

1/4 scale Spitfire exhaust kit. £8.
The moulded halves are cut out and glued together, then glued to the small mounting plate.
These are then fitted to the long plate with 4 screws provided.
The open pipes allow good airflow for cooling.
New for 1/4 Spit. Fully moulded canopy with inner windcreens and frames. £20		  

Sliding canopy rails. 12 inch long brass. £6 pair
Slot takes an M2 screw head which
slides smoothly along. Solder two screws each side to your canopy frame.
Cut round holes in the rail at about half way open so the frame can be sprung
apart and the canopy taken off.



1/4 Spit lightweight wheels. 200gm pair. £15 set.

Oxygen hose. 50p.
New
Vac form radiators and blisters set, 1/4 scale £8

1/4 scale doors kit.
Double skin with rivet detail and scale curved doors. £8.
Self adhesive silver detailing sheets.
4 sheets ( screws, hatches, dzuz, stitching).
plus 3 view to show positioning of details.
In 1/4, 1/5, 1/6 scales. £3 per sheet or £12 for all 4.


Silver self adhesive vinyl sheet. 12" x 24". £2.50.
Use for scale hatches etc. see my 1/4 Spitfire

Alloy spinners . 3 3/4" and 4" £18.50.
6", turned from solid. £39
4" heavy duty plastic spinner £6.
SPINNER TIP
For security, the spinner cone must fit into the backplate groove.
This can be difficult to see. Paint your spinner with the cone in the backplate.
If the cone is not seated tightly, it will show as picture.

3 or 4 BLADE SCALE SPITFIRE PROP KITS
See my model at the top of page.
1/6scale £10.     1/4 scale. £20		    

See full parts list in 'Parts' page		    

 


This 1/6 scale sergeant pilot is included in the kit
1/4 Spitfire Retracts

Oleo legs
INSTRUMENT PANEL KITS
For WW2 British fighters. As shown.
1/7 scale £5. 1/6 scale £5. 1/5 scale £5.   
1/4 scale £7. 1/3 scale £10.
Now included in our Spitfire and Hurricane kits.
Can be assembled in half an hour.		  

1/6 Retracts

       

1/4 Spit data from our customers. Whats yours? Contest limit is 15 kg.

Name weight kg Engine ballast gm     CG
Mick Reeves 12.5 kg Moki 360 twin batteries no cockpit scale cooling    
Jim Reeves 14.5 kg Zenoah 62 600 gm old fuselage   7"  
Paul P 14 kg moki 75 single none   no paint yet    
Abe 18.6 kg   2720 gm        
John Mota 20.22kg ZDZ 100R twin 1700 gm        
Mick Reeves
number 2		 14.5kg 3W 80 twin
24 x 12, 6000rpm		 Engine lightened.
 No ballast		 ProSkin
Wings		 Scale cooling 6" 75% expo on elev.
Ted 17.7 kg Zen 62+pipe 1 kg ProSkin      
Mathieu Reynjens 16kg Torquemaster   28 x 14 4200 rpm 7" scale cooling
Jim Reeves 16 kg Zen 62 1.2kgm, in front of prop.     6 1.2" scale cooling


     

June 09. Jim was lucky to land safely with aileron hinges out!

Easy way to add ballast. Steel discs or washers in front of prop, well forward! About 1.6 kg here.
Equivalent to 2.3 kg on the engine. Note scale exhaust outlet. 3 mm ply engine mount.		  

Latest mod to my model. sept 09

I have fitted the elevator servo near the front, with pushrod to the elevator.
Pushrod is 3 mm glass rod with tube guides on the formers.
This changes to 1/2" square balsa at the rear of the wing opening.
This is because I can't get access in the rear fuselage.
The balsa gives stiffness without much weight.
The elevators are driven by a brass tube 3/4 x 3/16 which engages in
slots in the elevators. A glass fibre horn is fitted to the centre of the brass tube.

The tail halves are held with an aluminium strip, 1/4 x 1/16 about 3 inches long.
This is glued under the balsa skin of the tail and the end is held in the fuselage
by a countersunk 3 mm screw from above.

April 2009. Micks new one, ready for first flight. Ted Cooke's. Zenoah 61 with pipe, "bags of power"		    
 

News. Thanks to Ted Cook, we now know that covering the 2008
wing with ProSkin is acually very easy. Seperates sheets are used for the
front and rear, with split along the main spar. 3 1/2 sheets of 0.3 mm are needed.

Latest way - in one sheet, with split along main spar near the tip.


Weight saving.
Bottom. Hardwood cannon with screw fitting - 27 gm each.
Top. White foam, tissue covered, push-in dowel. 12 gm each.
Saving, 30 gm.
NEWS. October 2007.

I built a 1/4 scale Spit for my 2008 contest model. I will need it to be below
the 15 kg [33lb] weight limit.
I am took the oportunity to redesign the kit, giving attention to weight reduction,
scale accuracy, easier building, easy operation, and transportability.
I add further scale items for the kit.
Exhausts. Moulded canopy . Sliding canopy rails. U/C doors.
New all balsa tails which unplug, mini servo in each side.
Lighter fuselage formers.
The scale engine cowling can be unbolted from the fuselage quite easily.
New lighter retracts whch are air up, spring down.
Wing breaks at the centre, with alloy tube and phenolic sleeves.
I fitted the Laser 360 V twin. Cooling from scale carb intake.
I replaced that with the more powerful Moki 360 inline two-stroke twin.
May 08. model wieghs 12 1/2 kg and needs no extra nose weight.!
Model was destroyed on the first flight. Ran out of down elevator in
low inverted pass.
2009. New model built with 3W 80cc inline twin. Proskin wings. 14.75 kg.
Badly damaged at takeoff when elevators glitched. Rebuilt.
On third flight engine failed, model landed in trees, destroyed one wing.
New wing built, flown in contest in June. I need some practice and lots of
small repairs on the model. I have entered the Euro champs in Norway.
My 2009 Spit with Moki 360 twin. Ducts to cylinders from scale intake, and carb from the side.
Items from the rear;- Rxs, air filler, two Rx switches, retract valve and servo, one litre tank,
throttle servo, rudder servo, elevator servo, glow switch and ammeter. Batteries will be at the front,
dependant on CG.
3W 80. Sand cast crankcase machined down to save 150 gms.
Carb feed from behind spinner. bottom left, Spectrum Rx, throttle servo.Top left,
retract valve, gauge, filler, speed control valve, ignition battery.
Rx battery will be 1800 lipo.No switches used, just plug in.

3W 80. Cooling duct at bottom rear.
24 x 12 plastic prop, 5900 rpm. 95 Db on silencer.

Canopy rail and rivets

I used our new rivets set to apply the 20,000 rivets to the wing panels, then sprayed
the final colour.
Good news. The weight increase on each panel was just 20 gm!!
The KlassKote is very good to use. I mixed 15 cc clour, 15cc catalyst, 30 cc thinner.
Sprayed at 30 psi. The colour covers very well. Only thin coat needed. Very uncritical
on spray technique. No runs or orange peel. Becomes dust free in few minutes, dry to
touch in 1/2 hour. Quite hard by the next day, but it can still be removed with thinner
if you made a mistake. Fully hard after 4 days

3W 80 now turns 24 x 12 electric prop at nearly 6000 rpm.

Sep 09. The engine cooling from the scale carb intake was not quite good enough.
It was very hot after a flight. I have cut inlet and outlet doors in the bottom cowl,
I also cut some 1 inch holes in the top wing skin so air could enter past the retracts.
 

Jim has put together a 'quicky' model for testing. Built with our old electric retracts
which were lighter than our air retracts, but with the old heavy polyester fuselage.
without cockpit detail it weighs 14.4 km (31 .7 lbs).
We intend to build a good versionfully detailed within the contest limit of 15 kg.
Engine is Zenoah 62.
Batteries, rx, tank etc all easily accessed. At the front for balance, needed about
600 gm extra lead. Epoxy fuselage should save weight at the back and need less ballast.		  

Jims Spit with Zenoah 62. Won flying contest July 2008. Short pipe added. 7600 on 22 x 12 prop.		  


Mathieu Reynjens. Torquemaster/Zenoah 62. 16 kg, scale cooling intake. "Very smooth".
28 x 18 prop. Sounds great, see Utube above.		 .

Dennis Hartly. 'great flying model'

John Mota From USA. 100cc inline ZDZ
Jason Thomas

Chris Broad. Laser 150.
'The finest aircraft you'll ever have the privilage of flying.'

Herbert Ludwig from Germany
Ronald Kunenborg, Holland.

Neil Schrader, New Zealand chanp97/98
Nigel Wagstaff		  

Reinhold Wichert from Germany
Doug Fraser from Canada		  

Pete Fullards Third place winner at 2004Nats
Dave Knott, Nats clubman winner 2001,
Model is 17 years old.
He bought a new one this year.
behind, Pete Fullard, 4th place.
Nic. Bruischi, San Merino.
Model had its maiden flight in
the world champs!

Bertie Barton from Spain.
'Flies like a dream'.
Part of a letter from Air Vice Marshall
Johnie Johnson to builder Doug Fraser in
Canada '...The aeroplane looks a very fine
model and I am pleased that 'my' aeroplane
is now flying around the skies of Alberta...'
Jack Sheeks, USA
Flown in control-line scale at
world champs. "It flies so well"


MARK NUMBERS OF MERLIN ENGINED SPITFIRES
The fo1lowing Mks of Spitfire are all basically similar externally, except for following.
There are two main groups:
1. Long nose (As supplied in kit). Mks.VII, VIII , IX, X, XI, XVI.
With four blade prop & two radiators.
2. Short nose. (2 1/3" shorter than kit model). Mks. I, II, V, VI, XIII.
One radiator, one oil cooler, 3 blade prop. (2 blade on early Mk I.)
The enlarged rudder shown on plan was fitted to some Mk VII, VIII, IX, XI,
most MK XVI and all Mk X.

ARMAMENT . The suffix letter after the mark no. indicates the type of wing fitted.
A Eight 0.303" machine guns.
B. Two 2Omm cannon, plus four 0.303" machine guns.
C. Two or four cannon, plus four 303 machine guns.
E. Two cannon, plus two 0.5" machine guns.
The standard tips could be varied by being clipped or extended, and these could apply
to any Mk. Retract tailwheel. On Mk. VII, VIII, X, and some Mk XI.
CANOPY SHAPES
Flat. Mk. I.
Curved top. Mk. I, II, V.
Blown. (As in kit) Mk. V, VIII, IX, XVI.
Teardrop. Mk. IX, XVI.
External bulletproof wind screen was used on Mk. I, II, V. and was changed to
internal from Mk V on. (Mk V with external screen was a conversion from Mk I.)
Other points to watch. When modelling a particular aircraft, check such points as
exhausts, wheels, small blisters and openings, wing type, as well as the camouflage
and markings which usually varied from the official type.

Customers comments
'I have built 12 Spitfire models, your 1/4 Spit was the best.'
'I have just crashed your 1/6 Spit after 10 years of flying.
It was the best flying model I ever had. Send a new one.'
'I have flown one for 13 years and over 800 flights and have
proved to myself and all who saw it that nothing flies like
a Spitfire."   

 

 

MOSQUITO

1/6.5 Mosquito. 100 inch span (2.54 M). Weight 24 lbs (11 kG)

 

Suits two 90 to 150 engines. (15 cc to 25cc)
Balsa wing outer panels and tail. The rest in epoxy mouldings.
Rear fuselage detaches at the scale joint. Outer wings unplug.

Part kit price £585, plus postage

Kit contains.
5 Clear EPOXY mouldings
6 canopy mouldings
16 Vac formed parts.       
Laser cut plywood spars and formers.
Laser cut balsa wing and tail ribs.
3 page plans, notes and pictures,
Wing mounting tubes,

Extra balsa etc will be required.
The kit contains no hardware, hinges, etc , so you can devise these yourself.

Extras.
Wheels £26.50 pair.
Spinners £60 pair.
Retracts £175.
Air cylinders £60 pair.
Spitfire dash to 1/6.5 scale, useful to modify for Mossie. £5


Bob Parry collecting his spinners. Should be flying soon. Saito 125a engines.
6" Wheels. 330 gm. £26.50 pair
5" Spinners. £30 each
Markings for a Mothsquito! [My grandson's Joke]

Retracts.   700 gm. £175. pair
Air control valve £35


Robart air cylinder 38 gm £30 each

  

2 types canopy, 4 types blisters.
Laser cut py formers set.

Five epoxy mouldings. 1. Main fuselage with wing roots and cowl tops.
2. Left engine nacelle. 3. Right engine nacelle. 4. Rear fuselage. 5. Tailpiece.
Lazer cut Balsa wing and tail parts.
   
     
 
Full panel detail