Amazing Spitfire MK 1 Model. (A Must See!!)
Sun Feb 11, 2007 8:51 pm
Just got this email as a forward, Along with it is a write up by the maker. Enjoy!
"Below (or attwached) are pictures of a scratch built 1/5th scale
Supermarine Spitfire MK 1 by an English model builder. It's
hard to imagine such infinite detail can be accomplished
even with super human devotion and dexterity. The pictures
and accompanying text are by the model maker, David Glen.
--------------------------------------------------------------
If anyone asked me why I set out to build a Spitfire in
one-fifth scale, and detailed to the last rivet and
fastener, I would probably be hard-pushed for a practical or
even sensible answer. Perhaps the closest I can get is that
since a small child I have been awe inspired by R. J.
Mitchell's elliptical winged masterpiece, and that to build
a small replica is the closest I will ever aspire to
possession.
The job took me well over eleven years, during which there
were times I very nearly came to giving the project up for
lost. The sheer amount of work involved, countless hours,
proved almost too much, were it not for a serendipitous
encounter at my flying club in Cambridge with Dr Michael
Fopp, Director General of the Royal Air Force Museum in
England.
Seeing the near complete fuselage, he urged me to go on and
finish the model, promising that he would put it on display.
I was flabbergasted, for when I started I had no inkling
that my work would end up in a position of honour in one of
the world's premier aviation museums.
As I write, the case for the model is being prepared, having
been specially commissioned by the museum with a case-maker
in Sweden. I have not yet seen it, but from what I hear, it
is enormous!
In one respect the story has gone full circle, since it was
at Hendon where I started my research in earnest, sourcing
Microfilm copies of many original Supermarine drawings,
without which such a detailed build would not have been
possible.
The model is skinned with litho plate over a balsa core and
has been left in bare metal at the suggestion of Michael
Fopp, so that the structure is seen to best advantage. The
rivets are real and many are pushed into drilled holes in
the skin and underlying balsa, but many more are actual
mechanical fixings. I have no accurate count, but I suspect
that there are at least 19,000!
All interior detail is built from a combination of
Supermarine drawings and workshop manuals, plus countless
photographs of my own, many of them taken opportunistically
when I was a volunteer at the Duxford Aviation Society based
at Duxford Airfield, home of the incomparable Imperial War
Museum collection in Cambridgeshire, England. Spitfires, in
various marks are, dare I say, a common feature there!
The degree of detail is probably obsessive: The needles of
the dials in the cockpit actually stand proud of the
instrument faces, but you have to look hard to see it!
Why the flat canopy? Well, the early Mk.Is had them, and I
had no means to blow a bubble hood, so it was convenient.
Similarly the covers over the wheels were another early
feature and they saved me a challenging task of replicating
the wheel castings.
The model has its mistakes, but I'll leave the experts to
spot them, as they most certainly will, plus others I don't
even know about. I don't pretend the little Spitfire is
perfect, but I do hope it has captured something of the
spirit and incomparable beauty of this magnificent fighter -
perhaps the closest to a union that art and technology have
ever come - a killing machine with lines that are almost
sublime.
So, with the model now in its magnificent new home, what
comes next?
Well, I'm planning a book that will have a lot to say about
its genesis and perhaps just a little about me and those
dear to me, including a long suffering but understanding and
supportive wife. And then there's the Mustang. Yes, a 1/5th
scale P-51D is already taking shape in my workshop. How long
will it take? I've no idea, but what I am sure of is that at
my age ( 58 ) I can't expect to be building many of them!
David Glen
Whaddon, Cambridge
Dec. 06, 2006"
"Below (or attwached) are pictures of a scratch built 1/5th scale
Supermarine Spitfire MK 1 by an English model builder. It's
hard to imagine such infinite detail can be accomplished
even with super human devotion and dexterity. The pictures
and accompanying text are by the model maker, David Glen.
--------------------------------------------------------------
If anyone asked me why I set out to build a Spitfire in
one-fifth scale, and detailed to the last rivet and
fastener, I would probably be hard-pushed for a practical or
even sensible answer. Perhaps the closest I can get is that
since a small child I have been awe inspired by R. J.
Mitchell's elliptical winged masterpiece, and that to build
a small replica is the closest I will ever aspire to
possession.
The job took me well over eleven years, during which there
were times I very nearly came to giving the project up for
lost. The sheer amount of work involved, countless hours,
proved almost too much, were it not for a serendipitous
encounter at my flying club in Cambridge with Dr Michael
Fopp, Director General of the Royal Air Force Museum in
England.
Seeing the near complete fuselage, he urged me to go on and
finish the model, promising that he would put it on display.
I was flabbergasted, for when I started I had no inkling
that my work would end up in a position of honour in one of
the world's premier aviation museums.
As I write, the case for the model is being prepared, having
been specially commissioned by the museum with a case-maker
in Sweden. I have not yet seen it, but from what I hear, it
is enormous!
In one respect the story has gone full circle, since it was
at Hendon where I started my research in earnest, sourcing
Microfilm copies of many original Supermarine drawings,
without which such a detailed build would not have been
possible.
The model is skinned with litho plate over a balsa core and
has been left in bare metal at the suggestion of Michael
Fopp, so that the structure is seen to best advantage. The
rivets are real and many are pushed into drilled holes in
the skin and underlying balsa, but many more are actual
mechanical fixings. I have no accurate count, but I suspect
that there are at least 19,000!
All interior detail is built from a combination of
Supermarine drawings and workshop manuals, plus countless
photographs of my own, many of them taken opportunistically
when I was a volunteer at the Duxford Aviation Society based
at Duxford Airfield, home of the incomparable Imperial War
Museum collection in Cambridgeshire, England. Spitfires, in
various marks are, dare I say, a common feature there!
The degree of detail is probably obsessive: The needles of
the dials in the cockpit actually stand proud of the
instrument faces, but you have to look hard to see it!
Why the flat canopy? Well, the early Mk.Is had them, and I
had no means to blow a bubble hood, so it was convenient.
Similarly the covers over the wheels were another early
feature and they saved me a challenging task of replicating
the wheel castings.
The model has its mistakes, but I'll leave the experts to
spot them, as they most certainly will, plus others I don't
even know about. I don't pretend the little Spitfire is
perfect, but I do hope it has captured something of the
spirit and incomparable beauty of this magnificent fighter -
perhaps the closest to a union that art and technology have
ever come - a killing machine with lines that are almost
sublime.
So, with the model now in its magnificent new home, what
comes next?
Well, I'm planning a book that will have a lot to say about
its genesis and perhaps just a little about me and those
dear to me, including a long suffering but understanding and
supportive wife. And then there's the Mustang. Yes, a 1/5th
scale P-51D is already taking shape in my workshop. How long
will it take? I've no idea, but what I am sure of is that at
my age ( 58 ) I can't expect to be building many of them!
David Glen
Whaddon, Cambridge
Dec. 06, 2006"
Last edited by Glenn Maude on Sun Feb 11, 2007 9:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Sun Feb 11, 2007 9:15 pm
the post title says submarine spitfire..... rats i'm bummed!!! i wanted to see a spit at periscope depth 
..... smart ass mode off. sorry, couldn't resist 
..... smart ass mode off. sorry, couldn't resist
Mon Feb 12, 2007 4:05 am
I think somebody posted a link to this a few weeks ago, but it doesn't hurt to see a work of art again. I don't know if anybody added this link in the other thread though. How 'bout a 1/5 scale running Merlin for the Spit? Check this one out along with the video of it in operation:
http://www.enginehistory.org/merlin_xx.htm
If you have ever spent time on a lathe or mill it will make your jaw drop. It says that it was "completed in the early 1980's" and I'm assuming it was done without the help of CNC equipment. WOW! I wish I had that much spare time (and talent) Also check out the rest of the goodies on their site, there is some pretty impressive workmanship:
http://www.enginehistory.org/model_engines.htm
Cheers, Tom
http://www.enginehistory.org/merlin_xx.htm
If you have ever spent time on a lathe or mill it will make your jaw drop. It says that it was "completed in the early 1980's" and I'm assuming it was done without the help of CNC equipment. WOW! I wish I had that much spare time (and talent) Also check out the rest of the goodies on their site, there is some pretty impressive workmanship:
http://www.enginehistory.org/model_engines.htm
Cheers, Tom
Spit
Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:16 pm
Maybe he is pulling our leg and the interior photos arer of a real Spitfire, that is how authentic it looks. There are some items like the tapered wheel for elevator trim and the knob on the undercarriage that are just as I know them. I have stared at it to find any variances and there aren't many if at all. I have not seen wheel covers like that, but they may have had them. My Pilot Notes are of a MK II, the exhaust are not as flared on the ends, also the pitot is split in 2 small tubes. If the control column is forward as in the cockpit photos, then the elevator should be down, not slightly up and it looks like the right side is not quite lined up with the left elevator. My elevator tail surface ends a bit more rounded. There are a couple of cockpit items such as landing light that aren't shown, don't know if they are fitted on the I. What a beauty!
Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:33 pm
That model exhibits fantastic fabric covering work as well, model or not!