Papa Fox
January 16th 07, 05:18 AM
Absolutely amazing
On Tue, 16 Jan 2007 00:28:37 GMT, "Alan" >
wrote:
>I just rec'd this via e-mail and felt it appropriate to post on this forum.
>
>Alan
>
> Below 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
>
>
>
>
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>----
>
>
>
>
>
On Tue, 16 Jan 2007 00:28:37 GMT, "Alan" >
wrote:
>I just rec'd this via e-mail and felt it appropriate to post on this forum.
>
>Alan
>
> Below 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
>
>
>
>
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>----
>
>
>
>
>