Official FlightLine RC 1600mm Spitfire Mk. IX Thread

[davegee]

Guys, when all else fails go old school. A block of balsa a little craving, viola, a beautiful headrest.

Totally agree, Rex! I've been a "old school" scratchbuilder since I was 9 years old when I built a 1/6 scale Mercury spacecraft out of two lamp shades from the five and dime and a GI Joe. Ooof! That was a LONG time ago!

Cheers

Davegee

[jetfool]

Guys, when all else fails go old school. A block of balsa a little craving, viola, a beautiful headrest.

[davegee]

I perused the thread and found one of the fellows had cut the floor away and found the control arms were blocking the way, similar to the Corsair. He said he gained about 20mm. My idea was to have approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of the upper leg printed on the pilot and then cut the foam to sink him in. The effect when you look in the cockpit would be what we're aiming for I'm thinking.

Played around with the parts that Dave printed and figured things out. This is no surprise to all of you that have already installed these parts.
Here is the order in which they go, from the seat to the rear of the cockpit. The middle frame has five pins, this is where the triangular piece attaches, the pins line up with the holes quite nicely.
Then of course the seat attaches to this as well. The slot in the triangular piece needs to be modified to fit the seat belt straps through if you want to add that detail. Dave didn't include a headrest but I'm sure its on its way. Hopefully it was in the file!

The two side panels are kind of strange, the air tanks are on the port side and the lines are on the top of the thanks. So what are the tabs for?? All they do is stick out in an unscale-like fashion
You can see those tabs on the left (top) of the pieces in this pic. My piece snapped off just behind the O2 tanks, which is fine, easier to fit in and there was nothing detail-wise there anyway, I cut about 1/8" off the other one as well.

Just happened to fine a Battle of Britain Vallejo paint set on Amazon which is on its way, it has a color match to the proper cockpit color.

Just have to see what Dave comes up with regarding the pilot, I purchased the bust and the full pilot which turns out was a good move because the bust is one piece and Dave says that the bust pilot is a little large in the body but good head wise. You can't reduce the size of the body without reducing the size of the head. With the full pilot I believe it gives you the option of printing just the body (which I gather is the same as the bust, minus the head) which you can scale up or down and of course the same with the head.

Great Winter projects!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

Great info, Dan. Thanks. Regarding the headrest, I have not seen it in any of the files I have looked at so far. Maybe I missed it, and if so I'll print a couple of them up. If not, we can easily scratchbuild one out of wood or plastic.

I printed those 7 cockpit files through the night and am now printing up a larger bodied pilot and I'm hoping that we can make it fit, even if we have to amputate the lower legs. That is a pity as the detail on the lower legs and boots is excellent. But we do make sacrifices for King and Country, don't we?? Ha!

The new pilot body print will take most of the day, over 9 hours, start to end. So, I should know more this evening if this one is within the range of size that works for this model, or if I need to adjust it and print overnight again tonight.

There are three choices of heads to put on the RAF pilot. One shows all the face, helmet on, but no oxygen mask or goggles in the way. The second one has the pilot with the oxygen mask in place, but goggles up on his head. The third has goggles down, oxygen mask on, so you don't see much of his face. Let me know which one appeals when we go to printing the final copy. They do have a separate file of an oxyden mask and tube that can be put off to the side of the helmet of the head that doesn't have any obstructions to his face. Just a thought.

Dave

[Grossman56]

You got that right, that Spitty is trembling at the thought of what I might do to it!

[Grossman56]

So here he is shoehorned in- removing the cockpit floor down to the pushrod tubes gains about 20mm, otherwise the figure would have to be cut at the waist. I wanted to retain the legs and all the cotton stuffing has been removed from his butt to get him as low as possible- this was necessary to fit him into the P-47 as well.
Tom

Pogo in post 75

[jetfool]

Sounds like a plan, Dan. Winter is a great time to experiment with ideas. Seems once we start doing this to our planes it never stops.

Best Regards, Rex

[Grossman56]

I perused the thread and found one of the fellows had cut the floor away and found the control arms were blocking the way, similar to the Corsair. He said he gained about 20mm. My idea was to have approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of the upper leg printed on the pilot and then cut the foam to sink him in. The effect when you look in the cockpit would be what we're aiming for I'm thinking.

Played around with the parts that Dave printed and figured things out. This is no surprise to all of you that have already installed these parts.
Here is the order in which they go, from the seat to the rear of the cockpit. The middle frame has five pins, this is where the triangular piece attaches, the pins line up with the holes quite nicely.
Then of course the seat attaches to this as well. The slot in the triangular piece needs to be modified to fit the seat belt straps through if you want to add that detail. Dave didn't include a headrest but I'm sure its on its way. Hopefully it was in the file!

The two side panels are kind of strange, the air tanks are on the port side and the lines are on the top of the thanks. So what are the tabs for?? All they do is stick out in an unscale-like fashion
You can see those tabs on the left (top) of the pieces in this pic. My piece snapped off just behind the O2 tanks, which is fine, easier to fit in and there was nothing detail-wise there anyway, I cut about 1/8" off the other one as well.

Just happened to fine a Battle of Britain Vallejo paint set on Amazon which is on its way, it has a color match to the proper cockpit color.

Just have to see what Dave comes up with regarding the pilot, I purchased the bust and the full pilot which turns out was a good move because the bust is one piece and Dave says that the bust pilot is a little large in the body but good head wise. You can't reduce the size of the body without reducing the size of the head. With the full pilot I believe it gives you the option of printing just the body (which I gather is the same as the bust, minus the head) which you can scale up or down and of course the same with the head.

Great Winter projects!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[jetfool]

Dan,
If there is room below you could be the first to do this. Make a styrene sheet tub for the complete body pilot to be in. Then you could add any detail you choose.

Rex

[Grossman56]

Here's the pics of the 3D printed cockpit pieces Dave just printed up for me. As with the Corsair, the side pieces are slightly (1/8th") too long, so I trimmed them a bit but other than that, they fit very well.

Has anyone cut out the floor for a full body pilot?

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

Much appreciated Asuka from me as well.
In case there are others who want a more accurate cockpit, check this site out.

Supermarine Spitfire Mark IX Cockpit Interactve Panorama

An amazing piece of work, here are some still I made of it to give you an idea:


Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

Outstanding! Very helpful.

Davegee

[Grossman56]

Much appreciated Asuka from me as well.
In case there are others who want a more accurate cockpit, check this site out.

Supermarine Spitfire Mark IX Cockpit Interactve Panorama

An amazing piece of work, here are some still I made of it to give you an idea:


Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

Is it those files you're looking for ?

Thank you, Asuka, very kind of you to republish those files.

Looking forward to seeing the guys print and use these in both rebuilds and new projects.

Best, LB

[Grossman56]

Yep, I'm really enjoying painting the pilot. I used to paint portraits so had a good jump on paint mixing, it's a little different painting on a 2d surface, trying to make it 3d than painting on a 3d surface in the first place.
In stead of starting with a black overlay, I went straight to a red skin tone and sprayed from the top of the head down towards to shoes, gave me the highlights and took it from there. Taking pics really helped as it blew up all the mistakes and inconsistencies.



He turned out pretty well!
I invested in some magnifying glasses that really helped to get into the eyes and facial details

Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/YOCTOSUN-Rechargeable-Eyeglasses-Detachable-Magnifying/dp/B07ZCH3SL4?pd_rd_w=tVNlz&content-id=amzn1.sym.55f2405b-2aa3-4fa1-95e2-48a0da8f4e9a&pf_rd_p=55f2405b-2aa3-4fa1-95e2-48a0da8f4e9a&pf_rd_r=HPEV4S1KVG59CR407MHM&pd_rd_wg=evNhb&pd_rd_r=cd8253fc-7cab-4f3d-a7ed-63c26e73b13f&ref_=pd_bap_d_grid_rp_0_1_oos_ec_t&th=1

Good luck and have fun!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[jetfool]

Dan,
My Ken Walsh arrived in the mail today. Thanks to your buddy. Now I will try to tackle painting his face to look real. Ain't this hobby Great! Rex

[Grossman56]

Hey Dave:
Just forwarded them to your e mail address. Don't know how the address got mixed up, but I will fix it.
Meanwhile let me know if you got them.

Dan

[Asuka]

Is it those files you're looking for ?

[Elbee]

davegee,

Since Dan "bought" those pilot figure STL files, he has download rights via CGTrader.

Those STL files have either lifetime downloads or a numbered amount of times he can download his purchased files.

It seems to me Danger will need to download those Max Grueter pilot files again from CGTrader and resend those via a working email address.

As far as the FlightLine Spittie STLs are concerned, those were given to the MotionRC community via their website and as such are public domain.

Hope that clarifies.

Best, LB

[davegee]

Danger,

I'd definitely do a Max Greuter pilot now versus the AoI, though it was fun converting a USAAF to RAF.

At the time I had not found CGTrader or Greuter's work.
As I remember the FlightLine OEM Cockpit parts fit great and being Resin Prints, the detail was quite nice.

Not certain how accurate those parts are compared to what I'd done on the Corsair, but you can see those do look nice.

The Harness Hardware and Rear Bulkhead were the first designs I had attempted.

I had just bought and assembled my Prusa i3 Mk3 printer kit.

I remember being quite frustrated trying to get a design in TInkerCAD that looked right and printed well.

I must have printed those few parts 2 dozen times to get it right.

I have to laugh now, but then it was quite the thing.

I figured my finished parts had cost me about $110.00 USD a piece and 20 hours of my life figuring the cost of the printer, filament and time.

Anyway, when you get to that part of your rebuild, let me know and work something out.

Best, LB

Hi Elbee: Danger Dan sent me your detail cockpit parts for the Spitfire Mk.IX. I should be able to print them up for him and I'll print up a set for me, too.

He did send me files for the RAF pilot a week or more ago, but he sent them to an email address that I never use and I can't move them somewhere on my computer to access them. Do you have any idea how I can get these RAF pilot parts so I can print up these pilots for him? You might not be in the loop on the pilot parts, I don't know. I think he might have paid Grueter for the RAF pilot as well as the Corsair pilot. But I think I need him to send those files to my normal email address where I think I can access them and print them up. But he hasn't done that yet.

Your Spittie cockpit parts at first glance look outdstanding. I'm hoping Danger and I can refurbish our cockpits with some excellent replacement parts! My Spittie is almost 8 years old now, still hanging in there.

Cheers

Davegee

[Elbee]

Thanks Elbee!
I guess they must have had too many people complaining about the fit or whatever, but they've disappeared. I'm thinking that the Max Greuter made might be a good substitute for the AOI pilot.
With the second Spitfire I picked up from a buddy last year still having the stock pilot, I thought if I'm going to remove the canopy anyway, may as well try dong the 3D print thing as well.
Did that set include the rear bracket that attaches to the pilots straps, that's a real cool little piece!Grossman56(Dangerous Dan)

Danger,

I'd definitely do a Max Greuter pilot now versus the AoI, though it was fun converting a USAAF to RAF.

At the time I had not found CGTrader or Greuter's work.
As I remember the FlightLine OEM Cockpit parts fit great and being Resin Prints, the detail was quite nice.

Not certain how accurate those parts are compared to what I'd done on the Corsair, but you can see those do look nice.

The Harness Hardware and Rear Bulkhead were the first designs I had attempted.

I had just bought and assembled my Prusa i3 Mk3 printer kit.

I remember being quite frustrated trying to get a design in TInkerCAD that looked right and printed well.

I must have printed those few parts 2 dozen times to get it right.

I have to laugh now, but then it was quite the thing.

I figured my finished parts had cost me about $110.00 USD a piece and 20 hours of my life figuring the cost of the printer, filament and time.

Anyway, when you get to that part of your rebuild, let me know and work something out.

Best, LB

[Elbee]

Grossman56 davegee,

It seems I do not have the OEM STLs for the 1600mm FlightLine Spitfire.

I am uncertain whether those were offered like some of there other models.

I checked the Motion RC website and the Spitfire Cockpit Kit is OoS, it is also $29.95USD.

The website still has a 'notify me when back in stock' button, so I clicked it and we'll see.

I will continue to do some digging into whether the OEM STLs were/are available.

Best, LB