Well hopefully this will make it easier to view what we have been up to week to week.Plus it will give everyone on our team to interact with questions etc on the scratchbuilding of our Spitfire.
Yes this is no restoration,well a large part of our parts haul are original but the main aircraft structure is all new material,designed off the original plans as closely as we can to factory for a MkVc Trop.
Ok time to let you on what we have been up to scince our last update.Our webbie has been on holiday,a working holiday as part of the team recovering fallen Australian soldiers from WW1 Belgium battlefields.See his webpage in the links section.
Our crew have been pretty slack with real life commitments taking priority (no passion to the cause) but small gains have been made.The rollers have been working overtime churning out the remaining channels for Frames 8 and 10 and a great degree of skill is needed to make sure they fit tight to the frames.We are using 2024-0 for ease of shaping as the forces involved work harden T3 very quicly so cracks etc form ruining the part.
Lower front longerons are being drilled off so the frames at the front can be situated.
With so many jobs started we decided it was time to start finishing them off so we are going through the parts manual to see where we are going.A flow chart can then be made to see
Design wise the fuselage is pretty much complete with just the coaming and canopy rails causing us some dramas.Also all the intercostal brackets have been designed up and what a mongrel of a job that was.Also the top fuel tank is being reversed engineered off a welded MkVIII and a Riveted MkXIV tank to hopefuly give us a correct MkV tropical one.
The waterjet company (Thanks Ross and Murray) have the updated final set of Cad drawings off us and awaiting a free stretch in their work commitments.The set we have on the jig are a test set done in commercial grade to check the lines and longeron cutouts for position.The set we are getting is in 2024-0 and will have all lightening,intercostal bracket,buttstrap and longeron bracket rivet holes centred.Also some heavier shapes for castings are being cut to ease the machining process.Our formers are back from the Lazer cutters (thanks Mick from Dalby sheetmetalworks) and just need to radius the forming edges to give a nice neat hammerformed fold.
Lathewise our mad machinest has been finishing off the odd jobs we seem to find to make him crazier.As a drafty as well he does pretty good work and has a good attention to achieve the highest finish.When he needs a break he gets on the miller abd plays around and the current job is the dimmer screen for the Gunsite that bolts off the back of the Gunsite mount.
Anyway more stuff to get on with so welcome to the updates page,blog,questionair nightmare that is this project..
Cheers...
Ross
