Warbirds Supermarine Spitfire IX Manual Download Page 6

Page: 6 / 11

It is important that the vertical edge is at right angles to the aircraft centre line
so use a square to mark the line you want to cut.

Using strips of 10mm wide scrap plastic sheet glue a flange behind the edge of
the lower cowl part1. The nose reinforcement ring can also be glued to the
lower cowl. You need to trim the two cowl parts to make sure that the upper
and lower cowl parts form a uniform ring around the reinforcing circle.

Join the top cowl to the bottom.You can also trim and fit the exhaust stacks in
the correct position as shown on the plan. Once the cowl is trimmed to fit, you
can butt the balsa side cheeks up against them and glue them in place. The
wing seat area removed as shown to match the fuselage sides. The rear most
end of the cheeks need to be sanded to blend into the fuselage.

Turn the fuselage upside down and fit the wing bolt plate then add the little
triangular supports on top to stop it from pulling out. Add the triangular balsa
fillets to the lowest edge of the fuselage sides. These will eventually form
round corners when you sand down the outside edges. Join the two soft balsa
pieces that form the rear fuselage base but don’t glue them on till you have
installed the nylon pushrods. Trial fit the wing and do the bolts up finger tight.

HINTS & TIPS

1 The best glue for this plastic is solvent

weld available for hardware shops. Plastic

modellers glue also works well.

Slacken off the bolts until you can just slide the plywood wing fairing base
between the fuselage and wing. The ply base must be positioned to align with
the inside edge of the fuselage side doubler. Run some glue between the
fuselage and the top of the plywood. Cut little slots from the bottom up
through the 1/2” triangular stock as shown on the plan to help it bend round
the curve. Then glue in position. Add the two triangular concave formers at
the rear of the fairing

Add the balsa top skin. A good tip here is to dampen the middle (not where
the glue goes) of the balsa sheet on the inside. This will make the balsa bend
naturally1. I also cut a little step in the 1/2” triangular to allow the sheet to sit
on it but still be flush (you can just see this on the previous picture). The top
skin will overlap but can be trimmed off the next day when dry.

Add the rear upper wing skin and finally add the rear wing fillet plywood base
underneath. If you have a few gaps, don’t worry, simply add a few scraps of
balsa to fill in where required. Remember the wood will be covered. When the
entire wing fairing is complete and dry remove the fuselage and sand the
fairings horizontally from below until they barely overlap the ply base plates .

HINTS & TIPS

1 Use the plastic film from the kit to stop the

glue getting on the wing

Fuselage - Supermarine Spitfire IX