I have the honor of knowing a retired RAF officer( front row center) who flew spitfires, wellingtons, mosquitoes and numerous V series jets postwar such as the Vampire , Vulcan , and Valiant. Well, he was admiring my spitfire VB hanging in my office so I agreed to make him one. Then I discovered Dynamicscalemodeling.com. These guys have awesome custom built electronics and animation systems. I am now building the Hasegawa Mark VB spitfire, but it will have a spinning prop, timed engine exhaust flicker, a custom sound system, illuminated navigation lights, and the best part… It will flash his initials in Morse through the IFF!! I cannot wait to begin starting on this one. I highly recommend everyone visit the site! I will post progress pics as I go along…
Have fun with the project… you won’t regret starting it. I have the DSM motor in the P-51 for months now and still "play"with it. Clyde is a great guy and very helpful if oyu need it.
Yea, they are excellent and you should have little problem with it so long as you take your time. I have the set for the corsair, and am chomping at the bit to get on it. But have three other projects on the go I need to finish first.
And I don’t blame ya Mark, I’ll be keeping lots of spares batteries around to keep it flying also[(-D]
I look at Dynamic’s site all of the time, checking out the little videos. I spoke with Clyde via email a few times, and plan to purchase a setup from him for my next '109. I’ll be watching your progress closely, keep us posted on how it’s going please!
I was just reviewing the Dynamicscenemodeling web site for the past hour and it’s amazing! The B-17 engine start up and the F-14 in AB was cool as was the video of the King Tiger. Guess I will have to had a few of those sets to my have projects list.
yea, some amazing stuff…but they should make a way for you to control it…lol
cause I know I would want to be able to start it up and let it run for a few minutes…then let it shut down. Maybe be able to make push bottons on the base. One for start up, throttle up, throttle down, and shut off…THAT would be cool…and maybe worth the $40+ for the electronics…lol
Well, so far I have not done any of the subassembly painting, but I have gone ahead and drilled out the navigation light for the tail, the wingtips, the IFF ( dorsal and ventral) , and the rear face of the recessed exhaust bank. I test fitted the electronics and so far so good. The small motor in the bottom left corner is the one which will eventually turn the prop.I taped the fuselage halves together to get an idea how this will work. Eventually I will have to make my own exhausts as no one makes a 1:32 exhaust for the spitfire ( at least moskit doesn’t). I may take some thin brass sheet and my etchmate and make my own. I left the top wing halves off as the cannon are fragile and don’t want to pop them off. The sound board will eventually be mounted under a display base and its magnetic switch tripped by an oil drum or some other such prop. The electronics break down into subassemblies to make installation easier. The motor controller and exhaust come as seperable units, as does the wingtip navigation and IFF lights. More to follow as I find time…
Dynamic offers several options. You can pick and choose which options you’d like and they will give you a quote. Mine, for example, has flickering exhaust, navigation lights, sound and prop and IFF flashing three morse code letters. The whole thing with shipping came out to around 100 bucks. Clyde is the guy who puts the packages together and he is very professional and extremely helpful. When you visit the site, click on the order/inquiry link and its easy from there.
Claudez, that’s going to be one sweet build when you finish. Your friend will be tickled when he gets that bad boy. I’m glad you’re keeping us posted! I have a feelng we may see more of these add ons in the near future!
Looking at this, I may just have to tackle something bigger than 1/72 scale, and storage space limitations be damned! That is just too … well, cool! And an excellent way to make a model something more than just a static piece of plastic. I too will be awaiting more progress pics.
some of these kits are scaled for 1/72. or 1/48 I’d say find the scale of your choice and go for it. I prefer 1:32 cause I think its easier to detail as I am getting older. Still, Clyde over at Dynamicscalemodeling was able to spec out all the stuff I needed for a bird this size.
Well, so far, so good. I went to test mount the spinner and it wobbled horribly, so I reinforced it at the axis by sleeving the shaft with 5/32 ID aluminum tubing.This slid perfectly over the supplied shaft from DSM. This “should” eliminate most of the wobble. The real challenge is going to be mounting the individual blades into the spinner and having them set at the correct angle and pitch so that it doesn’t vibrate to pieces on startup. The motor has already been superglued inside one of the fuselage halves. The background pieces are all of the cockpit details prior to airbrushing , detailing and weathering. With any luck I will be able to fabricate suitable exhausts, as I opted for flickering exhaust leds and no one ( not even moskit) makes an aftermarket set in metal for a 1/32 scale Spit. More pics to follow…
Clyde put together a system for my 1:32 scale scratch-built Grumman AA1A “Alley Cat” including flashing tail beacon, strobing landing light and lighted instrument panel…and the sound is perfect for my 1:1 scale “Alley Cat” Lycoming power.
The build thread is on ARC search for Props/Scratch-building the “Alley Cat”
I’ll bring it to the Seattle show on the 21st April.
Well, after a nearly nine month hiatus I have resumed work on the motorized spitfire… I was joking with my retired RAF friend the other day and commented that if the Air Ministry produced Spitfires at the same rate I did, we’d all be speaking German… the pic is a pre final assembly shot of the plane… When finished, the prop will spin,The sound board will crank up the recorded Merlin engine startup… Nav lights illuminate,the exhaust will flicker and the IFF will flash my friend’s initials in Morse … More pics to follow… comments & criticisms especially welcomed!!
