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Snags Moans and Groans
I chose the Mick Reeves semi kit after careful consideration of what was available in terms of a GOOD scale Spitfire. I narrowed it down to 2 options the Mick Reeves 1/6 scale and an alternative Bryan Taylor kit which is a 1/5.33 scale at a slightly larger 83" wingspan (compared to 74" for the Mick Reeves). Not exactly sure what made me go for the Reeves Kit in hindsight, but that's the route I took.
This page is all about the things that I considered to be wrong with the kit as delivered. Some are strictly personal opinions and must be accepted as such.
Each issue has a "Moan Factor" which is rated out of 10.
Zero = minor and 10 = Totally and utterly unacceptable.
You get the idea.
1. Rudder and Stabiliser |
Moan Factor 9/10 |
| It has to be said that the supplied parts for the Rudder, and tail assembly is extremely poor. The balsa is the softest wood you ever imagined possible and supplied with little in the way of supportive instructions to assist in construction. I have to admit the assembly of the skeleton is covered, but shaping, sheeting, leading edge etc is all down to your own interpretation. I had extreme difficulty maintaining a regular shape for the stabiliser and had to give in. I built the Rudder and Stabiliser similar to the Bryan Taylor kit from scratch to get the correct finish.
The Glass fibre fuselage and the plans show a stabiliser with a slight kink in the joint between the fin and the rudder which was not built into the pre-shaped parts. Looking at information on the Spitfires I could not see anything that suggested this irregular shape was correct. Even though I started from the beginning with the Rudder I have maintained a straight line and will grind the line of the fin flat when I get to it. It has to be said that the plans provided merely confirmed the outline of the tail plane and the rudder and served no other purpose. My alternative parts, though heavier than the original Mick Reeves parts will fly true and take the odd knock or too. | |
2. Wheels |
Moan Factor 5/10 |
| When I ordered the kit I got most of the parts included thinking it would save me time shopping for parts. I was wrong! The wheels are simply the most standard of all wheels I have ever seen, with plastic covers for the wheels to give a spoke affect (which would require painting). Additional purchase No.1 was a set of 4" scale Robart Wheels. Much better, and will not require me to cut away the underside of the wing to make them fit. |
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3. The Pilot |
Moan Factor 10/10 |
| OK so you are building a scale Spitfire and you want a Pilot. Do not get the Mick Reeves Pilot as you will at sest have to feed it to the Dog! (if you have one that is :P ). Yes it is light and possibly would fool the lesser interested flyers out there, but realistic it is not. I eventually purchased a Elite Force 1/6 scale Pilot from eBay for £26 which will be far more convincing. Obviously weight will have to be considered at some point in the future. |
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4. Wing Ribs |
Moan Factor 4/10 |
| Much has been said about the wood used by Mick Reeves for the ribs. While I found their shaping OK the wood was slightly disappointing but I suppose they were just acceptable. Some of the parts are not as per the shapes on the plans, particularly in the centre section. What was really disappointing was the way they fitted together, several requiring adjustment under the tabs to maintain alignment. The plans were also lacking sufficient detail to shape the wing tips, information for rib W15 was totally inadequate and differed from the plans. Guessing was required to make the tips. More details needed Mick! The pre marked areas for the retracts to fit was also out of alignment with what was on the plans. They were a good 10mm further forward than depicted in the plans. More hacking, more cursing. |
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5. Aileron fitment |
Moan Factor 7/10 |
The aileron construction was no problem at all. My real difficulty came when presenting the completed unit to the sheeted wing. It simply did not fit! Length was short by about 4mm and the depth was too deep at the root side of the wing by 3mm. The biggest issue was the aileron was not thick enough in section to follow the lines of the wing. Checking the plans and measuring carefully gave me the following conclusions: a. The plans use a 1/8" by 1/4" lower rear spar compared to 1/8" by 1/8" for the pre cut ribs build. When installing the aileron the tapered sections in the rear of the ribs supporting the aileron were all too deep for the aileron to achieve sufficient movement up and down.b. Hinge points for the inner hinge needed to be set further forward (closer to the leading edge) for the ailerons to properly fit. c. I eventually worked out that W14 on the plans actually ran all the way to the trailing edge of the wing, and that in the pre cut supplied parts it stopped short of the aileron. Again Mick Reeves has altered pre-cut parts and not adjusted the plans or the instructions to accommodate the differences. It was clear by now that I would have to be very careful as I continued with the build to make sure that everything was as it should be. There were no clues provided when there were differences requiring alternate construction procedures! I am building new ailerons with deeper sections at the front edge to follow the lines of the wing. |
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6 .Fuselage Formers |
Moan Factor 7/10 |
| While I was not bothered about the materials the fuselage formers were fabricated from the shapes were not as good as they could have been. The biggest problem was with F3 which supports the wing mounts. This part was short by 3.0mm and narrow by 4.5mm in some places. I had to replace this part with a totally hand fabricated part. | |
| 7.Glass Fuselage | Moan Factor 11/10 . . . if you know what I mean ;) |
| Very disappointed with the Glass fuselage. While building the fuselage up I increasingly noticed errors in the shape of the fuselage. Basically there was a visible twist in the cowl and there was a general slightly bigger than slight, buckle in the whole length of the fuselage. I have spoken to other owners of the Reeves Spitfire who say they have not experienced such twists in their models and agreed with me that there was a problem when compared to their model. Mick Reeves was not convinced of the problem, but offered a full refund. That was generous, but I was already well into the build and wanted to continue. We agreed on an exchange for a wood fuselage kit which was promptly supplied, although 2 months were to pass before the glass cowl was delivered! | |