Andrew's 1/48 Academy Spitfire XIVc

[adt70hk]

Hi all

The two FW190s crossed the finish line earlier this week (more about that later) and so as I'm holiday I got cracking on my next subject....this.

If this review (link) is anything to by then there are some serious shape issues, most notably around the nose, albeit this individual (link) was less worried.

Despite the issues, I have chosen this kit for a number of reasons:

• I'm not that fussed about inaccuracies....after all my first love is super simple wargaming kits!
• It's in the stash and so far I have never dumped a kit just because of some 'minor' inaccuracies.
• I won it in a charity raffle with ticket costing only 50p and so even if it is a bit of a dud, it's perfect practice for when I move onto the better quality 1/48 wingy kits in the stash....26 to be precise!
• Believe it or not I have only ever done one other Spitfire and so I thought I should change that.

And actually despite the issues, considering this is a 1995 tooling (albeit a 2012 rebox), I don't think the surface detail looks too bad!

I intend for this to be a 'quick and dirty' OOB build as the 190s took far too long and so I'm not even bothering to worry about the ejector pin marks on the bottom of the cockpit walls, as they won't be seen once buttoned up - so for those of you that hate them, look away now!!

The usual sprue shots are below, along with where I had got up to after a couple of hours earlier this week...and so far no major dramas.

Since I took the below shots, I've started to apply the paint...the cockpit green went on an hour or so ago.

ACW as usual!

ATB

Andrew

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For once a relatively tidy bench, following a major tidy up post the 190s!!






And the latest victim!!

[papa 695]

Nice Andrew, I’ve just pulled up my chair.

[adt70hk]

Nice Andrew, I’ve just pulled up my chair.

Front row seat Ian! Good to have you onboard. Hopefully another short update before the day is out!

ATB.

Andrew

[Richard48]

Count me in Andrew before the rabble assemble.
Richard

[Jim R]

An iconic Spitfire - what's not to like. Not bothered if there are a few inaccuracies it will end up looking like a Spitfire. Gonna have invasion stripes??

[adt70hk]

Count me in Andrew before the rabble assemble.
Richard

An iconic Spitfire - what's not to like. Not bothered if there are a few inaccuracies it will end up looking like a Spitfire. Gonna have invasion stripes??

Welcome gents! The front row is filling up first.

Jim R - short answer is yes....although in part because of the way the decals are constructed.....I have to do the ones on the fuselage. I've found a picture from the Imperial War Museum showing them only in the underside of the fuselage. Also, the plane was delivered to the squadron around the time squadrons were told to stop using them on the tops of wings, so at least I have some latitude there.

Thanks again chaps!

ATB

Andrew

[flyjoe180]

It certainly looks like a Spitfire Andrew, look forward to seeing your progress

[adt70hk]

It certainly looks like a Spitfire Andrew, look forward to seeing your progress

Thanks Joe! Good to have you on board!

ATB

Andrew

[adt70hk]

Ok chaps, so its amazing what you can achieve when you have a week off work and nothing planned.

In terms of the build, this is where I'm at:

• Cockpit done.....the IP had no decals and so I did the lightest of dry brushes with chrome to try to pick out some details. It's not perfect but is better than a black slab.
• Main body assembly completed as far as it can go. Just need to attach canopy and then primer up next! I did though lose one of the stubs next to the 20mm cannon, so had to fashion a new one from styrene rod.
• 'Add ons' such as undercarriage, spinner, prop blades cut off the sprue and already primed ready for some paint....I did a quick and dirty prime with some rattle can primer to move things on.

As you know, I like to do a bit of research on my builds where possible....so for better or worse here goes......in terms of the plane's history, there is a quite bit online - some of which indicates that Academy have got a few things wrong:

• Spitfire RM619 AP-D (as per the decals) was Mk XIVe not a XIVc as per the box. I understand that the main difference is that the 20mm cannon were mounted on the outside of the wings with the 'e' wing. Whilst I can do this on the kit, it means that the cannon blisters would be in the wrong place and so I think it would look off. I've therefore fitted them as per the kit.
• Apparently after leaving the factory, it passed through No. 33 MU (Maintenance Unit?) on 09/04/1944 and sent to its first squadron, 91 Squadron, on 12/07/1944. It is then apparently shown as passing to 130 (Punjab) Squadron (date unknown) and the 350 (Belgian) Squadron, in this case, either in early October 1944 or mid-January 1945 (the information I gives both dates without being definitive).
• Apparently a mission on 16/01/1945 turned out to be its last flight, as it was shot down near Aachen (Germany) on an armed reconnaissance. F/Lt. Smets of 350 (Belgian) Squadron was badly hit and had to bale out, becoming a PoW.
• A photo of it on the Imperial Museum website shows a very nice side shot.....leaving no doubt that the plane only had invasion stripes on the underside of the fuselage, whereas the decals have them around the whole of the fuselage. I can't fix this without wrecking the decals. I understand that, at least according to the rules, 'top side' invasion stripes were discontinued in early(?) July 1944. This info, combined with the lack of fuselage 'top' markings would indicate that I should not use the supplied invasion stripes on the top of the wing. I'm also planning to paint the stripes on the underside.
• After I had glued the gunsight in place and was about to button it up, I realised too late that the gunsight was a solid lump of plastic.....and did not have an accompanying nice clear piece as even with the most basic of Airfix kits. As there was no way I could address this without risking damaging the kit, I simply paint the offending protrusion a very light silver/chrome colour....far from perfect but hopefully it won't look too obvious from a distance. Lesson learnt!

Whilst musing over the kit yesterday, it struck me that the profile of Griffon powered Spitfires front end bear a remarkably striking resemblance to Supermarine's Schneider Trophy entries, most noticeably S.6 and S.6B.

And finally there was a second RM619 flying after the war. The very short version is that after the war Rolls Royce bought an ex-RAF MK XIV, RM689 (this had the 'clipped' wings). In 1967/68, it was given the full elliptical wings as part of work on the film the Battle of Britain. For some reason after the filming was over, Rolls-Royce decided to keep the wingtips on and retain a camouflage scheme, albeit modified to be more correct for a late-war fighter. However, for some reason the wrong serial was applied, RM619, along with No 130 Squadron codes AP-D, which had nothing to do with RM689’s history. See here for the full story.


Usual set of pics below.

ACW as usual.

Andrew


Sources:

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205127136

https://www.rafcommands.com/archive/05663.php

https://www.key.aero/article/how-rolls-royce-bought-spitfire-ps250

http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/p096.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_S.6B

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Supermarine_S.6B_ExCC.jpg

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The real RM619


AIRCRAFT OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE, 1939-1945: SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE.. Image: IWM (CL 1353) IWM Non Commercial License




My homage
As I said I wanted to keep it simple and quick, and so didn't enhance the cockpit in any way.















Spitfire MK XIV vs Supermarine S.6B....what do you think?

[Steve Ski]

You're not wasting any time, Andrew, progress is looking great!

[Tworrs]

Very nice Andrew, that IP turned pretty good.

[Scratchbuilder]

Must admit to a liking of these Griffon Spitfires....

[BattleshipBob]

Good job Andrew

[papa 695]

Nice work so far, looking good.

[A_J_Rimmer]

Interesting nose similarities with the S.6B - I wonder what the overall profile difference is.

Excellent work thus far.