1/48 Spitfire PR.XIX

[Karl]

This is my attempt to knock together a Spitfire PR.XIX using Academy's much derided 1/48 kit of the Spitfire Mk.XIVc.

I'm no Spitfire expert so I know that it's not going to be at all accurate, so apologies in advance - this article is in no way intended to be a definitive guide; it's just for fun, although I'll do my poor best.

As has been well documented, the Academy 1/48 Spitfire Mk.XIV series has a number of deficiencies, worst but not least of which is the much to deep fuselage. There are a number of after market accessories that go some way to fix this - however I don't have any and I can't afford to buy them anyway so I'm going to attempt to correct this the hard way as best as I can.

Having compared the academy kit to a number of other Spit kits (Airfix's F.22/24 Griffon end and the high-back spine of the new Mk.XII) I think I've got a bit of a handle on where the problem is. I'm going to take off about 2mm from the engine cowl area, bring the wing area up by about 1mm and then bring the bottom of the spine up by about 1mm tapering out toward the tail wheel. Picture to demonstrate what I mean:

So, armed with a new Swan-Morton blade I've started to cut her up (nothing to loose...)

I've cut the engine cowl off the fuselage just below the exhausts, and I'm going to trim off about 2mm to bring it up.

Now I've cut off the wing joint (don't know it's proper name) from the fuselage and will trim off about 1mm from the fuselage arch

After all of the cutting and shutting, I taped up the parts to compare them to the unmodified fuselage half - if I squint a bit it doesn't look too bad...

This leaves the wing when offered up to the fuselage protruding about 1mm from the bottom of said fuselage, and as has been noted the Academy's wing is overly thick to accommodate the gimmicky cannon detail, so I'm going to thin the wing down and hopefully it will (it WILL) all line up.

Now, I just need to repeat it for the other fuselage half.

Karl

Edited February 9, 2011 by Karl

[Doug Rogers]

Good luck with this Karl. Funnily enough I'd considered doing something like this in the past, but discounted it as there being too many variables in keeping everything in it's right place.

Looking forward to seeing your progress.

[Karl]

Good luck with this Karl. Funnily enough I'd considered doing something like this in the past, but discounted it as there being too many variables in keeping everything in it's right place.

Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Thanks Doug,

I know what you mean; it's not going to be easy but I'm fairy confident I can keep all of the bits together in the right place. My main concern is to get this kit in to a better approximation of the correct Spitfire shape that I' happy with.

I've wanted a 1/48 PR.XIX for quite some time; I won't be able to afford the Heritage kit any time soon and I suspect we'll be waiting for a mainstream PR.XIX kit for some time yet, so this appears to be my best bet.

Karl

[Vlamgat9]

Interesting stuff.

I want to do an XIX from this kit too.

Will be intrigued to see how you get on!

[Karl]

I've completed the modifications to the other fuselage half; I've taped them together and it's all symmetrical.

The next major modification is to the spinner. The kit spinner as it comes out of the box is made to match the too deep fuselage (so it's too wide) and it also appears a bit short when compared to the Airfix F22/24 spinner - the only thing I've got to compare it to.

There is just enough plastic to sand down the width of the spinner to match the new fuselage front end so that's quite an easy fix. The length issue I've dealt with by razor sawing the front part of the spinner in half and then adding some additional plastic to lengthen it. The whole conglomeration was then glued together and and the excess plastic was then shaped and sanded to match the existing parts.

Spinner, cut up with additional plastic disc ready for assembly:

And the completed spinner:

Karl

[davidelvy]

Goodness, that looks so much better. It's nice to think there is hope for this kit without having to double its cost with a load of resin. I shall be watching with interest.

[General Jumbo]

Karl,

Really good so far! Its funny, but when I was building the kit OOtB, I thought it looked ok but seeing your mods side by side makes the inaccuracies look so obvious. Almost a case of "ahhh - that's better!" Can't wait to see more.

[Karl]

Bit more progress.

The prop blades are a little to thick and to wide, so I've sanded them in to a better approximation. The modified blade is on the left and the standard part is on the right.

The rocker covers are generally too big, so I've thinned them down slightly and re-shaped both ends to match the references I have to hand. I forgot to take a before and after picture, so the one on the left is just about finished and the one on the right I've just started to re-profile the shape of the front. Originally the shape of the front is a bit more of a flatter bevel shape.

I've also replaced the covers to the cannon bays with a plain flat part made from plasticard.

Thanks for looking, and thanks for the kind comments so far

Karl

Edited February 13, 2011 by Karl

[Karl]

I've started to re-connect the cut-up fuselage components. I've added some tabs to make the alignment a bit easier on the cowl area and I butt joined the wing joint part on to the main fuselage.

I have also scribed in the camera port and window on the port side and the access bay on the starboard side. Hopefully they are in the right place, but I've got a feeling that I may have them half a millimetre too low... despite the fact that I measured 10 times and still managed to cut it wrong.... perhaps....

I still have to complete all of the joint filling when I'm happy with it.

I've also built a very simple - and empty - camera bay with bulkheads. It's empty as I don't really have any references for the camera kit, and I don't think that I'd see any interior details when the inside is painted black anyway, and I don't intend to open the camera ports.

Karl

Edited February 22, 2011 by Karl

[Karl]

Work on the cockpit.

I've added a few scratch built items to the cockpit to (try and) more closely emulate the PR.XIX layout.

Karl

[Doug Rogers]

That's looking really nice Karl. I think you're understating your skills a little, that cockpit looks great.

[Karl]

Work on the fuselage is just about complete.

I'm quite happy with the modifications to the fuselage shape, and to the additions required for the conversion to a PR.XIX .

Karl

[Karl]

I've been forming the windscreen and rear part of the canopy out of a sheet of PET plastic by a combination of plunge forming and shaping.

I've made the rear part of the canopy, this was quite easy as it's basically just a strip bent in to the right shape.

I also did the front windscreen quite easily and was amazed that it cam out right first time! - but wait for it.....

I was just sanding a little from the front edge of the windscreen to match it to the fuselage when I slipped with the file and ran it up the windscreen making a scratch - arg!! So, right polish it out and dip it in Klear - no problem. I dipped it and it looked great

But a tiny spec in the corner wasn't dry and I got a finger print on it. Cleaned it up and dipped it again, now the remainder of the Klear would not wick away and just pooled up - double arg!!

this was just going from bad to worse!

In to the shed for the Ammonia to clean it all up and start again!...

All cleaned up and dipped again - looks fine this time, phew!!!!

Karl.

Edited April 3, 2011 by Karl

[Karl]

Fuselage and prop have been painted and the decals applied. I've used Xtracolor PRU Blue for the base colour of the fuselage. I then masked and painted the black and white invasion stripes.

The decals were all from the spares box, the roundels are just some standard 'B' type roundels. The wing walkway lines are actually the 'border' from an old 1/48 Airfix Hawk decal sheet and the 'C' was hand cut from a plain piece of white decal material. The 'PS853' registration was made from re-arranging four sets of letters from another spare sheet from a 1/48 Buccaneer.

I am missing some items though; the 'RollsRoyce' lettering on the fuel tank cover, the camera mission marking's and the graphic on the side of the engine cowl I've not been able to fudge - although I'll keep a lookout for something suitable and add it later if I can.

Work on the ancillary components is also nearly complete now.

I've made a new windscreen and rear canopy part by heating and shaping some sheet PET plastic. The opening part of the canopy is the kit's original part.

I didn't really like the kit's exhaust parts so I've scratch built some new ones from lengths of hollow plastic rod.

The landing gear components have all been painted. The kit comes with four spoke wheels when what is actually needed are three spoke items. I found some three spoke wheels from another Spitfire kit and modified them so they would fit the kit's original tyres. I needed to put a new rim around the hubs as they were too small to fit the tyres.

Karl

Edited April 30, 2011 by Karl

[Karl]

Completed at last!

My Spitfire PR.XIX can be found in the 'ready for Inspection Section'

Thanks for looking.

Karl