neilfergylee

I recall no problems at all! Go for it and share what you have done! Cheers, Neil

Might I possibly highjack this thread slightly please? For the harnesses from the magnetos, the left-hand magneto's harness seems comparatively straightforward as it extends around the 'midriff' of the engine but I believe the right-hand magneto feeds the plugs accessed via the top of the engine. Does anybody have any guidance as to where the harnesses go please? Many thanks, Neil

Thank you - I'll head there now! Neil

Thank you both, especially for replying so quickly. It is indeed G-3K and if I could get hold of that sheet (or even part) would be a great result. Regarding making a mask, I have been thinking of this and this might take me down the Cricut (or similar) rabbit hole! Cheers, Neil

I am always wary of posting "where can I get?" topics, as the stock response "That's what Google is for" is often entirely justifiable. However, having Googled this to death, I'm venturing onto this topic area. I want to model in 1/48 a Spitfire XIII and from the handful that were converted, the RN examples used yellow codes, presumably as they were used by training units. In the absence of photos of any alternative (other than the prototype), then modelling one with yellow codes seems like the best path to take. However, I am stymied in my search for yellow codes: to the best of my knowledge nobody does them as decals, whilst I'm not afraid of painting a yellow base and then using masks to produce the does letters instead. I have hit a brick wall here: any anybody assist? Many thanks, Neil

Thank you both. Tamiya conversion it is then! I'll keep you posted. Neil

I have to disagree. As @Geoffrey Sinclair has stated, seventeen of the XIII conversions were from Vb airframes.

Is it bad form to resurrect a post from 2009? Apologies if it is. I'm just up to no.22 in my 1/48 Spitfire / Seafire / Spiteful / Seafang collection and in finishing a cross-kitted Hasegawa Mk.VIII / Airfix XIX to make a PR.XI, I'm swerving to building an enigmatic Mk.XIII. You know, the weird one with the funky camouflage scheme. Having done a fair bit of reading, I think these are the key features. Converted from earlier PR versions (mostly based on the Mk.I ) or a few from Mk.Vb. Had the Merlin 32 engine, which was tuned for low level operation and supported up to 18lbs of boost which meant it could be very fast at low level. Consequently, had the larger round oil cooler. Equipped with oblique camera behind the cockpit. Appears to also be equipped with two vertical cameras. Armed with four machine guns in outboard positions. Early armoured windscreen. No PR blisters on hood. deHavilland three-blade propellor. Funky camouflage scheme of Medium Sea Grey (photos seem to dispute use of Extra Dark Sea Grey) and Extra Dark Sea Green (widely reported as being FS34092) with PRU Mauve undersurfaces (having mixed a sample of 5 parts PRU pink, 2 parts PRU blue and 1 part ident red, it comes across as a greyish pink). It's the MK.V conversions that intrigue me. We all know that there about four pictures doing the rounds of PR.XIIIs: a couple of official pictures of the prototype and two rather indistinct pictures of different airframes in Royal Navy use. One of these is a converted Mk.V and it is this drawing from Morgan & Shaklady's tome that intrigues me: I have taken this as a Supermarine drawing and note the wing on the right: that is a Mk.Vb wing and I see the cannon bulge is still present. Do we think is possible that as these were conversions that the cannons were removed but the bulges were left behind as, frankly, their presence would have had no real effect on performance? I rather hope so because it would make for an interesting conversion to the Tamiya Mk.Vb. Best wishes, Neil

I'd love to but I'm lacking a PR XIX fuselage so I'll have to work with what I've got.

Forgive me for hijacking a four-year-old thread but I am about to start cross-kitting the Hasegawa F.VIII fuselage, Airfix PR.XIX wings and the Quickboost conversion to build a 1/48 PR.XI.

Thank you to @stevehnz, @georgeusa, @keith in the uk, @bigbadbadge, @Shorty84 and @Mig88 for your kind words. This was a thoroughly enjoyable build and I must say that fitting the wings (Eduard) to the fuselage (Airfix) was a dream and went better than many straight its. I think the Mk.IV in its earliest state was possibly the prettiest Spitfire built. The nose was well proportioned and had lost the 'pigeon chested' appearance of early Merlin models yest maintained the purity of the plain 'A' wing. Anyway, next up is a Seafire III then cross-kitting an Airfix PR.XIX with and Airfix F.22 to make a Seafire 45. I must be mad. Best wishes, Neil

Thanks Chris, it was an itch I needed to scratch! Cheers, Neil

By way of comparison, this is my first model of DP845 in later guise.

I'm up to number 20 in by 1/48 Spitfire / Seafire / Spiteful / Seafang / Attacker collection and I thought this worth presenting. The unusual and uncommon variants are always of interest and last year I built the Mk.III prototype. My first 1/48 Spitfire after restarting modelling was the Special Hobby Mk.XII which I completed as DP845 in its late form that was very close to a production Mk..XII. However, I had an itch to model DP845 as built as it looked subtly different to its later appearance because, like most prototypes you have to ask 'when' as well as 'what'. Here are my two reference photos: I believe they were taken in late 1941 when DP845 first emerged from Supermarine's factory at Worthy Down on 27th November and it is notable that the aircraft had an unarmed 'A' wing and a standard fin and rudder. Note also the broad chord propeller blades. By May 1942 DP845 has acquired a mock-up of a six-cannon armament although whether it flew like that is unclear. Note the narrower chord propeller blades. Either later in 1942 or possibly in early 1943, DP845 gained a 'C' wing, and enlarged, pointed rudder and updated roundels. Finally, in the spring of 1943, DP845 received a Griffon IV and then Griffon VI engine and I suspect that was when the spinner was changed to that of the Mk.XII and also non-standard clipped wings. I decided that having modelled DP845 in its late condition that I would go for the 'as first built' configuration and this would involve the cross-kitting of an Airfix Mk.XII fuselage and Eduard Mk.I wings and control surfaces. My original plan was to use the Eduard Mk.I for the majority of the model, grafting the Airfix nose onto the Eduard fuselage. However, I decided that was just too risky: there was a real risk that the graft would be messy with consequent damage to surface finish, especially as I suspected the profile change between the fuel tank and cowlings would be difficult to achieve, especially as DP845 had an angled firewall that led to a break that was not the same as the Mk.I or indeed the production Mk.XII. DP845 also had a retractable tailwheel but that would be a minor modification. An additional feature to consider was the spinner and propeller blades. As built, DP845 used broad chord blades and a unique spinner that looks similar to one used on Merlin variants but had a much greater diameter. It so happened in building a Special Hobby Mk.XII a few weeks before, I had used the Airfix spinner and blades as they were closer to the real thing, so I had a set of broad chord blades but the spinner was a problem. Therefore, I decided to stretch the boundaries of my skills and design in CAD a custom spinner and have it 3D printed. This was a complete first for me and I took advice from my son who routinely produces components that way. I used a basic online CAD package called TinkerCAD (https://www.tinkercad.com/), spent about an hour practicing the online tutorials and then used the out-of-the-box tools to create a 3D model. It is not perfect: it is too rounded at the tip owing to the limitations of such a simple package, but I was still pleased with the end result: I emailed the CAD file to my son and he printed it for me. The end result was created in ABS and all I needed to do was to drill through the hoes to accept the blades and then sand it down to remove the ridges that are a byproduct of the 3D printing process. It's not perfect but it's not at all bad. I did end up doing a lot of filling and rescribing of the fuselage. The fin needed to be reduced in height to take the Eduard rudder but this meant that the panel lines were in the wrong position. Similarly, the nose area needed rescribing to carry the angled firewall and remove certain other features not found on DP845, while I used Mr. Dissolved Putty to fare-in the rocker covers: as they are added to the fuselage, they can tend to look 'stuck on'. Other modifications included finding a pair of metal ailerons to replace the fabric ones on the Eduard Mk.I and faring-in a gap where the Airfix enlarged carburettor air intake onto the space used for the Eduard Mk.1 intake. The final modification I had to consider was the flap actuators. DP845 as first built had Fowler (sliding) flaps and these used very prominent but rather difficult to see actuators beneath the wing. This was all I had to work with: Therefore, I had to produce these from plastic card and I used my Dremel to mill slots into the wing undersurface to accept the components. And here is the end result. I used MRP paints and the top surface grey is 'Mixed grey' (7 parts Sea Grey, Medium, 1 part Night) as by November 1941, Dark Earth was no longer used for fighter aircraft and Ocean Grey was not specified until April 1942. The yellow undersurfaces livened the model considerably and I finished the model with a coat of thinned Galeria gloss varnish for the application of decals and then Xtracolour Matt varnish (which isn't really) to give a semi-matt finish which I thought appropriate for a hand-finished prototype. I hope you find these of interest: a full collection of images can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/26690797@N02/albums/72177720310020844 Best wishes, Neil

Update. I wasn't entirely happy with the finished result. I had received some genuinely helpful criticism concerning the propellor tips (waaaaaay to much yellow), undercarriage (the three-spoke wheels would not be right for a first-batch Mk.XIV), while I had messed-up the weathering and the finish was too glossy. Therefore, I set about to fix these errors: the poor weathering was removed using isopropyl alcohol, extra black was added to the propellor blades and I very carefully removed the wheels and replaced them with a lovely pair of four-spoke wheels from the original Academy kit. Finished product below. Best wishes, Neil