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The Spitfire Mk. XII: To build a hybrid Good evening, and welcome to a build log I have been eager to start since discovering what is my favourite version of Spitfire, the Mk. XII. A few versions of the XII exist, most notably the newer Airfix kit in 1/48. Also, the M News and Xtrakit versions in 1/72. I found it very difficult to get even a sniff of the Xtrakit version, which I would have been content with, and so my quest took me to ask, ask, and ask some more about the XII. Members of Britmodeller have been most gracious in sharing information pertaining to the discovery of version specific traits and helping with guidance. I would like to thank Procopius in particular, who without fail answered so many of my questions and actually supplied some of the crucial build components. I will be cross kitting the Sword models Seafire XV and the Spitfire Vc. Various other parts will find their way into the build, some aftermarket and some fabricated. Let's open the door: I started with the spinner of the Seafire XV, which was crude when compared with aftermarket offerings and even kitted contemporaries. I gripped the small alignment nub with my cordless drill and used a sanding board to even out the step between the hub mounting plate and the spinner front. The shape still looked a little off and wobbly, so more spinning and sanding was required. For comparisons sake, here is the quickboost version of the five blade prop associated with the XIV. It has a longer nose to it, and much smoother details. I will try to emulate this piece with the four-bladed Sword XV spinner. Here I used two different photoetch saws to create the seams in the spinner like the quickboost version features. The rearwards seam appears too coarse when compared with the resin accessory, and I switched then to a Tamiya brand saw which gave me a much finer impression on the forward seam. There appears to be a slight wobble in the line on the rear seam, which I shall fill and re-scribe. At the rear end, I used a Mk. IX pointed rudder which Procopius supplied in a comprehensive care package he sent me. The XV rudder was carefully sawed away with etch, and this AZ models piece glued in. The actuator unfortunately does not line up within reason and so must be carefully dissected and replaced. Gluing the fuselage halves together with MEK gave me a nice squished plastic weld line to sand down and polish into a seamless ridge. I re-scribed some panel lines top and bottom which were lost in the sanding. The cockpit was tricky to assemble, and did not lend well to photography. It drops in nicely from the underside so painting should be a breeze. The fuel filler and the maintenance hatch forward this were all but obliterated, and needed to be remade via etch saw. And the fuselage as a whole. This shall sit overnight and firm up before attempting the engine cover. My initial thoughts were to use the quickboost XIV upper cowl, but it has been made for the Fujimi kit and has an angled rear most face. If it is close enough in visual similarity to the XII cowl then I may just trim the angled portion off and re-rivet the new curvature. The teardrop fairing over the top centre of the upper cowl must be fabricated as well, being a hallmark feature of the XII. Thanks for looking in, and please do add comments pertaining to the build process and general accuracy of my planning and execution.