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Showing results for tags 'Spitfire PRX'.
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My first entry to this GB will be the recent KP kit of the Spitfire PR X. Originally intended to be the PR equivalent of the Spitfire VII/VIII, it was overtaken by the need to get a higher performance PR Spitfire into service. The 'quick fix' was the PR XI, based on the Mark IX with a high altitude rated engine. The PR X was apparently based on the VII fuselage with a pressurised cockpit, and the enlarged oil tank and wings as of the PR XI. Delays meant that the PR X was late into service, and did not appear until April 1944, and appeared to offer little advantage of the PR XI. It may also have been that the type was overtaken by the PR XIX, the first of which flew in April 1944 and deliveries started in May 1944. Only 16 were built, and not all saw service. The KP kit shares its sprues and instructions with the PR XI kit. The only differences are a different decal sheet and a fighter type windscreen. Fortunately, the deeper rear section of the canopy found on pressurised Spitfires seems to have been catered for. The box art shows an aircraft in PRU Pink that has been illustrated in profiles elsewhere, but I understand is unlikely to be accurate. The kit parts are cleanly moulded with no flash and what I consider to be an adequate level of interior detail, and exterior details looks well done and not too heavy. No locating pins on the main airframe parts apart from the tailplanes, I can live with that. I remember a time when some authors in magazines suggested that the location pegs should be removed as they obstructed a better fit. Eee, it were hard bein' a modeller in olden days, no photo etch or fancy paints, and thy could get an Airfix Lancaster for two shillings, and still have enough change to buy all the paints and glue, and a fish supper. Tell it to these young ones today, and they don’t believe you, just cos' it's a pack o'lies. (With apologies to Monty Python) Python)
