Supermarine Spiteful F.Mk.14

[woody37]

Supermarine Spiteful F.Mk.14

Trumpeter 1:48

Development of the spitfire highlighted limitations with the original wing at high Mach speeds where it hampered high speed performance. To overcome this, a new wing was designed and originally fitted to a Mk.XIV Spitfire for testing. The new laminar flow wing did overcome the high speed performance issues, however the low speed handling was adversely affected near the stall. The Spiteful incorporated the laminar flow wing as well as an inwards retracting wide track landing gear. A further improvement was the raising of the cockpit to improve forward visibility and a larger fin to improve directional stability. Whilst the Spiteful addressed the issues of the Spitfire, the dawn of the jet-age meant that it was outdated. A development of the Spiteful was the Seafang which had originally been devised to fill a gap in carrier operations, however the introduction of the Sea Vampire made that obsolete too. In the end, only 40 Spitefuls & Seafangs were produced, closing the chapter on the Spitfires evolution.

The kit
Upon opening the box, you're presented with 3 light grey sprue's, a clear sprue and a sheet of etch. The kit is designed in the traditional way for a single engined fighter - two part fuselage, one piece bottom wing and two top wings mated to it. The detail in the exterior surfaces is nicely done. Panel lines are recessed, but delicate and there are rivets also recessed along the panel lines in an even more delicate manner giving a great surface finish. The only negative comment I can make is presence of a few sink marks on each side below the rear cockpit from some locating holes on the inside, so a little bit of filler may be necessary to smooth these out on painting. An option on the fuselage is to open the camera port hole to the rear left of the cockpit and fit a clear part in. A camera is supplied and can be fitted, although I'm not sure how much can be seen as it will be dark in there.

The prop blades are moulded as 1 unit that fits into the hub cone secured by the boss behind it. As a kit, the moulding quality is certainly very good. However there are some issues with shape. The cockpit tub is far too shallow and the rear fuselage behind the pilots seat steps down when it should be flush with the rest of the aft fuselage leading to the tail. I found Andrew Jones's build on Britmodeller a good reference and Andrew indicates that the wing is also located too far forwards and perhaps it should be 3-4mm further back, however looking at pictures of the aircraft, it's hard to confirm this so if the wing position bother you, I'd do some research. Going back to the cockpit, there is enough detail to make it interesting, however it isn't very accurate. The cockpit tub has deep side panels, where as the Spiteful side panels were much shallower looking more like a Spitfires layout.

As with the fuselage, the wing surface detail is precisely moulded. The wheel wells and ailerons are separate parts and fitted during assembly. The radiators utilise the etch mesh grills which is a nice touch. These are much larger than the radiators on the Spitfire, so the etch mesh is welcome as they will be quite prominent when viewing from the front and rear. Wheel well doors are well defined with rivet indentations.

The canopy is moulded in two parts, so technically, you could have it open. The windscreen is nicely detailed and crisply moulded, but the canopy is something of a disappointment. It's too thick hence suffers from a lot of distortion. I'm not aware of an aftermarket replacement for this, so the options will be to either live with it or form your own unless one comes out for it in the future. I've read that the canopy doesn't fit well in the open position, so be aware of this.

The Decals
Three options are provided:

• RB518 which was a real aircraft that flew
• A 'What If' of the RNAF
• A 'What If' of the Finnish airforce

Again from reading around t'internet, the decals are incorrect. RB518 was a Mk.16 and had different roundels as well as a slightly different scheme.

Conclusion
This is a kit with mixed conclusions. There are some accuracy issues as mentioned above, namely the cockpit area, possibly the wing location and the British decal option. As well, the canopy is thickly moulded creating some distortion. That said, it's a nicely engineered kit. If you can't live with the accuracy issues, they aren't beyond the average builder to correct. If the accuracy doesn't bother you, I'm sure you will enjoy building it straight from the box. Either way, it will build up into an attractive model and without doubt, it's the best rendition of a Spiteful on the market.

Review sample courtesy of

[Antoine]

Strange choice from trumpeter.

Finn what-if for me, I like the idea.

[jenko]

This kit does what it says on the box. Yes it's not perfect, but it does look the part.

When it came out I did an OOB build, details are HERE