Academy Spitfire Mk XIVc - D-Day camouflage

[jrlx]

Hello all,

This is my rendering of Spitfire Mk XIV of the 91 Sq, RAF, West Malling (codes DL-F, NH698), flown by Flight Officer Kenneth Roy Collier of the RAAF, as it was on D-Day, 6 June 1944, and the following days.

Collier became famous when, on 23 June 1944, tipped a V1 flying bomb with the tip of his Spit's wing, making the bomb lose directional control and crash on the ground, without hitting its target. This technique was then adopted by other pilots chasing flying bombs.

On 5 December 1944, Collier was shot down and killed in a dogfight with FW190s and Bf 109s over Germany. He rests in the Rheinburg Commonwealth War Cemetery, in Nordrhein-Westfal, Germany. This is a small homage to a brave young man.

This model was built OOB, with the exception of the seat belts (made out of Tamiya tape and aluminium wire) and the bar on the cockpit access door (made out of stretched sprue). I also rescibed some panel lines missing on the aft of the lower wing part. The D-Day stripes were painted. The WIP thread is here.

Here are the final photos.

General views:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Detail views:

Port wing's upper surface:

 

Starboard wing's upper surface:

 

Starboard wing's under surface:

 

Port wing's under surface:

 

Belly and wheel wells:

 

Landing gear:

 

Cockpit:

 

 

 

I hope you liked it. All comments are most welcome.

Thanks for looking.

Jaime

[Knight_Flyer]

Very nice build and the paint finish looks very neat. I like the look of this Spit with a 5 bladed prop, it's kinda cool.

[PlaStix]

Thoroughly enjoyed your WIP for this and it's resulted in a beautiful Spitfire! Well done.

[jrlx]

Knight_Flyer, PlaStix, thanks for your appreciation

[Beard]

I followed the WiP and the end result looks fantastic.

I've heard the Academy MkXIV described as a Spitfire that's been at the doughnuts... but stripes certainly have a slimming effect.

[Meatbox8]

Superb Spit, especially considering it is 1/72. Great back story too.

[chris148]

great spit,nice scheme and finish

[sean]

Wonderful finish and I enjoyed the wip as well, a great looking Spitfire,

Sean

[theanorak73]

very nice

[stevej60]

Beautifully built looks outstanding in those stripes!

[jrlx]

Thank you all for your kind words and interest

[Dave N]

That's very nice. I thought it was the 1/48 Academy Spit- great work at 1/72. Cheers, Dave

[jrlx]

Thanks for the nice words, Dave

[rob85]

Stunning build Jamie thanks for sharing. Your detail is top notch

Rob

[batcode]

nice looking spit, great job.

[jrlx]

Rob, batcode, thanks for your appreciation, it means a lot

[Val]

A truly fantastic model, top work

[jrlx]

Thanks for the kind words, Val

[keith in the uk]

Great looking Spitfire , although some of the detail could do with reworking

The seat harness is way way over scale and the cockpit hatch looks like a house brick .

Correcting these would make a lot of difference to the finished model , everything else looks spot on

[Miggers]

This is how I like modelling,good research and a "snapshot in time"historical finish with a great tribute to a

very brave young pilot.

Excellent stuff.

That Academy Spit sure has got a big oversize nose though,as has been said,it's the Spit kit

that's been at the doughnuts..............

Such a shame because it's a nicely moulded well thought out kit.

Edited June 23, 2015 by Miggers

[GREG DESTEC]

Excellent, well done!!

[jrlx]

Keith, Miggers, Greg, thanks a lot for your appreciation and kind words.

The seat harness is way way over scale and the cockpit hatch looks like a house brick .

Thanks for pointing out those improvement areas.

I agree that the harness is too big. At the time I only had some rather thick aluminium wire. In the meantime, I managed to find some thin electrical copper wire, which looks better at this scale (You can see an example in my recently finished Bf 109 here). I may try to replace the harness in the Spit later, but now I'm a bit busy with the Phantom GB.

Regarding the hatch, I'm afraid it is OOB and if its out of scale, so are the cockpit walls and canopy frames, which are as thick as the hatch... I will leave it as it is but will keep a note on this for future Spitfire builds

This is how I like modelling,good research and a "snapshot in time"historical finish with a great tribute to a

very brave young pilot.

Excellent stuff.

That Academy Spit sure has got a big oversize nose though,as has been said,it's the Spit kit

that's been at the doughnuts..............

Such a shame because it's a nicely moulded well thought out kit.

Thanks Miggers, I always try to research my models as much as possible and am very interested on the human factor behind the machine and the historical context.

Regarding the nose of the Spit, this is Mk XIV, which used a super-charged Griffon engine, instead of the Merlin engine used in most previous Marks (the first Griffon-engined Spit was the Mk XII, and this was not super-charged). The new engine needed a 3-foot longer nose, with bulges over the exhausts to accommodate the engine's cylinder blocks. The Mk XIV also needed a five-bladed propeller and a bigger tail fin and rudder to enhance directional stability, due to the increased engine power. Maybe this is why some people refer to this as a "Spit on doughnuts"?

I used this diagram as a reference during the build, as well as pictures that can be found on the net. The only correction I made was scribing some missing panel lines aft of the lower wing part, but it is possible that there are some other inaccuracies.

Cheers

Jaime

Edited June 24, 2015 by jrlx

[Miggers]

Keith, Miggers, Greg, thanks a lot for your appreciation and kind words.

Thanks for pointing out those improvement areas.

I agree that the harness is too big. At the time I only had some rather thick aluminium wire. In the meantime, I managed to find some thin electrical copper wire, which looks better at this scale (You can see an example in my recently finished Bf 109 here). I may try to replace the harness in the Spit later, but now I'm a bit busy with the Phantom GB.

Regarding the hatch, I'm afraid it is OOB and if its out of scale, so are the cockpit walls and canopy frames, which are as thick as the hatch... I will leave it as it is but will keep a note on this for future Spitfire builds

Thanks Miggers, I always try to research my models as much as possible and am very interested on the human factor behind the machine and the historical context.

Regarding the nose of the Spit, this is Mk XIV, which used a super-charged Griffon engine, instead of the Merlin engine used in most previous Marks (the first Griffon-engined Spit was the Mk XII, and this was not super-charged). The new engine needed a 3-foot longer nose, with bulges over the exhausts to accommodate the engine's cylinder blocks. The Mk XIV also needed a five-bladed propeller and a bigger tail fin and rudder to enhance directional stability, due to the increased engine power. Maybe this is why some people refer to this as a "Spit on doughnuts"?

I used this diagram as a reference during the build, as well as pictures that can be found on the net. The only correction I made was scribing some missing panel lines aft of the lower wing part, but it is possible that there are some other inaccuracies.

Cheers

Jaime

The XII had the single stage Griffon(Mk.VI sometimes referred to as the "short"Griffon).

The XIV/XVII/XIX all used the 60 series two stage two speed supercharged Griffon,hence the longer nose.

The Academy kit is referred to as a Spit on doughnuts because from the aft frame of the cockpit(the seat frame)

everything is way too wide for a Spitfire.

The radiators should also be perpendicular to the wing and not the ground.

Every Spit/Seafire should be the same dimension from Frame 5(the firewall)back to the rudder post.

Lord knows where Academy got their info from(that diagram you've linked to looks favorite,the rear fuselage top line

should be virtually straight).

Get your hands on an Airfix Spit XIX in 1/72nd,you'll see what we mean...............

Edited June 25, 2015 by Miggers

[jrlx]

Miggers, thanks for the clarification and information in your post. I thought the complaints about the kit were due to nose inaccuracies but I now see what you mean.

Cheers

Jaime

[Miggers]

Miggers, thanks for the clarification and information in your post. I thought the complaints about the kit were due to nose inaccuracies but I now see what you mean.

Cheers

Jaime

You're very welcome Jaime.

Anytime you want to know about Spitfire/Seafire kits or the real thing,just shout up,there's quite a few of

us on here that are quite passionate about R.J's most wonderful aeroplane.