Spitfire Question

[yeehah1]

07.08.2018

Hi Everyone

I am going to model two Spitfires based on the Tigerhead decal sheet 48019. I will make the one with the yellow tail and the one with the white tail.

Now, the sheet says one is a Mk.IXc Spitfire and the other is a Mk, IXe Spitfire.

 

Both have the tall pointy tail and both ( based on some quick google-searches) have clipped wings. Are there any other significant differences?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Liam

[Troy Smith]

5 minutes ago, yeehah1 said:

07.08.2018

Hi Everyone

I am going to model two Spitfires based on the Tigerhead decal sheet 48019. I will make the one with the yellow tail and the one with the white tail.

Now, the sheet says one is a Mk.IXc Spitfire and the other is a Mk, IXe Spitfire.

 

Both have the tall pointy tail and both ( based on some quick google-searches) have clipped wings. Are there any other significant differences?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Liam

I'd be wary of the decal instructions.

 

this might help

this is the photo of MJ858, normal tips

 

 

I've not seen a photo of white 78, but this has some photos and information

http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/board/index.php?topic=1683.0

actually, looking again, I think the 2nd plane is white 78, and these do look to have clipped wing tips....

 

 

 

 

some background info

This is becaus the VVS used Spitfire in PVO (Voyska protivovozdushnoy oboronystrany,) units, which were for  Air Defense Forces,  by the end of the war  and up until 1947!

IIRC Spitfire IX equipped something like 27 out of 81 PVO squadrons in 1945..  

 

see https://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/86024-what-happened-to-the-1200-soviet-spitfire-ix39s/

some usual misinformation, but this looks correct, which you might find interesting.

 

  Quote

Quote

 

Most of the ~1200 Spitfire's delivered to the Soviet Union were used by the air defence forces (the PVO). The Spitfire with its turbocharged Merlin enjoyed high altitude performance that the indigenous Yakovlev and Lavochkin types could just not achieve, which is why the Soviets acquired the type to begin with (as the MiG-3 clearly could not be improved/developed to meet requirements satisfactorily). By 1944 it was the PVO's main type and would remain so until at least 1947.

 

Thus those Soviet Spitfire's were used more for interceptions and most often of high-altitude reconnaissance & bomber Axis aircraft. They didn't see much of where most of the Soviet's air war was fought; at low altitude and above the battlefield. Although these PVO-flown Spitfire's did often encounter German fighters and there were even some PVO Spitfire aces, their operations were not at the level of continual intensity that the regular Soviet red air force (the VVS) saw.

 

The VVS did however receive some of those ~1200 Spitfires IX's delivered. They were used mostly in the more high-altitude air war against the Finnish air force in Karelia.

 

And as for the opinion of Soviet pilots; Spitfire's initially had gained an unfortunate reputation amongst the Soviets for fragility. This was due to the VVS experience with using some Mk V's during air battles over the Kuban isthmus, where the undercarriage struggled to withstand the rigours of Soviet frontal airfields (and some were lost in accidents). Those VVS pilots also took some time adjusting to the wing-mounted machine guns & their convergence. And an adjustment was needed for just flying a fighter optimised more for the higher-altitude battles over the English channel and occupied France and it took them a month or so to really get accustomed to how to fight the German 109's in Spitfires. Plus; these Mk V's were second-hand and obsolescent against the latest 109's fielded by the Luftwaffe anyway.

However; the Soviets in both the VVS and PVO held the later delivered Mk IX Spitfire's in very high esteem. These Mk IX's were always operated from higher quality Soviet airfields than those suffered by the Mk V's in the Kuban battles. The Soviets didn't just appreciate the MK IX's strong all-round performance and agility, they also liked it's acceptable reliability & ease of maintenance and it's ergonomics and operating range. The Mk IX Spitfire was definitely as popular with it's Soviet pilots as it was with it's British Empire and USAAF pilots.

 

 

hope of interest.  One point, it was harder for Sovite correspondents and photographers to get to PVO units which were not in the frontline, and so photos are quite rare,  I've only seen a handful of shots of VVS Spitfire IX's

 

HTH

[Graham Boak]

The only difference between the LF Mk.IXc and the LF Mk.IXe is the armament.  There were other differences between early and late production examples, and between wartime and postwar examples, but I don't think that's too relevant here.