A 3-float Spitfire Floatplane

[Courageous]

Hi guys,

Slowly, floatplanes are starting to swim around in my head and also creeping into the stash. I have the 1/72 Spitfire Vb Floatplane by Brengun but have found this image:

3-Float Spit

So far, I have found two spits fitted with these and was wondering how widespread were these? Also, does anybody know what Mk this is, if their is a conversion set or are we looking at kit robbing?

 

Stuart

[Graham Boak]

Fake.  The aircraft shown is a Mk.XIV, the last mark to have floats was a Mk.IX, and all Spitfire floatplanes had two floats.  Plus the aircraft is being catapulted from the middle of an RN warship, which had removed their catapults by the time the Mk.XIV was in service.

 

You'd think people had better things to do with their time than spreading such things without warning.

Edited November 2, 2018 by Graham Boak

[Courageous]

18 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

Fake.  The aircraft shown is a Mk.XIV, the last mark to have floats was a Mk.IX, and all Spitfire floatplanes had two floats.  Plus the aircraft is being catapulted from the middle of an RN warship, which had removed their catapults by the time the Mk.XIV was in service.

I was getting excited for a minute but that bubble has burst. Thanks for your quick response.

 

Stuart

[Graham Boak]

You're still free to do it as a What-If, as it's no sillier than some.  You would have to do a major re-write of WW2 to provide a remotely convincing backstory, but hey, why not?

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Those are Kingfisher floats so someone superimposed the Mk.XIV over the Vought kingfisher.

[Courageous]

2 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

You're still free to do it as a What-If, as it's no sillier than some.  You would have to do a major re-write of WW2 to provide a remotely convincing backstory, but hey, why not?

It would be  interesting to put it onto the table but I think I'll give a miss, as if we don't have enough to do already!

1 hour ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Those are Kingfisher floats so someone superimposed the Mk.XIV over the Vought kingfisher.

As Graham says 'You'd think people had better things to do with their time...'

 

Stuart

[Rob G]

The photo is from a Dutch website, in a section about 'Spitfire proposals'. Sadly, the author hasn't made it clear that that whole section is very much tongue-in-cheek what-if. Which is a shame, as the rest of the site appears to be quite useful.

[pat d]

Since we are on a flight of fantasy, Can you just imagine with the torque of that Griffon keeping that outrigger float above the water on the initial take off run would be quite a job   I can just see Jeffery Quill scratching his head....

[Rob G]

3 hours ago, pat d said:

Since we are on a flight of fantasy, Can you just imagine with the torque of that Griffon keeping that outrigger float above the water on the initial take off run would be quite a job   I can just see Jeffery Quill scratching his head....

 

Two words. Contra prop.

[janneman36]

It still looks cool .

[Work In Progress]

If you *did* want to make a Spitfire XIV in that configuration you'd need to enlarge the central float considerably, or it would sink. Really it would need two standard-size Kingfisher floats to be safe.

[Rob G]

1 hour ago, Work In Progress said:

If you *did* want to make a Spitfire XIV in that configuration you'd need to enlarge the central float considerably, or it would sink. Really it would need two standard-size Kingfisher floats to be safe.

 

Good point. The Mk.XIV is significantly heavier than the OS2U.