Spitfire Mk XII

[Graham Boak]

My understanding is that all Mk.XIIs had a new flush-rivetted fuselage, as later used for the Mk.VIIIs.  That's up to the transport joint for the tail, aft of this the first batch came from the end of the Mk.Vc line and the second batch was new - again as used for the Mk.VIII.  Apparently this was known at Supermarine as the Mk.XII tail - though I may be thinking of just the rudder here?  This has been raised many times on this forum though it may take some digging to get back to some of them.  I suspect it was Edgar Brooks who clarified this, although Voytek did discuss it. 

[spitfire]

11 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

 What kit was the Paragon designed for, as it may not fit another.  

 

 

This is the Paragon kit that I used, in the olden days the only donor kit available was the 1/32 scale Hasegawa V/VI, unless you count the old Revell Mk.II.

It built up fine and I was very pleased with it, but note that this was in 2008 and a lot of the very nice AM stuff you can get now was not around then.

 

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Scimitar F1]

Thanks for the responses. I am going to do an early version and use the Tamiya IX as I have a couple of those.

[Otakar]

On 11/19/2022 at 4:19 AM, spitfire said:

This is the Paragon kit that I used, in the olden days the only donor kit available was the 1/32 scale Hasegawa V/VI, unless you count the old Revell Mk.II.

It built up fine and I was very pleased with it, but note that this was in 2008 and a lot of the very nice AM stuff you can get now was not around then.

 

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

The paragon 1/48 kit I have for the Mk.XII is almost the same but for a few more extra parts in mine. I was thinking of using the Airfix Mk.XII wing (which I have) and mating it with any other accurate spitfire fuselage. Since I am cutting the nose anyways, it shouldn't matter what mark or make kit I use as long as the dimensions are accurate. I have around 20+ 1/48 Spitfire kits of Airfix, Eduard & ICM, so the choice will be academic. Mating  the different brands should not be any issue. I did the same thing when working on my Bf109-G12 (Avia C-10) using an early Eduard G kit and a UM wing. The build can be seen here. https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=131002 The reason I did that bash was because I originally started with the UM kit and discovered how inaccurate the Fuselage was. So I got a Dual overtrees kit on eBay which cost me almost nothing for the Eduard parts.  It was not hard to do at all. It was only time. I used the UM Wings and tail surfaces. With Eduard Fuselage.

.

Edited December 17, 2022 by Otakar

[Bedders]

Just bumping this helpful thread as I've now taken delivery of an Xtrakit XII, something I never thought would happen. So like many others I'm really pleased that Xtrakit have put out a new run of these.

 

Justin

[72modeler]

3 hours ago, Bedders said:

Just bumping this helpful thread as I've now taken delivery of an Xtrakit XII, something I never thought would happen. So like many others I'm really pleased that Xtrakit have put out a new run of these.

 

Justin

Good luck, Justin! You might not be so pleased once you start working on it, unless they have revised the tooling- the nose was pretty bad- not symmetrical,,and the  cylinder head fairings were also pretty bad, IIRC That being said, it;s the only ball game in town in 1/72 scale, with the possible exception of the OOP CMR resin Mk XII kit, which did  have some  errors, imainly a rear fuselage that was too short, (Thanks, @Graham Boak) but it was still better than the Xtrakit release.

Mike

 

Unless somebody can twist Neil's arm to re-release that outstanding Paragon XII conversion, XII fanatics (and there are many!) will have to content themselves with bashing the Xtrakit into an accurate model! or a lot of crosskitting, which seems to be the way the majority has decided is the way to go until we get a state of the art kit. (Are you listening, Mr. Eduard? Just give us a new fuselage and prop/spinner- you already have all the other bits; just put the  relevant sprues from your other kits in the box with some  new decals, and how do you say it on your side of the pond...oh, yeah- Bob's your uncle!) 

[Bedders]

36 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

Good luck, Justin! You might not be so pleased once you start working on it, unless they have revised the tooling- the nose was pretty bad- not symmetrical,,and the  cylinder head fairings were also pretty bad, IIRC That being said, it;s the only ball game in town in 1/72

Mike, friends should not remind each other of the travails of building Sword Spitfires. After a while, the horror fades, and you start to think you can go again - which is where I was this morning. It's now Saturday night so I'll have beer and consider things afresh tomorrow.

 

J

Edited December 2, 2023 by Bedders

[Bedders]

Just to show I'm a man of my word!

 

 

[stevehnz]

That looks pretty good, is there a story to go with it, the good the bad & the delightful?

Steve.

[FinnAndersen]

10 hours ago, Bedders said:

Just to show I'm a man of my word!

I never said it could not be done 🙂 , it's just difficult. 

 

Each one must use his own strengths and mine is cutting off noses and sticking them on other planes.

 

Congratulations on a well done job

 

/Finn

[Bedders]

Today was decal day

 

[Bedders]

On 2/2/2024 at 3:54 AM, stevehnz said:

That looks pretty good, is there a story to go with it, the good the bad & the delightful?

Steve.

Must say Steve it’s actually revived my mojo and I’ve really enjoyed making it. A fair amount of work as ever with the Sword kits but they do reward it. As a way of getting back into the Sword brand before starting this I made a bit of progress on a Seafire XVII which had lain untouched for a couple of years but is now at the paint stage. And I’ve invested in their PR IV to build at a later point.

 

When this gets to RFI I’ll also post a pic (if I can find it) of my previous XII attempt, circa 1986, using an Aeroclub vacform nose on a Matchbox IX….

 

It’s been a relatively productive winter as far as my Spitfire collection is concerned - I also bit the bullet on a Mk VI which I’ve converted from the Airfix Vc using some KP wing inserts, cannon etc. and Eduard wing extensions. That too is in the paint shop with yellow leading edges and sky fuselage band sprayed. More on that one in due course I hope.

 

Justin

Edited February 3, 2024 by Bedders