Airfix Spitfire XIV highback/'C' wing conversion

[Peter Roberts]

 

This is my first WIP and I'm still struggling a bit with photo posting but.... here goes.

 

The Spitfire is a real love of mine (don't tell my wife) so I had to join in the fun here. I've set myself a mission to build at least one of each operational Spitfire/Seafire variant (ie. no Mk III) flown by an Australian pilot. I have pretty much all covered now, except for a few later types, and about 30 built. When Airfix released the low back XIV, I had to have a crack at turning this into a high back. I gained inspiration from an early attempt at doing this, posted here on Britmodeller (apologies to that modeller, I don't have your name to hand at the moment) which made use of a Mk V tail grafted on to the low back. I know - sacrilege! 

 

The other challenge is I don't build all that quickly. Hopefully I can get this done in time. Anyways, this is the start (apologies for the photos):

 

Edited June 10, 2020 by Peter Roberts

[Peter Roberts]

More:

 

[Peter Roberts]

I brought the two fuselage halves together to make the other side would match the one installed. It did. Both new sides were quite close in fit but still took some fetling to get a good fit. The Radio hatch was filled and rescribed on the starboard side. Hinges were added to all hatches and the cockpit door. I found the bulges on the cowling difficult to get a good fit and some fasteners will need replacing. I'm in two minds - replace the missing raised fasteners or remove all and rescribe 'cause they should be more flush. Not sure I am up to redoing all those fasteners though so I may just live with the raised version.  

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by Peter Roberts

[Adam Poultney]

Looks good, can't wait to see this done. I enjoy watching people doing crazy things like this after the fun of doing a Mk1 Vulcan conversion (and I'm hooked on this kind of modelling!)

[Peter Roberts]

I know what you mean Adam - it can get you a bit hooked. Just where can I go with that ...... 

 

This is the current state of play. Fuselage assembled, filled and rescribed as needed. It looks a little worse than it is as I used superglue to fill around the rear fuselage where needed and it picked up some black paint that was on the palette. Apologies, no photos of the cockpit - I used the Eduard detail set for the bubble top, sans the canopy crank mechanism. A quick test of the panel that slots in front of the cockpit shows a reasonable fit, but will need a little tweaking.

 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by Peter Roberts

[Peter Roberts]

Starboard side with the new hatch scribed and some panel lines moved. Some clean up of the joint still to be done and may sand back some of those prominent rivets a bit.

 

[Cookenbacher]

Nice surgery so far Peter!

[Adam Poultney]

Please, don't tempt me to do this conversion because this is beginning to look like a lot of fun 😂 I'm probably going to have my hands full soon with some more vulcan kits I can butcher instead but I won't complain at wanting to do another spitfire. 

[Peter Roberts]

 

Cheers guys, lots of trim, check, trim some more, check, sand a bit, repeat, repeat, ....... Pencil marks on the early pics show where I was finding the profiles didn't match, so kept shaving, and shaving. It needs lots of careful checking to see where trimming is needed, but with a bit of patience you do eventually get pretty close. Though it may need a couple of sittings!  

 

Yes Adam. It is proving more fun than I thought and I can recommend it. But that Vulcan is a great plane. Personally, I'm waiting on the upcoming Airfix kit. Oh, another Airfix kit! Have just picked up an Italeri Hustler to go with it. 

 

 

Edited April 11, 2020 by Peter Roberts

[Peter Roberts]

I put some filler on the fuselage join (it needed it, mainly due to me) and while that was drying took a look at the lower wing. I am a bit of a traditionalist; I like to assemble the wings first, then attach to the fuselage, but with this kit it looks like a better play to add the lower wing to the fuselage first, then attach the uppers due to the undercarriage locating sections on the wing roots. I tried a dry fit first. Hoooston, we have a problem:

 

 

 

The wing is fouling on the cockpit 'tub'. Now I haven't seen any mention of this in other builds, so I figure I must have done something a bit cockeyed, but for the life of me I can't find it. The cockpit fits well, where it is supposed to, and modifications are to the UPPER fuselage, so I am a bit confused. Bottom line, the 'tub' needs some surgery. Fortunately it falls behind the seat and armour plate in the cockpit. so I don't think it'll be seen.

[Peter Roberts]

And another issue arises with the lower wing - the lights.

 

 

There are no ID lights out near the wingtips. Referring to plans done by Cooke, there is also an extra panel line - the one outermost on the wings. Also, the amber centre line light between the radiators is in the wrong position for a Mk XIV. My reference courtesy of the late Edgar Brooks (I do miss Edgar!) say it needs to be back behind Frame 15, (somewhere under the radio hatch - the new one on the starboard side). An' 'ere I was thinkin' the main problem was gunna be the fuel tank cover.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Peter Roberts

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Had the same happen to me on my Eduard kit. I thought everything was ok until the wings. Then bang same problem. 

[Peter Roberts]

Hmmm, funny how that stuff never makes it into kit reviews. Or may be we have the same affliction!  

[Peter Roberts]

Work goes on. The cockpit tub and inside of the lower wing was ground down - very heart in mouth stuff - but I finally got a good fit. I did grind through a bit of the cockpit floor but fortunately this is to the rear and not really noticable. I have also installed a central fuselage ID light in its new position from a section of clear sprue and which still needs to be sanded to contour. The hole for the ID light in the bottom of the cockpit floor isn't really visible from above.

 

I also opened up ID lights on the lower wing surface. I cut some plastic wing light covers from some packaging using a circle template and a compass point, but found that the plastic wasn't thick enough to sit at the right height so have also installed some plastic card discs to help fill these spots - covers yet to be installed in photos.

 

 

 

 

The wheel wells fit ok but do leave joins that need to be filled - I used some Tamiya Surface Primer from a bottle, applied with a toothpick and it has done the job of disguising this.

Edited April 16, 2020 by Peter Roberts

[Peter Roberts]

Hooston, we have another problem. I did a check of fit with the windscreen to the fuselage and found that the front of the cockpit is too narrow by about half a millimetre. At the very front of the windscreen location it has pinched in, which is strange because it isn't attached to anything. A bit of fernangaling to do here, but I think I have it sussed. More to come. I also filled the receptacle for the spine light. Just visible here - I have managed to partly sand down the scoop on the cowling too. Now I know why my builds take so long - I make more work along the way...... 

 

I also removed those raised fasteners from the cowling - they are beautifully moulded but I decided I couldn't live with them (sorry Airfix) so out with the beading tool.

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by Peter Roberts

[Peter Roberts]

Small update to this build. The little scoop on the cowling has been repaired and opened up a bit. I had in mind to use a section of steel pin to spread the windscreen opening to match the windscreen, but after an hour of inconclusive fiddling decided that path was too hard to work. Plan B - cement small pieces of plastic card either side of the gun sight mount, then trim to size to give a better match of the cockpit front to the windscreen. I know the windscreen fairing on the front panel is the correct width, so I'll use this as a guide to get the front of the cockpit fairings to the correct width (9mm). 

 

 

I've painted the windscreen fairing on the fuselage and nose panel to hopefully make it easier to align the two.

 

The nose panel needs spreaders (I know there are other, better ways to fix this, but I'm more confident with this way). The nose panel here is also different to the one I started with - the original insisted on sitting crooked and I managed to stuff that one up curing this affliction (!). It is currently in rehab, but to keep this build going I switched in a panel from another Mk XIV kit I have. Strangely, the fit is better than the original - !?

 

Panel lines on the rear fuselage have been rescribed - I managed to stuff one of these up too so it currently has some superglue fix happening.

Edited April 19, 2020 by Peter Roberts

[gingerbob]

On the wing/tub issue, my first thought was that the new "superstructure" from the Mk.V might have forced something to sit a little lower than it was designed to in the XIV kit. 

 

One probably unnecessary warning- the fuel tank cover part may be designed to be a bit wider than the fuselage immediately behind it, so careful you don't make the sides (that the windscreen meets up with) too wide.  You probably understood that, but I couldn't quite tell from what you said.

 

I think this is the previous conversion you mentioned:

 

This method looks pretty effective, but I wouldn't want to sacrifice an Airfix I/V to do it.  I'm (again) contemplating a high-back XIV, but don't have a particular plan in mind right now.  I'm also thinking naughty thoughts about my (standard) Airfix XIV!

 

bob

[Peter Roberts]

Hi Bob,

 

Thanks for your comments. I did also think that maybe the V fuselage had upset things with the cockpit, but it seemed to be sitting properly with the original XIV location so not sure what happened there. 

 

Re: the panel in front of the cockpit - was this flush on the XIV? Or slightly raised?

EDIT: Just re-read your comment Bob - sorry, misunderstood it at first. Yes, aware of the cover being slightly wider. The part in the kit is actually flush, at best. It needs some work to get a better outcome. I actually went back and checked my references on this area, looks like a consistent feature through out most of the Spitfire Marks.

 

Yes! That's the conversion I saw. Thank you for finding it and posting. I can understand your thinking re: sacrificing a Spitfire kit, but on the plus side there are some left over goodies for the Spitfire Spares box.  

 

Intrigued by your last comments - a Mk XVIII maybe? 

 

PR

Edited April 19, 2020 by Peter Roberts

[gingerbob]

No, the first one will be an FR.XIV- got the scheme in mind, though I might need to scrounge up some codes.  There's one that had the personal codes "HMS", and my initials are RMS.  I can always blame it on a misreading of a fuzzy image.  What's that?  It was perfectly clear?  I must have something in my eye...

 

I've got stacks of ICM "donor" kits, and lots of other options.  Just need to come up with a plan.  I don't know that I'll attempt it for this GB- I suppose it depends on how reckless clever I turn out to be.

Edited April 19, 2020 by gingerbob

[Peter Roberts]

Bit more work with this one. The fuel tank cover has been installed, but not quite how I wanted. The original intention was to use spreaders, but this wasn't working very well as it was hard to work out how long and get them to stay put. Then I tried some gentle persuasion and managed to get a good spread and the right overlap that I was after. Or so I thought. Only after it was attached did I see that the sides were showing nicely but the top was flush - UGH! Not wanting to cut it out and re-do it, and not happy with the result, I resorted to adding a bit of primer to the front top of the panel and blending it back in across the panel. It sort of worked - well good enough to live with.  

 

Cowling fasteners were added with a beading tool after removing the raised ones on the kit. They are perhaps a bit oversized, but I like them better flush and again, I can live with it.

 

This aircraft was going to be 'Brunhilde', but after finding some controversy over the serial number of the plane, I chickened out and went to plan 'B', Ken Colliers Mk XIV also from 91 Squadron. An early Mk XIV. Hmm, an EARLY Mk XIV. Oh Bu**er, it likely had a 'C' wing. A quick check of the plans showed that not a lot of conversion work would be needed to make a 'C' wing - fill some ejection chutes and add extra ejection chutes in the lower wing, and a new panel on the upper wing. The spares box offered up some panels from an old Hasegawa kit that fit almost perfectly, if you are careful removing the panel. My first attempt was lazy - I scribed along the panel lines and found the opening a bit wide, needing a shim of plastic card. The second wing was drilled and trimmed - much better. I also found some Ultracast 'C' wing armament (if you haven't checked out Ultracast goodies, do so but I recommend you hide your wallet first) so thing were looking up again. Some pics. First up the fuel tank cover and nose.

 

This also shows the additional chutes in the lower wing for the 'C' wing

 

 

Upper wings with panels taken from the Hasegawa Mk IX kit. These will fit well but need an additional panel scribed on them, and some packing to bring them up to the right level for the wing surface. The cannon stubs on the wing will also need a bit of work for the new fairings and blank. The cut sits just outside of the wheel wells too.

 

 

Edited May 17, 2020 by Peter Roberts

[Peter Roberts]

The lower wing to fuselage join finally worked out quite well, but still needs a clean up. This also shows the new shell chutes in the outer wing panels - these are still in need of some refinement and a clean up. I still have to fill an existing chute under each wing further in. Wheel wells have been painted, lights added to the outer wings and fuselage signal light moved back. 

 

Edited May 17, 2020 by Peter Roberts

[Peter Roberts]

While I think of it, I get a lot of use out of these - 

 

 

I purchased them from the chemist (in Australia, maybe available elsewhere, different brands?) They are for buffing nails. The darker side is very mildly abrasive - VERY mildly, and the paler side is quite smooth. After I have finished sanding something, I finish off with a very high grade wet and dry, then buff with these and it gives a shine to the plastic. These are GREAT for canopies or clear parts!

[Peter Roberts]

I'm building a bubble-top Mk XIV with this one as well and both are fighting me all the way so far. 

 

With this kit, both the upper wings gave me grief. The starboard wing needed a shim to get a good fit to the wing root, plus some filler, while the port wing met the wing root okay but didn't match the contour so needed some plastic card inserts to keep the levels consistent and prevent steps between the wing and wing root. The latter was partly successful. The wings were then cleaned up and trailing edges refined a bit as they are quite thick. Panel lines were cleaned up and re-scribed where needed. The fuel tank panel lines didn't match but I fudged it a bit by smoothing the leading edge. The 'C' wing cannon panels from the Hasegawa kit fitted well but did need a little filler to the joins. I used Vallejo plastic putty here which is water clean up. I had a tube of Perfect Plastic Putty but it had gone hard. The cannon and stub holes were drilled for the Ultracast items. Then everything was polished. The ailerons didn't fit well. The starboard aileron needed a shim at the outer edge, and the port aileron needed a shim on the inner edge and sanding on the outer edge. Both still need some clean up here.

 

The tail plane is fitted but needed a lot of fetling to get a good fit. The lower surface of the slot needed a lot of trimming down to get the tail planes to sit horizontally and to meet the roots at the right levels

 

 

 

 

Edited June 10, 2020 by Peter Roberts

[Peter Roberts]

The carby intake fitted okay, with just a little filler around it.

 

[Peter Roberts]

Some more progress here. I have attached the radiators, drop tank hooks, belly aerial, tail wheel well, and rudder. The belly aerial locating hole had to be made bigger to allow it to fit properly. This, and the radiators and drop tank hooks all have conspicuous gaps but seem to be in keeping with the panel line characteristics of this kit. The rudder and tail wheel well fitted well.

 

The ailerons have also been trimmed and fitted. The best fit I could get was to slightly offset them. I can see purists staring in horror - put it down to artistic effect.  The elevators have been cut on their connecting rod and will be fitted separately later, drooped.

 

Some pics: