Merlin Seafires

[fishplanebeer]

Dear All,

 

Apologies if this has been raised before in a previous post.

 

I'm looking to build a merlin powered Seafire, the 1b, IIc or III version from a Spit V donor kit but unsure what type of arrestor hook was used and if it varied at all between these 3 versions?

 

I'm a late comer to the Seafire but I believe the 1b and IIc were converted from existing Spit Vb/c airframes and the III was a new build airframe incorporating the previous mods that had been made (plus some new ones as well) but all three were essentially a Spit V in very general terms.

 

Regards

Colin.

 

Ps. I have just managed to find a Sword Seafire III which hopefully is a good choice for this variant (?) but did it have a different hook arrangement to the Ib and IIc?

[Graham Boak]

They all had the same hook arrangement.  The change to a tail hook only came in on Griffon Seafires.

 

The Mk.II variants were all new build.  There were some hooked Spitfires without, I believe, the extra strengthening, but the production Mk.Is were also new.

 

The Sword Seafire is the best available in 1/72.  IIRC all the Sword Spitfires are fractionally short in wingspan but this is not at all obvious to the eye.