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Spitfire Conversion. Revell 1/32 Spit IX to Aussie VIII.


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Time for a messy photo. 
The ailerons have been cut, and the pieces fixed into place. 
Waiting for every thing to set up, prior to sanding. 
The leading edges also got another coat of filler and more sanding. 
 

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Edited by Longbow
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Nice work but I hate to say it but the VIII did not have the Coffman starter bulge, another Edgar posts states that for 2 stage Mrlin powered Spitfires the bulge was present on:

 

"Only" the Mk.IX, powered by the Merlin 61 & 64, plus the Spitfire VII

 

I'll shut up now !

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

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1 hour ago, spitfire said:

Nice work but I hate to say it but the VIII did not have the Coffman starter bulge, another Edgar posts states that for 2 stage Mrlin powered Spitfires the bulge was present on:

 

"Only" the Mk.IX, powered by the Merlin 61 & 64, plus the Spitfire VII

 

I'll shut up now !

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

Well, you could have informed me of that before all the work :D

 

So are these guys using old stock engine cowelling ?

 

NlbJQpk.jpg

 

2Goksq2.jpg

 

OBxBBSB.jpg

 

 

Looks as though I do have to reduce the size, so more, though.

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, spitfire said:

Nice work but I hate to say it but the VIII did not have the Coffman starter bulge, another Edgar posts states that for 2 stage Mrlin powered Spitfires the bulge was present on:

 

"Only" the Mk.IX, powered by the Merlin 61 & 64, plus the Spitfire VII

 

I'll shut up now !

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

Okay, Dennis, I did a little digging and found a post relating to the starter bulge. 
The bulge apparently remains on all Supermarine built Spits (All of the Mk VIII’s), despite having no Coffman starter fitted.
 

Quote...

 

 The fairing is related to the Coffman starter but used in a different way. It was only necessary if the Spitfire was fitted with a Merlin 61 or 63A. 

The Merlin 61 was developed as a high-altitude engine and the Spitfire variant fitted with it, that is the Mk VII, would have a pressurised cockpit. This required a cabin blower to feed air to the cockpit at higher pressure than outside. In order to save excessive design the blower drive was a modification of the Coffman starter gear but driven by the engine instead of cranking it. Later on an improved version of the Merlin 61, the Merlin 63, was fitted to Spitfire F.IXs. The Merlin 63 did not have the pressurising drive gear. There were two varieties of the Merlin 63, the Merlin 63 itself and the Merlin 63A. The Merlin 63’s crankcase did not have a Coffman casing but the Merlin 63A used the crankcase of the Merlin 64 (an improved variant for the pressurised MK VII) and this had the protruding casing but not the drive gear itself.

The bulge is found on every MK VI and Mk VII. Photographs show that it is usually found on Supermarine-built and Rolls Royce-converted F.IXs. It appears on virtually all Mk VIIIs (all built by Supermarine). It is also found on two-seat trainers converted by the factory after the war. This suggests that there was one standard type of cowling panel fitted regardless of the engine variant. CBAF-built Mk IXs did not feature this bulge as standard as it is only found on a few aircraft fitted with Merlin 61 or 63A engines.   
 

Link...,,

http://spitfireforums.com/index.php?topic=172.0

 

 

The bulge remains :D

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1 minute ago, Hamden said:

 

Coming together nicely now Lee, looking forward to more now!

 

  Stay safe                 Roger 

Thanks, Roger....

 

Hopefully I'll be able to get more done later today. 

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