cger Posted January 1, 2022 Share Posted January 1, 2022 Hi all, I post some progress pictures of one of my current projects, building a nice Spitfire XIV high back in 1/48 scale. I wanted to reproduce this plane: UMG from 152 squadron coded RM 908 , because of the nice black panther on the sides. I still have the ancient Aeromaster 84-044 decal sheet that has this marking. As many of you know, the Academy kit is riddled with shape issues. A while ago I found this nice video by Paul Budzik https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkRKr30ZZjM, who describe what is maybe the easiest way to get a nice high back Spit XIV. His Youtube channel and website are a goldmine. Note that he describes several other ways to get a high back Spit XIV. Paul uses an Eduard Spitfire VIII kit (I bought an overtreekit), and an Airfix FR XIV E. The conversion consists in grafting the Griffon nose and the extended tail of the Airfix kit on the Eduard fuselage. The next step is to deal with the wings. For some weird reason, I originally thought that RM 908 had an E wing. So I took the shape of the cannon bulges of the Eduard wing with two parts silicon putty and cast copies with Tamiya epoxy putty. Then I sanded off the original cannon bulges of the Eduard C wing. Then I had a look at this picture: which shows that RM 908 had a C wing, so all this work was for nothing. Off went the epoxy bulges. Fortunately I had cast some extra copies in resin, and I was able to sand and smooth of everything and put the cannon bulges where they belong. The next step was gluing the larger underwing radiators of the Mk XIV. The gaps were filled with white Milliput, smoothed with water while still soft. Next I went back to the fuselage. I used Mr surfacer 500 thinned with Mr Color thinner to reproduce the armor in front of the windscreen, which has a different more angled shape on the Mk XIV. After several heavy coats, the shape was ok. I also had a lot of trouble to get rid of some seam lines on the upper cowl, so many iterations of priming, sanding etc where needed. I hope you like it, I wish you all a happy year 2022, stay safe ! Christian. 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alt-92 Posted January 1, 2022 Share Posted January 1, 2022 Bonne Année! & Bonne chance A couple of weeks ago, the Sprue cutters Union podcast had an interview with Paul Budzik (starts around 1h40). Gives a nice insight in how he approaches builds. besides the interview there's other useful goods in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbob Posted January 1, 2022 Share Posted January 1, 2022 Umm, I hate to break it to you, but that IS an 'e'. There's a photo to compare to on this page: (pointing the other direction, b&w) https://www.cafsocal.com/our-aircrafts/our-aircraft-and-history/supermarine-spitfire-mk-xiv/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cger Posted January 1, 2022 Author Share Posted January 1, 2022 Hi Gingerbob, I do not see UM-G on the page you mention ? best, Christian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbob Posted January 1, 2022 Share Posted January 1, 2022 No, I was referring to the EB-whatever low-back. All low-backs were 'e' armament, and if you compare that side-on photo to your side-on photo you'll see that it is essentially the same cannon fairing. A 'c' would look different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steh2o Posted January 1, 2022 Share Posted January 1, 2022 (edited) Hello Christian, Gingerbob is right, it is an e-winged aircraft like most ( if not all ) of the RM/RN serialled Mk.XIVs. In the photograph below you can see that the cannon mounted in the inner station would protrude much more In the photograph above I think we see the collar of the cannon fairing aligned with the .050 fairing in background, sort of a trompe-l-oeil. Indeed the .050 fairing is lower than the cannon one, that being possibile only if it is in the background. I spent some time on the matter of Mk.XIV kitbash, although in 1/72nd -perhaps you can find something useful here PS be careful, the shape of the cannon blister of the outer station is different from that of the inner station, higher at the back and shorter Edited January 1, 2022 by steh2o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cger Posted January 1, 2022 Author Share Posted January 1, 2022 (edited) Hi, now you have convinced me 😭. The cannon blisters are gone and will go once again to the outer position, after everything will be sanded smooth. Concerning their shape, I may copy them from an Eduard Mk IXE that I have in progress. If the shape is not so different, I will leave them as they are. There is a french saying which goes as 'faire et défaire, c'est toujours travailler' (to do and undo still means working). Modelling is a school of patience .... Many thanks for your advice ! Christian. Edited January 1, 2022 by cger adding some sentence 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cger Posted January 4, 2022 Author Share Posted January 4, 2022 Hi, the wings are now back to their first E-wing configuration: I copied the wing blisters from the Airfix FR 14E with silicon paste and cast two resin copies. Let's hope all is good now. The next step should be preshading along the rivet and panel lines, when I will have some free time, best, Christian. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cger Posted January 15, 2022 Author Share Posted January 15, 2022 Hi, I had some time today to make some progress on the kit. I preshaded panel and rivet lines with Tamiya Nato Black, thinned with Isopropyl alcohol. I added some mottling with Tamiya white, desert yellow and Gunze interior green. Most of this work will of course dissapear under the first coats of paint, but I find that the preshading helps me to better visualize rivet lines and is a guide for later weathering. have a nice weekend, Christian. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cger Posted January 15, 2022 Author Share Posted January 15, 2022 (edited) Hi again, I am wondering about the white SEAC bands on UM-G. Were they present on the wings and elevators ? On the first picture I posted I think I can see a white strip on left elevator, at about the place where the stripe should go. I cannot see the white band on the last picture (the one with a guy standing on the wing). There seem to be no SEAC band on the vertical stabilizer. Also the last picture shows the Sky band completely painted, while on the first one the Sky band stops at a panel line near the top of the fuselage (as is often depicted on profiles). What do you think ? best, Christian. Edited January 15, 2022 by cger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mahavelona Posted January 15, 2022 Share Posted January 15, 2022 Lovely looking conversion though I can't say much about the band's I am afraid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cger Posted January 25, 2022 Author Share Posted January 25, 2022 Hi, here are one more in progress picture: I sprayed a thin coat of Tamiya XF83 medium sea grey on the undersides. I added squiggles with Tamiya XF52 Flat earth, Gunze H311 light grey and Gunze H331 Dark sea grey, heavily thinned with Mr Color Levelling Thinner. Next step is to blend everything with another thin coat of XF83, going slowly to avoid hiding the preshading. Have a nice evening, Christian. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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