Cuban Revolutionary Air Force Spitfire Mk XIV in 1/48

[Brad]

I can hear you guys now "I didn't know Cuba flew the Spitifre".........well they didn't, I made this up. I picked up this Academy 1/48 kit for 5 bucks recently second hand and I wasn't happy with the plain old RAF options so I went a little strange. Decals came from my spares box, along with some extra 60lb rockets and etch seatbelts. The kit itself is actually pretty nice, it goes together without any major issues. 

 

 

 

 

[Winded Penguin]

That five bladed prop, high back and the cannons poking out of the wing represent my ultimate Spit look. 

The decals could be any post-war hot country and still appear authentic. Thanks for posting.

 

Reminds me, I really need to find a Spitfire XIVc in large-ish scale.

Looking around, the Academy kit seems to be the only bar in town, currently.

Do you get the option of the elliptical wing in the kit, too?

Edited July 26, 2022 by Winded Penguin

[Brad]

Just now, Winded Penguin said:

That five bladed prop, high back and the cannons poking out of the wing represent my ultimate Spit look. 

The decals could be any post-war hot country and still appear authentic. Thanks for posting.

 

Reminds me, I really need to find a Spitfire XIVc in large-ish scale.

Looking around, the Academy kit seems to be the only bar in town, currently.

Do you get the option of the elliptical wing in the kit, too?

Thank mate. Yes you get longer wingtips in the kit too.

[GiampieroSilvestri]

Beautiful Cuban Spitfire!

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

[BerndM]

Lovely work and it looks great in this livery.

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Like it. A great idea.

[Pete Robin]

Totally convincing! A very nicely produced WIF.

Regards

Pete

[SAT69]

Ain't it great when imagination takes off and runs? 😃

[Spitfire31]

A great Why Not idea, very convincingly rendered.

 

Beautiful and clever work!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[Troy Smith]

12 hours ago, Winded Penguin said:

Reminds me, I really need to find a Spitfire XIVc in large-ish scale.

Looking around, the Academy kit seems to be the only bar in town, currently.

There have only been two injection high back XIV's in 1/48th,   the Hobbycraft kit (reboxed by Kitech) which is has not been available for 10+ years, and the moulds seem lost along with a few other Hobbycraft mould that ended up in China with Kitech-Zhengdufu.   It's well shaped, but like 80's era  72nd kit scaled up to 48th.

The other is the Academy.

 

As @Brad very creative build shows, builds into an impressive model.  On it's own, no problem, next to a correctly shaped Griffon spit, the nose looks bloated.

the biggest visual problem is the nose ring is too big, making the spinner too big, but the entire fuselage is too deep, the wings are too thick and there are other problems, which is why the current 'gold standard' is mating the nose and tail and radiators of the lo back Airfix XIV with the Eduard VIII, it's also a rather expensive option.

You could just add a high back to the Airfix XIV, and change the gun blisters.  

there have been threads on this, or look up Paul Budzik Scale Model Workshop, where he does various conversions.

 

Reams of vitrol and tosh have been written on the Academy Spitfires,  there are even correction kits, by Daco and KMC,  that just replace the nose and a few tweaks, but don't really fix the rest.

Odd thing. nearly all the panel lines are in the right place, and it is possible to fix most of with 'some modelling skill' ,  but nearly all of it needs some kind of correction, and you do need a new spinner.....    I did a load to a lo-back, which has now become obsolete, but I have a high back as well.  

I really should do this just so it's all in one place.....

If you want more, I'll start a thread on it.

 

 

Great looking model @Brad