Subject: Re: Correction to MkIX Spit Article
From: "Steve Bamford" <[email-masked]>
To: "whendriks" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 23:05:58 -0700

Steve Bamford
Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: whendriks <[email-masked]>
To: Steve Bamford <[email-masked]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 7:26 PM
Subject: Correction to MkIX Spit Article

> Hi Steve:
> I goofed on the MkIX Spit article: The old MkIX kit that I referred to
> as ARII/Fujimi is actually ARII/Otaki. I just made the change, and
> reattached the entire article. Please disregard the original I sent you.
> Sorry for the mixup.
> See ya,
> Will
> 
> 
> In Days of Old: 
> 1/48th Tamiya/HiTech SPITFIRE MkIXc Conversion: 
> PRE-Hasegawa; PRE-ICM; PRE-Occidental!
> 
> By Will Hendriks
> 
> This model was built several years ago, before the release of the
> Spitfire MkIX by Occidental, ICM, or Hasegawa. This article illustrates
> what we Spitfire MkIX fans had to resort to back then!
> 
> Until a couple of years ago, the only Spitfire MkIX kit available in
> 1/48 was the ARII/Otaki Spit MkVIII/IX. While this kit can form the
> basis of an accurate MkIX, I wanted to take advantage of the higher
> detail and ease of construction of the then new Tamiya MkVb. I got tired
> of waiting for the then anticipated rumoured release of a MkIX by one of
> the mainstream Japanese manufacturers, so decided to do a conversion.
> 
> I chose to model the Spitfire MkIX using the excellent Tamiya MkVb kit,
> which I converted to a MkIXc using the resin and metal conversion set
> from HiTech of France. I do not know if this set is still available. The
> set includes a complete resin engine cowl, spinner, underwing radiators,
> Vokes filter intake, exhausts, and three styles of gun panel blisters. A
> broad chord, pointed tip rudder is provided for the later variants. Four
> white metal blades are provided for the propeller.  The resin of this
> set was very brittle, and some of the parts were broken on arrival in
> the mail. Construction began by replacing the cowling of the MkVb with
> the resin piece. This was accomplished by simply sawing off the kit
> portion at the appropriate panel line and gluing on the new piece. Once
> mounted, a step of about 1mm resulted at the top of the cowling to
> fuselage joint. This was easy to correct however by sanding the fuselage
> down to meet the contours of the cowling. The rest of the fuselage went
> together "out of the box", with no changes to the kit interior except
> for the addition of seat belts from the Reheat range. The most work was
> involved in the next step, the wings. This meant converting the "b" wing
> of the kit to a "c" wing. On the under surface of the wing a fairly
> large hole had to be cut out to accommodate the replacement resin
> rectangular oil cooler fairing. Various blisters were removed and others
> added as per my reference drawings. Panel lines were filled and
> re-scribed to match those of the "c" wing. The wing upper surfaces then
> got similar treatment. I did not like the cannon fairings supplied in
> the HiTech set, so I used fairing blisters from an old Monogram kit, cut
> out and sanded down to fit the contour of the Tamiya wing. Again, the
> upper wing panels were filled and re-scribed as required. The 20mm
> cannon barrels of the kit were removed and replaced by a pair turned on
> a Unimat lathe from a piece of sprue. 
> 
> Once the basic assembly was complete, the model was given a light
> airbrush coat of Floquil Ocean Grey to reveal any surface flaws. Once
> these were corrected, the airplane was airbrushed in the standard RAF
> scheme of Dark Green and Ocean Grey over Medium Sea Grey, using the
> Floquil Classic Military Colours range of enamels. After a coat of
> Floquil Crystal Cote was applied, decals from Aeromaster sheet no.
> 48-123, "Spitfire MkIX Collection, Part 1" were used to represent DN-T,
> sn MJ832 of 416 Squadron, RCAF in early 1944. After a coat of Floquil
> Flat finish, the model was weathered with pastel chalks and the landing
> gear, canopy, propeller, and antenna were added. 
> 
> A lot of work, but in the end a fine replica of the Spitfire that many
> who flew her thought was the best of the breed.