Built
at the end of 1944 at Keevil, this Spitfire Mk XIV was stored by the RAF until
early 1945. It was sent, from 33MU at RAF Lyneham, to India where details of
whatever service she saw have been lost in the mists of time -and the Royal
Indian Air Force records system. She was recovered to Blackbushe, in England, by
Doug Arnold in the early seventies and formed part of his Warbirds of Great
Britain collection. The Fighter Collection engineers took over the restoration
when the aircraft changed hands and were able to complete the work in August of
1992. MV293 was the first example of ist mark to be flying in Europe at that
time and was painted in the all silver colours of the post war RAF. In 2000, the
aircraft was repainted in the colours of Johnnie Johnson, as a surprise for his
attendance at Flying Legends
and as a tribute to his last war service Spitfire.
(found at http://www.avnet.co.uk/tfc/spit_xiv/)
This
was the second time I decided to built a Spitfire Mk. XIV E because the late
bubbletopped Spits are the most elegant piston-engined warbirds and even with
the fastest if you consider the Spiteful/Seafang. Another reason for the project
was that I got this excellent kit a second time by winning a low-price-ebay-auction!
Click on image to
right to see larger image |
In
fact this had to be a fast job, so I decided to do a silver-coloured
Spitfire this time to prevent all that taping. Additionally I have
to explain I do not own an airbrush so all paintjobs are done by
using Tamiya TS- and AS-Cans. This fighter was sprayed with TS-16
Aluminium Gloss using Gunze´s Clear Gloss before applying the
decals. After drying they where sealed by spraying Gunze Clear Flat. |
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The
only extra detailing was done by using extratech´s seatbelts. If you build the
cockpit out of the box it´s enough to do the usual detail-painting and
dry-brushing to get a satisfying result. However my next Seafire FR.47-project
will see the Eduard-detailset. The only criticism I have on the Academy-kit is
the thick decal sheet.
Click on image to
right to see larger image |
With
the experiences of my first Academy-Mk.XIV I managed to work with
the stencils and the few cocardes I needed for my MV293. I used
Mr.Mark Softer of Gunze Sangyo to make them tractable. For all the
identification codes I used Verlinden´s 1:48 dry decals Sheet. They
are applied using a soft pencil and must be pressed into the seams
and rivets with a wooden or plastic toothpick. |
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This
was the first time I used the Bare-metal-foil taping the canopy. It´s a good
alternative to the masking liquids but after removing there remains some glue on
the canopy, which has to be polished away.
After
using some pulverized coal brushing the exhaust stripes and doing all the usual
aging I had after only 5 weeks another finished warbird model. Of course I had
only a few minutes every day for my progresses...
Dirk
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