BAC Spitfire XIV.

[Ian M]

The first build of the New Year....and the winner was a Spitfire...big surprise.

I would of liked to do the original version that BAC raced in 1945 or 46, but that was a mk21 not an easy kit to find in 1/48. As it happens I did find one and will be getting hold of it soon.

BAC thought it would be rather good to have their one back as well. Apparently a real mk21 was out of the question as well so they got hold of a mk.XIV and did that up. She is still flying today.

Well that was enough of that. The Kit I had in the stash is an Academy 1/48 mk.14 to which I have a set of Decals that just happen to have the BAC Spitfire on.

On opening the kit and looking at the detail I thought now that can be better. So I set about the cock-pit with diverse bits of evergreen and stretched sprue. After an hour or so I had gotten it to this point.

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After a splat of primer and a bit of paint it looks like this.

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Having gotten this far, I could close the fuselage and let the glue dry overnight.

Should you all be wondering "whats with the big white clump" the Academy kit has Photo ports the BAC one did not. So those clumps are white milliput that just needs to harden off before I sand the excess off on the out side.

See you tomorrow!

Ian M

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[papa 695]

Now thats looking very very good Ian

 

[Edgar Brooks]

Delete this if I'm wrong, but if you are talking about the "Blackpool Racer," that Spitfire 21 actually belonged to 41 Squadron, and was borrowed by a visiting Wing Commander. The red stripes, on the wings, fuselage and tailplane, were designed to give a view of a Cross of Lorraigne (41 Squadron's badge) as the aircraft turned round the pylons. I was fortunate enough to meet the man who painted the 21, and he gave me the full details. The races were rained off, and, shortly after, 41 converted to the Hornet.

A good way to get a 1/48 Spitfire 21 is (if you can find it) the Aeroclub fuselage plus the spare set of wings from the Airfix Seafire 46/47; the only real difficulty will be finding a spare set of contraprops and a Spitfire 18 rudder.

Edgar

 

[Centurion3RTR]

Some nice scratch building there Ian, looking good mate.

Have fun, John

 

[yak face]

Hi ian , great additions to the 'pit! Sounds like a great looking spit, you know im partial to a nice racer, only one thing - would the racer have had the gunsight removed ,or was it still as standard? Looking forward to seeing the colour scheme, cheers tony

 

[snapper41]

I was the history officer (an additional duty for a young officer!) on 41(F) Sqn in the early 90s, and researched the red and white scheme from the Sqn archives for a Spitifire that was being restored; the owner wanted it in red and white. When it was finished, he bought it up to Coltishall and flew it with one of our Jaguars that was painted up for the Sqn's 75th Anniversary.

 

[colin m]

Great work there Ian, but I'm surprised the Academy kit is lacking so much interior detail. I've just done a P51 Mustang in 1:72 and the cockpit was great. Is your Spitfire an old kit ?

Colin M

 

[Ian M]

Thanks for the tips Edgar. I have looked at the options for cross kitting a 21, bau as you point out half the bits you would need are also rather hard to get hold of and if I ever get hold of a Seafire 47, it will be built as just that.

I have an ordre in for a 21, its a resin kit so a bit pricy.

Ian M

 

[Ian M]

Great work there Ian, but I'm surprised the Academy kit is lacking so much interior detail. I've just done a P51 Mustang in 1:72 and the cockpit was great. Is your Spitfire an old kit ?Colin M

I was too! flaps control, throttle ans a radio. A few ribs that was it.

Ian M

 

[snapper41]

Thinking a bit more - the guy who owned the Spit (see my earlier post) owned a company called BAC - they did replacement windows. I think there's a bit of confusion in your first post, Ian!

 

[Ian M]

Just a little. The Original was flown, or rather prepared for the Bournemouth air races.

When BAC Aviation brought TD 248 they had that painted up the same. I knew what I ment. lol. I just didn't do a very good job of explaining it.

Having had a bit of luck googleing this evening I have found out this:

TD248 was issued to service 11th may 1945 and arrived at Brize Norton 6MU for preparation for 695 squadron with the code 8Q-T.

Withdrawn from service dec '47 after a bit of a bender.

After reparation it it was returned to service 14 may '48 coded 4M-E.

August 1951 TD248 was transferred to 2 Civilian Anti Aircraft Co-operation Unit

March 1953 the unit moved to Langham, Norfolk and in May 1954 TD248 was withdrawn from service and stored at 9MU RAF Cosford pending disposal.

October 1955 it was issued to No 610 Sqn RauxAF for static display at Hooton Park, Cheshire with the codes DW-A.

It was subsequently allocated to the Air Training Corps at RAF Sealand where it until acquired by Historic Flying in 1988.

TD248 flew again in November 1992 in the striking silver and red livery of 41 Squadron Spitfire F21 that participated in the Blackpool Air races of 1948/49.

The aircraft was sold in 2005 and the new owners had it re-sprayed in it's new colour scheme of 74 Squadron 2nd Tactical Air Force May 1945. It is operated by Spitfires Ltd. and maintained by the Aircraft Restoration Company.

Phew!

Should you want to read more its all here

Not getting a lot done today but its got me thinking.

Ian M

 

[Edgar Brooks]

When TD248 was painted red & silver, the owner was Eddie Coventry, who might be the "C" part of BAC.

Edgar

 

[treyzx10r]

Ian the office is looking sweet! Great work on the scratching there and glad you expained the big blobs of miiliput was really scratching my melon on that one lol.Looking forward to seeing more of this,looks like you're off to a great New Year of building!

 

[snapper41]

It was indeed Eddie Coventry

 

[Ian M]

Been sticking sanding and polishing like a mad man while trying to figure out where I am going with this.

Research is a good thing but now I am more confused than clarified!

Any way here is where we're at.

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The fit is pretty good and 99% of the seams could be scraped and polished out quite well, There is a micro seam just in front of the cock-pit but that might well just be paint in the glue... Hmm.

The wing root fillet needs a quick rub to remove an edge along the join where the top and bottom meet.

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Here is one of the two problems I have. The kit has a rather nice Five bladed prop, as was fitted to the mk XIV. TD248 in every photo I have seen thus far has a four bladed prop...

I have three different four bladed props from Spitfires, not one of them fits, the spinner is to small.

Back to the Google monster.

Ian M

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[Ian M]

OK regarding the following comment it is allowed to laugh.

I have figured out why there are so many small differences between the photos I am finding and the kit that I have.

The kit is a mkXIV TD248 was a mkXVI.

So when you have had a good laugh, any one got any ideas.

Ian M

 

[Edgar Brooks]

You might need to grovel, but Hornby issued the 1/48 Mk.IX, with bubble-top fuselage, to Airfix club members, a few years ago, and I believe that it included TD248 markings; I think that ICM do/did a XVIe, as well.

Edgar

 

[Ian M]

Correct on both items Edgar.

I found a couple of original XIV photos on the www, from 41squadron. So I might just do it as one of those.

Codes would they of been grey or sky, do you know?

Ian M

 

[Edgar Brooks]

Sky, and note that 41 used the XIV into 1945, when the tail band was painted over, the spinner went to black, and the upper wing roundels, though staying the same size as before, now resembled the underside roundels in style, namely with a thin white ring. Some Squadrons got it wrong, and added a yellow ring to the wing roundels, but that was due to a misinterpretation of memo from an Air Ministry official, and, as far as I can tell, 41 Squadron got it right.

Edgar

 

[Ian M]

Well I'm sitting here in a cloud of primer and feeling "happy".

Mr. Brooks: Do you happen to have any good references regarding MV 268 as flown in 1945 by a certain Mr J Johnsen? I am a little troubled by the code. On a resent "repaint" the codes are presented in the normal way. I have only seen a couple of profile drawings of the war time aircraft and that had all three code letters in one group.

I would like to be more sure about this before I commit to paint.

Which is correct. JE-J or JEJ - Being the last war time Spit that JJ flew I thought it appropriate to paint this kit as that aircraft.

To all of those that are expecting to see an air-races Spit: Fear not! This thread will continue in that vein. Consider this a little diversion.

Ian M