AndyH

Hi John Yes... Junction Box C is accurate for WWII. Quite a common practice in the Mosquito (Canadian, Brit and OZ) to have colour coded electrical system fuse box lids. The colours relate to a specific group of colour coded wiring circuits. Also the fuse box lids not only contain spare fuses but are also engraved with the relevant system circuit identifying number and fuse value. With several fuse boxes being of the same size, the colouring also makes sure that the correct lid covers the correct set of fuses when refitted if removed for maintenance etc. I quite like the look of them with their splash of colour in the back of the cockpit. I had the best intentions of posting pictures of some original junction box B's and C's to show you, including the junction boxes in the above picture before I restored them. Unfortunately it appears I don't have the facility to do so. Keep up the good work. Andy

Hi John1 You are creating some nice work here. If the model you are building is intended to represent an FB.VI then the two cockpit pictures you have posted above are not a good/accurate reference for you but are a good illustration of some differences between Canadian and British built machines. Great if you are building an FB.26. The main switch panel in he middle picture looks like your typical FB.VI switch box. The pictures are taken in the cockpit of KA114. KA114 is a Canadian manufactured FB.26 and was restored faithfully and very accurately as such. The equipment lay out, radio fit, colours etc are all very accurate. The FB.26 is the Canadian built equivalent of the British built FB.VI and are near identical in basic system operation and lay out. The two junction boxes you refer to serve the same purpose but are noticeably quite different in shape to look at between the Canadian and British built Mosquitoes. The Canadians used a lot of American style instrumentation, electrical switches, wiring loom plugs, control cable pulleys etc to name but a few items. The Canadians tended to use Black PVC for their wiring loom conduits where as the Brits liked to use a lot of Yellow PVC for their wiring loom conduits, but not uncommon to find Yellow conduit over painted Black. If you are interested the main switch panel on the right hand cockpit wall was simply referred to as Box "B" and the other behind the Navigators right shoulder which is the electrical system main fuse box was simply referred to as Box "C" Looking forward to more of your updates. Andy

Hiya Chuck. You are doing a swell job with your Spitfire. I have access to some pretty good reference material so sometimes I can answer some of those questions modellers have about the more obscure objects or airframe arrangements relating to the Spitfire based on my own observations. The Spitfire (like any WWII aircraft probably) is a mine field of fit out and colour variations. It is never my intention to tell a modeller they incorrect..... just happy to every so often offer information to allow the modeller to make their own decision. Looking forward to seeing your finished model . Cheers AndyH

Part F56...... located below the oxygen bottle. This is the voltage regulator and inverter for the Mk.II gyro gun sight power supply. If your Spitfire is fitted with a reflector sight you do not need to include this part. Another trap is part F34.... located under the rear fixed glazing portion on the left hand side of the fuselage. This item is a bomb distribution solenoid unit. So F34 is not required unless your Spitfire has wing bomb racks as well as the fuselage centre line rack. Wolf is probably correct in identifying the above Merlin as coming out of a Mosquito, as not only is it single stage super charged but it also has the fire suppression pipe work on it associated with Merlins installed in Mosquitoes. AndyH.

Hi Wolf, The middle cross shaft (with damper spring) connects to the engine throttle linkage and the other cross shaft connects to the propeller pitch control. Of the pictures posted by Chris the first three appear to be two stage merlin,B35? The bomb/cannon bay picture is FB26. Wing flaps operated via hydraulic ram as per Chris's posted illustration. Aileron control cables run along the rear wing spar. They are drawn in the illustration, two lines passing left to right across the top of the wing flap ram. In the FB26 bomb/cannon bay picture you can see the aileron control cables running front to rear along the left hand side to the pulley (top left corner of picture) where they change direction on their way to the next set of pulleys at the rear of the wing etc. Joe