Hot Rod Spitfire - FR.XIV (Laminar Flow Design Conversion)

[Archimedes]

Great to see this!

 

I will be following closely. My own favourite marks of the Spitfire are the Mk1, MkVIII and the MkXIV which really was the hotrod that @John1 references. This post has also prompted me to take a look at Laminar Flow Design...Thank you!

 

Kind regards,

Paul

[Martinnfb]

Catching up with this beauty. Great progress John.

Cheers

 

Martin

[Biggles87]

Although most plots seem to have loved it, according to his biography ‘ Ginger Lacey, Fighter Pilot ‘ he didn’t like the Mk XIV and said it was not a ‘real’ Spitfire. His opinion may have been coloured by the fact that he nearly wiped himself out on his first flight in one doing low level aerobatics over the airfield because he didn’t allow enough height to recover from a loop!

 

John

 

 

[John1]

4 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Although most plots seem to have loved it, according to his biography ‘ Ginger Lacey, Fighter Pilot ‘ he didn’t like the Mk XIV and said it was not a ‘real’ Spitfire. His opinion may have been coloured by the fact that he nearly wiped himself out on his first flight in one doing low level aerobatics over the airfield because he didn’t allow enough height to recover from a loop!

 

John

 

 

I've been reading up on the Griffon Spits; by most accounts, they lost the wonderful handling characteristics of the earlier Merlin-powered Spits, some accounts said the poor handling was more than offset by the big increase in power, but other accounts were much less favorable.   It didn't help that the Griffon rotated in the opposite direct as the Merlin, which caused some difficulties for unaware pilots taking off for the first time.     I look at the Griffon versions as an analog to my favorite piston-engined WW2 fighter, the F8F Bearcat.   Just a small, light airframe stuffed with the most powerful engine of it's era.    I would have loved to have seen the F8F fly combat ops during WW2, would have been a beast. 

[John1]

Small update - Starting to build up the cockpit.   I drilled out all the lightening holes on the frames and the floor assembly.   Some may not be visible, but others will be, and I think it does make a difference.   I also used Barracuda's 3-D printed control columns.   This set is amazingly cheap and amazingly well printed.    Highly recommended, my crap pictures don't do the part justice.      Only other mods made was to add foot straps to rudder pedals.   A bit of lead foil from a wine bottle and 5 minutes of cutting, assembly and painting was all it took.

 

 

 

I'll add a black wash to the floor framing to accentuate the details.    Will probably add a bit of mud to interior.   Those fields in Belgium in late '44 were quagmires.   I'm sure the pilot ended up tracking in a bit of grime into the cockpit.  

 

That's it for now, if I don't have a chance to post another update before tomorrow, hope all the US-based LSP'ers have a wonderful Thanksgiving.   

[MikeMaben]

You too John.

[John1]

I think the cockpit is pretty much done.   I'll add the gunsight and a couple of small items further down the road.    Got a lot of aftermarket and scratch-built bits stuffed into that small space.   I mentioned it before but again, having the model in your hands gives you a real appreciation for how small the actual aircraft was.    That cockpit is tight! 

 

Some of the added details are a bit crude but from the viewing angle once the fuselage is sealed up, they will look just fine! 

 

 

 

 

 

A bit disappointed in the AirScale Sutton Harness set, as it's missing the section of harness that goes into the slot at the base of the pilot's seat back.   I made this section out of scrap material left over from the set.   I'll probably reposition the shoulder harness sections once the kit is fully assembled.    

 

That's it for tonight, thanks for checking in. 

[geedubelyer]

That cockpit looks brilliant. 

Great job. 

[Biggles87]

It certainly does.

Regarding the Sutton harness, I believe the middle ‘Y’ section was missing on some later models.

 

John

[John1]

2 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

It certainly does.

Regarding the Sutton harness, I believe the middle ‘Y’ section was missing on some later models.

 

John

You think late war Luftwaffe colors are complicated?   Google Spitfire Sutton Harnesses.   Tons of info, most of it contradictory and ambiguous.     Hopefully my XIV has the earlier harness "Y" configuration, too late to go back at this point.    

 

Regarding the harness, looking at my posted pictures, I think I'm going to find some thinner stretched sprue to replicate the cable anchoring the harness to the aft bulkhead, the one in my shots above looks too thick. 

Edited December 1, 2024 by John1

[Troy Molitor]

X 2.  I love that worn looking cockpit.  

[John1]

Fuselage has been assembled and LFD's enlarged tailplane added.   The installation of the tailplane was a bit involved.   Had a good deal of cutting, sanding and test fitting.   After all that, still took a good amount of putty.   Need to hit this area with some primer, not sure if more cleanup work will be needed.   

 

 

 

Sorry for the smaller picture sizes, just got a new gaming PC and for some reason, my settings with storing / editing pictures in Imgur are a bit off.  

 

One concern I've got about this project - The FR.XIV had side mounted camera fairings added.   The fairings sit directly on top of the upper right quadrant of the RAF roundels.   I'm not quite sure how I'm going to deal with this as the fairings are pretty pronounced and if I apply the decal directly over them, the circular shape is going to be heavily distorted.   I'm thinking about two options.  First is to cut out the upper right quarter of the decal, apply the remainder over the fairing and then go back and apply the section I removed, along with probably some scrap material.  The other approach is to pop off the fairing, apply the entire decal (cutting out the section for the camera window) onto the fuselage and then reinstall the fairing and either paint or use scrap decals to cover it. 

 

Here's a closer look at the fairing (with the nice LFD recon camera peeking out).

 

Here's how it looks in RL.  One bit of saving grace (possibly) is that the camera mod was added by field workshops and one can image that the insignia was touched up by hand once the fairing was riveted in place, so possibly the work wasn't quite as meticulous as what the factory did.   This pic does show some touch camo paint around the fairing. 

 

If you guys have any suggestions on this, please chime in.  I'm getting worried that I may not be up for this challenge! 

[John1]

Been slowly plugging away on my Spitfire.  First off, I now have the LFD nose cowling attached.    A nice fit, one just needs to take their time, test fit and then test fit again.   I had a minor alignment issue, but it was because I didn't take my time, test fit and then test fit again.   Entirely on me but still a quick and easy correction.   

 

Also have the wings assembled.   LFD provides appropriate wing panels for the FR.XIV's armament - two outboard 20mm cannons and two inboard US .50 cal MG's.   This was considered to be the most effective Spitfire weapons configuration of the war.   It was widely recognized that the .303 light machines mounted in the outer wings were simply useless by 1944.  They didn't have any effect on the heavily armored Luftwaffe fighters they were then facing and were very difficult to harmonize with the inboard weapons.   Basically just unnecessary weight being added.   For the version I'm building (RM876), Aviaeology's wonderful decal instructions state that although the .303's were removed (along with the shell case ports on the lower wings), the blast tubes in the leading edge were left in place and the openings simply covered with doped fabric.   Later XIV's had the MG openings permanently sealed.  

 

 

 

Note the LFD revised .303 access doors with the shell case ports sealed. 

 

Whilst on the subject of LFD's attention to detail, check out the inside of the carburetor intake.   3-D printing at its finest (disregard the seams and putty mess, this area was still a work in progress).

 

Next up was to install the wings.    They mated nicely with the kit fuselage and the LFD cowling.   While perusing some modeling forums, I came upon some interesting information - apparently from August 1942 on, all Spitfires left the factory with the forward wing sections (from the spar forward) puttied and sanded to improve aerodynamics (similar to what was done on Mustangs).   Never knew this before and don't recall seeing any models replicate this feature.   I read some suggestion about using Mr. Surfacer 500 but didn't want to wait for this stuff to be shipped to me.   Instead, I taped off the area, applied a very light skim coat of good old Tamiya grey putty (probably the best putty I've ever worked with), waited a bit for it to firm up (not as long as normal) and then sanded away with medium and fine grit sandpaper.   Total amount of time to get this done was less than hour.   I did make sure to leave the leading-edge fuel tank filler caps exposed.     All of those other wonderful Tamiya surface details are now gone.

 

Work in progress.  Outer wing has been puttied and sanded, inner is next. 

 

 

Putty/sanding completed.

 

 

It looks like I have things sanded down nicely, but I'll hit this area with a bit of primer to make sure.   Won't be a big deal to correct if needed.  

 

One non-modeling comment.    As I build this kit up, I'm starting to see why some people believe the Spitfire to be a work of art.   I never paid much attention to the Spit in the past and just by looking at pictures, you really don't get a feel for how pretty this aircraft really is.    However, by building this modeling and holding it in my hands, I really do now understand those comments.   The Spitfire is truly a beautiful aircraft.   Much more so than any of the "industrial" aircraft churned out by the US during the war.  

 

This concludes my long-winded update for today.  Thanks for checking in, all comments and critiques are welcome. 

 

 

 

 

 

[geedubelyer]

That's fine work John. 

She's looking superb. 

[Iain]

Excellent progress John!

 

Iain