Techmod Decals 1/32 SPITFIRE Mk.IX "Clipped Wing?"

[spindrift007]

A question for the Spitfire experts. I have the Tamiya IXc and would like to build a clipped wing aircraft, but not the one that the kit has decals for. I have come across a decal sheet from Techmod Decals (32048) that has a clipped wing LF. IX LW-D PL353.

 

My question is, can I make this aircraft from the Tamya kit, out of the box? If so do I use version A, B, or C when building?

 

http://www.techmod.pl/aviation-32/32048-supermarine-spitfire-ix

 

Thanks for reading.

[Edgar Brooks]

Without a photo, it's difficult to say, since the pointed ("Mk.XII") rudder was introduced as standard from February, 1944, so PL353 could (should) have carried it, along with the extended-horn elevators,which were introduced even earlier, in 1943.

The narrow bulge, over the cannon bay, was standard by 1944, and PL353 was delivered in July 1944, before the bulged upper cowling went into production, in August, so should have had the so-called "flat" item; the "C" kit option is your best bet, but ignore Tamiya's instruction to fit the wing walkway lines over the roundels, since that didn't happen.

Edgar

[spindrift007]

Thanks guys for the info, maybe better to go with the unclipped A version, clipped looks like a can of worms, lol

[Fred Jack]

I saw a standard C Wing Mk XVl a few years ago at an air show in Oklahoma City. So you could get the LF XVle kit and swap wings with the Mk lXc. Get Barracuda's Rolls Royce manifold covers and have either a lX and a XVl or two lXs. They will both be accurate.

[Edgar Brooks]

Not if you have the engines on display; the engine compartment (and the engine itself) of the XVI differed from that of the IX. There's also some doubt that many (any?) wartime Merlins actually displayed the Rolls-Royce name.

Edgar

[Fred Jack]

I saw a real one knowing it was a Packard, But I doubt if I'd know the difference, so you're probably right, but I just thought it was a Packard built Rolls Royce. So he can still have a lXe and a XVlc

[Fred Jack]

I know no Packards displayed the Rolls Royce logo. I just thought if you put the logo on a Packard model engine, It would become a Merlin. I could be wrong. I've heard many a Rolls next to a Packard in unlimited hydroplanes, and they sounded identical.

[Edgar Brooks]

The Packard 266 carried the header tank, for the intercooler's coolant, on the port side of the intercooler body. On the Rolls-Royce Merlin, the header tank was a separate item, fitted onto the engine firewall, with a pipe connecting it to the intercooler.

Tamiya got the differences in the header tanks correct, but omitted the necessary pipework for the R-R Merlin. It was this pipework which led to the bulged top cowling on the IX & XVI (originally intended for the IX, only.) A filler cap was incorporated in the XVI's top cowling, to enable the header tank to be refilled with the cowling in situ, but it interfered with the IX's pipe, so the cowling was simply bulged up, out of the way. To save time and storage space (presumably) the same cowling went onto both Marks, giving rise to the myth that the XVI had the bulged item, when it was, in fact, due to the IX.

Edgar