Tamiya Spitfire IX Questions!??

[Aviacom]

Hi,

Im just about to embark on building the superb Tamiya Spit IX kit with all the Barracuda offerings, I’m going to be doing it as MH434 as she is now at Duxford.

 

My question is are there any modifications that I need to make to the kit to make it truly represent ‘434 as she is now?

 

Am I correct in saying that she has the ‘C’ Type Spit wing?

 

Cheers.

[Anthony in NZ]

Great project....

 

Hmmm, I am not overly familiar with MH434, but I suspect you have already considered the fact that she has modern radios and antenna's.  Check the wings too, many had fuel cells in the gunbays  with corresponding filler caps.

 

Great project, and the Tamiya Spit is a wonderful model!

[seiran01]

Looking at photos of her online, she's got an interesting wing - it's got the very late war bulges over the wheel bays along with the very thin fairing (covering a bit of external support) located between the wheel bulge and cannon bulge.  Tamiya includes those wing bulges in the Mk.XVI kit on the LL sprue, the sprue is not included in the Mk.IX and mk.VIII. You should be able to source that sprue on ebay without too much trouble hopefully.

 

From what I can tell you could use the C wing or an E wing - the outboard machine gun ports appear to be solid and painted over, and why there's an absence of the faired-over second cannon/gun stub on the wings is puzzling to me. So if you want to do a true replica of how 434 looks today you'd want to remove the stub from the tamiya part and fill in the machine gun ports.

 

 

[GrahamF]

Just remember not to do it in a matt finish because it ain't. Its satin.

Graham

[Shoggz]

I love MH434, so applaud your choice! I have a framed picture of myself posed next to her on my wall, taken when my wife bought me a 'fly alongside a Spitfire' experience, and the Spitfire was MH434.

 

I've built representations of her both as she is now and as she was in WWII.

 

The guys have covered the wings, but the other most obvious differences are the fact that the modern day MH434 has the 'later' type long carburetor intake, and she has the '4-spoke' wheels as opposed to her wartime configuration of the early '5-spoke' wheels. Both of these adaptations can be be taken straight from the Tamiya Mk.IX box.

 

..Oh and I remember you mentioning that fundekals were considering doing a decal set for the modern-day version Jennings.. Did you ever get anywhere with that, as you'd have a definite customer here?!.

[Aviacom]

I also have the Revell ‘New Tool’ Spit IX with an Eduard Brassin Cockpit and Wheels, would that be a better starting option for MH434 do you think??

[Fanes]

13 hours ago, Aviacom said:

I also have the Revell ‘New Tool’ Spit IX with an Eduard Brassin Cockpit and Wheels, would that be a better starting option for MH434 do you think??

The Revell kit already has the post war bulges on the wing.

Be careful with the brassin cockpit. It looks beautiful but requires quite some elbow grease to get a good fit.