Hi guys New on this forum but I need your expertise friend of mine is a aircraft nut he lives and dies planes especially the spit and the hurricane. now we were chatting and he said he always wanted a model of a spit preferbly one that took part in the D day invasion, so big mouth here said he would build one for him now Im an armour guy and Im not up on what version i should look for, Im thinking 1/48 and maybe some after market cockpit and under carriage gear can anyone help. when i build it i will post some pics as long as you all dont laugh.Cheers

Hi John, if you are looking for a D-Day period spit the obvious one would be the Mk 9. All the 1/49 mk 9 spits I'm aware of have problems regarding dimensional accuracy but the two that seem to get the best comments are the Hasegawa and ICM kits.
I've built the ICM one and there were no great problems, apart from some sink marks to rectify. I did a review on it in the reviews section. The cockpit detail was good and the decals were nice and thin. There is also a merlin engine for displaying with the engine panels removed.
The Hasegawa kit has a problem with the fuselage length and shape although I've seen one built and it doesn't look too bad, if money isn't an issue Loon Models do a complete replacement fuselage for it. If you stick with the Hasegawa fuselage both Aries and CMK do resin cockpit detail sets.
I did a quick search on Hannants site and there are loads of extras for interior and exterior detail plus a massive choice in replacement decals.

Hi John!

First, I must say I'm not a Spitfire specialist, so I guess the real help will show up soon!

Anyway, I have two kits... well in fact three, that could match your request.

The first one would be Academy's Spitfire Mk XIVc (see below). It's a late Spitfire with a cool aggresive look. The kit comes with a D-Day decal sheet. The kit is from 1996 and seems to be of good quality even if the detail could be better on the cockpit sides...



The second one(s) is Ocidental's kit of the Spitfire Mk IXe. The boxing is also a D-Day one. Unfortunately I bought mine second hand and the decals were missing... the ones you see on the pics are from Aeromaster. The white sprues are an ICM kit of the Mk IX too. I bought once a "multi box" of three kits and the Spit was included. So an ICM Mk IX could also do the job.



As I said, I'm not aSpitfire specialist and you can expect more help soon! But I recommend you to buy a specific D-Day boxing. This way you could be sure the plane you'll build is accurate for the Normandy theatre.

Jean-Luc

EDIT: Hi Martin! I knew help was on the way!

Thanks for all your help guys, can any one reccomend a idiot proof filler for me.

I dont know if there is such a thing as idiot proof filler but try the Tamiya filler. Used it when i was building planes back then and it did well.

Hi John!

I'm also using the Tamiya filler and I'l happy with it. But I never tried an other one Maybe I could change for a try and compare with other brands...

Jean-Luc

I've used a variety of fillers over the years but the two I use now are stretched sprue or Tip-Ex, or a combination of the two.

i use talcum powder mixed with kleer, smells lovely when you rub it down!

Hi
I know this may be a bit late in the day now,but Spit MkVs were also present during invasion operations.So thats another to add to your list.There was an article in SAMI can`t remember which issue though.

Dennis