Hello all, I know we have a few here who know a lot about and/or love the spitfire. I am currently building Tamiya's 1/48 mkI kit. However, looking at markings, I am kind of interested in making it a mkII. A book I have says that the only real noticeable exterior difference is a bulge on the engine cowling. So...

Is this true?
Would it be a hard conversion? say by adding some plastic strips (or something) and some putty?
Does anyone have pictures of this 'bulge' so I can see?

Thanks.
Leon

BTW: some pictures of the current build. I'm pretty happy with how it is going. Up to this point I have never really been happy with the cockpit wash, but this time it more or less worked for me. Opinions?







Leon

Here is a site that lists the differences between Spitfire marks.

Leon, looking good.
I believe the bulge you are refering to is for the "Coffman starter" it used a blank cartridge similar to a flare.
I may have a pic somewhere, it is only a small bulge on the right of the engine cowl, so should be easy to depict.
Mal

Thanks guys, I appreciate the help.

I was looking around yesterday, and happened upon the ultracast site and found this:
http://www.ultracast.ca/products/48/113/default.htm

It is for a blunt spinner, but includes a 'blister' for the coffman starter on mk II's. Now I'm really not looking to spend $9 on something like that, but it made me wonder... is the spinner in the Tamiya kit inappropriate?

Anyway, Mal if you do have any pictures of the blister and/or placement of it, I would really appreciate it. I think from the ultracast sample, it doesn't look too hard to replicate.

Leon

Well geez. Armed with the name and knowing that ultracast makes one. I did some further searching and came up with this.

http://s96920072.onlinehome.us/ISL/Ultracast/48112-48113/48112-48113.htm

I think with this, I should be able to atleast fake it. Again thanks, as the info you both gave was very helpful and allowed me to get here.

I'm still curious about the spinner, though. Is it one of those, you have to know your specific plane things?

Leon

Hi Leon,
I haven't had chance to look for a pic but of course you second link shows all you need to know. You will have to check pics of the particular plane you are modelling for the difinative answer on the spinner. I don't know if all Mk IIs had the same spinner.
Mal

Thanks again Mal. As always, I really appreciate your help.
Leon

Hi Leon
Apart from the cofman starter bulge I think the Mk11 also had two reinforcing strips above the main gear wells inline with the wheel bay there is a photo of the BBMF Mk2 on the following site and you can see these strips.www.bbmf.co.uk. . I think I have some drawings somewhere I will have look.

Dennis

The Mk.II Spitfire was a Castle Bromwich-built Mk.I with the design 'frozen' to speed production. It differed from the Supermarine-built Mk.I by :-

A Coffman cartridge starter instead of an electric starter. This necessitated a small teardrop shaped bulge just below the centre-line and behind the spinner on the starboard side.

A Rotol variable pitch propellor. This had a more bulky and more rounded spinner than the de Havilland unit usually fitted to the Mk.I

Late production Mk.II's seem to have had the circular oil cooler (as in the Mk.V) instead of the semi-circular unit fitted to the Mk.I

The upper-wing strengthening strakes are a red herring! They were an in-service modification and seem to be most prevalent in OCU-operated aircraft. They can be found on MK.I, Mk.II and Mk.V airframes.

I hope this helps. Email or PM me if I can help further.

Ian