MKII conversion or Rotal Spitfire

The conversion set comes in an A5 size zip seal bag with a cardboard sleeve sealing the top of the bag. Inside you will find two small grey sprues each containing 9 parts, instructions on a sheet of A5 card, and A4 sheet of colour guides for aircraft markings and two small sheets of decals printed by The Fantasy Printshop. There is also enough parts in this set to do two complete conversions.

A closer inspection of the parts shows that they are cleanly cast, with only a few injector pin marks are in areas that will not be seen once together so minimal clean up of these will be needed. After reading and digesting the instructions I set about installing the conversion. The set is recommended for the following manufacturers kits:

• Airfix Mk I A01001/A01071 (Old Tool)
  
• Airfix Mk Ia A01071A (New Tool)
  
• Tamiya Mk I 60748
  

I decided to use it on the Airfix Mk Ia A01071A (New Tool). After building the main components of the plane it was time to do the conversion.

Conversion

The conversion starts with assembling the propeller unit in the set, two different prop shafts are included depending on which manufacturer kit you are using. For my kit choice the propeller is a direct replacement. The seat and control column also replaced the kit parts and the rest of the kit was built to Airfix’s instructions. A nice little addition is 3d-Kits have included 2 instrument panels on the card sleeve for you to cut out and to use in your build. Obviously there is no raised detail but in this scale it add just enough interest to the cockpit.

Painting and Decaling

The following painting options are included in the set:

• 2 markings for 54 Sqn Hornchurch March 1940 Spitfire Mk I both dark green over dark earth upper and black and white lower surfaces;
  
• 71 “Eagle” Sqn August 1941 Mk II. Two markings for Plt Off William Dunn, one in dark green over dark earth upper and sky lower surfaces. The other dark green over ocean grey upper with medium sea grey lower surfaces;
  
• 19 Sqn June 1941 ‘Armagh’ Spitfire Mk II dark green over dark earth upper with sky lower surfaces.>

I chose not to do any of these marking as I was also incorporating the long range conversion.

Long Range Conversion

This conversion set comes in a little zip seal bag with a cardboard sleeve, which also provides a brief history the instructions and 2 colour profiles of the decal options, stapled to the bag. Upon opening the bag you’re greeted with two plastic parts on a light grey sprue and a small decal sheet printed by The Fantasy Printshop.

A closer inspection of the parts shows that they are cleanly cast, with only a few injector pin marks are in areas that will not be seen once together so minimal clean-up of these will be needed. After reading and digesting the instructions I set about installing the conversion.

This conversion kit has been designed for the new tool Airfix Spitfire Mk I and II kits but It is also suitable for the Tamiya,Hasegawa and Airfix (BTK) Spitfire Mk I kits. 3d-Kits suggest that but some filing of the parts will be necessary to fit the slightly different cross-sections of these kits’ wings. The dry fit shows that there was minimum fit issues on the kit I was incorporating it to and after applying some glue they was no need for any filler

Painting and Decaling

The following painting options are included in the set:

• Spitfire Mk IIa LR, 152 Squadron, August 1941, dark green over dark earth upper with sky lower surfaces;
  
• Spitfire Mk IIa LR, 66 Squadron, July 1941, dark green over dark earth upper with sky lower surfaces.

I chose to do the aircraft of the 152 Squadron. The aircraft was duly painted in dark green, dark earth and sky with the ID band also in Sky using Tamiya paints. After a coat of Klear it was time to decal. Again like my earlier Hurricane review 3d-Kits don’t include the roundels in the long range set only the necessary decal for the markings of the conversion. So I used the Airfix decals for the roundels and the sets decals for the rest. The decals are in good register and settled down well with the use of the Microset/Microsol system (it a shame the same can’t be said for the Airfix decals).

Conclusion

I really like these conversion sets and it makes a change not having to sand or clean up any resin. The parts are easy to work with and easily convert and improve the Spitfire to a MK II. A nice addition is that the MK II conversion allows you to do two complete conversions.