Improving and Fixing Italeri´s 1/48 Spitfire Mk XVIe By Claudio Kalicinski

Introduction

Although a very nice Spitfire model can be built straight from the box using this kit, it is actually only a nice starting point for a Spitfire Mk.XVI. The extra work that is needed is not difficult and is noticeable to the experienced modeler. I find it fun and a learning experience to do the extra work and research. But as the kit was given to me for evaluation I tried to build it as straight from the box as possible. But I suffer a bad case of Advanced Modelers Syndrome (AMS). As usual though with such aggressive diseases, I could not resist the temptation and I did some modifications. and more were probably needed, but it really looks fine the way it is.

Fixing the nose profile

As I said in the In Box review the kit has a wrong nose profile, so I decided to fix it. Comparing the fuselage halves with the Sam Publications plans I realized that the fixing will be more easy than I thought. The problem is near the propeller, so I traced a pencil line where would be the correct line (7mm from the upper cowling near the propeller). I cut the cowling following the line, the section between the cut and the kit engraved line should be sanded down. Then just glue the lower cowling to the lateral cowling in the new position. It was an easy task, all the fixing took me only ten minutes.

Cockpit

Since the only opening to the cockpit would be the canopy in the slid back position, I opted to not over-do the interior details, as they would not be seen easily. The cockpit was painted with Testor´s RAF Interior Green, with the seat reddish-brown to simulate a Bakelite finish, I made the seat belts with thin metal, because I do not like the look of “decal” seat belts.

The instrument panel was painted black and dry brushed with light gray, the glasses were simulated with tiny drops of gloss varnish.

The control stick was shortened and the spade grip rounded.

I found a mistake in the instructions, they state that the throttle quadrant (part12a) should be to the right of the pilot and the undercarriage control (part16a) to the left, when they should be in the opposite position. These parts were also painted black.

I weathered the cockpit with a darkened and highly thinned RAF interior green, also I added a bit of paint chipping.

Fuselage

I glued the cockpit to one of the fuselage halve, then I glued the fuselage together. The fuselage fitting was good,. like the fitting of the upper cowling. Afterward I made a deeper hole for the fuel filler cap, this cap should be under the line of the cowling not higher.

About the upper section of the Merlin engine and the exhaust, I decided that will be easier discard the engine and cut the exhausts from the rest of the part 28. I used plasticard to make a piece inside the cowling where the exhaust will be glued. This modification saved time in masking and allowed an easier painting of the exhaust.

With the gun sight attached is time to paint the interior of the windscreen and canopy. I masked and painted both with RAF interior green, I glued the mirror to the windscreen and it to the fuselage, I did not have fitting problems with these parts.

I found the little brace behind the pilot's seat was poorly molded. So I scratch built a new one adding the armor plate that was not molded.

Wings

First, I removed the molded gun access doors and replaced them with the separate gun access doors (parts A17 and A18), to make the “E” wing (canon bulge outboard). but do not cut out the molded access doors along the engraved line of the door, because the separate access doors are a bit smaller.

With the Sam Plans as a pattern, I made the bulges over the wheel wells with 0.25 mm plasticard.

Because the “E” wing does not have the .303in guns I used Tamiya compound putty to fill the four cartridge ejector holes. The ejector hole for the canon have to be relocated to leave space for the wing bomb rack.

I glued the downwards identification lamp (part 45c) and painted it orange, but I found that the diameter of the light was too big so I made a platicard ring and glued it to the light.

I discovered that the kit has a wrong dihedral (almost a Hurricane dihedral! ) I corrected this easily by gluing first the upper half of the wings to the fuselage in the correct angle. When it have been done I glued the lower part of the wing. The fitting was good but the rear section does not completely match the fuselage. I used cyanocrilate and plasticard to fix this.

I had some problems with the wheel wells, they are too deep. Because of that, the soft plastic of the upper wings has a tendency to bend around the wheel wells. I solved that by sanding a bit the wheel wells.

The tips were attached and are a bit larger than the surrounding wing. I sanded them down to match the wing.

The next step was to attach the oil coolers, wing bomb racks and the carburetor intake. The oil coolers were a nightmare, the part of the oil coolers that have to be glued to the wing was flat but the wing has a curvature, so to correct this I made a cut in the upper half of the oil coolers and bent it to conform the wing’s surface. Also I sanded down the lower part of the oil coolers to eliminate the step between the wing and the coolers.

The lights of the wing tip were made with colored (red and blue) acrylic, once I glued the square shaped bits of acrylic I sanded them to conform the profile of the wing.

Following that I attached and drilled out the canon and the machine gun stub.

Next, I glued the tail planes, they needed a bit of trimming. Also I added the missing trim tabs on the upper section of the elevators.

Landing Gear

Undercarriage legs needed a lot of sanding, but the tires and wheel hubs were nice. I bulged the tires, this gave a nice realistic look to them.

Being a late Spitfire model, the Mk.XVI was equipped with oleo links. As I said in the In box review, the instructions show that the oleo link should be on the back of the undercarriage leg. This is a mistake, they should be in front. The kit provides separate oleo links but they have to be bent. But there is a problem, the kit pieces were too thick, so I sanded them down to an appropriate thickness and then I made a little cut where the link is gonna be bent. Then I bent the oleo links without problems.

Markings

I choose the RAF machine (TB900) of the 349 Squadron, because always liked this plane and because I have a couple of pictures of it. This particular plane was flown by Raymond "Cheval" Lallemant, one of Belgiums leading World War II Aces, pioneered allied "tank-busting" tactics flying the Hawker Typhoon. He was born in 1917 in Blicquy, Belgium. On 10 May 1940, while he was a student in pilot training in Wevelghem, Belgium was overrun by Guderians panzers.

Lallemant and six of his classmates fled through France to Morocco, where they hoped to continue their flight training. In the chaotic following days, they joined a group of nearly 400 Polish airmen hoping to make their way to England and enter the Royal Air Force. At Casablanca, Lallemant's group of aviators boarded the SS Harison, arriving at Liverpool, England, on 12 July 1940. Lallemant was posted to an RAF flying school where he completed his flight training. In September 1941, Sergeant-Pilot Lallemant was assigned to 609 Squadron at Biggin Hill. Pilots of 609 Squadron came from many countries, including Belgium, France, Norway, and Canada. Lallemant started flying Hawker Typhoons and quickly showed his ability by shooting down five Focke Wulf Fw 190's. He was awarded the RAF's Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in March 1943.

Promoted to Flight Lieutenant, he did a short stint with 197 Squadron, and then joined 198 Squadron as a flight commander. In 198 Squadron, he downed a Messerschmitt Me110 and "shared" the downing of other. Promoted again, to squadron leader, he returned to his beloved 609 Squadron as Commanding Officer (CO) in August 1944. With the battle for the hedgerows of Normandie roaring, Lallemant, using a squadron-level modification of the gun sight, made "train and tank busting" with the rocket-firing Typhoon into a fine art.

On 14 September 1944, while Lallemant was flying his Typhoon, (PD505) named "Winston Churchill," bad luck struck. He was attacking a German anti-aircraft artillery position, during the Allied campaign at Arnhem, when he was hit by ground fire. With his canopy jammed and unable to bail out, Lallemant crash landed his burning Typhoon in Merville, France. He spent several months recovering from the burns of his hands and face.

Awarded his second DFC, and returned to duty as CO of the 349 (Belgium) Squadron, that was equipped with Spitfires. This squadron remained in Germany as part of the occupation forces until being transferred back to Belgian control on 24 October 1946. But Lallemant, was forced back to England for more plastic surgery.

Returning to his native country, Lallemant remained in the Belgian Air Force, where he served first as Director of Operations, and then became Commander of a flight wing at Florennes. He spent a year at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, at Air War College and then returned home to a variety of assignments, including Command of the Belgian Fighter School and a staff tour at NATO Military Headquarters. He retired from active service in 1972 as a colonel. He wrote his autobiography “Rendez-Vous avec la chance”, now spends his time painting.

Painting

The plane was painted with Gunze Sangyo acrylics in the standard day fighter scheme introduced in May 1942: Ocean Grey and Dark Green with Medium Sea Grey undersides. I used a lightened Dark Sea Grey (H331) for the Ocean Grey, Dark Green (H73) and Light Aircraft Grey (H332) for the Medium Sea Grey.

I mixed a lighter shade of green, which was mottled over the Dark Green to simulate heavy wear on the older color, also I darkened the Ocean Grey to weather the areas painted on that color. The undersides were weathered with pastel chalks. Also I added some cordite burns from the shell ejector chutes with black pastel.

The propeller cone was painted sky despite the instructions that stated white. After seeing a picture of TB900 I am almost sure that it was painted sky , also I have some doubts about the real color of the squadron codes maybe they were painted sky too.

The paint chipping was done using Humbrol aluminum paint. I kept the chipping minimal as per my reference photos. I used chalk pastels mixed with water to weather the oil stained belly. Also I used pastels (without water) to come up with the light exhaust stain seen in my reference photos. I dusted this in the exhaust pattern and on the exhaust stacks. As a finishing touch, sprays of (highly thinned) black paint were used in some sections prone to heavy weathering.

With the weathering almost finished I coated the model with Gunze gloss varnish to prevent the silvering of the decals and to fix the pastel chalk. Then I applied the decals, they react very well to my setting solution. Nevertheless they were a bit thick and the white codes were a bit translucent.

I did not use most of the maintenance stencils because I never saw most of them on a operative machine. At this stage I realized that Italeri made a strange mistake, they forgot printing one of the short walk lines, so I had to paint it.

The last step was coating the entire model with Gunze Flat coat.

Final Construction

Well, with the kit almost finished I attached the most delicate parts: landing gear, propeller, bombs and pitot tube. The kit’s pitot tube is highly oversized so I made a new one with a plasticard microstrip and stretched sprue.

About the bombs, I discarded the 500lb and the belly rack because they were not well represented. I think that the wing bombs represent 125lb bombs because they are too small for 250lb bombs, also the tail rings on these are a bit misshapen. Anyway I decided to use them, after all this was a Fighter-bomber plane.

I unmasked the windscreen and the canopy I glued the last one in the open position, then I attached the exhausts to finally finish the model.

Conclusion

I have to say that this kit is not for beginners but someone with average skills will be pleased with the results. Viewing the completed model is a reward after all the sanding, filling, part fitting and time consuming construction on this kit. But isn’t that what this hobby is all about?

Thanks to Testors for providing the review sample.

References

• Robert Humpreys, The Supermarine Spitfire Part 1. SAM Publications 2000.

• Alfred Price, Late Marque Spitfire Aces 1942-45. Osprey Publishing 1995.

• J. P. De Cock, Spitfire Mk.IX/XVI. Éditions Atlas 1978.

• T. Hooton and R. Ward, Aircam Aviation Series Spitfire Mk.I-XVI. Osprey Publishing 1971.

• Monografie Lotnicze, Supermarine Spitfire (Parts 1 to 4). AJ Press 1996.

• Jerry Scutts, Spitfire in Action. Squadron/Signal publications 1980.