Spitfire Mk XIVe Conversion
By Howard Weaver
After building the usual group of 1/32 scale spitfire kits on the market, I wanted to do more. I built the Revell MK I, and the Hasegawa MK Vb, and the MK VI. I even built the Matchbox MK 22/24. Then I got an Idea from a fellow modeler I met over the Internet. He suggested that I try a conversion to a MK XIV by combining parts of the Hasegawa MK V, and the Matchbox 22/24 kits, a term that is known as “Kit Bashing”.
After acquiring the two needed kits, I did some careful measuring and found that it would be possible to do this. I always liked the looks of the MK XIV with it’s Griffon nose, five bladed prop and cannon armament. It still retained the elliptical wing too. Spitfires with the MK XIV designation can either have bubble canopy’s and a cut down rear fuselage or they can have the “razorback” spine of the earlier Spitfires. I chose to do the earlier style with the “spine”. Another thing that influenced my decision was to do Ginger Lacey’s aircraft in a S.E. Asian scheme.
The first thing that was done was to carefully cut out the cockpit areas from just ahead of the cockpit to a point just ahead of the rudder in the same places from both model kits. I did this by using masking tape templates to transfer exact measurements from one fuselage to the other. Then the cutouts were made with a razor saw and Xacto knife. Another thing that was useful at this point were scale drawings that were enlarged to 1/32 scale. By laying the fuselage halves over the plans, the parts were correctly positioned. See photo. Now the MK V interior was installed into the modified fuselage halves, and the assembly then proceeded as per the Matchbox instructions. The engine was installed etc. About the only deviation from plan here was that I drilled out the exhaust stacks.
There are several types of Spitfire wings, bit the “E” wing as used on the MK XIVe had 20 mm cannon in the outboard positions and 50 cal. machine guns in the inboard positions, so the gun bay covers with blisters were modified accordingly. Next the wingtips of the MK 22s were cut off and using scale drawings, new wingtips were made from plastic card. Now to the bottom side of the wings. The Mk22/24 wheel wells had outboard doors. The earlier Mk XIVes did not. The wheel wells had to be re-shaped to a round shape similar to the ones found on the MK Vs. I also dropped the flaps on my Mk XIV and also the elevators. The cannon fairings and gun barrels were modified and 3/32” brass tubing were installed for the 50 cal. blast tubes.
Wheels and tires from the Matchbox kit were used on the MK XIVe. The radio antenna is a whip type made from .020” brass wire. The paint is Aero Master dark earth and Dark Sea Gray upper surfaces with Ocean Grey lower surfaces. The roundels were scrounged from a Revell P-47 kit. The call letters were scratched.
The pilot figure shown in some of the photos is of Sergeant pilot Ginger Lacey by Ulrich Puchala and is a very well molded figure.
Don’t worry about the leftover parts, you can make a MK XVI from them. I have built one, but do not have a photo yet. When I do have one, I’ll send one to LSP.
Well that’s about it. Try this one out if you’d like a challenge. It’s really not as difficult as it seems.
© Howard Weaver
This article was published on Wednesday, July 20 2011; Last modified on Saturday, May 14 2016