The Spitfire Site

A Tribute to Britain's Finest Fighter

Modelling Supermarine Spitfire PR Mk. XIX

The Complete Conversion Guide for 1/48 Scale

Part 1 - Conversion

By Jim Kiker

Introduction

Having been in the reconnaissance business myself, I have a special fondness for ?recce? aircraft. Some time after Academy released their 1/48 scale Mk XIV Spitfires, I ran across an excellent walk around of the Swedish S-31 (PR XIX) in the IPMS Stockholm web site archives, and I was off!

Then, one of my local model geek buds found out I was thinking about doing the PR XIX, and he ?steered? me to one of the aircraft used by (then) Flt/Lt Ed Powles. During construction, Wally also arranged for me to have a conversation with Mr. Powles; what a kick in the pants to speak with the man who flew the exact airplane you?re building! Flt/Lt Ed Powles led a two-plane detachment from 81 (PR) Squadron, based in Hong Kong in the early 1950?s. His exploits included some early cold-war aerial reconnaissance, as well as taking some of the first meteorological measurements at altitude in that region of the world. And then there was the time he took his PR XIX up to 51,000 ft. Noting a problem with the cabin pressurization, he put the nose down- and darn near went supersonic during the ensuing plunge back toward the sea. He later calculated that he got up to at least .96 Mach before regaining use of his flight controls in the denser lower air (having encountered locked controls due to compressibility near Mach 1), and levelled out approximately 1,500 ft above the sea. To top it off, Mr. Powles is over 6 feet tall and barely fit into the Spitfire with the seat fully lowered. What a great story!

The Kit

Academy produced two Mk XIV Spitfire kits, including both the ?c? winged version and the later bubble-canopied one with the ?e? wing, in 1/48 scale. The Mk XIVc kit became the basis for this project.

The Academy kits build up pretty well and feature fine panel line engraving. It has some accuracy issues which will be described below. The interior detail is rather Spartan for my taste, and the propeller looks rather bad. Parts fit is fair, but this isn?t a ?shake ?n bake? kit.

KMC produced a nice resin upgrade set for this kit, and while it?s currently discontinued, it can be found. It provides a complete cockpit, new spinner and props (which is also available as a separate set, I believe), a new upper engine cowling, and new radiators, much of which I made use of to great effect.

The Conversion

Converting the Mk XIV into a PR XIX proved to be deceptively non-simple!

First, let's address the accuracy issues.

While the wings in the Academy kit are especially nice in shape, they are rather thick.
I have also come to the conclusion, along with some Spitfire experts, that the fuselage is a bit deep.
The spinner and prop require some real work. Broadly speaking, the spinner is too large and the propeller blades have the wrong shape.

In my opinion, the dimensional errors with wings and fuselage would be a very difficult thing to fix. I limited myself to sanding down the forward nose area somewhat on the top and bottom during construction.

The spinner/propeller areas can be corrected by sanding.

Fuselage Tweaks List

The conversion procedure was as follows.

Using references, I marked and scribed camera access panels onto each fuselage side. The left one also got a camera port drilled out.
The standard pilot?s entry hatch was glued into place and the seams filled in. Only the first couple of dozen (give or take) Mk. XIX aircraft were built with unpressurized cockpits and featured the standard Spitfire pilot entry hatch on the left side. Eliminating the access door only applies to pressurized aircraft, like the one I modelled.
New cabin pressurization scoop was fabricated, to go below the left engine exhaust pipes. Again, if you build a PR XIX from during WWII, check your references to see if you need to add this scoop or not.
The rear, fixed portion of the canopy on the Academy kit is too short from front to back and must be replaced. In addition, this piece extended down about 2? lower than normal Spitfires. I cut the rear area down even with the sliding section canopy sills, made a master, and vac-formed a new rear section. I glued this piece in place, smoothed the joins, and simply painted the horizontal frames in their correct location during painting.
Solid pressure bulkhead at the rear of the cockpit was added. Again, this feature applies if if you?re doing a pressurized bird.
I also decided to add some camera details since they are visible through the ports. I made a second bulkhead for the back of the camera bay, a rough approximation of the camera bodies, then added lens tubes using 1/8? plastic tubing (approximating the 6? width of these lenses). Here?s how they looked after finishing. This is not very accurate, but they look great through the camera ports! Also note the three oxygen bottles used in the XIX mounted to the front bulkhead.
The kit?s windscreen had to be replaced with a one-piece curved unit. One of the Falcon conversion sets has one, and Aeroclub makes a set of four Spitfire canopies for different marks, including a PR. When I test-fit this piece, the leading edge sits back farther than the standard kit piece, and the round shape of the bottom of the piece doesn?t fit the kit. I added some sheet plastic to the front of the cockpit and shaped it to fit the new windscreen. 7. Using references, mark and drill out the two lower camera ports; note that they are offset slightly from the centreline of the aircraft. Mine are 3/16? diameter.

Wings Tweaks List

The Mk XIV wings in the kit feature (correctly) the short- span ailerons used on the type; unfortunately, the PR XIX had the normal, longer-span ailerons, so I filled the outer ends of the kit?s ailerons and extended the hinge line out to where the wingtip joins.
The PR XIX was unarmed, so of course the cannon and their upper wing bulges had to go. And so did all of the gun access panels, panel lines, shell chutes, the whole lot. I filled in all the gun panel lines with superglue, using a pin as an applicator, a short section at a time, and then hit it with accelerator. Remember to sand each line down as soon as you?re finished getting the superglue dry, before it hardens completely. Then rescribe the remaining panel lines as needed. This proved to be the most tedious part of the project!

A shot of the airframe much later during construction. Looking down the wing, you can see the rescribed ailerons and the absence of gun access panels. Also note the dropped elevators and the scratchbuilt scoops, on the engine (the original having been lost!) and the pressurization exhaust just behind the cockpit. Finally, although it?s all but invisible here, you can see the fixed rear portion of the canopy and how my vacuformed piece comes down even with the sliding section rails.

Next, I made the two fuel boost pump fairings that go under the wings, in front of the wheel wells. The XIX had the entire front of the wings forward of the main spar made into fuel tanks, with a boost pump for each. I started with half-round strip plastic stock and carved/sanded these pieces; the hard part was getting them to match!
There were also two small, thin fairings at about mid-span on the lower wings. I robbed them from a spare Otaki (Arii) Mk. VIII kit; otherwise, they?re another scratchbuilt item.

I needed to see how all this work looked before proceeding, so I airbrushed a thin coat of the bottom colour (PRU Blue) on portions of the lower wing to see if things looked right. Also, note that the rear tips of the fuel boost pump fairings have been cut flush with the front of the wheel wells. The tips were added to the landing gear doors to match the originals.