Spitfire PR kitbash questions, suggestions....
Ok, so I've become so enamered with the Spitfire PR 944 story that I thought I have to build that plane. Problem is, no one makes one. No one! So, time to determine what I need to make it work.
Thus far I have determined that Col. Blythe's bird was a converted Mk ix which they called mk xi. From the many good photos I've found of his AC it had the smooth wings and late model tail and was not pressurized. It also had the deeper nose for the 14.5 gal oil tank and wooden prop. He said in the video he had two cameras behind him, but made no mention of any others, but it appears most were equiped with two behind and two underneath in the center and staggered. No biggie there.
My issue is this, I have a Mk xix which has the correct wings and tail and is a PR bird, so that checks many of the needs right there. BUT, it is a presurized bird so no door, but I can modify that in, I think. (unless this is totally different and can't work on this fuselage) The issue is the nose is too long and the wrong shape for a ix or xi. This is where kitbash comes in. I can pull the upper nose off of the ix that I have and shorten the nose to match and thus giving the bird the correct nose, then add the deep nose for the Hasegawa PR kit conversion. I hope. I figure if I gotta cut it for the oil tank why not just give it full nose job.
The windscreen is also correct on the xix kit, so that's a huge help. As far as insignia's and numbers I can stencil them on. The issue here is does anyone know a decal sheet that has red iron cross kill marks? I'll need something like 26 or less.
I had considered using the ix kit rather than the xix kit and smoothing the wings and cutting off the tail on the xix and grafting it on the ix, but the fuselage is taller toward the tail and would require me hacking about an inch forward to get it to work, but it's doable. I don't think the ix wings are correct even when smoothed, so I rather go with the other kit instead.
Anyhow, that's kinda where I'm at. Any input or thoughts gents?
BK