AIRFIX 1:72 SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE PR.XIX

 

Reviewer: Phil Chapman  (contact via SMAKR webmaster)
Kit Review submitted:  22 September 2009

Need to Know: 

Verdict in Short

A Brief(ish) History Lecture from the man in the tweed jacket:

Well, even the most apathetic modeller must know a bit about the Spitfire. Its history can be found elsewhere on this site in fantastic detail. So I am going to skip over most of it and refer only to the background of the P.R. XIX.

By 1944 the previous Spitfire photo-reconnaissance variant, the Mark XI (a development of the famous Mark IX fighter) was becoming just a bit vulnerable. The Luftwaffe, racing to keep up with the increasingly vast Allied war machine, was churning out ever faster and more powerful versions of the Bf109 and awesome Focke-Wulf 190. The photo reconnaissance units looked to the new Rolls-Royce Griffon-powered Spitfire fighters (Marks XII and XIV) as the answer to their problems, and soon Supermarine were asked to develop a new variant using the much more powerful engine. The potential to develop much greater range and ceiling was also not ignored, as fuel tank capacity was to be increased from 995 to 1146 litres over the previous P.R. variant, and a pressure cabin was added for the pilot. Power was provided by a 2035 hp Griffon 66 engine.

Combining numerous parts from earlier marks to get the XIX into service as quickly as possible, the new variant flew for the first time in October 1944. However, it was just too late to see action, as squadrons did not begin to work up until May 1945.

The PRXIX was one of the fastest of all Spitfire variants owing to its lack of drag-inducing (and heavy) armoured windscreen, radio aerials, and guns. In level flight at 26000ft (7925m), it could make 445mph.

The machine would not have been nearly as well-known as it is today but for two important facts: Firstly, PRXIX PS888 of 81 Squadron (based in Malaysia during the "Emergency") flew the last ever R.A.F. Spitfire mission, on 1st April 1954, when it photographed suspected terrorist positions. Secondly, several PRXIXs continued in second-line service until 1957 with the Temperature and Humidity Research Flight of the RAF, based at Woodvale, Lancashire, and this late survival meant that three survived to become founder members of the RAF Historic (later Battle Of Britain Memorial) Flight a year or so later. Two, PM631 and PS915, are still with the flight, and the third, PS853, is owned by Rolls-Royce and based at Filton, Bristol, UK (and hence is my "local" airworthy Spitfire. They continue to delight airshow-goers to this day.

The Kit:

It suddenly occurred to me that this Spitfire, released in July 2009, must be Airfix's first all-new 1:72 Spitfire since about 1965. And all-new it is. This is an entirely new tooling, and as such was much-anticipated by the modelling world.

This is the re-branded, Hornby-owned Airfix, and the box is of a new visual design. No more dramatic Roy Cross artwork with the Spitfire shooting down ten Messerschmitts at once (just as well-this Mark was unarmed!). The box has bold scarlet trim all over, and a vibrant computer-graphic image of the aircraft zooming out of some towering clouds.

Upon opening the box one is presented with four sprues of pale grey injection moulded plastic, the standard Airfix instruction sheet, and a new innovation, a glossy page with the marking options displayed in shiny Technicolour. Frog, Matchbox, etc did this back in the 1970s, and it amazes me that colour three-views have not caught on with the other major manufacturers sooner. I can recall at least one occasion when, confronted with two very similar grey shaded areas on a diagram for Dark Green and Dark Earth on Airfix instructions I got them mixed up!

Panel lines are etched into the matt finish plastic, and seem very crisp and clear. They’re perhaps a touch two heavy for modern tastes, recalling in a small degree the new wing parts in the Airfix Spitfire Vc. However, this problem is very minor, and they’re fine compared with the oft-ridiculed Matchbox "trenches". Otherwise exterior detail is excellent. Airfix have included the small blisters forward of the wheel wells (fuel pump fairings), and outboard of them (optional housings for small cameras). Raised detail is elegantly captured on the tailplanes and separate rudder. Trailing edges, especially on the former, are knife-sharp. There is very little flash, as one might expect from the first batch from a brand new mould.

When any new Spitfire kit comes out, its reception by the Spitfire modelling nuts is always greeted by a deluge of cries "Does it have the gull wing??" By this subtle downward curve in the wing is a new kit judged-will it soar up to join the gull-winged ranks of "acceptable" kits or be condemned to be for ever straight-winged and inadequate, forever jilted and torn to pieces by angry Spitfire enthusiasts...?

Well, as far as my relatively inexperienced eye can see, the PRXIX has a definite if VERY subtle downward cast to the wings, and that all-important trailing edge root area looks fine, so it may yet be loved by the critics...

More importantly to my mind, the complete control surfaces are moulded integral with the upper wing halves, allowing the trailing edges, freed of having to include the wing join, to be nice and thin.

Options: 

As this is an Airfix kit, the propeller rotates (a guilty pleasure of mine - I always modify other kits where possible to include this feature!). Apart from that, airframe options are mainly limited to gear raised or lowered (for the former, separate gear door/wheel parts are provided). There is also a choice of wheels: smaller four-spoke or bigger three-spoke versions. The instructions don't even mention the existence of alternative wheels, as there is no sprue diagram. So I checked my references and found all PR XIXs seemed to have the three-spoke wheels! At least, this is a post-war feature, so maybe if you wanted to model the prototype or some very early production aircraft, the four-spoke ones would be useful.

Another part that seemed to be ignored by the instructions is Part 3, a tiny hatch, which seems to be intended to blank off the fuselage camera window if one doesn't want to use the suggested clear part. The only reason I can think of for this is future conversion of the moulds to represent a pure fighter Griffon Spitfire. Which is unlikely, as you’d have to basically start from scratch & make a new kit anyway, as so many other parts would need to be different.

Decal Options:

Construction at last!

Parts breakdown is quite conventional, so one starts with the cockpit. Here the detail is also not bad, with (unusually) the correct non-solid floor, made of tube framing, captured well. A detailed control column is attached to this, but is noticeably too long, and will need trimming down. Unmodified, it would almost protrude above the cockpit coaming. Rudder pedals, moulded to the floor, are a bit simplistic, but are hardly going to be very visible anyway. The instrument panel bulkhead has the correct round hole, but he panel itself has no detail whatsoever, either a decal or recessed dials, so painting will be needed. The modeller will need to make their own camera control box (in place of the gunsight) too. 

Sidewall detail is certainly included, although which frames are included and which are omitted seems to be largely random. I added all the omitted frames and stringers with 0.02' square plasticard, which is adequate considering how little will be visible. The main problem (for the serious detailer) is that the sides of the cockpit at the bottom flare outwards, as the fuselage part (like most 1:72 Spitfires) merges into the wing root fairing. In real Spitfires, the fuselage was oval in cross section all the way through the cockpit, with the wing root fairing being a separate construction. So the sidewall structure detail should curve round underneath the cockpit floor framing and join the other side. Creating this would be too much effort for little gain (the holes in the floor are hardly big enough to see structure through. But I did extend the sidewalls downwards across the yawning holes with plasticard, so that one wouldn't be able to see into the wing root!

The whole interior was painted the standard HU78 green, with relevant highlights in black, white, and metallic colours. (Apparently the standard post-war black colour was not applied to Spitfires retrospectively) Dials were painted by my trusted method: a small circle of white paint with a slightly smaller black one on top leaving a white ring. It requires a steady hand in 1:72, but it works!  

There is a pilot who, unusually, has separate arms so you can pose him in a more lifelike way than usual (i.e. with his hands on the stick not his thighs). However the moulding quality of the figure itself is no better than Airfix's 1960's efforts. In slavish deference to modelling fashion, and because I wanted to make seatbelts, I sent him straight into the squadron mess (my pilot-filled spares box!).

The camera window door, a clear part, is glued into the fuselage from inside, so this can't be left. As it's reasonably clear and sizeable, I made a very rudimentary camera from scrap sprue and stripwood, and mounted it on a plasticard shelf pointing outwards.

The big Rotol five-bladed prop is a four-part affair; one is given the prop, spinner, backplate, and a washer to hold the free-rotating shaft into the hole in the fuselage.

Therefore this needs to be assembled before the fuselage is stuck together if you want it to spin! Some filing down of the inside of the spinner is needed for it to fit over the raised prop guides on the backplate. Fuselage join is simplicity itself, even with my added extensions to the sidewalls, and camera shelf. Following this, other parts can be added on. The exhaust stubs are very nice indeed, as are the thin and crisp tailplanes. Annoyingly, the main oil cooler intake under the nose comes in two parts (perhaps to reduce the risk of sink marks?), which require gluing together and filling anyway.

Then for the wings. Here we come to one of only two major problems I had with this kit. Airfix haven’t bothered to box in the wheel wells. The wells are just holes in the wing undersides, with no walls to block off the void inside the wings, and no trace of any detail on the underside of the upperwing. This is a problem you have with 40-year old kits, not brand new moulds. It is not insurmountable, but it took me far more effort to rectify (by building sidewalls and rib detail with plasticard) than it would’ve taken Airfix to get it right in the first place. This is the kind of thing people expect nowadays, and Airfix seem not to have noticed.

Right. Rant over, and on with the kit. The upper wings are cemented to the one-piece lower wing, which is a feature I am a big fan of, as it enables you to get the dihedral and “gull wing” right without even having to try. There are two big radiator tubs to go under the wings, which are gratifyingly detailed inside on the faces of the radiators (what a contrast with those wheel wells!). There are two small vertical camera windows on the underwing piece, in the section that extends to the bottom of the rear fuselage. These comprise two curved portholes, joined by a piece of clear plastic. They are small and thick and not that clear, so I didn’t bother making cameras for the inside. 

If you want the wheels up, then you obviously needn’t bother with making all that wheel well detail. You also should glue the single-piece raised undercarriage in before cementing the wing parts together (!) I wanted wheels down, so I selected the three-spoke tyres (see “Options”, above) and glued them onto the undercarriage legs, which are moulded integral with the doors. I’ve read much Internet ridicule about this arrangement, and I agree it is quite old-fashioned. It doesn’t allow the doors to be thinned down, and restricts the amount of detail on the undercarriage legs. However, Airfix have moulded the legs crisply and cleanly, with a nice “scissor link” hydraulic system, and the doors are pretty thin already. Furthermore, it gives much needed-strength to an otherwise spindly undercarriage. So on balance, I’d say I probably approve of this feature. I painted the wheel wells and insides of the doors Humbrol 78 (Interior Green) in line with my references.

The upper wing/fuselage join is along the same panel line as on a great many Spit kits (indeed all the Airfix 1:72 offerings seem to have identical places for lower wing/fuselage join), which is rather useful. I wonder if you could join the PRXIX wings with the fuselage of the forthcoming new Airfix Mk. IX to get a PRXI, or vice versa (using that mysterious blanking plate I mentioned earlier; and a new canopy) to get a F.XIV? Glue the pitot probe under the starboard wing at this point.

With few or no protruding bits like cannons or aerials, there is little more to do. The tailwheel and its doors are an easy assembly, and then it’s just the canopy, which is the last thing to go on if you model like me. I now always leave it off until after painting and decaling, as I’ve had too many disasters to do any different. It’s rather thick, so anybody wishing to pose it open, or see the interior, should probably shell out on an aftermarket one.

Having done this last bit of assembly, one is left with pretty much a complete Spitfire.

Painting

Humbrol have a colour for PRU Blue (no. 230), which I suspect is a new product for this kit, as I can’t find reference to it in any old paint ranges. The other colour is Humbrol 165. Painting is easy, as demarcation lines run along panel lines or plastic joints on the rear fuselage, wing roots and wings. The only tricky bit is running the demarcation lines over the cylinder head fairings on the engine. I’d already pre-painted exhausts, undercarriage, etc, so that was about that.  I painted the spinner as per instructions, PRU at the base, Med. Aircraft Grey on the tip. However, I was looking back at my references for the “References” chapter below and realised to my dismay the spinner on PS888 was actually all-white! Doh! 

The Swedish version is PRU Blue all over and so would be even easier to do.

Decals and Markings

The decal sheet is my other big annoyance point with the kit. For a start, it’s tiny. There are absolutely no stencils, wing walk lines, etc, just national markings and, for the Swedish version, unit letters and badges. Stencils are a generally-accepted part of most new kits, and Airfix wouldn’t have had to put much more effort in to make a few. I managed to paint the wing walk lines, and black wing root step areas. I’d have liked the “The Last!” lettering for PS888 as well. Clichéd though it may be, it is an accurate historical marking for which references are plentiful, and brightens up an otherwise nondescript scheme. The bigger problem came on application, though, as the decals sat down poorly, even with copious Micro Set and Micro Sol. I had to resort to painting over the silvering on the serial letters and around the edge of the roundels, which is tricky and generally annoying. Fear not, though-new aftermarket sets for the Spitfire are on the way from Freightdog Decals (I think), among others.

The nose art for PS888 was much enjoyable and easy to paint, and I got a good match to my references.

Weathering, from the pictures I can find, is considerable but not excessive for the Malayan Emergency Spitfires, so I kept it to a fairly light oil wash on the panel lines, modest exhaust stains, and a touch of chipping around the engine panels. A satin varnish finished the model.


© Phil Chapman 2009

Accuracy.

Awesome.

The shape is pretty good too, as far as I can make out. Initially I had a suspicion that the chord of the wings at the wing root was too great, and this may be so to a very small degree, but comparison to plans seem to show that the difference is only about 5 scale cm. If it troubles you, I’m sorry, but it don’t bother me. 

No doubt Spitfire rivet counters will be fussing over panel line positions, but these seem pretty reasonable, and more than acceptable for most modellers.

Conclusions and recommendations.

Well, this kit was immensely welcome. It cured like a dream some pretty serious A.M.S. I had from the Matchbox Fairey Seafox (I just needed anything that I didn’t have to attach floats or string to!). It has two major problems, but one may be cured with a bit of scratchbuilding, and the other with the purchase of some aftermarket decals (I hope, having said that, that somebody does some Spitfire stencilling!) Neither are cripplingly difficult. And other than that, you have a delightful model that goes together quickly and smoothly, with reasonable detail, superb accuracy of general shape. The Spitfire XIX fills a gap so far only attempted by MPM with a kit that is out of production, probably rather pricey, and not nearly as easy to build. So, recommended to everybody who wants a Spit that’s a “bit different” from all those green and grey ones with guns... Go forth and model. 


© Phil Chapman 2009

References. 

Several, actually.

“Flypast” magazine special publication, “Spitfire 70” (ISBN 0-946219-89-3)

A most useful guide; it details mark history, specifications, and production figures for every mark of Spitfire and Seafire. Also the purveyor of several good photos.

“Flypast”, September 2004, p. 98-99 A double-page spread on PS888 and the last Spitfire sortie, with archive photos of the “The Last!” artwork.

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/1998/08/stuff_eng_detail_spit19.htm

A very useful reference walkaround of a preserved XIX in Sweden. Useful for those who want info on the colour scheme of that happy Scandinavian country’s Spitfires, but also a good source of cockpit information.

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2007/12/spitfire-mk-xix-01.htm

http://hsfeatures.com/features04/spitfireprxixks_1.htm

Two builds by other people in 1:48. I find it helpful how others have tackled things like representing interior detail. Sometimes people highlight important accuracy issues or other gems of information that I’ve not found myself.

Philip Chapman, 2009

 

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