The PR Mk.XIX
version of the Spitfire entered the Turkish Air Force service in 1947, when
Turkey made a sizable purchase of surplus British aircraft. Only 4 were
purchased, making them the only Griffon-engined Spitfires ever to fly in Turkish
service.
They continued
serving in Turkey until the delivery of RT-33 jet reconnaissance aircraft after
Turkey's entry into NATO. I wanted to build a model of this rare and beautiful
Spitfire variant for a long time, but for some reason no injection molded kit of
the PR Mk.XIX exists in 1/48 scale. The easiest path seemed to be using the
Academy Spitfire Mk.XIVx kit and the Airwaves resin conversion set.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
|
I
said “seemed to be”, but I knew I was wrong when I saw the kit and the
extent of the modifications necessary. The Airwaves resin set is beautifully
cast, with all resin parts necessary for conversion along with a vacuform
canopy. The Academy kit is also a very nice kit with a very good level of detail
and engraved panel detail. I first cut away the rear fuselage undersides of the
kit parts for installation of the resin plug containing the camera port details.
I assembled the canopy as is, and made the rear sidewall and pressure bulkheads
using styrene stock. I used Reheat photo-etched seat belts.
I
replaced the gunsight with a camera control box made from scrap parts and
styrene strip. The Spitfire PR Mk.XIX cockpit is pressurized, and the
characteristic Spitfire cockpit entry door does not exist in this model-I glued
the door shot.
While
the vac canopy included in the set looked good, I did not find it clear enough
and vacformed a new canopy from 0.3mm transparent stock. The most difficult part
of the assembly was the installation of the rear fuselage plug in my opinion,
this took a lot of time.
I
then proceeded to fill and rescribe the wings. The PR Mk.XIX uses a PR wing
devoid of any armament, so all the panel lines needed to be rescribed. I used my
references to fill all armament panels and rescribe the panel lines
appropriately. I cut and repositioned the elevators and added the resin details
elsewhere on the airframe, and my Spitfire PR Mk.XIX was ready for the paint
shop.
I
used PRU Blue overall, and shot some panels with a lightened tone to introduce
some variation due to wear and tear. I sprayed the model with DupliColor gloss,
and started decaling. The national insignia are made from solid red and white
decal sheets, the Turkish flag on the tail is from Kedi Decals, and the serial
number was printed on my laser printer. With minor weathering with a Prismacolor
silver pencil and a light wash, my Spitfire PR Mk.XIX was complete.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
I
am fairly satisfied with the end result, and I am happy to have built a model of
the Spitfire PR Mk.XIX, in my opinion the most beautiful Spitfire variant to
have entered service in the Turkish Air Force. I hope you like seeing my model
as much as I liked building it.
Ahmet
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
|