Spitifire Mk.XVIII conversion
Murphy's Law at its finest

Juan M Leria
Since I watched a colour profile published in Airt International (maybe just this [img1]) I wanted to add a long-nosed Spitfire to my collection.

The trouble was that at that moment there wasn't in kit form in 1/72 at that moment, the resin conversion by Airwaves was the only source available (or so I thought).

The resin set is very basic, just the resin nose and spinner and five metal blades, with very basic instructions and teh recommendation for the Heller's Spitfire XVI kit; so I needed a lot of reference.

Now, thanks to the web, it's very easy to gather information; but in the early '90s the only sources were the books and magazines, not easily available then here in Spain, even in Madrid. After some months, I was able to collect some pictures and plans about the subject thanks to my model mates.

Next come the choice of the starting kit. Instead of the recommended Heller kit, I selected the Matchbox ones, thinking it would be easier as it includes the standard wingtips. WRONG!!! This kit is very bad, having very poor basic shapes, lacking the typical gull-wing shape in the trailing edge. As you can see, I had to rebuilt that area with superglue gel, the only material which gave enough strenght in such a delicate shape.

I opened camera ports, added cockpit detail, some from an Airwaves set and some from scracht (i think I have a printed pic somewhere), inlcuding seat, and cameras. Also the entire retractable tailwheel, some detail to the wheel wells, wire mesh to radiators, re-shaping tail, new wheel hubs.

I had to interchange the gun-bay covers, as the bulge should be on the outer side. The guns were rebuilt with plastic and brass tubing, the 12,7 guns are tips of discarded 0,2mm stylographs (by my job, I had lot of them).

All the exhaust pipes were done with brass tubing, one by one. As I like to have full motion in the propeller I placed an axis with a pin, a breath and it turns smoothly.

Of course, all panel lines were sanded and scribbed.

I made a vacform canopy too.

When most of the building work was done, Murphy's Law started to have effect: MPM just released its Spitfire XVIII, Fujimi's family of XIVs arrived shortly after, and Academy followed them a few months later.

I painted the model with Humbrol paints, masking with Parafilm M. The roundels and fin flash come from the spares box (Frog, I think), the serial from an Aeroclub sheet, and the squadron markings and code letters were painted with the aid of transfer stencils, with final freehand touches in the horn.

Murphy's Law applied here again. I had not seen any picture of the real aircraft, all was based on the colour profile. My doubt was how to place the squadron codes on the starboard side. Most of the Spitfire few pictures I saw of that side then had the same order, with the individual letter to the right of the roundel, so I decided to go on that way. Some years later I found a picture of the real subject.... and the letter was to the left :'-(
Moreover, more years later I knew that it had also the serial in the bottom wing, and part of the leading edge painted yellow (decals by Freightdog Models).

Finally, I presented the model in a contest and received the 'Best of Show' award.... after being initially discarded by the judges, believing it was the Fujimi kit! (it was placed between three of them)

One final note about Murphy's Law: some years later I learned of the existence of a model by Ventura, which included this scheme in the decals. I'm not sure if it was released BEFORE I started mine.

Urban Gardini
Nice build!

As for Murphy's Law, remember O'Toole's addendum to Murphy's Law! He said that Murphy was an optimist...

Holger Kranich
Murphy`s law didnt meant it good with you but this Spitty looks pretty nice, even with the failures! Have you used enamels for the paintjob?🙂

Juan M Leria
Thx Holger. Yes, I always use enamels.

Bill Gilman
Very nice, Juan! I love Spits with bubble canopies and five-bladed props. The only ones better are the Sea Spits with contra-rotating props.

Don't know about Murphy's law, but Parkinson's Law is always accurate for me: "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." Especially for modelling!