The Aircraft:
The last war-time iteration as a fighter of the celebrated Spitfire - Mk-21s were already in service - and going per Wikipedia, "the Mk XVIII was a refinement of the Mk XIV. It was identical in most respects including engine (the Griffon 65) and cockpit enhancements, but it carried extra fuel and had a revised, stronger wing structure. Its handling was also nearly identical and so it was not put through any performance tests. Like the Mk XIV there were fighter and fighter reconnaissance variants built. The Mk 18 missed the war. Some 300 F Mk 18s and FR Mk 18s were built, before production ended in early 1946". While larger, heavier, and considerably more powerful that their Merlin brethren, the XVIIIs were unruly beasts on the ground and a pleasant aircraft to fly and fight in the air.
Post-war service was reduced to four squadrons, two in the Far East and ohter two in the Middle East. About the last ones, the 32nd and 208th had the unenviable task of going against the newly created Israeli Air Force during the so called "Palestinian War" of 1948-49; along their Tempest VI-equipped sibling, the 6th. More on this can be found here, with plenty of data, photographs and maps. A very good and interesting reading.
To give you an idea of what a formidable aircraft it was, the following excerpt by IAF pilot Chalmers “Slick” Goodlin, also ex-RCAF and a former U.S. Navy and Bell X-1 test pilot recalled his combat against a 208th Sq. FR.XVIII flown by Flight Officer Cooper:
"I could not gain close proximity to the Spit 18 due to the lesser power in my Spit 9. At about 16,000’ the Spit 18 rolled over and dived back towards me at an impossible deflection angle, with machine-guns blazing and exhaust smoke rolling out under both wings... I only recognized the RAF roundels after the Spit 18 had fired on me, when we were in the scissors engagement and I had no alternative but to fight back to save my own bacon”. Cooper got shot down but eventually managed to evade.
The kit: MPM's Spitfire FR.XVIII (C72026):
First things first. This is an old kit. 1993 vintage. MPM "extrapolated" the XVIII from their previous XIX. I got it at a Facebook swap/sale group and while its, uh... how to say it... contents? Hum... no, nevermind. There's a crude plastic sprue with fine, crisp scribed detail, the usual PE fret (much appreciated!) and a clear vac canopy, which in my case was replaced with a Revell Spit XIV canopy by the seller. More on this later.
Kind music to listen for a build "trés mouvementeé".
Always craving for the unusual, and having a penchant for the Israeli War of Independence, GZ-?/TP448 was the scheme of choice. Built at Aldermaston factory with a Griffon 67 engine, it saw the following asignements:
- 33MU 16-1-46
- St.Mawgan 15-6-46
- MED(ME) Fayid 1-8-46
- 109MU 25-3-48
- Ramat-David 5-48
- Struck Off Charge 26-8-48
I managed to find a picture of TP448 on the Internet, scorting an Avro, while another one is in a book which shows this very machine tipped over its main wheels and a propeller tip which very much grace and non-chalance. Obviously, a minor incident but clear about the Griffon's torque menace.
Building the XVIII, two things come to mind. First one, this is a '93/94 vintage short run kit and deserves some respect. The second stems from taking a hard, long look at the pieces and it says "Oh, boy. You're out of your depth, old cock". Then you come to terms with it and the hefty numbers of crappy... I mean, delightful short run kits under your belt. You're in for a fight. But the crisp and classic MPM panelling is there, the potential for a nice kit as well. Only true nagging: the exhausts and prop angle seem a bit overdone when compared to photos of the real beast. Since it would require major surgery, I let it be for sake of speed and mental health.
So, parts were cut off and savagely sanded into submission and something resembling a close fit as I could get them to. Pebbles and flash obliterated by vivaciuos trimming and polishing, camera ports were drilled at this time, minding to bevel down the inner rim so as to provide a correct thickness for Clearfix to be applied, as were the gun ports.
Mind it has the E wing, so you only need two per wing, outboard and inboard, cannon and MG wise. Also, a light "X-Acto" pass was given to the forward edges of the moving surfaces, in order to visually separate them from the mainframe.
When putting it all together, mind the PE fret is both old and thin. So it deserves some careful clean-up and folding. The whole was painted in Humbrol's Cockpit Green H-78 and H-33 Black.
After some dry fitting, the fuselage halves were glued. Mind the cockpit is slightly wider, so its sides have to be trimmed for it to fit leveled. Further sanding revealed that mating the fuselage to he wing was to have its fair share of coertion, cursing and kind mortification. Look at that beautiful intake step.
When cleaning up the propeller, be careful not to bend the blades and since they have reef-like "outcrops", some reshaping is in order. The back plate needs some clean-up as well. Radiators are a fairly easy task to tidy up, some attention is to be had with the PE faces, since they're slightly larger than their sockets. Stabilizators are a traight deal, with minor clean-up. Thorough cleanup of the lower joints took up considerable time. Special care was taken not to botch-up the cammera holes, since they're in the middle of the fuselage.
The upper cockpit fairing was added and the upper joints faired in as well. Joints filled and sanded, the nose section was the most problematic of the entire build. Careful lining up was taken so as not to flatten the wings dyhedral, commonly seen in short run Spitfires whose owners haven't taken the time to trim the wings and fuselage so they fit effortlessly.
The upper fairing got the armoured headrest and a small piece of stretched sprue was used for its bracing. To the left of it, you have to add the fuel tank filler cap, achieved with two differently sized pieces of sprue. A plastic square and a clear lense were used to replicate the Mk.II gunsight. As can be seen, parts fit is far from ideal, but with some cyano and filler they can be made to fit well.
Cannons and MGs were added, from the kit the aforementioned cannons and after some thorough cleaning; the later were round-sectioned resin stubs which fit perfectly since the kit parts were too distorted to be used. The canopy was then attached, some minor adjustment required since it was intended for a much older kit.
The colour scheme was applied in the following order: Humbrol's H-90 Sky for the fuselage band and H-154 Lufthansa Yellow for the wing stripes and propeller tips, H-167 Barley Grey for the underside, H-30 RAF Dark Green and Monitor's 19B Dark Grey for the upper side. H-33 Black and H-19 were used for the blades and cone, respectively.
The windshield was painted H-33 Black and the canopy itself H-78 RAF Cockpit Green, as per photographs.
First to be applied were the H-90 and H-154. Some other work got the table treatment while waiting for it to dry. The spanish Bulldog was further advanced in its building process, while the Letov S.16 got disarmed and dismembered for another project.
Once the painting process was over, the entire airframe was sprayed with Humbrol's Gloss Cote and left to dry. Did I mention the decals? Horrible, thin, murderous contraptions printed by my beloved Propagteam folks. None of them settled well, no matter how much lukewarm water, proverbial spit and prayers to Joe Pesci (Come back, old Georgie, we apologize for everything). They curled, ripped or exploded at the bare sight of the kit.
Around that time, and without proper replacements at hand, I was faced with a philosophycal predicament. Wether to carry on with the build and finish it or take leave of my senses and scavenge for new decals.
It's midst of February, a scorching 30ºC in average, working 14 hours a day just to stay above water and my fiancée is driving me nuts right down to a splitting personality or parting ways situation. WWJPD? comes to my beleaguered mind. What would Joe Pesci do? And, there it was. Lethal Weapon 2. The answer: " I'm Leo Getz, and whatever you want, Leo gets". Me? I want out. Out of this build, at least. So I had to let it be. Enough trouble. Enough of those dreadful decals.
The landing gear was glued on, and mind the scissor links for it go on the outside or forward position. The kit wheels were so out of shape that a similar four spoke wheel set was taken from a derelict Heller Hurricane Mk.I. So I varnished the whole thing in Matt Cote, before attaching the propeller and the antennae, made from stretched silver sprue. Some dusting with H-118 Light Earth; Oil, Rust and Smoke from Mig set #7, and a light chiping with a silver pencil and I called it "quits".
The finished quagmire:
And it was done. It fought me every step of the way. I could cope with a troublesome building process, but the decal joke was the killing one. It absolutely anihilated any desire to fix the thing and put me off for a whole month before I got back to the bench. Predictably, it was the last kit built at my old apartment, since shortly after completion I called quits on my relationship as well. You have to preserve some sanity for yourself if at all possible, for no one is going to save it for you.
And you know, "What you want, Leo gets".
In the end, I got.
Till our next installment, take care and good luck.
TMU.
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