We all know the
beautifully familiar look of the Supermarine Spitfire but what some folks don't
realize is that the USAAF flew them during World War Two in a reverse lend lease
arrangement with England. The Mk Vc was one of the variants operated by the
USAAF during the conflict and the aircraft I modeled was flown by the 307th
Fighter Squadron, 31st Fighter group in Sicily during the Summer of 1943. The Mk
Vc had the new "C" wing installed which eliminated the upper surface
blisters for the landing gear found on earlier marks. There was also a provision
for two 20mm cannons on each wing instead of just one. Later airframes had
the M-series Merlin engine installed which required wing stiffeners to be added
on the upper surface over the wheel wells. My aircraft did not have this so
these and the blisters Tamiya molded onto the wing had to be removed...more
about that later.
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Tamiya's Spitfire kits were
eagerly awaited and were a bit of a disappointment when they arrived, having some
accuracy issues with the shape of the canopy as well as other parts. I for one
like them except for the canopy...here I believe the Hasegawa kits a clearly
better and most will agree that the old Airfix kits still have the best shape,
if not good detailing. The build started with the cockpit, not surprisingly, and
its quite good for this scale though a bit heavy handed. I would replace it with
an Eduard set if your thinking of having the canopy opened. Since that was not
my plan I used the kit interior. The fit was good overall during construction
with the usual work required around the fuselage to wing joint. The kit offers a
choice of wing tips and special care is required when installing them. The
Spitfire's outer wing is very thin and great care must be taken to align the
wing and the tips evenly. There is no extra plastic out here to sacrifice should
you get a wingtip a bit out of line! The kit was pre-shaded and sprayed with
Modelmaster Dark Earth and Azure Blue with Pollyscale being selected for the
Middlestone color. I used the Aeromaster painting guide that came with the
decals as I never did find an actual photo of this aircraft, (though I did find
a few of others in the unit).
It was only after painting that I
realized the changes I needed to make on the wing to represent the Mk Vc. I had
already installed the outer cannon stubs but learned through the help of the
online modeling community that the wheel blisters and wing stiffeners needed to
go...out came the sanding sticks and off they went. After re-applying the camo
in those areas and adding the decals I did a little post shading and added
exhaust stains using a black/rust 50/50 mix with lots of thinner. I accentuated
the panel lines with a sharp drafting pencil and then added the flat coat. No
ADF radio wire was added as these aircraft did not have them. This fact also
required the removal of the tail attachment point for the wire found on top of
the rudder. I should also note that the blister and access panels over the wing
cannons are also slightly different on the Vc but not enough for me to bother
with them on this build. I loved the crazy looking sharkmouth and the unusual
USSAF markings on this aircraft and am very pleased with the final outcome. I've
wanted to build both a US operated Spitfire and a tropicalized Spitfire for some
time and this project covered both. I hope you enjoyed the Brit in the USAAF!
Joe
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