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Marek Halas
28 articles

Airfix 1/48 Supermarine Seafire XV Kitbash

December 7, 2014 · in Aviation · · 23 · 5.5K
This article is part of a series:
  1. Airfix 1/48 Supermarine Seafire XV Kitbash
  2. 1/48 Trumpeter Supermarine Seafang F.Mk.32 "What-If"

An interesting if somewhat futile exercise in a Supermarine XV:

This was made from the leftover wings from my Supermarine Seafire XVII and grafting it onto the modified fuselage of Airfix's Supermarine XII; plus resin casting all the necessary bits to make it a proper Seafire XV.

Had I actually finished this in 2011 then all well & good, however the project languished as soon as Special Hobby announced their Seafire XV. I decided to get it finished nevertheless late last year having already gone to so much trouble & effort, and completed it in January of 2014. Here, finally, are the pictures on iModeler.

The fit of the dissimilar plastic parts was excellent & bravo to Airfix for being remarkably consistent with the accuracy of their new tool kits.

Additional parts were cast using the Seafire XVII as the pattern master, which included the rocker covers,exhausts, air inlet under the sump, wing radiators, rudder, tail hook and catapult strops.

Additional dzus fasteners were drilled out on the engine covers and a few areas were re-scribed.

I also added a sutton harness courtesy of the Eduard set, scratch built the oxygen hose and added a resin gunsight.

Decals were a mix of spares from the kit (and yes they annoyingly silvered, note to self they need to be applied dipped in Future!) and the excellent Postwar Seafires decal sheet from Freightdog.

Markings are PR474 serving 806 Naval Air Squadron on HMS Glory in the Far East circa 1946, and yes there are photos that show they did run transitional Pacific war to postwar roundels on their aircraft. I feel I've probably overdone the grime and the staining a bit, but it is postwar and money and manpower was a bit tight for the Brits at that time and there were plenty of examples of aircraft operating a tad on the grubby side.

That said I welcome any comments and questions you might have and will endeavour to answer them as best I can. I'm also trialling taking photos using our old macro lens used on 35mm film cameras, to our current digital camera, so the photos are a bit on the "variable" side.

In the meantime thanks for looking.

Reader reactions:
13  Awesome

23 responses

  1. I like what you did to achieve that finish...good work.

  2. Great modeling Marek. The weathering is really outstanding. I like what you did with this kit!
    California Steve

  3. superb workmanskip

  4. Marek:
    Nice job on the Seafire.
    I've got the Revell boxing of the SH Seafire XV, and noticed that they have the stiffening strips on the fuselage sides.
    Are they optional?
    I don't have many Seafire references, thus the question.
    I understand the XV didn't last long in service, being a handful coming aboard.
    Nice choice on the markings, interesting mix of British Pacific fleet and postwarish wing roundels.
    Regards,
    Bernie

    • Hi Bernie, thanks for your comments. Regarding those stiffening strips on the Special Hobby/ Revell kit, it is correct if you want to build an early Seafire XV, which can be identified by the narrow chord tail and the enlarged trim tab. For the later "big tail" version I think Supermarine moved all the reinforcing plates to the inside. So, according to my research, if you want to build a late version XV I'm afraid it's out with the sanding stick especially for those fishplates. The jury's still out for that long reinforcing strip; I could not find any photos which showed late XV's with it, however the photo quality was quite poor. I did operate on the basis if I was unsure then I'd omit. If you get the chance there are some good, though often conflicting references you can check out book wise: Warpaint Series No.20: Griffon Engined Seafires. SAM Publications Modellers Datafile No.5. Supermarine Spitfire Part 2 and, Monografie Lotnicze 40 Supermarine Spitfire cz3 (Polish language book but the photos and illustrations will show you all you need to know). If you can't get hold of those then there's always good old Google. Hope that's of help.

      • Thanks, Marek!
        I hear tell that the early ones had the A frame arresting hook, as opposed to the stinger.
        I really appreciate the list of references, I'll see what I can acquire, in the never ending quest for accuracy. Or something. Obsession? Nah, not me! I'm just a little too focussed, yeah, that's it!
        AMS Bernie

        • Hi Bernie, yep you're right about the A frame also being on the early versions. If you do get stuck for references (and copyright laws notwithstanding) you can always private message me for any info you might need for your build.

  5. Well worth the effort Marek.
    Very well done.

  6. Great Seafire, like your weathering.All the sub types of the Spitfire/Seafire
    production run are still puzzling me.
    Well done !

  7. Great looking model, Marek. The interesting camo and markings lift the kit out of the ordinary.

  8. Great work 🙂

  9. Im Like Seafire !

  10. Great work Marek, well finished and photo`ed and presented.
    Well done mate.

  11. Lovely job. Very nice

  12. Thanks guys for all the positive comments, once again much appreciated.

  13. A lovely job Marek. I particularly like your weathering. Photos are great too.

  14. Another first class posting, Marek, everything is right, the research, build information. finish and photography.

  15. Well Marek, it's almost 3 years since the last post but I'm still new here, so please forgive my lateness!

    Beautiful Spitfire! I learn something new everytime I look here, especially at the older posts. It's easy to miss them. Great job!

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