Hawk 1/72 Spitfire Mk. 22 converted into a Mk. XIV
This is a kit bash of the old Hawk kit of their Spitfire Mk. 22 and using Heller's Spitfire Mk. XVI wings, interior and landing gears. The Hawk kit is an old kit from 1967 labeled as a Spitfire Mk. 22 but it is actually the prototype of the Mk. 22, not the production model with the larger tail surfaces. Since Hawk kind of missed the boat on this one I decided to make it right and use the fuselage to bring it back to either a Mk. XIV or XVIII...the decals I used led this to be finished as a Mk. XIV. The Heller wings is thicker than the wing from Hawk so I had to build up the area under the nose cowling. I was also able to blend in the inverted gull wing since the Hawk kit did not have it. I scratched built the inlet carburetor from laminated pieces of plastic thin sheets. I also reshaped the spinner, added a back plate, filed and sanded the propeller blades to look more like a Griffin engine 5 bladed prop. This was made for a group build and it was a lot of fun trying to make this work.
You've certainly brought new life into an ancient kit, nice work!
Thank you Robert.
Your conversion is done perfectly, Bob.
A real gem.
Thank you John.
That's a wonderful model!
You did some amazing kitbashing there, my friend @v1pro!
Kudos to your quality work, Sir!
Thank you Spiros.
I couldn't figure out what was amiss until I realized those were Belgium roundels! LOL. That was a marvelous project to take those two old kits and mash them into a beauty! Nicely done.
When I first applied the fin flash, I had them installed backwards. The black and red threw me off!
I added a few more shots of the build, I probably should have done this earlier.