FUJIMI 1:72 SPITFIRE MK.XIVc
(with V1 Flying Bomb)

 

Reviewer: Simon Skinner  (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:  April 2001

Aircraft:
 When the two stage Griffin engine became available, six Spitfire Mk VIIIs were adapted with this engine to gain the experience for the Spitfire Mk.21.  These conversions were so good that it was decided to introduce an interim production version as the Spitfire F.Mk XIV.  This was the Mk VIII airframe with a strengthened fuselage, Griffin 65 engine, Mk XII's larger vertical tail surfaces plus a fin of still wider chord, "C" wing and, in the last aircraft, a cutdown rear fuselage and bubble canopy.

From this spawned the Mk.XIVc of which a number of pilots flew for the RAF in the later stages of the war and some pilots, of which three are recognised in this kit, were credited with the kills of the terrorising V1 Buzz or Flying Bomb.

The Kit:
 I've built a few Spitty's over the last few years but only a couple of Griffin engined ones, and had yet to do the Mk.XIV.  So on entering the hobby shop and seeing the Fujimi kit displayed on the shelf I decided to get it.  It was still many months before I actually got round to building it, as most modellers who have a fairly healthy unbuilt collection will attest to.  Fujimi have actually used the same tooling for a number of Griffin engined spitfire variants, and released in different boxes, one can find the XIVE bubbletop and FR XIV with clipped wings in the same scale as a couple of examples.  Inside the box are quality molded parts we have come to expect from Fujimi, on a standard number of sprues with a decently detailed exterior.  The plastic is crisp and in light grey.  

Construction:
 The kit comes with a fairly sparse cockpit; you are only provided with seat, instrument panel and control stick.  The instrument panel includes raised console detail that looks good when drybrushed.  On the decal sheet you can find decals for use as the instrument console and also seat harnesses.  There is no side panel detail at all.  There are a plethora of aftermarket sets that the modeller can get for use in the cockpit, especially from manufacturers like Aeroclub, Airwaves and Eduard.  In the latter's case an etched set for the Academy boxing of the same Spitfire version would obviously suit nicely.  As usual I just enhanced the cockpit area with a bit of scratchbuilding - not a great deal will be seen anyway once the canopy has been affixed.

The fuselage halves go together well and the main wing assembly is straight forward, although you need to drill out the holes for the 20mm cannon and gun fairings on the upper wing halves.  The wing halves needed clamping while drying but not too much as to warp the unique shape.  Because the manufacturer produces some clipped wing versions, the wing tips are separate and have to be affixed very carefully - I used a little bit of scotch tape to hold the wing tip on while it dried (careful first of course to remove any excess glue that would not able you to remove the scotch tape afterward!).  They are then affixed to the fuselage without any problems, although a little bit of filler was needed at the wing roots.

The first problem that came to a head were the radiators that are affixed to the lower wing halves.  The holes needed to be drilled out, or a carefully placed and positioned butt join with pins removed, for it to fit properly.  It took some work to achieve a decent fit, but it worked out fine in the end.  Another area of concern were the exhaust stacks which have to be trimmed in order to fit properly in the fuselage.  Once I was happy they would fit okay, I painted the exhaust stacks with a rust look from applying a thin wash of black with copper paint.

At this point I added on the canopy which is a one-piece mold for a closed cockpit and found that this fitted quite okay but a little coaxing was needed.  The five-blade props and spinner were attached with the nose which went on quite okay. In the final step the undercarriage was added, again with no hassles as were the various external bits such as pitot tube and antenna.

The kit also comes with a V1 Buzz bomb - the flying unguided missile that was used by the Germans to bring terror onto London civilians, and often having to be tackled in the air by brave RAF pilots in shooting it down.  Many aircraft were used such as the Typhoon, Mosquito, Meteor (later) and of course the Spitfire Mk.XIVc!  This is a small assembly and one that is easily done, with simply the fuselage halves, jet engine, nose fuse/propeller and pitot tube to glue together.  Painted in upper RLM 71 and lower RLM 76 it looks all the part a V1.

Versions & Decals:
The kit covers three versions and there is a generous amount of stencils on the decal sheet in addition to RAF roundels and markings.  Given the kit's obvious intentions, the best option is the example flown by RF Burgwal, 322 Sqn, who became an ace in shooting down V-1 buzz bombs.  The instructions say otherwise but from my other reference sources used this example should be painted Dark Green & Ocean Grey camouflage over Medium Sea Grey under-surfaces.  The decals were applied to the model and these were of very good quality and easy to work with.  One note, is that one decal required hand painting as a backing of a small sky blue square.  The instructions also don't seem to point him out correctly as the leading V1 ace of the war as my other reference sources all account him with 20+ kills.

Of course the other two versions provided for by the kit are of essentially identical camouflage schemes and also depict V1 aces, KC Kuhlmann 322 Sqn and RA Newbury 610 Sqn.

Overall:
This is a nicely detailed kit and measures out very well to scale.  It is really marketed for the intermediate modeller and up and I would agree with this as some of the bits that needed trimming and coaxing are probably not really aimed at the novice.  It is a very good kit and I would highly recommend adding this to your WW2 late RAF collection.

 

Note: the following related reviews links have not been updated since early 2000's - more kit reviews of this aircraft may now be on SMAKR, not reflected below.  Refer to the Index for other kits of this type.

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