Spitfire engine test bed - DONE!

[PR19_Kit]

For the primer I used some Isopon Grey, the same stuff as I used on the Arado 240, which was RUBBISH, and I'll never use it on a model again!

The bright yellow underside paint was Halfords Rover Yellow, from their new colour range, which was OK, but not a patch on their older stuff.

Luckily I've now tracked down a supply of HyCote paints, and they made the original Halfords range, which used to be THE standard by which all other car paints were measured, but of course the accountants got greedy and 'improved' the range (ie contracted it out to a cheaper supplier....) and wrecked things, and hopefully lost a LOT of business as a result!

If it ain't broke, DON'T fix it! 

[PR19_Kit]

The ducted spinner test bed is finished. 

The final detail painting just went on and ON, but I got there last night, so the decals went on today. The Revell decals are pretty good, dense colour, accurate and nicely trimmed for size too, but like many present day decals they don't want to stick on the model.    With a Spitfire that's essential as a number of the decals have to be overlayed on others and if the things won't stick you're faced with varnishing every single decal separately, and life's too short for that.

Slightly worse is that the under wing roundels are positioned right on top of a couple of nicely moulded vents. All very accurate but the decal won't lie down properly, and neither I, nor any beginners, will have access to Micro Set or similar. You didn't need to mould the vents Mr Revell, so now my decals are wrinkled.

Anyway, here is P7290, a Mk II Spitfire that had been returned to Rolls Royce's Development airfield at Hucknall because its supercharger kept on dropping off boost for no apparent reason. While it was sitting, engine-less, in the hangar it was noticed by one of RR's Experimental Team who were investigating the possibilities of using ducted spinners for cooling Merlin III engines, which usually required a quite large, drag producing radiator under one wing, or under the fuselage in the case of the Hurricane. As luck would have it, a Luftwaffe Ar 240A heavy fighter had been forced down at RAF Newton, not far from Hucknall, and it was fitted with ducted spinner cooled DB 601 engines. RR had had one of the 601s transferred to the Exp. Dept and they were looking for a suitable airframe in which to test it when P7290 came into their notice.

After a bit of toing and froing between RR and the Air Ministry, the Spitfire was loaned to RR for an indefinite period and was converted to carry the DB 601 with its special spinner cooling system, and it flew for some 150 hrs in this form while RR investigated the new cooling system. In the end, nothing came of it and P7290 became the Hucknall Station hack as the RAF certainly didn't want it back in that form, and RR figured it would cost far too much to convert it back to Merlin power.

As it wasn't on the RAF's official books at the time P7290 didn't carry the usual ringed 'P' for a prototype, but was painted in the hi-vis yellow undersides carried by most experimental types as the shape of its nose was so very different to a normal Spitfire and it sounded nothing like one either, and would thus be a potential target for British ack-ack gunners.



The  prettier side...........




The de rigueur 3/4 forward view.




What it was all about, the DB 601 and its ducted spinner.




From aft it's clear that the DB 601 was considerably wider than the Merlin III and needed some serious fairing-in to get its cowling to match that of the Spitfire II.




The bright underside of P7290, carefully positioned so as not to show the wrinkles in the underwing decals! 

[Weaver]

Nice one - looks surprisingly good actually. 

[Charlie_c67]

Looks brilliant Kit.

Incidentally, if you have a Range store near you, I believe they stock the requisite Hycote primers. At least a number of them do!

[The Rat]

Most excellent! 

[Wardukw]

Considering the nightmare paint problems mate ,,,she looks great Kit 
Very nicely done my son