Hooton Park

I'm new to the forum but I've noticed quite a few references to the Mk XIV Spitfires supposedly found in Burma by a Mr Cundall from the UK.

I sincerely hope I'm wrongbut my opinion has been formed from having searched through the Spitfire production listsand records I've linkedbelow.

http://www.spitfires.ukf.net/production.htm

I do not see any reason to doubt theproduction records although thereare a fewdiscrepancies. Some are obvious typos and paperwork mix-ups wherecontracts weremodified or cancelled inmid-stream,and there was one factorythat did notgive prototypesproduction or airframe numbersbut as far as I canpiece togetherthere are only 3 Griffon-enginedSpitfires (Seafires included)from the entire production thatwereunaccounted for,at least until long afterthe time in question when they were supposedly buried.Also, as far as I am aware, there was only one Spitfire squadronoperating in Burma at the end of WW2 that had any MK XIV's at all.155 Squadronwere equipped half with Mk XIV's and half Mk VII's butthey took all ofthose down to Singapore with themwhen they moved there in September 1945.

Burma is only a few hours drive from where I live and I'd dearly love to go there and see some Spitfires being unearthed but Idon't think Iever will. It all smells too fishy for my liking Mr Cundall.

MajorTomski

Thank you sir! I enjoyed it too. Too bad no Spits this time

Video's should be up on youtube this weekend some time

LAWNDART65

I miss my 1/4 scale spitty. Became one with corn field in fort collins 2009. John

Ford34tom

Andreas. I got my scale prop labels from Aeroloft Designs. I don't know if they have what your looking for but I called them for prop labels for my scale P47. You tell them the scale (I ordered 1/8th) and she can provide.

Beware, this can be addictive as she can provide a complete set of nominclature for your plane including the prop. These are outstanding dry-transfers that can eat up several evenings and make your plane oh so cool. If you are running nitro, you must then clear over them to protect from the nitro. I have been using Top Flite's Ultra Flat Clear with good success.

Aeroloft Designs
480-380-4799

Good Luck

Tom

facia

Thanks for that info Tom.

I read about that vendor here on the thread earlier and checked out their website.
They did not have anything pre-made for my Spitfire size yet.
Is the Hangar 9 Spitfire 60 1/7 or 1/8th scale?
Thanks for the phone number. I'll give them a call when I am getting a bit closer to
that process.
Right now it will be fuel line hook up and the Robostrut 650 conversion.
Then I made some gun barrel wing inserts out of brass tubing with the flare on the
front (via brake line flare maker). The machine guns will be tire valve inserts.
I'll upload some pics when I get my idea transformed to reality. :-)
Hope it will look semi scale. Regardless, it should look cool. (I hope).

It is strange. Every picture on the net that shows the MK II placement of the 303
browning machine guns that I have seen so far, just shows holes in the wing. Like is this
"Top Secret"? Or are the gun barrels sunkthat farinto the wing?
Most of the ones have red squares closing the gun opening.

I have lots of time to tinker now. Just received 15cm of the white stuff within
4 hours with more on the way. :-(

Andreas

vasek

My Feedback: (4)

John, that's a beautiful spitfire! too bad about the cornfield... I'll check for paint chips next time I'll eat a corn @ KFC

tunakuts3d

just read this about the buried spitfires in Burma, now its said there may be 120 crated spits buried in different locations.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...n_1978923.html

jet22b

I would love to be there when they bring the first crate up. What a find!!!
Sonny
aka
jet22b

facia

I would think that if the crates were sealed, that most of the parts are in prestine condition and original.
What a find, if it is true. I do hope so.

Andreas

facia

Here is the gun insert tubes and machine gun barrel mock up.
Let me know what you think.


Andreas

flyntruk

My Feedback: (5)

   Of course there is about 120 crates ... you know how many different parts it takes to make a spit .. ?  Yeah I wish I could go see them dig some these up ...

jet22b

facia;

I love the gun setup!!! They will look sweet on the wings.
Sonny
aka
jet22b

Hooton Park

Red patches with holes in the middletells a story. The .303's did not protrude at all. The 'red patches' were commonly canvas squares painted on with red dope over the gun openings by the armourers. They proved to be a huge improvement in gun reliability. The reasons for this were twofold. Firstly, they stopped any dirt and debris lifted off the grass airstrip by aircraft taking off ahead of them from entering the barrels. Secondly, and probably more importantly, theyhelped prevent coldair from entering the barrels and freezing any moisture on the mechanisms.(Heating for the guns was provided in later Mk's by hot air ducted from the underwing radiators).The first rounds fired simply blew a hole in the patch. Looking to see if the patches were 'holed' or not on returning aircraft was usually the first indication the ground crews had to see if 'their' aircraft had been in action and if they were going toget a good story off the pilot or not.

I hope this has blown the cover off oursecret of the red patches:-)

Brendan.

Hooton Park

Read what I've posted about those supposed Spitfires in Burma at the bottom of page 49 of this thread. I do hope I'm wrong about the 'Phantom Spitfires of Burma'.

Brendan.

albsurfer

Another factoid:
At first the ailerons, elevators and rudder were fabric-covered. It was thought that a lot of combat would be flown at slower speeds but later the Brits found out that high speed combat was going to be the norm. Flight tests showed the fabric covering of the ailerons "ballooned" at high speeds, adversely affecting the aerodynamics, making high speed rolls & turns very slow and difficult. When combat experience showed that fabric-covered ailerons were impossible to use at high speeds, fabric was replaced with a light alloy, making control at all speeds much better.

facia

Hi Brendan,

thank you for the info. That all makes sense now.
Darn, if I put red patches on, then I won't see the guns.
Great to get some facts on how it really worked.

Much appreciated.

Andreas

Hooton Park

Hi Andreas,

Your gun barrel arrangement showing through the holes in the middle ofred patches shouldlook pretty authentic, and look like it has just seen some action.

I've tried but failed to find some picturesshowing ragged patches flapping around in the wind. Here's the best I could manage.

The picture of the Hurricane clearly shows the outline of the gun apertures behind the patches.

Brendan.

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

Boo...I hate corn fields.....they ate my 1/4 Reeves Spit 10 years ago after only 10 flights....still p's me off.

Jeff

flyntruk

My Feedback: (5)

Hoot park ... on you tube , in a video made by Psari .. titled 'spitfires' there is I belive a shot of the ragged fabric on the gun port openings .. wonderful video , should be required viewing for all the brotherhood ..

jet22b

Brothers;
Here is a video I found showing the firing of a Spitfire gun that has been in the ground for the last 70 years. They do show pictures of the wing before this plane crash and you can see the flapping fabric on the gun port opening
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PjLp...eature=related
The sound of the gun is so sweet!!!!
Sonny
aka
jet22b

mad web tv scientist

New Brothers, it turns out that it is necessary to either click on a URL for "The man who designed the Spitfire" in past posts or Google the title. As I'm sure you have all noticed, it's almost impossible to keep up with, much less respond to the wealth of fabulous information available on this thread.

GIVE 'EM THE GUN!

Rolling in to attack!

Out.



Spitfire Brotherhood (All Spitfires Welcome) #64 - Post #407 - Battle of Britain & Winston Churchill relevancy to modeling - http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11007416 PLEASE SEE POST 852 on Spit thread for FANTASTIC INFO.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ________________________ FIGHTERS - AVIATION'S ULTIMATE CALL TO GLORY, HONOR, AND IMMORTALITY - http://community-2.webtv.net/RICHARD...4/CALLTOGLORY/
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________ SPITFIRE EXCITEMENT! Facebook's finest hour - http://www.facebook.com/richard.porter.167 (There is a ''malware'' problem on either my PC or Facebook's web site as the display on Facebook is different between my PC and other web equipment owned by other accounts. It's like the action smileys and ''red X'' problem I have reported on other threads.) THE MALWARE PROBLEM ON FB IS NOW GONE (It might return given recent virus history. Due to the unanticipated important information about the revolutionary thorium plasma battery technology on top it is now necessary to scroll down to the ''buried treasure Spitfire'' posts.

''mad thorium batteries'' typed in Yahoo and/or Google brings up great information about thorium plasma batteries.

mad web tv scientist

THANK YOU FELLOW VETERANS FOR ALL YOU HAVE DONE AND WHAT MANY OF YOU ARE STILL DOING IN THE SERVICE OF OUR COUNTRY! THE INSPIRATION PROVIDED BY YOUR INFLUENCE IS NEEDED NOW MORE THAN EVER IN THE TROUBLING TIMES THAT ARE NOW UPON US!


Spitfire Brotherhood (All Spitfires Welcome) #64 - Post #407 - Battle of Britain & Winston Churchill relevancy to modeling - http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11007416 PLEASE SEE POST 852 on Spit thread for FANTASTIC INFO.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ________________________ FIGHTERS - AVIATION'S ULTIMATE CALL TO GLORY, HONOR, AND IMMORTALITY - http://community-2.webtv.net/RICHARD...4/CALLTOGLORY/
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________ SPITFIRE EXCITEMENT! Facebook's finest hour - http://www.facebook.com/richard.porter.167 (There is a ''malware'' problem on either my PC or Facebook's web site as the display on Facebook is different between my PC and other web equipment owned by other accounts. It's like the action smileys and ''red X'' problem I have reported on other threads.) THE MALWARE PROBLEM ON FB IS NOW GONE - Given recent hacker activity malware may return. I still can't make the action smileys work. Due to the unanticipated important information about the revolutionary thorium plasma battery technology on top it is now necessary to scroll down to the original ''buried treasure Spitfire'' posts.

''mad thorium batteries'' typed in Yahoo and/or Google brings up great information about thorium plasma batteries.

WARBIRDRCER

My Feedback: (22)

Spitfire brothers,

Shirts, Shirts, Shirts!!

Good morning on this fine Monday, the 12th of November. I awoke to discover a message informing me the shirts are now ready for pick-up.

I am on the way to pick them up this morning. I will be covering the entire balance, so please decide how you would like to pay.

1. PayPal (Send me your e-mail and I will invoice you through PayPal)
2. Check, money order, or cashiers check (PM me and I will send you my home address)
3. Other (PM me and let me know)
4. My shirt guy added the logo to the front at no additional charge too.

Update: Collar shirts were lowered in price from $21.00 to $15.15 because they were suppose to have a pocket, but do not. I hope this is okay. They still look great!!

From Page 49 - Post 1213

This shirt with the logo attached silk screened on the back is going to run about $20.00 each delivered. Well at least in the US, but will work to ship anywhere they need to go.

The collared shirts run around $6.00 more each, and he did not indicate we could not mix the order up.

Shipping Charges: Envelope $6.00, Small Box $6.00, Medium Box $12.00 USPS Flat Rate Shipping

[8D]Update 11-13-2012: All shirts are $15.15 each plus shipping as shown above.

Chad Veich

My Feedback: (60)

Excellent, can't wait to get mine! I will be paying via PayPal Steve, address is [email protected]. Thanks for doing the foot work.

jet22b

Steve,
PM sent!!
Sonny
aka
jet22b