ProfLooney

Ok Guys I been researching my Project and found My Hurri Pilot for my project whick shows him next to the nose of one I am doing so I have a Histerical figure his names Bill Dunn He flew with the 71st Eagle Squadron. He then went to spit MK IIa's and I want to build my spit to represent his Spitfire. I have 2 problems:

1: How hard will it be to convert my Mick Reeves MK IX plans to a MK IIa and what are the differences?

2: I am trying to find any info on the color scheme of the plane and any possible markings. I know on the Hurri the left side (sitting in cockpit) Had the Eagles Squadron Emblem and the Right side had the Boxing Eagle I am figuring that was standard on all the squadrons planes and would it be on the spit too?

Heres the Info I have on the plane:

Bill Dunn's Spitfire Mk II P7308 was part of a 100 Spitfire force escorting 9 Blenheim bombers attacking the steel works at Lille On 27 August 1941. the entire info can be found at http://www.fourthfightergroup.com/eagles/dunn.html and more info on Dunn can also be found at http://www.fourthfightergroup.com/eagles/71.html

Any help or color pics of the plane would be appreciated. Below is a pic of his spit.

Joe

ProfLooney

From my Limited resources and the web so Far I have been able to find that the major Differences were mainly internal and engine differences. The other changes I can see were with Armament and the only phisically noticeable from the MK IIa to the Mk IX other than the armament was the smoothed windscreen, retractable tailwheel, and clipped wings.

Am I correct here?

Joe

Wayne22

My Feedback: (2)

Firewall back, the mk II and IX were very similar. The nose on the IX was longer to accomodate the two stage merlin 60 series. The wing shapes were identical, the major difference being in the armament fitted. One major difference is the oil cooler in the mk II was round vs the symetric coolers on the mk IX.

Your particular Spit was converted to a mk V in 1942. I will see if I can dig out some more info out of my books tonight....

BobH

My Feedback: (2)

Joe, the MKIIa spits had fixed tail wheels, atleast from what my sources tell me and they would have had either the a or b wing depending on when they were built. The first 750 Mks had the 'a' wing and the other 170 had the 'b' wing. The nose of your plane will have to be shortened to reflect the smaller engine and of course, the exhausts redesigned as well. Also the MKII's only have one radiator under the right wing the other side has a small round intake. The fin and rudder of the MKII is also different than the Mk IX.. if you have a later MKIX.. and the engine air intake in the bottom of the fuse for the MKII's are smaller ... Hope this helps. BobH.

ProfLooney

Thanks Guys yes I knew abt the scoops etc under the wings and the armament but I dont really consider them major problems as those I consider cosmetic. I was really worried about the airframe. The nose wont be too bad then just use a shorter cowl. One thing I noticed was the spinner on the MK II is more blunt and was pointier on the MK IX. I have 3 books the squadron in detail, and the aero detail and the profile book which covers only MK I and MK II but few show all versions really good for differences between them. Also the tail I didnt notice any difference between them. Here is a website I found that I have been using for reference its called the differences between marks http://www.spitfiresociety.demon.co.uk/whatmark.htm good resource but i want to make sure they arent just shortchanging some of the differences.

Joe

Tom Verstappen

Hi Joe,

The biggest difference about the MK IIa and the MK IX is the lenght of the Spit 29ft 11 ins for the MK IIa and 31 ft 4ins for the MK IX wingspan is for both the same 36ft 10ins.
Most of the MKII Spits had a Merlin XII engine with 3 blades there was one with a Merlin 47 and he or she had 4 blades.
The MKIX had a lot of different engine but all Merlins with 4 blades.

Most of the MKIX's had a rounded tail and also a fixed tail wheel.
The MKVIII had a pointed tail and the tail wheel wasn't fixed he could put it into his fuse.

The MKII has 8 Browning 0.303 machine guns and another antenna than the MKIX but that are little details off cours.

MKII had a 3 exhausts pipes and the MKIX 6 and as you mentioned a differend spinner.

Sorry for my bad english, hope you can do something with it.

Greetings
Tom

ProfLooney

I been looking at the tail on this plane and it seems the same as the MK II and i really been looking hard. I guess I am missing something hehe I know it didnt have that butt ugly pointy tail

Joe
PS the Antenna was something else I was curious abt. I read somewhere that they folded down so the canopy could slide open? was there a recess in the top of the fuse for it to fold into or did it just fold against the fuse?

Tom Verstappen

Hi Joe,

I don't now if they can fold down the antenna, the difference I see is that the MKII had a wire from the antenna to the tail and the MK IX doesn't have that.

Greetings
Tom

Chad Veich

My Feedback: (60)

The MkII and MkIX tail surfaces are identical. Some MkIX aircraft had the broad chord, pointed rudder of the MkVIII and that is what I think BobH is referring to. I've never heard of a Spit having any type of fold down antenna. If you look closely at drawings of the MkII and MkIX cowlings you will see the extra panel line on the MkIX which indicates where the fuselage was extended. I believe it is at the firewall itself. If your Spit has a seperate cowl then you will need to remove the proper length from the trailing edge. If your cowl is part of the fuse then you will need to remove it at the scale seperation line and then shorten it. (I'm assuming a glass fuse) The hardest part may be finding the rather blunt spinner in the proper scale. Good luck with it.

ProfLooney

Thanks Chad I figured merlin would be all over this thread lol maybe hes at top gun. anyways whats glass? a plane isnt a plane unless it is all built up wood just call me part beaver but i like to build up my planes I guess its a craftsmanship issue with me I feel more like I actually built the plane when I build it up not that glass fuses arent handy but just not my style i prob also tired of messing with glass after several years at a glass boat factory. I been trying to remember where I read abt the folding antenna it may have been in an rc thread talking about some pilots cable that retracted his antenna wasnt working right and he replicated this in his model thats what got me wondering on the antenna bit. also looking at the canopy it would either have to lay down or have a slot in it to slide past the antenna post

Joe

BobH

My Feedback: (2)

Joe, the simplest solution would be to take your MkIX and put them on a wall and shine the MkII drawing on top of the MkIX and note the differences.. then, take the MkIX plans and modify them to mirror the MkII.. That way it really makes no matter what the differences are .. you will just adjust your "New" plans to reflect them.... Regards BobH.

ProfLooney

Im one step ahead of you bob I got some nice 3 views I am getting ready to trace into corel and when I scan my mk IX plans will overlay as you said. Also I looked closer at the antenna post issue and see it sits back far enough not to get touched I dunno where I read abt the antenna post that threw me but from all the ref i been studying all night it has no reason to fold. hehe I been spending abt 40 hrs in the last two days researching. Still have yet to find a good color shot of a spit from the eagle squadron or any info on the color scheme and markings.

Joe

pittsdriver

My Feedback: (7)

Alright Joe, You really p*ssed me off this time. Waddya mean "butt ugly poined tail"? I went to great lenghs to find a MK9 with the pointy rudder and invasion stripes and now you say its ugly. Can't stand it will have to get an appointment with the therapist Monday. Keep up the good work. Don

ProfLooney

Dont feel bad its not as butt igly as that ME 109 Gustav with the tall tail now thats butt ugly yours is only tushy ugly

Joe

SpitfireMKI

My Feedback: (2)

Here's Dean Digiorgio's fiberclassics. A friend bought and flew this plane at out field. Super sweet. Sold it though.

BobH

My Feedback: (2)

Joe let me look throught my stuff and see if I have anything on the Eagle sq. Also do a search on Don Blakeslee who a also flew with the eagle sq.. you might find something there.. BobH.

ProfLooney

Nice plane Spit looks very well done.

Thanks Bob I am also emailing my friend dr franke see if he can find something in his eagle squadron book hehe be a good nudge to get him to mail it out been sitting on his stand by the front door since I started my Hurri Project.

Joe

dragoonpvw

My Feedback: (7)

Here you go Joe,
this is Bill Dunns spit from august '41
still the standard Dark Earth/Dark Green upper surfaces but with Sky spinner and 18 inch fuselage band and undersurfaces; the fuselage roundel is of the standard type adopted for Spitfires until summer 1942.
Good Luck
Paul

ProfLooney

Thanks Paul I was getting all black and white ones then a friend sent me a colored pic from his book on the eagle squadron and now i have 2 pics showing the same colors so I got it now. This and my FW wont be competition planes so I dont need to go anal on them but i still like to do some documentations for my planes.

Again Thanks I am working on tracing the mick reeves plans to cad now and its a pain because of the blue background made a ton of black specks forcing me to tracing them so I can enlarge them but it is nice to have in cad format too for later modifications.

Joe

Hanger Rat

Break open your piggy bank and take a trip this summer to the air museum at Duxford England. You will see six spits in the air together and the noise of those merlins will make you drool. Duxford for those who don't know is the US air museum.

fw190

My Feedback: (37)

The early spit have the bullet proof shield outside and the late model have them inside.... don't quote me on this as I have been known to make mistakes....

Vic

ProfLooney

Thanks Vic right now I am tracing my plans and looking at my research although I wont have much more time to get the tractings done as as soon as all my parts arrive next week I will be simultaneously building 3 FW 190A's so that will keep me busy for a couple weeks


Joe

pittsdriver

My Feedback: (7)

3 FW190s and busy for only a couple of weeks! What's the deal, you have a bunch of elves running around that we don't see on your webcam? I used to be a fast builder but I guess I'm getting old and slow. Don

Chad Veich

My Feedback: (60)

Vic is correct, the early Spits do have armored glass attached to the outside of the canopy framing directly in front of the pilot. I don't think the fixed portion of the canopy is any different from the later Marks other than having external armor.

ProfLooney

Haha Don well with these I will have everything I need to complete them there since it isnt me forking out the money where I can only afford to do it a little at a time. it will in reality take me about a month to get them to the glassed stage im hoping as I want to deliver one at out scale event june 22nd. only 1 for now will be completely done painted and detailed that will take longer.

Also you must realize that because I have been off for 18 months due to an accident so when i work on a project and have all the stuff so that I can keep working I put in 20 hours a day on them so 2 weeks would come up to 200 to 280 hrs construction time. thats why when people watch my projects for example my hurricane, they see it whip together and think i am super fast but dont realize i worked about 20 hrs straight on it. :0)

Joe