"What if" straight from the box! (Just picked up an AZ Spiteful today)

[kitnut617]

Yes that is very nice! One question does the Mk.XIV fuselage + the Attacker wings = the Mk.XXIII (Mk.23) Victor, or was it something completely different?

It's something different Knightflyer, IIRC the Mk.23 was to have the same wing as the Mk.21, 22/24 which looks more like a Tempest wing in plan form.  NN660 was the first Spiteful prototype which had this laminar flow wing, this mainly was brought on by tests comparing the P-51 to the Spitfire in performance, especially by Rolls Royce who couldn't understand why the Mustang Mk.X they had just converted to Merlin power was always about 30 mph faster than a Spitfire that had the exact same engine/propeller configuration and no matter what exact power settings they used.  It was thought that all the extra speed came from the wing but then after the Mk.21 wing was tested, which wasn't laminar BTW, they found it wasn't so, as the Spiteful and these later marks of Spitfire had just about the same speed.  I still haven't found any conclusion why the Mustang Mk.X was faster if it wasn't the wing other than that the radiator ducting was a lot more efficient on the Mustang (I've read it actually gave a bit of thrust)

[kitnut617]

kitnit617--WOWZA! I *LIKE* that prototype. Somehow I just think the Spit/Spiteful series looks better with the "turtleback" canopy rather than the bubble. Nice work.

I like that a lot  

Thanks sequoiaranger, Narses2, my fav's are the bubble tops but at the time I built this I didn't have a home computer and never heard of the internet so I didn't know I could buy an 'in-service' Spiteful and I soooooo wanted a Spiteful for my collection.  I have The Complete Book of Fighters by Green/Swansborough and after seeing the photo of this prototype I figured I could build it using the Frog Attacker wings mated to an Academy Mk.XIV, so that's what happened.  I have the CMK resin ones now though  -----

[upnorth]

So, With regards to the canopy, I was going through my stuff and I found a spare vacform Hawker Tempest canopy from when I built my bubble top Hurricane. It is marginally bigger in every direction than the kit canopy, anybody figure it would work?

As for broadening the nose, how many millimetres of spread are we talking about here?

[Mossie]

This might help, Spiteful plans from Aircraft of the Fighting Powers Volume 7.  I've scanned the Seafang too, just ask if you need that one.