Moonbeam

How about a nice 1/48 Spitfire Mk. XIV with the high back fuselage? I mean one that actually looks like a Spitfire (as opposed to the Academy kit that requires a kit bash and a bunch of aftermarket parts to make it convincing). Seems like a lot of the Spitfire fans on this site rate the XIV as one of their favorites yet no quality non-bubble top kit available in 1/48th? True, not many squadrons operated these, but they did face-off against some interesting historical adversaries: as V-1 tippers in the "Diver" mission role and later versus the long-nose FW-190D's and some Me-262's. Gotta' l

Sorry not to include you in my thanks Peebeep, but I was formulating my reply while you were posting yours.

In a book that I have entitled "Spitfire, The History", by Eric B. Morgan and Edward Shacklady, there are some wartime photos of Mark VIII conversions and Mark XIV's with contra-props, but they are called out as experimental prototypes and were not combat operational aircraft (two examples of these carried Serial Numbers JF 321 and RB 144). The "XIX" in my Duxford photo really looked like one of the XIV's (without the cannon/MG wing of course) and along with the D-Day Invasion Stripes paint scheme that's what had me puzzled. Time for this "Newbie" to step back and let the Spit experts tackle

Can anyone I.D. the Mark # and provide any additional info regarding the contra-prop Spitfire in the attached photo? I took this photo at Duxford Legends in July 2007 and saw the same Spitfire in another post somewhere here on the "Props" forum. This bird has no armament and is painted overall blue so I would assume it is a PR Spitfire. This restoration also includes a full set of D-Day invasion stripes. Would a contra-prop Spitfire in this configuration have seen combat PR duty in June 1944?

Thanks for setting me straight on that Ham. Guess my only saving grace was that I started my post with "Unless..."

Wouldn't the added power of the coupled engines make them capable of turning a larger diameter prop than a single less powerful engine? Just throwing that out there.

Unless the dorsal tail fillet was field installed on E2*S then it is not a P-51D-5. I have the so called "Bottisam Four" famous publicity photo of the 361st FG on my mouse pad and "Lou IV" (E2*C) has no dorsal tail fillet. I believe this makes it a D-5 Model Mustang. E2*S does have the dorsal tail fillet and this would make it a later dash number P-51D (D-15 or other).