'Spitbomber'

The Spitfire was designed as a fighter aircraft, to take on the Luftwaffe's Bf109 and FW190 planes. Their armament for this consisted of wing-mounted guns and (later) cannons.

Despite not being designed as a bomber, a number of Spitfires were employed as bombers, carrying bombs under their fuselage and/or their wings. Here is a picture of such a 'Spitbomber'.

When I saw this kit popping up on eBay, I thought it would be nice to be able to add a 'Spitbomber' to my collection, so I got it (it was cheap).

However, upon opening the box, it appeared that, despite the 'Fighter-bomber' text on the box, no bombs were included in the kit, so it wasn't a kit of a 'Spitbomber' ...

Well, Google is your friend, and it didn't take me long to find a set of 1:72 scale aircraft bombs I could easily add to the kit.

So here it is: a 'Spitbomber' added to the collection!

Spitfire with 'pointy' wings

Clipped wings on Spitfires gave them better speed and manoeuvrability (especially roll rate) at low altitudes and I have a few Spitfire models with clipped wings in the collection (see here and here). The opposite of clipping a Spit's wings is to extend them. Having such extended, pointed wings generated more lift at high altitudes. 

Of course, I'd kept my eye out for a Spitfire model with 'pointy' wings, but it took me quite a long time before I saw a listing of a Mk VIII with pointed wings on eBay. This was an already built kit, but it looked absolutely fine, so ...

And as far as I can ascertain, this a picture of the actual aircraft (JF404) that the model is based on:

Increased performance aside, from an esthetical point of view, the standard elliptical wing shape, originally designed by Beverley Shenstone, leaves 'clipped' and 'pointy' wings far behind for me.