[GBrutus]

To my eye the IXs rudder is the main culprit in spoiling the shape. It should not protrude below the lower fuselage line:




I think the pointed rudder could look good with a little modification.

The rudder and and vertical stabilizer need reworking. The nose is also too short if you look closely at the exhaust stacks and compare with the photo. I spent a week comparing various drawings with as many photos as possible and subsequently put together a layered template of my own that covers most of the Merlin Spitfire marks and is some 400meg in size. I'm reasonably happy with the results of my studies and now I have some good references to work from. For the early Spitfire IX carburettor I had to ask for help over at the Spitfire Site as there are very few sources of reliable info readily available on the net. All this brings it home just how hard it is to accurately model aircraft for this game and also work to deadlines as the original modellers had to.