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Tom Cleaver
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Eduard Spitfire IXc (late production)

May 14, 2013 · in Aviation · · 9 · 1.3K

OOB other than using the last of my Victory Productions decal sheet for the national insignia and decals from an old Aeromaster sheet to do John Plagis' IXc as it probably appeared on July 24, 1944 when he scored his last aerial victory.

A more complete review at M2 tomorrow. There are a few items that to my mind are unnecessarily complicated (like having to position the exhausts before painting the model and the assembly of the wheel wells and radiator housings) that do not contribute additional detail when compared with either of Airfix's recent Spitfires, the F. XII and P.R. XIX, but at least the over-engineering isn't as awful as the first series of Fw-190s. The rivets aren't nearly as bad as expected, you can't see them under a coat of paint from further than a scale 20 feet away unless in strong lighting, pretty much like the real thing as seen on the two we had out at Chino. Martin was right that sanding off the ferschlugginah rivets from the wing ahead of the spar improves things. The kit cockpit is adequate, given you can't see that much of a Spitfire cockpit when it's in the model - no need to increase the cost of the model 50% for a Brassin cockpit you can't see, when you can spend the money on another model.

Reader reactions:
8  Awesome

5 additional images. Click to enlarge.


9 responses

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    said on May 15, 2013

    Your Spit looks great Tom. Have you built the older Hasegawa MkIX? I have it in my stash, and wondered how it compares to the Eduard offering. Or is the Eduard kit the Hasegawa moulds with their "extras" added in, similar to the Airfix Mk24 they issued a while back?

  2. That's a beauty, Tom. The new Eduard kit looked a little scary on the sprue to me, but your build looks to have gone fairly seamless- unlike the Hasegawa P-40s that inevitably require a whole bunch of filling and sanding. Nice scheme, too- Plagis' machines certainly had character. Looking forward to reading your full report on MM.

  3. Always admire your building pace - it it interesting to see the this kit in built up form, and it certainly looks the part in terms of overall shapes. Glad that you shared my little point about rivets on the leading edges. Cheers /M

  4. Very pretty! Can't wait to start mine...

  5. Otaki started the rivet revolution way before they were fashionable with their line of kits and Hasegawa with their F-104 series made them acceptable to average modeler, Trumpeter went hog wild with them to the point of them looking absurd on some of their kits. Tamiya with their 1/32nd P-51D seems to have made them a must for manufactures to be producing some of the cutting edge stuff. I'm of the opinion that at 1/48 scale the rivets are nice but, if your painting and obscuring some of the them (Looking at TC's Photos) with paint whats the point?

    Having a two piece cowling ... I wonder if that was a cost savings measure or because of the limits of the mold cutting technology.

    You get what you pay for... Airfix kits, the MSRP is about half of what you'd pay for a Pro-fipack boxing. Some folks have commented that the panel lines in the Airfix offerings are too deep. I do agree that they are a lot simpler and have a direct approach to building. However, when Eduard decides to release their Weekend Edition of the Spitfire Mk IX I'm willing to bet a lot of them will be picked up due to the price reduction in having just the plastic and decals in the box which will be pretty close to what Airfix is asking. Now add the extra options on the Eduard trees and that will very tempting indeed.
    Either choice is worthy.

    Which begs the question who makes the definitive Spitfire...the one easily built and simply engineered at a reasonable price or the one using the lasted cutting edge technology with accuracy and attention to detail?

  6. Nice work, Tom - and rather fast too!
    This must be the first build I see of the new Eduard Spitfire where the angles of the landing gear legs and wheels look right to my eye.

  7. Nice work Tom. Your build has been a big help to me.

  8. Tom, I don't know where you get the time to crank out so many beautiful models but I do so admire your work and your Eduard Spitfire is just fabulous. Thanks for sharing - seeing it may just get me motivated to finish my Seafire project! All the best, Nick

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