Spitfire Mk IXe Eduard 1/72nd
The Supermarine Spitfire requires no introduction. Together with the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is probably the most famous and recognisable plane of WW2, and certainly a beloved one. I'm presenting the Mk. IXe variant.
The Eduard kit is fantastic with great fit and detail for the scale probably one of the best I've done and I totally recommend it!.
PL124, No. 312 Squadron RAF, B-10 Airfield Plumetôt, France, June 1944
Czechoslovak pilots flew the Spitfire Mk.IXe for the first time during the Normandy landings. Czechoslovak RAF squadrons were re-armed with low-altitude Merlin 66 Spitfires because these had underwing bomb racks and were more suitable for operations over the Normandy beachhead. The first unit to get the new Spitfires within No. 134 Wing was No. 312 Squadron, which received the aircraft on June 11th, 1944. The E-type wing Spitfires served with the wing till July 3rd, 1944 when the F and HF.IXc machines arrived and the LF Mk.IXe were passed on to other units. Photos of PL124 show that the quick identification black & white bands were not fully painted on the fuselage. The black stripes are missing. Note the dark, probably blue, rudder tip.
That's a beautiful Mk IXe, Jorge!
It really is hard to believe it is only 1/72. Glad to hear the Eduard kit is good!
I also liked the paragraph with the Czechoslovak pilots and the Spitfires they flew, being evident that you did a meticulous research.
Well done!
Hi Spiros,
Thank you! Happy you liked it. Yes the Eduard kit is one of the best 1/72nd I've done. Lately Eduard has become my favourite brand by far. Excellent engineering, great fit, fantastic instruction quality, cockpit PE and canopy mask included...What's not to like!
Regarding your comment about the Czech pilots...that was a copy paste form the Eduard booklet ?...sorry, so no research... But I reckon that speaks how good Eduard kits are!
Darn nice photo's of your very nice model...do you have any close-up photo's of the cockpit area?
Hi Rodney. Thank you. Unfortunatly I don't have the camera gear for that...All these images are cropings of a much bigger photos. I have a rangefinder camera that doesn't let you focus close enough for details...I'll try a different approach though to see if I can get close ups.
Really nice build, Jorge (@jark). Paint looks great, especially the invasion stripes. My mother's parents migrated from Prague just before Hitler got there (lucky for me), so I appreciate the shout-out to the Czech pilots.
WOW George that is an amazing story! Makes me very happy to know you've liked it! That paragraph was a direct copy from the fantastic Eduard kit.
A beautiful clean build - looks great!
Thank you Greg!
Jorge some strong work on the Eduard kit. I like what you've done with the spinner and the overall appeal of the painting and weathering. Your efforts make the kit very appealing. Given the scale . . .some of the photos look like there of a 1/48 kit.
Two thumbs up.
Thank you very much Stephen. I have a lot of fun building this kit. It was my first Spitfire and since then I have purchase three more in 1/48th that I'm planing to build soon.
cheers
Nicely done Jorge, I recently did their Mk 8, lovely kit !
Thank you Allan!. Yeah Eduard is my go to brand this days...their kits are the best out there. Best combination of accuracy, fit, quality instruction, extras supplied and surface detail!
It's beautiful. The e duard 1/72 kits are as good as their 1/48 kits.
One small, minor, easily-correctable glitch will make this beautiful model perfect: bend the ailerons up to neutral. They can't both be as they are. This is a frequent problem with separate control surfaces in kits.
Thank you Tom, you are absolutly right...when one is up the other should be down...my mistake
I can only agree onn all the above mentioned comments, Jorge.
Your build is fantastic, well done.
Thank you very much John!
Those Eduard kits are excellent, the only thing that could have been done better is separate elevator, to put it down when the plane is on the ground.
You have done a really great work on this one, very nice painting. Congratulations !
Hi Jérôme, totally agree with you and thank you very much!