Scale aviation modeller international

Spitfire IXc (late)

Eduard 1/48 Spitfire IXc (late) by Bri Derbyshire

MANUFACTURER: Eduard

SCALE: 1/48

KIT NUMBER: 8281

PARTS: 154 grey plastic, 7 clear

DECALS OPTIONS: 4

W

hen I asked for a kit for

the latest review team

newsletter, I should

have remembered to be careful

what you wish/ask for. And in

my case, specify the scale!

I haven’t built a 1/48 kit since

A-level days, but at least I can

compare this to my previous

Eduard 1/72 version (my review

of the early Mk. IX appears

in “Another Place”: I had fit

problems, but liked it very much.)

This too is a really lovely kit –

but (after all the Hasegawa fuss),

“Is it accurate?”, you may ask ...

well, my favourite tried-and-tested

drawings are D. W. Cooksey’s

(Aeromodeller, December 1960)

and it fits them fine. But, “Are you

sure?”, you may insist ... well again,

back in 1989 Ian Huntley gave us

very detailed instructions about

plotting an accurate Spitfire wing

plan. I followed them – and they

matched neither the drawings

nor the kit, being out in places

by a whole inch! So I looked for

square-on photos of Spitfire wings,

and wrangled them to 1/48. Result,

the kit (and Cooksey) are right!

We also have Edgar Brooks’

dimensional table, listing the

lengths of various fuselage areas

for three kits and the Real Thing

(albeit a Mk. VIII). Comparing my

kit measurements – using a steel

rule and powerful magnifying

glass – to Edgar’s, I estimate

the greatest discrepancy as

0.3 mm and the overall length

as just 0.2 mm oversize:

Details of Spitfire Mk

IX ML417, reduced to 1/48

scale, compared to kit:

• Cowling: 43.1/42.9


• Tank: 19.2/19.1


• Cockpit: 20.0/19.9


• Radio: 33.6/33.9


• Rear: 56.0/57.0


• Kit total = 172.8, as per original;
  overall kit length is 173.0 mm.
  With rounding errors, it’ll do!

As a set of mouldings, this is

exemplary. I don’t remember

any kit with so little flash or

tool mismatch, and the fit was

absolutely spot on everywhere –

provided that all joints are kept free

of paint and sharp edges broken.

With only two exceptions. The

first is the rudder horn, Part F21,

which is best trimmed to fit early

on (but not actually fitted until

much later.) The second snag is

those spring-steel etched seat

belts. (Photocopy them and cut

them out!) They really have to be

bent to fit before installing the

seat, and I found it easier to depart

from the instructions on Page 4:

fit all the belts to the seat first,

then thread the tail of the belt

through both rear bulkheads and

wrangle the seat into position.

Then fit the control column and

instrument panel. The resulting

interior is impressive and my

photography doesn’t do it justice.

Like the 1/72 version, (“Titch”

to its friends) the open-cockpit

option has problems. The door

sill is obviously far overscale in

thickness, and the sliding canopy

is too thick and won’t sit down

snugly enough. So I decided early

on to make my model easy to dust,

and trimmed the sills accordingly.

The spars and wheel wells go

just as well as with Titch, and the

cowlings better – no problems at

all, unlike the 1/72 scale kit. But the

exhausts (though absolutely brilliant)

needed some head-scratching

to understand how they fit.

While we’re here – do you

ever pick your models up by the

nose? And squeeze the exhausts

in the process? Well, this kit won’t

stand for it without adding a brace

(fortunately, my cowling came off

without damage. Hooray for me!)

Unlike Titch, the control surface

ribs are nice and smooth, but

you’ll need to trim the elevator

attachment pins to allow them to

droop. (Spitfires of this vintage

usually had bob-weights in the

system to improve the longitudinal

stability; the elevator droop was a

side effect.) The bottom of the horn

74 • MARCH 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

KIT REVIEWS

070-75-Reviews-0318.indd 74 09/02/2018 14:31