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