Retired Bob

That is exactly my point, I started my kit review saying it's as good as their Mk.IX (which is regarded as the best 1/48th Spitfire) it just clicks together, everything else after that is just minor detail. I also made the caveat that I was no "expert" I have just read all the information on this site (that's what it's there for) and if I can do that surely the person at Eduard that is paid to do it, can find it out, after all, this kit was planned for several years. So it is a superb kit and so is the Tamiya Spitfire and I am going back to building them. Bob, out.

I am building my later Spitfire using a spare hydraulic gear selector from a Tamiya kit. It does seem strange that Eduard have produced their kit in this way, their 10 decal choices go from the first Spitfires to be operational with 19 Sqn in October 1938 through to X4382, LO*G of 602 Sqn September 1940, which they reckon had seat armour and IFF cheese cutter wires but a manual gear pump? Comparing the Tamiya and Eduard kits they are very similar in breakdown and dimensions it will be interesting to see where they go with other boxings, it does seem strange to me that Tamiya have not released other variants that are so obviously in the pipeline looking at their moulds. At the moment it depends on whether you want rivets or not.

I did fill the rivet divots on the wing leading edge back to the mainspar on my Mk.IXs as per the real aircraft, not sure if they had time to do that on a Mk.I. I'm not that keen on these deep countersunk "rivets", in reality that is just the hole. I did compare the Eduard wing to the Tamiya one and I will have to wait to get paint on them to get a true comparison. Whatever the final result, you can never have enough Spitfires.

Hi Peter, hope you are well. Having just got my hands on this kit you will need more than a Coffman starter bulge (the Eduard Mk.VIII & IX kits have a similar bulge for the early Mk.IX if you have one of either in the stash) I'm afraid they only put the early hand pumped hydraulic undercarriage selector in this kit, I have a spare one from the Tamiya Spitfire for my September 1940 BoB Spitfire. I looked at the plans and thought, ok that's fine for the early Spitfire, but what about later ones? I think someone at Eduard should have read Britmodellers Spitfire information pages.

I have the kit and have had a dry fit session and it all goes together as good as their Mk.IX All good, well no. As you are aware the box contains 2 kits, one early without upper fuel tank "armour" and another with it moulded on. Now for the bad news, the sprues only contain the early hand hydraulic pump, moulded on the side wall is the signalling switch box, no air hose (that would be on the pilots mask) There is a part on the sprue for a remote contactor but it is shaded as not required, strange when the last marking option supposedly has the IFF wires? Talking of IFF both fuselages have the IFF insulators moulded in the surface detail and you are not directed to fill them even if you are building a pre-war aircraft. The wing root electrical socket is moulded in the surface detail and you are directed to fill this for the kit options. Here is the "later" fuselage with the tank "armour", I have filled the electrical socket and IFF insulator. Sorry no, to all. There is a fold together early voltage regulator, a plastic one for later ones and, on the sprue but not for this boxing there is a later twin cylinder regulator and plate. In all there are a lot of good points in this kit, for an early Spitfire there are early metal seats, with and without padded cover and the later resin seat, (etched) wire guard for the fin top, p/e straps on the upper fuel tank the gun heating vents are separate parts, but the protruding outer guns that should have flash eliminators are just plastic parallel barrels. I should add that I do not consider myself an expert, I have just read all the information on this site about Spitfires when I started to build the 2018 Tamiya kit in the hope of "getting it right" and found how difficult that phrase was. I am sure others will find things that I have not yet considered, but it is early days and I just thought I should answer your questions.

I have assembled both engine nacelles, the left one I followed t he assembly instructions and it was PITA to get it together without gaps. So I assembled the right one my way, putting the front panel on to the side frames and that helped to align the other panels, with a fair bit sanding. I added some detail to the side panels that ICM have not bothered with, vents and intakes that are on the Monogram kit. A coat of white primer to check for imperfections and they are ready to be attached after I have painted the radiators and their covers so they can be masked off. Thanks for looking, all comments welcome.

I did the same with the ICM kit, I've had to do some sanding to get them all together without gaps but it is done now, with this soft plastic, you leave it a couple of days and think it must be dry and you start to clean up the joints but it's still soft under the surface, Good job we have until October to finish them by.

I have just received my Eduard Spifires, the kit is very nice, but they seem to be like Tamiya and are keen to apply the IFF wires, both early and later fuselages have the insulators engraved and the instructions do not tell you to fill them if they are not relevant for your build.

Ha, I've nearly done that, I ordered a book I liked the look of, but something clicked in my mind, so I checked my bookcase and sure enough I already had it, luckily I was quick enough to cancel the order. I remember seeing something on TV about the anti-invasion defence lines. When I did my radar training at RAF Bawdsey back in 1972 the old Bawdsey Manor had been used for a lot of the radar development work and still had a wooden RDF tower, sadly that has gone and the underground bunker has been gutted and sealed. I must revisit the Manor house and see what is in their museum. I know that we cannot preserve all our past but just in my life time so much as disappeared or been bricked up.

A local historian used to make a weekly talk on radio Tees about historical facts of the area, one week he talked of the Luftwaffe attacks on the chemical plants on Teeside and that there was a large decoy site set up on the Yorkshire Moors to help protect that area. A lot of the history of decoys has largely faded from memory, as other interesting aspects of the war have been.

Hi J-W, the first two Zwillings were built by October 1942 using H-6 airframes, the last ten were built in November and December 1942 using a mix of H-6 and H-16 airframes.

Strange really to have a dummy airfield, unless it was made quite early in the war. When the bombing campaign got going there were so many airfields around here, you miss one and hit another.

I managed to get the cockpit just about finished off, next is to get the fuselage glazing in and mask it so that I can glue the fuselage together. I'm happy with the wings, they have the joints sanded down and the engine nacelles are going together so far without any problems, I'm glad to have made the wings separately, I think making them as by the plans would have made it a lot harder, A few little bits to put on just before the final glazing goes on, if I put them on now I'll only knock them off again. Thanks for looking.

Yes, a less than flattering nick name because of Gorings size. I'm using CMKs resin 1/48 bombs, or do you mean you want a real one?

While I'm faffing around with the cockpit painting and p/e parts, I'm still waiting for my canopy mask, package is on it's way. I was trying to find out the colour of those big 1,000 kg bombs, I recall a pale blue on some weapons and I have also seen them in buff and black green well I found a photo that confirms my first thought: You do not want to find one of these when you are digging in your garden.