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Spitfire XIV Best Kits 1/72


wellsprop

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Goodness me,what a very interesting and informative thread on my favorite marks of Spitfires.

 

Wellsprop,Gingerbob and Miggers certainly know their onions(and Spitfires too).

 

Thank you for the nod on the new Airfix Spitfire XIV,that may well be on my wishlist to promote a return to the

wonderful hobby of Spitfire modelling.

It's good to see that Airfix are still in there and turning out Spitfires for us to build.

 

DW.

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10 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

 

In these 5 years we've also had a new 1/72 kit from Sword in both high and low back guise

I found them unbearable to build and strongly regretted selling off my AZ kits (which I never got around to building). Suffice to say I binned the one I was building and sold off the other two.

 

:(

 

 

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Have modellers gone soft?  Yeah, the Sword kits are a bit challenging, but no more so than the Ventura ones - what with their MASSIVE sprue gates and dead hard plastic, and that's before you have to add all the detail yourself.  For Cliff's sake, even the Fujimi ones are horrors to build, with their overengineered approach to get as many versions as possible out of the moulds. 

 

I've built quite a few of both manufacturer's kits and really dislike the Fujimi kit.  There's something wrong about the dimensions, especially the highbacks, but I can't quite figure out what it is.  It just looks wrong somehow whereas the few mk XIVs I've built by mating a new wing with the Airfix XIX fuselage - which I know is short somewhere between the firewall and the cockpit - look right.

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Sword Spitfires are unbearable to build? I must have missed that memo when I made mine. Sure, they're limited run and a bit fiddly, but about average compared to the large crop of similar manufacturers (Is it just me or are they all Czech? That country must really loves its scale models!).

 

I sold my AZ after building the Sword XIV, finer detail and less flash on parts, plus better and more interesting decals. I consider the Sword range the definitive Spitfire XIVs in 1/72, especially with different boxings covering high back, bubble top and FR, with, as I said, fantastic selection of marking options.

 

I've also done the Airfix XIX fuselage + IXc wing kitbash, and I'd do it again over any other option for a high-back XIV, if by some odd contrivance those Airfix kits were back in production and the Sword became hard to find.

Edited by Vlad
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Vlad: Wasn't it Sword that produced the basic moulds for Pacific Coast's 1:32 Mk.XIV. If so they got it right. As

S PC's Mk.XIV is a splendid high-back Mk.XIV. 

 

You forgot the down-unders, the Ventura short run Spits. Seems to be very precise.

Edited by NPL
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12 hours ago, The Wooksta! said:

Have modellers gone soft?  Yeah, the Sword kits are a bit challenging, but no more so than the Ventura ones - what with their MASSIVE sprue gates and dead hard plastic, and that's before you have to add all the detail yourself.  For Cliff's sake, even the Fujimi ones are horrors to build, with their overengineered approach to get as many versions as possible out of the moulds. 

 

I've built quite a few of both manufacturer's kits and really dislike the Fujimi kit.  There's something wrong about the dimensions, especially the highbacks, but I can't quite figure out what it is.  It just looks wrong somehow whereas the few mk XIVs I've built by mating a new wing with the Airfix XIX fuselage - which I know is short somewhere between the firewall and the cockpit - look right.

Yes, if you believe that making models were the exciting part, you have got it totally wrong. Patience seems not to be a virtue now-a-days. When we think of the kind of surgery needed when we were young, with the inspiration from Alan Hall's many conversions in the Airfix Magazine. 

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I can see it from both sides. The hobby is meant to be relaxing after all, and different people have different tolerances. I too love a kit that just falls together, they're also satisfying to build in a different way. I might alternate from a project that requires a lot of work to get a specific result (kitbash, superdetail, or just an awkward kit of a rare subject) to one that's easy but I still get what I want. I guess in that sense there's no perfect XIV, until Tamiya decides to do one, but then they're not immune to huge accuracy fumbles either so you might have to compromise anyway.

Edited by Vlad
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21 hours ago, The Wooksta! said:

Have modellers gone soft?  Yeah, the Sword kits are a bit challenging, but no more so than the Ventura ones - what with their MASSIVE sprue gates and dead hard plastic, and that's before you have to add all the detail yourself.  For Cliff's sake, even the Fujimi ones are horrors to build, with their overengineered approach to get as many versions as possible out of the moulds. 

 

I've built quite a few of both manufacturer's kits and really dislike the Fujimi kit.  There's something wrong about the dimensions, especially the highbacks, but I can't quite figure out what it is.  It just looks wrong somehow whereas the few mk XIVs I've built by mating a new wing with the Airfix XIX fuselage - which I know is short somewhere between the firewall and the cockpit - look right.

 

I found the Fujimi kit the best I've built so far - sure, it takes a little effort to get it looking right; the engine cover is difficult to get right, the high back insert is wrong, the rear u/c doors need cutting out, the XIX air filter needs removing, the exhausts need changing, the canopy isn't a great shape and the cockpit needs detailing, but other than that....

 

The AZ models XIV (of which I've built 3) is a real challenge, requiring a lot of filler!

 

1 hour ago, Bedders said:

I would agree that the Sword kits are the best of the bunch. Not perfect, but better than all the others, and once you've got the hang of Sword kits you come to accept the fiddliness.

 

Justin

 

I have yet to try the Sword model, but just from the reviews I have seen, it addresses a lot of the issues of the sword kit.

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