Tamiya Spitfire Mk I in 1/48 Question

[Brad-M]

Guys/Gals,

 

With the impending release of Tamiya's new Spitfire Mk I, does anyone have a link that describes why the older boxing of Tamiya's Spitfire Mk I is inaccurate shape wise?

 

Thanks in Advance

Brad

[Sturmovik]

I believe @Troy Smith is the man to call for this.

[Sonoran]

While nobody is going to mistake it for an Fw190, and as nicely as it goes together, the old Tamiya Spits are really pretty awful accuracy-wise.  Going from memory:

 

Fuselage is a tad short, and noticeably too pudgy

Upper cowling contours around the rocker covers are too pronounced.

 

And the biggie:

 

Tamiya started the curvature of the wing leading edge (the tangent point) at the wing roots.  On the real Spit the tangen point is at the fuselage centerline.  That makes the entire wing balloon out, especially visible to my eye in front view.  Basically the entire wing leading and trailing edge curves are wrong. 

 

From what I can see, their new one is a real cracker, and I can’t wait to get my mitts on the three I’ve got on pre-order from Hobby Easy.

[Troy Smith]

8 hours ago, Brad-M said:

does anyone have a link that describes why the older boxing of Tamiya's Spitfire Mk I is inaccurate shape wise?

 

try this, where I have a go at fixing the Tamiya kit fuselage

 

7 hours ago, Sonoran said:

Fuselage is a tad short, and noticeably too pudgy

yes, more infact 'slab sided', see the link for more on this

7 hours ago, Sonoran said:

And the biggie:

 

Tamiya started the curvature of the wing leading edge (the tangent point) at the wing roots.  On the real Spit the tangen point is at the fuselage centerline.  That makes the entire wing balloon out, especially visible to my eye in front view.  Basically the entire wing leading and trailing edge curves are wrong. 

but easier than the fuselage to fix,  the hardest part is filling and re-scribing the flap lines.  the Tamiya wing curve is also found on  the Occidental(reboxed Italeri) IX /XVI kit, the Academy XIV kit, and the Airfix Spitfire XII and Seafire XVII.

 

HTH

[Brad-M]

Hi Troy,

 

Super, thanks very much.

 

Brad