1/72 - Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vc by Airfix - released

[John Thompson]

44 minutes ago, MACALAIN said:

And where is the tank cap in front  of the canopy????

 

Alain

 

<sigh!> Another chore for the overworked resin casters...

 

John

[Meatbox8]

1 hour ago, MACALAIN said:

And where is the tank cap in front  of the canopy????

 

Alain

That's an odd omission especially considering it is on the Mk.I kit.

[Tbolt]

1 hour ago, Meatbox8 said:

That's an odd omission especially considering it is on the Mk.I kit.

Odd that they have missed it but seem to have included the servicing stencil decal for it. A drill and a plastic card disc I guess.

[alt-92]

2 hours ago, MACALAIN said:

And where is the tank cap in front  of the canopy????

 

Electric drive, no more petrol (avgas) needed. 

Guess you don't want any of these Airfix kits then? That's ok, too. 

 

_{seriously... 
Btw: neither do the Sword XIV ones, I checked.}

 

 

 

[MACALAIN]

23 minutes ago, Tbolt said:

Odd that they have missed it but seem to have included the servicing stencil decal for it. A drill and a plastic card disc I guess.

May be I shall use the Eduard parts of the .50 of the Spit Mk IX, only used for the E version

 

Alain

[PhantomBigStu]

Now it’s out, will someone do a mkxii conversion kit.....

[MOS6510]

Deleted - No links to personal YouTube Channels

 

Edited December 11, 2020 by Greg B

[Denford]

Not sure if I have fully and correctly followed all of this most interesting post but :

- Is there a rear view mirror?  I couldn't see it on the finished model.  An earlier post suggested it was the item above\below the control column.

- Am I imagining it, but do the main undercarriage legs have 'side braces'?

[Graham Boak]

Yes - presumably the designer presumed that it needed a side mounting to rotate the leg as it retracted.  The top of the leg was actually fitted to a skew mounting, and I can understand that such fittings are difficult to grasp how they work.  Although anyone trained as a draughtsman (ancient or modern) will have come across them, so it looks like a research failure: how would I do that rather than how did they do that?  Easy to trim.

 

Normally I'd be banging on Transport Models' door for this kit...sad.

[B_Bogus]

1 hour ago, Graham Boak said:

Normally I'd be banging on Transport Models' door for this kit...sad.

Same 😢

[Beard]

1 hour ago, Denford said:

- Is there a rear view mirror?  I couldn't see it on the finished model.  An earlier post suggested it was the item above\below the control column.

There's no rear-view mirror. The part near the control column is the voltage regulator.

 

1 hour ago, Denford said:

Am I imagining it, but do the main undercarriage legs have 'side braces'?

You're not imagining it, they do (but so does the Eduard VIII/ IX/ XVI).

 

1 hour ago, Graham Boak said:

Normally I'd be banging on Transport Models' door for this kit...sad.

While I wouldn't go as far as getting the LHS owner out of bed to buy one, it's not a bad kit.

I'm building one side-by-side with the KP VC and - although I don't know if it's dimensionally correct - it looks better than the KP one, especially the wings.

 

It's a shame that Airfix missed the mirror (although I always knock them off), compass, and HF aerial mast (it's easier to cut them off than to stick them on) but I can live with those errors. Mind you, I have six left to build so I'm unlikely to be slagging it off too much.

[John Thompson]

What am I missing? Should I re-read the thread? The previous three posts (with all due respect) make the kit sound like it's not worth buying (okay, Beard was only sort of damning it with faint praise, but he's already spent his money). I wish the kits I find myself cobbling together had nothing worse wrong with them than lack of a rearview mirror or an aerial mast! Life must be good if we can consider Airfix's miss on the 1/72 compass to be a Fatal Flaw - maybe Quickboost will rescue the situation! 

 

John

[Denford]

1 hour ago, John Thompson said:

 

It may have missed out on the compass, but at least it has a voltage regulator!

[alt-92]

And another one on the bright side: the wheel well walls are canted. So that's a plus...

[occa]

I'd rather have a model that is generally correct proportion- and shape-wise than having to correct a detail here and there myself.

As it appears the new Airfix kit falls into the former category so I'm a happy buyer.

[Max Headroom]

So, those spinners. Are they off 

 

Trevor

[Rabbit Leader]

I believe the ‘missing’ mirror is provided within the soon to to be released 26 piece Spitfire Vc ‘Beginner’ kit!! 
 

C’mon lads, we’ve been waiting for a readily available 1/72 Vc for ages... can we at least rejoice that we now have that? On the other hand, certain scribes on here will attest that Airfix’s target audience don’t subscribe to modelling forums (I still don’t agree with this) so why is anyone worried? 
 

Cheers and Happy Vc modelling.. Dave 
 

 

[Graham Boak]

24 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

I believe the ‘missing’ mirror is provided within the soon to to be released 26 piece Spitfire Vc ‘Beginner’ kit!! 

 

 

Tease!  Or is the simpler kit really due out soon?  For what definition of soon?

 

For the moment I have three Mk,Vc that I want to do - for which I have the SMER/Heller, definitely not recommended but it's there; the older Airfix after a considerable rework of the wing. not recommended either but well advanced; the "spare" provided in the Sword Seafire III plus lots of spares from bits box (shame about the short wing).  So I don't actually need the Airfix one, but it would be nice to have if it was good.  It looks as though it is.  I can readily forgive the lack of a rear-view mirror absent from the vast majority of kits, but no aerial - really?  And no curved wheel doors?  And a side strut on the undercarriage??  Lack of attention to details - how many more are we going to find?

 

 

[Rabbit Leader]

7 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

39 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

 

Tease!  Or is the simpler kit really due out soon?  For what definition of soon?

Apologies Graham.. I was just trying to be ‘smart’, although what’s this lack of ‘aerial’ you now mention? I see an antenna mast shown in the kit instructions... are you talking about something else? 
Cheers.. Dave 
 

[Graham Boak]

Quoting an earlier post.  Glad it's not right.

[Dennis_C]

From what I can see this is a decent Spitfire. Not bad level of details. Cockpit is done with care. If this has no geometric issues - should be assembled into nice model. 

The only true problem for Airfix are their trenchy panel lines. From what I see from video - nothing changed compared to their older mk.I or mk.XIX. I personally can live with that but only if I have no other choice of the same aircraft. 

[alt-92]

2 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

but no aerial - really?  And no curved wheel doors?  And a side strut on the undercarriage??  Lack of attention to details - how many more are we going to find?

Having just built the Heller one, I'd say keep the mirror from that and ditch the rest of the plastic. 

Then it's just the gear that needs to be tweaked. 
There are worse things in life than a couple of tricks to be done on a tenner kit.

[Graham Boak]

You've just built the Heller one despite knowing there were two better alternatives, and you tell me to scrap mine?  If it was sitting untouched in its box, I'd transfer it to the "for sale" stack.  But it is well advanced, and that's another matter in my philosophy.  If there is no worse news to come then the new Airfix one will probably replace the bitza.  Despite the unnecessary drawbacks of the doors and the trenches.  For anyone without a Mk,Vc, no discussion needed.

[Giorgio N]

I don't think anyone here is damning the kit as unbuildable or fatally flawed. What some are mentioning here are little detail and features that 99% of modellers will live with.

The "problem" is that when it comes to 1/72 Spitfires the bar has been set very high and it would have been nice to have seen this kit approaching that bar. This kit seems to have set Airfix's bar a bit higher, that is good to see, but on the whole this kit also seems to be the proof that Airfix is not up there with the best yet.

Not that this is necessarily a problem, not everyone want or need the very best and often the second (or third) best is perfectly adequate. In any case this kit has a distinct advantage over the competition: it is a Vc, and even better it is an easily available Vc. And most likely should be an accurate Vc, that is something that wasn't available before.

That it's a "tenner" kit however is IMHO irrelevant ! The very best 1/72 Spitfire kit, the one that set such a high bar, is not a £ 10 kit anymore but the Eduard weekend edition Spit VIII is still available at Hannants for £ 10.60, compared to the new Airfix Vc at 9.99. There's a difference of 61p. and those 61p. get the best 1/72 Spitfire kit on the market. That of course, is not a Vc...

[MACALAIN]

1 hour ago, Giorgio N said:

I don't think anyone here is damning the kit as unbuildable or fatally flawed. What some are mentioning here are little detail and features that 99% of modellers will live with.

The "problem" is that when it comes to 1/72 Spitfires the bar has been set very high and it would have been nice to have seen this kit approaching that bar. This kit seems to have set Airfix's bar a bit higher, that is good to see, but on the whole this kit also seems to be the proof that Airfix is not up there with the best yet.

Not that this is necessarily a problem, not everyone want or need the very best and often the second (or third) best is perfectly adequate. In any case this kit has a distinct advantage over the competition: it is a Vc, and even better it is an easily available Vc. And most likely should be an accurate Vc, that is something that wasn't available before.

That it's a "tenner" kit however is IMHO irrelevant ! The very best 1/72 Spitfire kit, the one that set such a high bar, is not a £ 10 kit anymore but the Eduard weekend edition Spit VIII is still available at Hannants for £ 10.60, compared to the new Airfix Vc at 9.99. There's a difference of 61p. and those 61p. get the best 1/72 Spitfire kit on the market. That of course, is not a Vc...

And if you buy the overtrees of Eduard's kit, it's cheaper (less than 7€)than the Airfix one. Eduard will produce some "early" Spit in 1/72 afther there 1/48, perhaps in 3 or 4 years......

 

Alain