1/48 - Supermarine Spitfire Mk.I to Mk.V by Eduard - Mk.I/Ia/IIa/IIb/Vb/Vc released

[tonyot]

On 8/12/2020 at 10:55 AM, franky boy said:

Tony

 

On Eduards monthly news letter they’re saying that they are going to release a mk2 with a and b wing armament late this year early next. I guess a mkv will follow after that. Happy days! And belated happy birthday to. 

 

Mine arrived last Friday, it looks an absolutely stunning kit in the box. 
 

James
 

 

Thanks for the update James,.... wasn`t aware of that re the Mk.IIa/b. Cheers re the birthday too,.... we went away for a few days to visit Duxford.

I`ve got my first Spitfire from the box built up and it is a wonderful kit,....... truly wonderful,...... I have yet to sand it and paint it yet.

[Curt B]

I am pretty much 'behind the curve' with respect to this model, but I have become an Eduard fanatic over the last few years, and I've just placed my order for this one!  I have the 1/48 Tamiya Spitfire Mk 1, though I have not built it yet, but I have to believe that this Eduard Spitfire is going to be very close to as easy to build, the fit of all the other recent Eduard kits being so close to Tamiya as to be indistinguishable.  And...might it be possible that the accuracy might be a slight bit better?  I haven't read all the posts in this thread, so maybe someone has already commented on the fit and accuracy, but regardless, I'm sure I'm going to be thrilled with this set of airplanes!  Now I'll have 3 Mk 1s, so I'll be able to build 3 really different paint schemes, and maybe even a 2 blade prop version...  We'll just have to see how wild I want to get! 😊

[Rabbit Leader]

Slightly off topic, however it does relate to this new Eduard kit, I notice that there is the option to install the armoured headrest for certain kit versions, however (from what I've seen) the new tool Tamiya kit still does not provide an armoured headrest.

Is there a readily accepted notion that all / most BoB Spitfires had this headrest fitted? 

Cheers and thanks.. Dave 

 

[Steve 1602]

6 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Slightly off topic, however it does relate to this new Eduard kit, I notice that there is the option to install the armoured headrest for certain kit versions, however (from what I've seen) the new tool Tamiya kit still does not provide an armoured headrest.

Is there a readily accepted notion that all / most BoB Spitfires had this headrest fitted? 

Cheers and thanks.. Dave 

 

I believe so Dave - when I was building my Tamiya kit, the timeline looked to be (From various Britmodeller threads) Feb 1940 head armour, May 1940 seat armour.

 

Steve

[Rabbit Leader]

28 minutes ago, Steve 1602 said:

I believe so Dave - when I was building my Tamiya kit, the timeline looked to be (From various Britmodeller threads) Feb 1940 head armour, May 1940 seat armour.

Steve

Great info Steve, many thanks 

Cheers.. Dave  

[franky boy]

1 hour ago, Steve 1602 said:

I believe so Dave - when I was building my Tamiya kit, the timeline looked to be (From various Britmodeller threads) Feb 1940 head armour, May 1940 seat armour.

 

Steve

Great info Steve

 

Do you know roughly when the fuel tank armour was fitted in front of the cockpit?

 

 Thanks 

 

James

[Steve 1602]

54 minutes ago, franky boy said:

Great info Steve

 

Do you know roughly when the fuel tank armour was fitted in front of the cockpit?

 

 Thanks 

 

James

Hi James,

 

I think it was introduced from L1096 in production and retrofitted from Sept 1939. Source of that information is here which contains a really useful article on Mk I Spits.  
 

Steve

[Wuger91]

October Issue of the Mk I

 

Box  82151

 

 

 

[Wuger91]

The Mk II that come in december will be a Dual Combo type boxing, and will offer both the machine gun armed Mk.IIa and the cannon armed Mk.IIb.

[Steve 1602]

Nice selection of schemes there - tempting just for Brian Carbury’s XT-W and the 609 Sqn machine.

 

I’m curious about the 92 Squadron machine - N3260 doesn’t appear to be an allocated serial. Is that a printing error?

 

3 hours ago, Wuger91 said:

The Mk II that come in december will be a Dual Combo type boxing, and will offer both the machine gun armed Mk.IIa and the cannon armed Mk.IIb.

With regrettable predictability.... I’m in!

 

Steve

[NPL]

Let me make just a note about the greatest selection in decals for the Mk. I: Fündecals Spitfire Part 2. You can download the instructions from their home page. About 26 different schemes from Oct 1939 through the Battle.

 

NPL

[DominikS]

17 hours ago, Steve 1602 said:

Nice selection of schemes there - tempting just for Brian Carbury’s XT-W and the 609 Sqn machine.

 

I’m curious about the 92 Squadron machine - N3260 doesn’t appear to be an allocated serial. Is that a printing error?

 

With regrettable predictability.... I’m in!

 

Steve

You are right.According to one book it should be N3250. (and such aircraft was allocated to No 92 Sqn). The problem is that this preliminary profile has other errors - wrong size and shape of code and indyvidual letters. I have already posted photos on Czech forum wher VS answers quaestions. Hope they will corrct the mistake.

Edited August 15, 2020 by DominikS

[Scooby]

1 hour ago, NPL said:

Let me make just a note about the greatest selection in decals for the Mk. I: Fündecals Spitfire Part 2. You can download the instructions from their home page. About 26 different schemes from Oct 1939 through the Battle.

 

NPL

Finest decal release ever for the Spitfire.

 

Not that I am biased or anything, I consider the owners good friends, I have worked on decals with one of them. If they don’t have concrete evidence of the schemes, they don’t produce on speculation.

[DominikS]

It would be completely fantastic if Fündecals release next parts covering early Spitfires, more early war Spitfires Mk. I and further Marks. One set a year would be great, even if smaller tan part 2 (that must have been costly).

 

Returning to No 92 squadron, it was N3250. I've checked in their ORB.

[janneman36]

37 minutes ago, Scooby said:

Finest decal release ever for the Spitfire.

 

Not that I am biased or anything, I consider the owners good friends, I have worked on decals with one of them. If they don’t have concrete evidence of the schemes, they don’t produce on speculation.

Their sets are marvelous I have a few for different aircraft as well and the research is great ....I love Fundekal.....

 

cheers, Jan

[Peter Roberts]

There has been criticism of Eduard for including a panel line across the top of the upper cowling panel, near the nose. While looking through my files of references on the Spitfire Mk I, I came across an unattributed quote that this panel line was a feature of Castle Bromwich built aircraft (copied from a Britmodeller post by the look of it). I haven't looked at pics yet, but it looks like this detail may not necessarily be incorrect, depending on the subject of your model.

 

Edit: After trawling through several hundred pages of reference I couldn't find a photo of a Spitfire Mk I or II to support the claim that this panel line was present. However, it IS present on some Mk V's so further evidence that Eduard are planning future Mk V's to follow?

Edited August 17, 2020 by Peter Roberts

[Ray_W]

5 hours ago, Peter Roberts said:

There has been criticism of Eduard for including a panel line across the top of the upper cowling panel, near the nose. While looking through my files of references on the Spitfire Mk I, I came across an unattributed quote that this panel line was a feature of Castle Bromwich built aircraft (copied from a Britmodeller post by the look of it). I haven't looked at pics yet, but it looks like this detail may not necessarily be incorrect, depending on the subject of your model.

Eduard's Mk. I instructions:

 

 

Ray

[Peter Roberts]

On 17/08/2020 at 14:56, Ray_W said:

Eduard's Mk. I instructions:

 

 

Ray

May not be necessary if the info I quoted is correct, but if CBAF, then maybe more for Mk II's?

[Ray_W]

1 minute ago, Peter Roberts said:

May not be necessary if the info I quoted is correct.

Correct, always trying to find reference to the actual aircraft being modelled.  

 

Similarly for that other area of discussion. Eduard gives some options:

 

 

Ray 

[Peter Roberts]

On 17/08/2020 at 15:02, Ray_W said:

Correct, always trying to find reference to the actual aircraft being modelled.  

 

Similarly for that other area of discussion. Eduard gives some options:

 

 

Ray 

Sorry Ray, edited my last reply after your reply here. Yes, photos always a big help. I'll pull out Mk I pics have a scan for that panel line.

 

Edit: - no photos found of Mk I/IIs showing this panel line, but some Mk Vs do show it

[Ray_W]

Good attention to detail by Eduard. I think a valiant attempt for what will be a series to cover most variants. I'll start building mine later this week. Looking forward to it. 

[VMA131Marine]

Does anyone know when the manual pump for retracting the landing gear was replaced with an engine driven hydraulic pump with the handle in the cockpit replaced by the landing gear position selector?

The only thing I see on the Eduard parts trees is a part for the gear position selector with the manual pump handle. I know Eduard knows what the selector for the hydraulically operated gear looks like because it’s in all their late Merlin Spit kits. But, if it’s not in the new Mk.I kit it does limit which serial numbers can be accurately modeled (it’s probably not a huge deal if you have the wrong landing gear selector in there).

[Ray_W]

14 minutes ago, VMA131Marine said:

Does anyone know when the manual pump for retracting the landing gear was replaced with an engine driven hydraulic pump with the handle in the cockpit replaced by the landing gear position selector?

Now, that's the question I also want answered. On this I am still not clear. Serial numbers?

[Peter Roberts]

1 hour ago, VMA131Marine said:

Does anyone know when the manual pump for retracting the landing gear was replaced with an engine driven hydraulic pump with the handle in the cockpit replaced by the landing gear position selector?

The only thing I see on the Eduard parts trees is a part for the gear position selector with the manual pump handle. I know Eduard knows what the selector for the hydraulically operated gear looks like because it’s in all their late Merlin Spit kits. But, if it’s not in the new Mk.I kit it does limit which serial numbers can be accurately modeled (it’s probably not a huge deal if you have the wrong landing gear selector in there).

April 1940 - Refer post 294, 2 pages back.

[Ray_W]

Key for me is whether there is an agreed number of aircraft built before the change over from the manual pump. Wikipedia says (using Price as a source) as follows. The underlining is mine.

 

From the 175th production aircraft, the Merlin Mk III, with a "universal" propeller shaft able to take a de Havilland or Rotol propeller, was fitted. Following complaints from pilots a new form of "blown" canopy was manufactured and started replacing the original "flat" version in early 1939. This canopy improved headroom and enabled better vision laterally, and to the rear. At the same time the manual hand-pump for operating the undercarriage was replaced by a hydraulic system driven by a pump mounted in the engine bay

 

Is there evidence, consensus or disagreement that this was the case? 

 

Then armed with this:

 

http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/production.html

 

I intend to make a guess for my X4009.

 

Ray