Eduard Spitfire Mk.IIa ProfiPACK (82153) 1:48

[Mike]

Spitfire Mk.IIa ProfiPACK (82153)

1:48 Eduard

 

 

The Spitfire was the champion of the Battle of Britain along with the Hurricane and a few other less well-known players, and it’s an aircraft with an amazing reputation that started from a bit of a damp squib in the shape of the Supermarine Type 224.  The gull-winged oddity was the grandfather of the Spitfire, and despite losing out to the biplane Gloster Gladiator, designer R J Mitchell was spurred on to go back to the drawing board and create a more modern, technologically advanced and therefore risky design.  This was the Type 300, and it was an all-metal construction with an incredibly thin elliptical wing that became legendary, although it didn’t leave much space for fuel, a situation that was further worsened by the Air Ministry’s insistence that four .303 machine guns were to be installed in each wing, rather than the three originally envisaged. It was a very well-sorted aircraft from the outset, so quickly entered service with the RAF in 1938 in small numbers.  With the clouds of war accumulating, the Ministry issued more orders and it became a battle to create enough to fulfil demand in time for the outbreak and early days of war from September 1939 onwards.

 

By then, the restrictive straight sided canopy had been replaced by a “blown” hood to give the pilot more visibility, although a few with the old canopy still lingered.  The title Mk.Ia was given retrospectively to differentiate between the cannon-winged Mk.Ib that was instigated after the .303s were found somewhat lacking compared to the 20mm cannon armament of their main opposition at the time, the Bf.109.  As is usual in wartime, the designers could never rest on their laurels with an airframe like the Spitfire, as it had significant potential for development, a process that lasted throughout the whole of WWII, and included many changes to the Merlin engine, then the installation of the more powerful Griffon engine, as well as the removal of the spine of the fuselage and creation of a bubble canopy to improve the pilot’s situational awareness.  Its immediate successor was the Mk.II that had a better Merlin engine and higher octane fuel to give it a healthy boost in performance.  The IIa was armed identically to the Mk.Ia, while the IIb carried the cannons of the Ib.  It was followed by the Mk.V that had yet another more powerful Merlin fitted, which returned the fright of the earlier marks’ first encounters with Fw.190s by a similar increase in performance of an outwardly almost identical Spitfire.

 

 

The Kit

This is a reboxing with new parts of a new tool from Eduard, following on from their other later marks of the Spit in their usual manner, providing us modellers with a wide selection of types and sub-variants as they proceed through their launch schedule.  This is a thoroughly modern tooling with immense detail squeezed into every part, and for the inveterate upgraders, the kits are moulded with that in mind, to be augmented by a raft of super-detailed resin and brass sets from Eduard themselves, which benefit from concurrent launch and excellent fit.  The outer skin has been fully riveted with fine lines and rivets everywhere, plus different widths of engraved lines, Dzuz fasteners on cowling panels, and even some lapped panels such as the fuel tank in front of the canopy.  It arrives in Eduard’s new  ProfiPACK box with the gold banner, with five sprues in their grey/blue styrene, a clear sprue, a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) that is nickel-plated and pre-painted, a small sheet of pre-cut kabuki masking material (not pictured), a large decal sheet with separate stencil sheet, and the glossy instruction booklet with painting guide at the rear in full colour.  It is a very similar airframe to the Mk.Ia that we reviewed recently, so shares four sprues and the clear parts with its sibling.  The new sprue has many of the external differences upon it, so keep your eyes open for the options as they occur through the build.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the cockpit, which will probably be familiar to most, although maybe not in so much detail if you’re not used to the Eduard way.  It is built up on the starboard sidewall insert, with equipment, controls and a choice of seat-carrying fuselage frames depending on which decal option you have chosen.  The seat is next, having the flare rack at the front added from PE, as well as some nice painted PE seatbelts and rear armour.  The control column is also made up, and has a PE trigger added before it and the flight control box (more of a tangle, really) are joined to the seat and inserted in the next two fuselage frames forward.  The next frame forward holds the instrument panel, which can be plastic with decals, or the more complex and detailed lamination of PE parts with those lovely glossy dial faces on a separate backing plate, either of which then glue to the frame, with the gunsight at the top of the panel, and the compass just below, then the rudder pedals are outfitted with PE straps and footrests, before being put just inside the footwell below the panel.  Forward of that frame is a blanking plate that is glued in place along with the spinner back during the fuselage closure procedure.  The socket for the tail wheel and the leading edge of the wing fairing are also glued in, and take care here, as there are two diagrams below the fuselage closure that cover the painting and decaling of the cockpit sidewalls, which must be done before closure, as you’d imagine. The canopy will require small parts of the sidewalls removing to accommodate the appropriate glazing, so make sure you cut those parts off too.  They slip in a mention of a panel line on the very front of the nose that you need to fill in, so don’t forget that one, as it’s called out with a line and the word “fill” during the attachment to the wings later on.  There is also a hole to be drilled in the port wing root fairing as well.

 

The lower wing is a single part out as far as the clipped wing rib, and there are two small holes that need drilling out on both undersides before you go any further.  A long wing spar bridges the gap between the wheel bay cut-outs, then the rest of the bay walls are made out of short sections and the wing-gun barrels (four per side) are dropped into their slots ready for closing up the wing, then placing the fuselage into the gap and gluing home.  The empennage is next, with separate elevator fins and flying surfaces, plus the rudder and its control link, chopping off the short tube on the top of the fin.  Back to the wings, and the elliptical tips are slid into place along with the ailerons, which you can pose deflected if you wish.  Staying with the wing, the model is flipped over, and the radiator, oil cooler and chin intake with fairing are all added in, the radiator and oil cooler both having PE mesh inserts, L-shaped feeder pipes at the rear, and a scale-thickness PE flap with two actuators for open and closed positions.

 

The narrow track landing gear has replacement PE details fixed to the leg after removing the plastic representation, and these then have the captive doors attached to the rear, and wheels made up from a tyre and two hub parts, with a split yoke and wheel for the tail, which slots into the socket buried in the fuselage.  The canopy has a choice of fittings on the windscreen, and a choice of open or closed canopies with a PE pull-handle in the top.  The fixed rear glazing is fitted first for the open option, but is moulded into the closed canopy for better fit.  The locations for the masks are shown in a diagram at the end of the instructions, using liquid mask for highly curved areas of the blown canopy.   The cockpit door can be mounted open or closed, then the aerial is glued to the rear of the canopy on a base, two small holes are opened up on the upper wing for the PE landing gear markers, with a fuel filler cap on the cowling in front of the windscreen.  The exhaust stacks have been moulded carefully to give hollow tips, and the prop is a single part, covered front and back by the two-part spinner in either blunt or pointed versions, with the peg on the rear sliding into the front of the fuselage.  The final steps show two aerial wires from the fuselage to the elevators, which you will need to provide from your own toolbox.

 

Markings

There are a decent five marking options from the box, including some early war in Dark Earth/Dark Green and later examples with Ocean Grey and Dark Green camo.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• P7881, flown by S/Ldr. Michael L. Robinson, CO of No.609 Squadron, RAF Biggin Hill, Great Britain, April 1941
• P8387, flown by Sgt. Stanislaw Blok, No.315 (Polish) Squadron, RAF Northolt, Great Britain, August 1941
• P8038, flown by Fl/Lt. Brendan E.F. Finucane DFC, No.452 Squadron RAAF, RAF Kenley, Great Britain, August 1941
• P8081, flown by Fl/Lt. Tomáš Vybíral, No.312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron, RAF Ayr, Great Britain, November 1941
• P7840, No.340 (Free French) Squadron, RAF Ayr, Great Britain, January 1942

 

 

 

 

 

The decals are printed by Eduard and are in good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas.  The stencils are marked on the rear page of the booklet, separate from the rest of the markings to avoid confusion from trying to read overly busy diagrams.

 

 

Conclusion

There are always some moans about another Spitfire model, but other people’s kits don’t make money for Eduard.  They’ve done a great job of these early marks, and the detail is excellent from the box, with nothing else needed to create a great replica other than paint and glue, with a soupçon of talent.

 

Very highly recommended.

 

 

You can also get a Dual Combo containing a Mk.IIa and a Mk.IIb for a bit of variety, which named “SPITFIRE STORY: Tally ho!”.  You can see that below:

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

 

[Prenton]

Great to see the line up of "foreign" pilots in the selection of marking options - a Czech, pilot, a Polish pilot, a Free French aircraft and - for me most importantly - the Irishman Brendan Finucane (born in Dublin).  Well done Eduard!

 

Philip