Eduard 1/48th Spitfire HF Mk.VIII

[RiotRolo]

Hi everyone

 

This is my most recent build, which I finished Sunday afternoon. I love Spitfires, and I think this might be one the only spitfire I have kept for myself. The Eduard spitfire is possibly my favourite model to build, its one of those where you can choose to speed through it and still get a nice result or to detail it till your hearts content. I decided to settle for a middle ground, and finally decided to build a model methodically rather than jumping into it and fixing mistakes I could have avoided. 

Although its worth mentioning, I thought I could get away with my old bottles of Hataka paint... this turned out to be a horrible decision, in my opinion these paints are worth staying away from. Instead I switched them out for the Vallejo tropical pack, I've been really enjoying using Vallejo paints at the moment and think in future I'll continue to use them where I can. 

The only one real mistake I made building this was with the Vallejo paints, being that my usual method of two tone RAF schemes where I cut pieces of Frog tape out to mask off the first layer left a step in the paint, thinking I had sanded it down enough I continued and was left with a small step between the two camouflage schemes. Nevermind, its not too obvious. 

 

I also found out through an error that these Eduard decals have a carrier film over them, I was trying to mask off a small section on the model and pulled a bit of it off which I feel makes the decals look really realistic. 

 

Not too much to say about the build other than that, I kept the weathering minimal  in contrast to my previous build. I wanted this Spit to look nimble which I hope is reflected in it being cleaner.  I have also just noticed that I forgot to paint the fabric over the machine guns, im not too fussed about fixing this though.

 

Thanks,

Ryan

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by RiotRolo

[Isak]

Looks fantastic 😊

[Retired Bob]

Lovely Spitfire Ryan, paint finish looks superb. 

[RMCS]

Excellent 

[Gary Brantley]

Yeah, that's really nice Ryan!   Great color scheme!  

[Spitfire31]

Very neat Spit, and the decision to go easy on the weathering makes it all the better, IMHO.

 

Also good to see the cockpit hatch hanging a bit proud of the fuselage (but is that a red crowbar??).

 

Further, IMHO, the model would have benefitted from drooping elevators – so typical of any parked Spit.

 

Excellent modelling in all!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[Tbolt]

Very nice work and nice to see a Spitfire in this colour scheme with extended wingtips.

 

Like Joachim mentioned about the crowbar, it might be worth repainting if it's easy for you to do.

[Makem666]

Just finished an Eduard MK2b myself, this one looks great as well - great job

[Murewa]

Nice one! Lovely build!

[supersonic]

Fine looking Spit, like that scheme with the ext. wingtips

[Wlad]

Very nice build of a Spitfire Mk VIII @RiotRolo. Fun fact, it's the engine which determines whether the Spitfire is F, LF, or HF. The HF Mk VIIIs had the Merlin 70, and from what I can tell the batch with JF serial numbers did not. So they are early production Mk VIIIs with the standard rudder, and extended wing tips likely to make use of the Merlin 60 series' improved high altitude performance over the Merlin 50 series of the Mk V.

 

Cheers,
Wlad