1:48 Eduard Spitfire Mk.I Battle of Britain

[shortCummins]

 

While I’m waiting for the oils to dry on my Russian Spitfire, I need to add a flat coat to protect them and I don’t want to risk the varnish reacting with the oils, so I’ve decided to start another Spitfire, after all you can never have enough Spitfires!

I really fancy building a MkI so while I wait for the Kotare 1:32 version, if I only buy one kit this year the Kotare Spitfire will be it!, I’m going to build one from my stash, Eduard’s 1:48 MkI early version.

 

 

I had toyed with the idea of building a two bladed Spitfire, however I recently watched a documentary called “Empty Skies” where RAF fighters pilots spoke about the Battle of Britain and their experiences, cracking stuff and so I’ve got to build a BoB version.

 

Not being a fan of decals I opted to buy a Montex mask set, unfortunately this set is for a different (earlier release?) Eduard MkI offering.

 

 

The “other” Eduard/Montex kit/set has 7 scheme’s for you to choose from, I’ve opted for F/O Brian J Carbury’s aircraft flying from Hornchurch late August 1940.

I’ll use the roundels and fuselage codes from the Montex set, the only thing I’ll have to “work around” will be the aircraft serial numbers, I’m not sure what to do about those, perhaps I can “bodge” something from the kit decals, or I might not apply any as some early Spitfires didn’t have them, I’ll worry about that later in the build.

 

Here’s the writeup on XT-W from the Eduard instructions…

R6835, flown by F/O Brian J. Carbury, No.603 Squadron, RAF Hornchurch, late August 1940

 

Spitfire R6835 XT-W was flow by a New Zealander named Brian J Carbury, who shot down two Bf 109Es on August 27th 1940, when No.603 Squadron arrived at Hornchurch to replace battle-weary No.65 Squadron. He scored 15 1/2 kills during the Battle of Britain. On August 31st, he shot down five enemy aircraft over the span of three sorties, becoming one of two RAF ‘Ace of the Day’ pilots able to claim that status during the BoB.
His aircraft carried the standard RAF Temperate Land Scheme consisting of Sky bottom surfaces. The blue/white/red roundels painted on the bottom surfaces were mandated by the Air Ministry on August 11th. The aircraft was equipped with a TR.9D radio with the wire antenna stretching between the antenna mast and fin. The IFF device is not yet installed, explaining the absence of the associated aerial wires between the fuselage sides and the horizontal tail. No rear-view mirror was carried yet, nor was the head armour plating in the cockpit.

 

 

 

 

Next I’ll be starting, as usual, on the cockpit…

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[Steve 1602]

I’ll follow along again John - I have a number of these early Merlin Spits from Eduard in my stash but have yet to build one. 
Steve

[bigbadbadge]

Nice John, will follow too.  

Chris

[k5054nz]

A Kiwi pilot? A fine choice!

[81-er]

I'll pull up a pew for this one as well, Hornchurch isn't far from where I grew up

 

James

[shortCummins]

On 05/02/2022 at 13:33, Steve 1602 said:

I’ll follow along again John - I have a number of these early Merlin Spits from Eduard in my stash but have yet to build one. 
Steve

if you enjoyed building your MkIX then you'll enjoy an early mark as much, it looks as if Eduard have simplified the wheel wells and the exhausts can be added later in the build, and they're one piece rather than the awkward arrangement for later marks?  

 

On 05/02/2022 at 14:14, bigbadbadge said:

Nice John, will follow too.  

Chris

thanks Chris

 

this is the first time I've built 2 of the same (if different versions) type of aircraft one after each other. In theory any "issues" should be fresh in my mind and make this build go smoother, we'll see.

 

11 hours ago, k5054nz said:

A Kiwi pilot? A fine choice!

thanks Zac

 

I have a soft spot for Commonwealth pilots and as I wanted to build a BoB Spitfire this one was the obvious choice.

 

6 hours ago, 81-er said:

I'll pull up a pew for this one as well, Hornchurch isn't far from where I grew up

 

James

 

thanks James

 

its amazing how many RAF airfields are dotted around isn't it, up here in Nottinghamshire I'm really close to a lot of the bomber airfields in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, I've a Tamiya 1:48 Lancaster that I really should build, its on my "list"

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

 

I spent a happy couple of hours or so identifying the cockpit parts and preparing them for primer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were some sink marks on the exhausts, the electrical cover on the fuselage and part of the seat bulkhead needed filling, so out with the sprue-goo.

 

 

 

 

Where practical I assembled the sub-assemblies.

 

 

PE was added...

 

…and then gave everything a coat of Stynylrez black primer*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Finn sends his thanks to Bertie for his walk over the Country Park

 

 

Next I’ll be applying the “base” cockpit colours.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[Christer A]

Those plastic bits looks very much like all the other Eduard Spitfire cockpit bits, which is off course very nice.

Good work so far, especially with those sinkmarks.

[shortCummins]

39 minutes ago, Christer A said:

Those plastic bits looks very much like all the other Eduard Spitfire cockpit bits, which is off course very nice.

Good work so far, especially with those sinkmarks.

thanks Christer

 

Funnily enough the cockpit "parts" are all new, at least the sprue layout is very different, certainly as far as MkVIII's or MkIX's, as well as quite a few additional pieces such as different gunsight(s), big levers, different seat and seat frame/bulkhead.

The fuselage halves are very different inasmuch as they now include the upper cowl, the exhausts can now be added later in the the build, and also the airframe rivets are both raised and recessed, when you rub your finger over the plastic they're very noticeable.

 

I always liked the Eduard offerings, they've really "ramped up" the quality for the MkI, I'm assuming that their MkII is largely the same sprues and I can see one of them in my future, perhaps another BoB aircraft?

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

 

Xtreme metal AK488 matte aluminium was used for the "unpainted" rear of the fuselage.

 

 

The aluminium colour was then masked and Alkan BS:283 grey/green was sprayed on the rest of the interior.

 

 

 

 

 

Early versions, up until around May 1940, of the Spitfire had aluminium seats when a new seat was made from SRPB, synthetic resin bonded paper, was used to help minimise the use of aluminium. These early aluminium seats were mostly?, painted the same interior grey/green as the rest of the cockpit, so here I’ve masked the back cushion and painted the rest of the seat BS:283.

 

 

 

 

 

Next I’ll be adding some detail painting for the cockpit boxes and instruments…

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[bigbadbadge]

Coming on well John , looking good to.

Had a look at the Eduard Mk.Vs that arrived the other day and they do look lovely.  Will have to give one a go soon .

Chris

[mark.au]

A couple of days late to this one but I’ll just sneak into the back of the room and watch quietly hoping no one noticed my tardiness.

 

[shortCummins]

4 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Coming on well John , looking good to.

Had a look at the Eduard Mk.Vs that arrived the other day and they do look lovely.  Will have to give one a go soon .

Chris

thanks Chris

 

does the MkV have raised rivets? this one does and their fantastic, I was impressed with the MkVIII & MkIX's but this "new" moulding is another level!

 

2 hours ago, mark.au said:

A couple of days late to this one but I’ll just sneak into the back of the room and watch quietly hoping no one noticed my tardiness.

 

you're more than welcome Mark

 

these "new" Eduard Spitfires are very nice, and when they get around to producing a "weekend" edition they'll be very competitively priced

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[ROB61]

The first weekend edition Mk 1 is out under £19 at Hannants less elsewhere so if you can use the decals or are going to use masks, much less than Airfix or Tamiya now

See Eduard's description below

https://www.eduard.com/eduard/plastic-kits/spitfire-mk-ia-1-48-1.html

[81-er]

Nice progress again John. Interesting about the seats, I had no idea they moved to a composite seat and thought they'd all been aluminium. Every day's a school day!

 

James

[shortCummins]

13 hours ago, ROB61 said:

The first weekend edition Mk 1 is out under £19 at Hannants less elsewhere so if you can use the decals or are going to use masks, much less than Airfix or Tamiya now

See Eduard's description below

https://www.eduard.com/eduard/plastic-kits/spitfire-mk-ia-1-48-1.html

thanks Rob61

 

very good value, that weekend kit has decals for 4 different aircraft, apart from seat belts these kits don't really need any aftermarket so I'm really interested on one, or more, of these.

 

4 hours ago, 81-er said:

Nice progress again John. Interesting about the seats, I had no idea they moved to a composite seat and thought they'd all been aluminium. Every day's a school day!

 

James

thanks James

 

I read somewhere "Spitfire pilots were often sent off to meet the Luftwaffe, with very little combat training, 14 seconds’ worth of ammunition, 85 gallons of petrol and facing the greatest airborne enemy the world had ever seen – in a ‘cardboard chair’"

 

really makes you think doesn't it

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

 

Various boxes and instruments were picked out with vallejo 70.995 German grey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Various colours including mig metal steel, vallejo 70.801 brass, 70.918 ivory and 70.957 red were used to pick-out pipes, switches and controls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next I’ll be weathering the cockpit…

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

 

To give the illusion of wear vallejo panzer aces 305 light rubber was used as a dry-brush to highlight both the grey/green and German grey.

 

 

 

 

 

The seat cushion was highlighted with a mixture of German grey and light rubber, sponge chipping was also applied.

 

MRP-363 Boeing grey 707 was used for the compressed air tanks.

 

The sidewall sub-assemblies had their various parts attached.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next I’ll be adding the PE and decals to the cockpit…

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

 

Eduard supply quite a bit of PE, seat harness, IP and other parts as well as some decal placards, I’ve not seen these for other Spitfire marks.

I started by adding the decal placards.

 

 

Compass…

 

Then the PE parts.

Leavers…

 

 

Instrument panel…

 

This PE instrument panel is very good, much better than earlier efforts, they were good, and are now on a par with Yahu’s offerings. Eduard has added “glass” to the dials making them very realistic.

 

Lap harness…

 

Eduard provide a PE connector tube however I used their one as a template and made one from some thin wire.

 

 

 

 

Next I’ll be assembling the cockpit…

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[HAMP man]

Nice start to a cracking model, I recently finished Eduards First of Few Dual Combo as K9795,one of my better attempts if I say so myself. If you have the time go down the rabbit hole of 'All the Spitfire Questions here Vol 1 and 2' loads of info on the beauty.

 

Box On

 

Strickers

[shortCummins]

17 minutes ago, HAMP man said:

Nice start to a cracking model, I recently finished Eduards First of Few Dual Combo as K9795,one of my better attempts if I say so myself. If you have the time go down the rabbit hole of 'All the Spitfire Questions here Vol 1 and 2' loads of info on the beauty.

 

Box On

 

Strickers

thanks Strickers

 

these "new" Spitfires a really very good, I liked their MkVIII and MkIX's but they've really upped their kits, and they started from a very high place!

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[Retired Bob]

3 hours ago, shortCummins said:

Next I’ll be assembling the cockpit…

When Eduard first bought out these Mk.1 Spitfires I was already building a couple of the new Tamiya Spitfire mk.1 kits for the upcoming (at the time) 80th anniversary of the BoB.

I didn't know much about early Spitfires and set about reading ALL the info on this and other sites, what a rabbit hole it is to fall into.

Unfortunately, back in early 1940 there was some sort of unpleasantness going on and "doing the paperwork" to record aircraft work did not take precedence, hence Eduard not providing a hydraulic undercarriage selector in their Mk.1 Spitfire kits because there was nothing written to confirm that they were fitted until the Mk,II came along.  (but they were)  Other improvements like back and head armour was not detailed and is difficult to see in most photos.  One thing that some of us found was that if the hand pump for the undercarriage was still being used there was a small hydraulic tank just behind the pilot seat on the right side, just below the rear canopy cover, above the oxygen tank, you can just make it out on my build, slightly blurry.

The 'floating' seat belt strap is an optical illusion, but the aluminum seats should have a side to side curved depression in the seat pan, later composite seats had a lozenge shaped depression for the dingy inflation bottle.  the rear of the bulkhead that the seat is fitted to should be aluminum painted like the sides of the fuselage, as can be seen in this wartime colour photo.

This is an early (pole aerial mast) Spitfire of 41 Sqn at RAF Catterick, North Yorkshire in early 1940.

Other advice I can add, no crow bar on the cockpit door until 1941, and don't forget to fill the small inserts for the IFF cables on the fuselage sides.  Other differences on your build depends on when it was built/entered service.  I'm happy to offer any assistance that I can.  

Bob.

[k5054nz]

This is coming together very nicely John. I need to get one of these to do an Al Deere machine.

[Steve 1602]

Just catching up John - looking very good again 

 

Steve

[shortCummins]

16 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

When Eduard first bought out these Mk.1 Spitfires I was already building a couple of the new Tamiya Spitfire mk.1 kits for the upcoming (at the time) 80th anniversary of the BoB.

I didn't know much about early Spitfires and set about reading ALL the info on this and other sites, what a rabbit hole it is to fall into.

Unfortunately, back in early 1940 there was some sort of unpleasantness going on and "doing the paperwork" to record aircraft work did not take precedence, hence Eduard not providing a hydraulic undercarriage selector in their Mk.1 Spitfire kits because there was nothing written to confirm that they were fitted until the Mk,II came along.  (but they were)  Other improvements like back and head armour was not detailed and is difficult to see in most photos.  One thing that some of us found was that if the hand pump for the undercarriage was still being used there was a small hydraulic tank just behind the pilot seat on the right side, just below the rear canopy cover, above the oxygen tank, you can just make it out on my build, slightly blurry.

The 'floating' seat belt strap is an optical illusion, but the aluminum seats should have a side to side curved depression in the seat pan, later composite seats had a lozenge shaped depression for the dingy inflation bottle.  the rear of the bulkhead that the seat is fitted to should be aluminum painted like the sides of the fuselage, as can be seen in this wartime colour photo.

This is an early (pole aerial mast) Spitfire of 41 Sqn at RAF Catterick, North Yorkshire in early 1940.

Other advice I can add, no crow bar on the cockpit door until 1941, and don't forget to fill the small inserts for the IFF cables on the fuselage sides.  Other differences on your build depends on when it was built/entered service.  I'm happy to offer any assistance that I can.  

Bob.

thanks Bob

 

I've already painted and assembled the rear bulkhead so its going to remain grey/green, if I remember I'll "correct" it on a future build, I plan to build more of these.

That's useful info re the crowbar, Eduard provide doors with and without, funnily enough I had chosen the without door, more for "interest" than knowing.

 

15 hours ago, k5054nz said:

This is coming together very nicely John. I need to get one of these to do an Al Deere machine.

thanks Zac

 

Eduard have come up trumps with these "new" Spitfire Mk's. I'm sure you've seen Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, if not I cam highly recommend it, the flying sequences are exceptional and Tom Hardy's character was based on Al Deere.

 

14 hours ago, Steve 1602 said:

Just catching up John - looking very good again 

 

Steve

thanks Steve

 

I was in two minds about build another Eduard Spitfire immediately however, so far, its been a very good experience, I've only wondered if I've already done something a couple of times? Those who build multiple kits at the same time must be really organised, there's no way I could do that!

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)