Spitfire Mk VIII - USAAF Itay 1944

[81-er]

With how fast the other one’s going together, the temptation to start another Spitfire was getting tii great to ignore. So the lucky winner is Eduard’s Mk VIII, in the Profipack boxing:

 

 

All sealed up in the bags still:

 

 

I’m intending to keep the AM to a minimum on this one, both for time (not having to wait for a delivery) and cost. However, the upper cowling is well known to be a pig to remove the seam from, so it seems wise to use the Barracuda seamless cowling, especially as I already have a couple:

 

 

Which brings me to the subject, JF470, based at Fano Air Base, Italy:

 

 

“Simple” Medium Sea Grey/PRU Blue paintjob, but with clipped wings (standard ones this time) and some bright markings.

 

I’ve already made a reasonable start, having got all of the cockpit parts cleaned up and mounted ready for primer. If you really want to see what that looks like, have a look at my Malta Spitfire’s thread lol. One change I have made though is to use 0.3mm brass rod for the link between the compressed air cylinders, which looks more scale appropriate. I’ll try to remember to take a photo of that tonight.

 

James

[2996 Victor]

Nice, James, I'll be following this, too! I've looked at this scheme a number of times (and even got as far as buying the 1/72 version before I dumped my whole stash and moved to 1/48!). Its a great scheme.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[81-er]

Thanks Mark  Dumping your whole stash and changing scales? That's a bold move! I'm not sure I could actually bring myself to do that. Admittedly I'm gravitating more to 1/48 lately, but I've got too many 1/72 kits in the stash I really want to build

 

James

[2996 Victor]

5 hours ago, 81-er said:

Thanks Mark  Dumping your whole stash and changing scales? That's a bold move! I'm not sure I could actually bring myself to do that. Admittedly I'm gravitating more to 1/48 lately, but I've got too many 1/72 kits in the stash I really want to build

 

James

Yep, clean slate time! I'm not sure its made me any more productive, in fact I know it hasn't, but I've not looked back wistfully  

[modelling minion]

Another fine choice James, you'll certainly end up with a different looking Spitfire.

 

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[81-er]

Thanks Craig. The plan is certainly to end up with two Spitfires that are both different to the usual schemes seen, and quite different to each other. In fact, of the 11 kits I have, only the Airfix Mk XVIII I picked up at the de Havilland Museum show is destined to end up in dark green/ocean grey/medium sea grey, everything else is going to be a bit more exotic. I actually bought a set of decals for an Egytian Spitfire for one of the others earlier, I reckon a pairing of that and one of the Isreali ones it would have (potentially) fought against in 1948 could be nice.

 

James

[Graham Boak]

If you want a Mk.XVIII is something more exotic, try the postwar Desert Scheme of Dark Slate Grey and Dark Earth?

[modelling minion]

41 minutes ago, 81-er said:

Thanks Craig. The plan is certainly to end up with two Spitfires that are both different to the usual schemes seen, and quite different to each other. In fact, of the 11 kits I have, only the Airfix Mk XVIII I picked up at the de Havilland Museum show is destined to end up in dark green/ocean grey/medium sea grey, everything else is going to be a bit more exotic. I actually bought a set of decals for an Egytian Spitfire for one of the others earlier, I reckon a pairing of that and one of the Isreali ones it would have (potentially) fought against in 1948 could be nice.

 

James

Sounds like a great plan James, I've been looking more into Spitfire schemes and there are some great ones out there, and I really like the idea of the Egyptian/Israeli combo as it is something I have planned myself.

 

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[Wings unlevel]

Didn’t you say in your other thread you hadn’t bully a Spit since you were a teenager. You’re certainly making up for lost time now! Lovely subject choice by the way.

[81-er]

19 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

If you want a Mk.XVIII is something more exotic, try the postwar Desert Scheme of Dark Slate Grey and Dark Earth?

Funilly enough, I was looking at some Xtradecal sets last night with that scheme on, though they call up light slate grey rather than dark. Is that just another Hannants slip up?
 

19 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Sounds like a great plan James, I've been looking more into Spitfire schemes and there are some great ones out there, and I really like the idea of the Egyptian/Israeli combo as it is something I have planned myself.

 

🇺🇦

I reckon you'd do a cracking job of them as well

 

1 hour ago, Wings unlevel said:

Didn’t you say in your other thread you hadn’t bully a Spit since you were a teenager. You’re certainly making up for lost time now! Lovely subject choice by the way.

I did indeed, Gerard. And yes, now I've started, I've really got the itch for more Spitfires

 

James

[Graham Boak]

3 hours ago, 81-er said:

Funilly enough, I was looking at some Xtradecal sets last night with that scheme on, though they call up light slate grey rather than dark. Is that just another Hannants slip up?
 

No, it was another one of my "must reread before posting" slip-ips.

[81-er]

No problem, Graham, we all make them from time to time. I appreciate having your input though, yet again it's been highly valuable  I foresee a set of decals and some light slate grey paint in my future...

 

James

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Nice choice of markings. 

[81-er]

Thanks Dennis  

 

Some grey green has been applied, next step will be the aluminium areas of the internals, then detail painting.

 

James

[81-er]

I’ve been beavering away on this one, so it’s time for an update. I’ve decided to run with just what’s in the kit for this build, which means using the Eduard PE IP. I was a little apprehensive about getting the three layers lined up, but I needn’t have worried. Because the dial faces are slightly convex, the cutouts in the layer above self-centre on them. And once in place, it’s equally as nice as the Look IP I used on the Mk Vb:

 

 

As you can see, I did the same trick with gold plated wire here as well.

 

The rest of the cockpit is shaping up nicely too:

 

 

 

The Mk VIII harness is different to that provided with the Mk Vb, with the downward rear straps going through the hole in the back of the seat rather than over the top of it. Having learnt from the Vb build, I’ve left the main harness off until the cockpit is complete, with the hopes I can avoid the top strap having kinks in it as it runs back through the rear frames, as the last one was bent during handling/assembly of the rear frames.

 

I’ve also learnt from the Vb build and used 0.3mm brass rod for the link between the compressed air bottles on this one, which looks much more appropriate:

 

 

I’ve since attached the other side to the cockpit tub. Next session I’ll get the rear frame added, then finally the main harness.

 

As per the Vb build, I’ve got the wings assembled and the gear bays painted, although the Xtracrylix PRU Blue isn’t far off the colour of the Eduard plastic. One change from the Vb is the coloured marker lights in the underside of the wing:

 

 

Finally, a little comparison showing the quite startling difference between the two underside colours, there’ll be no mistaking which set of wings belongs to which build:

 

 

James

[modelling minion]

Coming on very nicely mate, the layered IP does look very good and I am glad that it assembled easily as I have a few of Eduard's Spitfires in the stash. 

 

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[81-er]

Cheers Craig  You should build one, they're nice to put together. The only real problem I've found so far is the last frame of the cockpit and the bar that links that to the frame the seat mounts to. Neither of these have had positive location on either kit, which makes getting them glued in square & true a bit of a struggle. And if it's a Mk VIII or Mk. IX kit, get the Barracuda resin cowl panel for it to save the awkward clean up on the seam of the kit part

 

James

[Jordan Giddins]

Fantastic work on the cockpit James, looking great.

[81-er]

Thank you

 

James

[jackroadkill]

Sorry James, I've done it again - known full well that you had another build up and completely forgotten to look at the thread!  Still, that's rectified now.  Glad to see you're continuing with your usual approach to the scheme, too, even if you will insist on hacking the wings about...!

[81-er]

Ooh, I'm sure I can let you off  Absolutely no hacking about required, the Eduard kits have the wingtips as separate parts, just like the real thing. I'm sure someone out there has worked out a way of swapping between the tips at will to further match reality

 

James

[81-er]

A small update for now, but the cockpit is fully together and just needs a coat of matt varnish before it can be closed up in the fuselage. Have two photos of it, as I couldn’t get one where the shoulder straps of the harness AND the rest of the cockpit where in focus:

 

 

 

I also had a hell of a game getting the exhausts together. I managed to just about get one together, then had a brainwave. I had the Velveta boxing of the Mk IX which had resin exhausts in it, as well as having bought an Overtrees set with another set of resin exhausts for that, as I wanted to build more than one scheme from the Velveta box, which is only a single kit. Would one of those sets of exhausts fit the Mk VIII? Well, not only did they, but on investigating the Velveta resin pieces there were actually two complete sets of exhausts! Even more of a result was that neither of the two Israeli schemes I wanted to build used the fishtail exhausts I needed for this build! So, another “free” upgrade:

 

 

I have also had one step backwards, it turns out the Mk IX resin cowl doesn’t quite fit. It’s about 1mm too short, which in itself is overcomable with some plasticard, but the fixings moulded into it don’t align with the fixings in the Mk VIII fuselage sides and looked very off. So I’ve bitten the bullet and ordered a resin Mk VIII cowl, which was only about £5 anyway. Still plenty to be getting on with until that arrives.

 

James

[Jordan Giddins]

Lovely work on the cockpit James, looking good.

[81-er]

Thanks Jordan

 

James

[RidgeRunner]

Very nice work, James.