Beauty is the best word to describe this Eduard kit of the Spitfire Mk. VIII in 1/48 scale. I am a bit personal because I like much this extended wing version and at the same time too much a critic as I take attention to details. I have spotted this type for the first time a few decades ago in one British magazine and its line captured my eye and I have just waited for the moment to have it on my desk.

Spitfire Mk.VIII Eduard
Spitfire Mk.VIII Eduard

The kit is based on the well known series of Spitfire kits from Eduard and it features a new fret, marked I, which features parts for the model VIII. Stock code is 8282 and it can use many accessories previously delivered by Eduard. This is a mixed media kit with five frets of injected plastic (one of those is transparent), one sheet of etched parts (some elements are painted and this makes it easy to work with), two sheets of decals as well as one quick mask sheet.

I started building by spraying all interior parts in grey green color and after drying I painted some elements in black, silver and red brown. In general, entire cockpit is grey green, while the pilot seat is red brown color. After all elements were dry, I started assembly of the cockpit. It includes many elements as well as framings and with etched parts, it gives a very realistic and detailed look, even with this basic kit parts (there is also a resin set for cockpit, which is far detailed). Note that cockpit can be open or closed so take attention on that since some areas need to be trimmed to adopt other type of canopy if you like closed cockpit. My decision this time was to make it with open cockpit, so no additional trimming was needed.

Spitfire Mk.VIII Eduard
Spitfire Mk.VIII Eduard

Take attention please during wheel bay assembly as well top wing ribs come there when wing halves are closing as well as the landing gear later. There are three options for wing assembly of the wing tips, clipped one, standard and extended. I chose extended since my basic idea was to build this model of Spitfire VIII. I must say that most of time in this build is spent on the cockpit, after that there are just two days needed to assemble the rest of the parts and prepare the kit for painting. This says enough about simplicity and precision of the parts.

Spitfire Mk.VIII Eduard
Spitfire Mk.VIII Eduard

You can build following planes from the kit:

  • LF Mk.VIII, MD280, Flown by F/Lt. Paul Ostrander, No. 155 Squadron RAF, Burma, 1945
  • F Mk.VIII, JF470, 31st Fighter Group, 308th Fighter Squadron, Fano Air Base, Italy, 1944 – 1945
  • F Mk.VIII, JF330, Flown by AVM Harry Broadhurst, 1943
  • F Mk.VIII, JF404, No. 32 Squadron RAF, Foggia Air Base, Italy, Early 1944
  • LF Mk.VIII, MT714, Flown by F/Lt A. W. Guest, No. 43 Squadron RAF, Ramatuelle Air Field, France, August, 1944
  • HF Mk.VIII, Flown by W/C Robert Gibbes, CO of No. 80 Fighter Wing, Dutch East Indies, 1945

My decision is to build RAF sample from No. 32 Squadron. It have nice camouflage pattern with Medium Sea Grey at the top and PRU Blue at the bottom, camouflage pattern for the high altitude operations.

Excellent kit and I greatly recommend it!! My big thanks goes to Eduard who provide sample kit for review.

Srecko Bradic

3 thoughts on “Spitfire Mk.VIII Eduard

  1. Poštovani, vidim da ste radili Spitfire VIII. Dugi niz godina i ja pokušavam isto ali imam veliki problem a to je što ne znam bitne detalje konkretnog aviona tj., JF344. Motor je M63, također je 32. eskadrila. Avion leži na dnu mora kod Baške Vode. Pitanje: znate li oblik krila( normalni ili produženi) te kamuflažnu šemu? Želim baš ovaj avion jer me opsjeda već 35 godina.Prijatelj koji je ronio na krilu tvrdi da je šema “Desert” ali nije siguran za oblik krila.

    Srdjan Gojak, Makarska ( gojak02@net.hr)

    1. Hvala na zanimanju za maketu ali i na istrajnosti da iskopate podatke za Spitfajer JF344. Nemam nikakve podatke za taj avion, znam da je pilot istog sahranjen na vojnom groblju u Beogradu i isti sam obišao pre nekoliko godina. Šteta što vaš ptijatelj nije obratio pažnju na krila, jer u zavisnosti od motora zavisi oblik krila. Repovi bi trebali da su svi visoki. Pustinjska šema je tu baš zanimljiva jer to uglavnom nije bila ta šema, oni su, baš kolko znam iz literature, bili u kontinentalnoj šemi. Nisam od pomoći ali bar mogu da poželim da iskopate sve moguće podatke i uradite maketu, Eduard je odlična osnova za to.

      1. Hvala, nema druge nego da zaronim. Inače, o pilotu ( John McAndrew Brodie) imam dosje od 40 stranica.

        Srđan Gojak

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