Eduard 1/144 Spitfire Mk.IXe

[Domi]

After releasing three delightful 1/144 MiG-21s, Eduard surprised us last September with a brand new 1/144 Spitfire kit..!  I am not a big Spit fan, nor have much in terms of references here at hand, so can not vouch for the accuracy of this kit, but compared to earlier 1/144 Spits, this one sets, in terms of quality, a new standard that should be difficult to beat...

As is now the norm apparently for those 'smaller' aircraft, Eduard offers a box containing two complete kits.  There is a notable difference though in this case: there are two types of wings in the box, one for each kit.  Those are the, I'd say, 'standard' elliptical Spitfire wing, and the truncated one, which I believe is more often associated with the Mk.IXe.  It would be quite simple to modify the longer set into the shorter set, of course.  Other than that, the rest of the parts are identical for both kits.  Eduard provides us with two very clear one-piece canopies, a set of painting masks and a very nice sheet of decals with markings for no less than 6 aircraft, 3 British, one Israeli, one French and, unsurprisingly, one Czeckoslovakian.  The instruction booklet is mostly made up of the full painting/decalling info for all 6 schemes.

Eduard 1/144 Spitfire Mk.IXe

The one baffling thing about this kit, other than maybe the odd choice of Spitfire variant for a first Spitfire kit, is the total absence of cockpit detail..!  The inside of the fuselage halves have a neat recess where the 'tub' should be, but one will need to dish out a bit more cash to obtain the photo-etched detail set marketed alongside the kit, or do a bit of scratchbuilding.  The PE set does offer a few extra parts for the rest of the aircraft, I must add.  It's a pity that Eduard did not offer a basic cockpit tub, because built out of the box, the canopy, very finely rendered, will show off.. nothing..!

As of writing the Mk.IXc has also just been released by Eduard in this scale, and offers 5 choices in terns of markings.  I think this newer release will dispense with the truncated wings.

As with my earlier 'review' of the Eduard MiG-144 SMT, I will build this kit out of the box and report on any fit issue I may encouter.  I may build the second kit alongside and add a few little details inside this empty cockpit area, as I quite fancy having a French Spit in my collection, after all...

[No.1]

Good luck with build, this look like nice kit to build

[Sall]

Nice!!

[Domi]

Well, the kits are really simple.  I particularly liked how Eduard molded the wings in one piece with part of the rear fuselage/wing Karman cover.  It should make a neat joint line, but the tickness of the plastic of the fuselage halves prevent such an easy ride. The wings/fuselage fit remains very tight, and it is recommended to thin down the plastic edges of the fuselage where they meet the wings, from leading edge to trailing edge.

Eduard 1/144 Spitfire Mk.IXe

The horizontal tailplanes are also very neatly designed and here the fit is perfect.  Superglue, sandpaper and engraving tool take care of the fuselage mating joint line.  In just a few minutes the kit is ready for priming! 

Eduard 1/144 Spitfire Mk.IXe

The truncated-wing Spit got a cockpit tub courtesy of some plastic card.  The details can be added at a later stage.

[No.1]

It is made to be fast build

[draken35]

Nice and fast!!!

[Domi]

Ok, I had to do a bit of research, as I do like to know what I'm working on, and it looks as if the French Spit in Indochina option offered by Eduard, a late Spit LF.IX (LF for Low Flying, hence the truncated wings) actually had a rounded rudder rather than a pointed one.  Not a massive issue, really, easily do-able, but there are two other issues with this option that make me consider an alternative route...  First of all, probably the more 'serious' issue is the fact that the blue of the French roundels is, in my eyes, way too dark.  Adding the 'scale effect' and the rather extreme weathering Spits were subjected to in Indochina, those markings will simply not do.  Secondly, but more difficult to ascertain is whether this particular French Spit had the yellow thin circle around some or all of the roundels...  Eduard only give yellow-outlined roundels for the fuselage, but pictures of Spits in Indochina show a mixture of outlined and not-outlined roundels on the fuselage and under the wings.  Pictures rarely show off the upper wings properly, so it's even more difficult to make a proper judgement there.  Taking all this into consideration, I'll continue building the 'review' item with my original plan, the Israeli aircraft, and will build and detail the other one as a post-WWII civil-registered Belgian machine.  More on this soon...  

[No.1]

Nice point so you have now two options (if choose French machines)- to do as is (and show actual product in its reality) or to convert errors and present to readers how to get it into correct shape

[Sall]

Cool and fast!!

[draken35]

Excellent researches my friend!

[Domi]

The primer coat did not reveal any surprises, so I airbrushed a coat of aluminium over the two Spits.  I used a Revell enamel paint for a change, normally going for an acrylic base coat, but there you go..  The only 'issue' with this enamel layer will be the time needed for it to dry properly, before moving on to more interesting things.  Had I used acrylics, those two Spits would be almost finished now!!  ;-)

Eduard 1/144 Spitfire Mk.IXe

Eduard 1/144 Spitfire Mk.IXe

Here's a close-up view of the cropped-wings aircraft, which will eventually get some bits added inside the cockpit.  At the moment, the 'tub' is just walled off with plastic card and Milliput.

Eduard 1/144 Spitfire Mk.IXe

As you can see, the engraving is really nice all over...  Lots of nice recesses for the forthcoming washes..!  Some may argue that in 1/144, all those panel lines should not be visible, and they are probably right, but nevertheless, they will help the modeller in obtaining a proper weathered look, and Eduard's engraving is certainly in the same league as that found on the more recent 1/144 kits from bigger companies such as Revell. 

[Second Air Force]

Great review, mate!

[Domi]

It has to be said, patience is NOT one of my virtues.  I had to get on with this build...  Here's a picture of the state of things after yesterday late night airbrushing session:

Eduard 1/144 Spitfire Mk.IXe

The kit with the black anti-glare panel is the 'out of the box' build, now waiting to get its Israeli markings.  The other is to be OO-ARE.  In terms of colour scheme, that's it for OO-ARE, but I must find some tiny registration letters in red, hopefully somewhere in my stock.  Although I had realised earlier that OO-ARE had a rounded off rudder, I still managed not to modify the kit before painting, so this was done afterwards.  This means a little touch-up job for later.  Although re-shaping the rudder presents in itself no problem, the 'ribbing' of the earlier narrower-chord rounded-off rudder is quite different from the 'ribbing' of the later rudder...  Re-creating a new rudder from plastic card would not be too much of a problem either, but as most people will never notice nor realise the difference once the model is finished, I'll let it go, this time.  Still, it is a bit of a pity that Eduard created a whole new cropped wing for this Mk.IXe kit, but did not provide a separate alternative rounded-off rudder, as it looks like a lot of those Mk.IXe Spits had those fitted as standard...  Maybe some garage company out there will soon offer a replacement resin rudder??  ;-)

On OO-ARE, you will however notice that I cropped off the wings canons, though!

[draken35]

I'm impatient to see both finished, especially the OO-ARE!!!

[Domi]

Decalling done !   The Israeli markings provided by Eduard went on just fine.  A touch of setting solution helped the decals conform to the model.  The rudder markings are best added one at a time, with a bit of drying time before adding the other side.  A bit of red paint will take care of the 'gaps' around the edge.  Note that I did not clear coat the models before decalling, and the Eduard decals still did not give a single little hint of silvering.  I'm impressed!

Eduard 1/144 Spitfire Mk.IXe

From the pictures I could get on the internet, I am not convinced the OO-ARE codes were red on this machine; indeed the colour profile that can be found online shows a number of little errors..  On those black & white pictures I could find, the code looks a touch darker than the top of the fuselage, so I went for black codes, far easier to find, of course!!!  Those were made from individual letters coming off a ModeArt decal sheet.  Those decals are rather thick and old and I cut real close all around the black ink (not so easy in this scale!) to minimise risks of silvering and having a visible 'step' where the transparent carrier film would have been.

I think my mind is still somewhat into the 'French Indochina' scheme as it took me a while to realise that the Belgian Spit had no antenna mast..  This came off quite easily with a sharp knife.  Fine sand paper restored the contour of the fuselage and a touch up job was made in red paint.

For the record, Oostende-based company COGEA Nouvelle operated a handful of Spits Mk.IX from 1956 until 1961, and provided target tug duties to the Belgian Air Force (and apparently other NATO air forces too).  Four of those COGEA Spits were made famous by appearing (re-painted!) in the movie 'The Longest Day'.

Eduard 1/144 Spitfire Mk.IXe

A coat of varnish is needed next, to seal off everything, then I will start the weathering, before adding on all little extras...