Feature Article

Eduard

Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XVI

(two builds in one!)

1:48 scale

by

Dave Coward

(May 2016)

Copyright www.scalemodellingnow.com 2016

Photo: Mk.XVI Spitfire - courtesy of Chowells

Background…

Sometimes you just need a straightforward, no hassle build of a good subject and this was the position I was in after a couple of long and rather complicated projects. So off to the stash storage it was and after a quick look around my eyes were drawn to the two Eduard 1:48th Supermarine Spitfire Mk XVI kits. Eduard have released three boxings of this kit:

• The initial was a dual boxing covering both the bubble top and high back Mk.XVI

• The second was a Profipack boxing covering the bubbletop

• The third was a weekend edition of the bubbletop

The initial boxing had never really interested me as I didn’t really need another high back as I had both the MK.IX and MK.VII boxing’s but when the bubbletop was released as a single kit I did need to get one, well two in fact, a Profipack and a weekend boxing.

The Profipack has a good selection of different schemes and even the Weekend Edition now has two schemes, one camouflage finish and one all silver. In both cases I couldn’t resist the all silver schemes as they were nice and clean (minimal weathering if any), one colour and more importantly this meant a quick, uncomplicated and hopefully enjoyable builds.

Construction plan and underway…

If you’ve never built an Eduard Spitfire, they are great builds. The kits themselves are beautifully moulded, the instructions are clear and well printed with great colour 3 view drawings and the decals are made by Cartograf so their quality is excellent.

So let’s get on with the builds. The Profipack comes with Colour PE, masks and 8 decal options whereas the Weekend Edition has only 2 options and no PE or masks. Fortunately, I had a spare colour PE Fret for the weekend edition but even if you don’t have this the kit includes some nice decal seatbelts and an instrument panel which are more than adequate in this scale.

Let’s therefore start the build in the usual place, the cockpit. This is again really nice straight from the box but the PE does add that little extra especially if you have the canopy open.

If there is one weakness I this kit it’s the two piece upper and lower engine cowling covers. They need quite a bit of work to get rid of the seam lines along the join.

Onto the wings…

With the cockpit inserted in to the fuselage and this closed up and left to dry I turned my attention to the wings. The wheel wells and central spar are attached to the one-

piece lower wing and then each upper wing half is added to the top. The fit is

excellent. The kit has options for either elliptical wing tips or the clipped wings. What I would say is be careful of the rear section of the clipped wing tip parts as they are very fragile and easily broken – I know!!

And join-up… The wing to fuselage fit is exceptional, not a slither of filler was required. The cannons can then be fitted along with the lower engine cover. As for the upper cover, if you’re using the kit exhaust stubs don’t glue it in place as it is easier to fit the assembled and painted stub assemblies once the airframe has been painted. If you opt to use the Brassin resin alternatives, you can fit the stub mounting casting and then fix the upper cover in place as the individual stubs can be fitted later on.

The rudder and elevator (and the ailerons for that matter) are separate; they fit into a neutral position but with a little work you could make them sit off centre.

Painting… The first part of the painting process was to paint the outside of the canopy with the cockpit interior colour, RAF grey/green in this case. I’m not the greatest fan of this as it gives a gloss finish to the interior of the canopy but in this scale it’s not that noticeable.

Both colour schemes I had picked were post-war all silver finishes with a splash of colour; red on one and blue on the other. The first stage of the painting was primer and I used Alclad’s excellent Black primer for this. I’ve always been a big fan of Alclad’s range of metallic paints but for a change I decided to try AK’s new metallic Aluminium paint. I was very impressed; it’s a bit thicker in consistency than Alclad and this means the surface finish isn’t so critical as it will fill minor scratches in the surface whereas Alclad tends to highlight these imperfections. It dries quickly, appears to be robust and decals settle down very nicely on to it.

Once the metallic was fully dry I masked off and sprayed and additional colours (a red tail band and a matt black wing root walkway). The spinners were also painted up along with the propellers. With this done the smooth metallic finish negates the need for a gloss coat prior to the decaling. The decals themselves are produced by Cartograf and perform flawlessly – I was really impressed with them.

As I mentioned earlier if you use the kit exhausts don’t fit the top engine cover until you have finished the painting/decaling process eliminates the need for some awkward masking of them. The wing tip lights will need painting clear red/green, Tamiya or Gunze clear paints are ideal for this job.

It’s now just time to add all those final parts such as the canopy, the main and tail wheel units, and the under-wing pitot tubes and that was them done.

Summary…

These kits are in my top five of kits that I have ever built. The subject is great (it is a Spitfire after all!!!), the general detail is top notch, the surface detail is refined and crisp, the fit is just amazing and build quick and mostly uncomplicated. There are a nice selection of colour schemes in all three boxings and their value for money is incredibly good (you can pick up a weekend kit for around £13 and a Profipack for £17). There are some minor points to note such as the two piece upper and lower engine covers but these are easily dealt with even by an inexperienced modeller. If you want to make these models really stand out from the crowd have a look at all the extras Eduard produce in their Brassin range such as engine, cannon bays, cockpits, radio bays and additional PE (if you want to see what all this looks like have a look at my MK.IX build in the Eduard section of Finished Now)

Overall these are fantastic kits and I can’t praise them enough – you need to build one or several!!

Dave C.

SMN Quick summary Star rating out of 5

Quality of moulding *****

Accuracy *****

Instructions ****

Decals *****

Subject choice *****

Build enjoyment *****

Overall *****