ICM 1/48th Spitfire Mk VII High Altitude Fighter By Mike Whye

The Kit

ICM has been commended in many quarters for what some say are the most accurate Spitfire models in 1/48 scale. Well, I’m not into measuring kits and counting rivets but from what I see, ICM’s line of Spits is good at first blush.

The kit I was given to review here depicts a high altitude Sptifire Mk. VII (Kit # 48062). The kit contains sprues of white styrene plastic containing 121 pieces, some of which aren’t used for this version.

Building this kit takes some thinking and a fair amount of sanding is involved too. The main thing I was unhappy about is the instructions. While they’re good in some areas, they’re lacking in others.

For example, Step 1, the assembly of the engine, is depicted just fine on the instructions. However, when you get into Step 6, which includes inserting the engine compartment into the fuselage, I was left wondering about the exact placement of Parts B12 and B13, a pair of ribs in the engine compartment. I also could not figure out just where to place the firewall, Part B23.…did it protrude into the open engine compartment space or was it tucked into the fuselage, just behind the opening? I left off the exhaust stacks until near the very end of the entire assembly so they would not hamper fitting the engine into its compartment later.

Another note about the instructions: I failed to comprehend how the tail wheel doors were to be placed….what the instructions show in Step 8 of the fuselage near the tail wheel does not match the fuselage pieces so you’re left wondering….at least, I was left wondering if I was to now carve up the rear fuselage near the tail wheel (something I didn’t notice until too late, unfortunately).

Because of how I planned to paint the model, I left out the engine and its framework compartment when I glued the fuselage together. I chose to insert this sub-assembly much later, when the model was nearly complete and that took some doing but at least this way I didn’t have to mask off the engine (which is practically a beautiful kit in itself with 32 pieces) when painting the model.

The cockpit is a nice sub-assembly too although I left out the seat and control stick until much later, which made stuffing the cockpit with tissue easier when it came time to secure that area before spray painting the kit. I should add that to dress up the cockpit, I used one of Eduard’s pre-painted seatbelt sets, the only after-market element I used on the kit.

By the way, from what I could tell, if you plan to build the model with the engine in it and still try to show it with the upper and side engine compartment panels shut, you’re in for a bit of fight to make things fit. Actually, even without sealing the compartment, that is, if you build the engine to show it off, you can have some problems making things line up so the propeller assembly sits proper.

Onto the wings. The kit has gun bays and gun bay covers and I chose to display those closed because I wasn’t too keen about showing double gun bays with just one gun each….they looked quite empty that way. So I fitted the covers and found some sanding was in order to make them fit. A suggestion….do your sanding and fitting before you assemble the upper and lower wings…and don’t do like I do, assemble the upper and lower wings and then try to sand and fit the gun bay covers--that’s lots more work.

Also, you’ll need to glue on the wingtips that were unique to the high altitude version of the Spitfire Mk VII. I’ve never been fond of kits that required you to put on special wingtips….somehow I never manage to make them look like the wing had been molded that way in the first place. First, I had to trim away the tabs of the wingtips that were to insert in the wings….they were too thick to fit properly into the slots (ditto with the tabs on the horizontal stabilizers). Then I had to sand down the thickness of the wingtips to match the thickness of the wings, keeping in mind that without those tabs, the wingtips were now precariously glued in place.

Since you’re working on the wings, note that you should paint the mid-section of the lower wing (which acts as the floor of the cockpit) the same as the cockpit’s interior color since that will show later.

When it came to fitting the wing to the fuselage, things didn’t fit all that well and….you guessed it….more filling and sanding and filling and…..….both where the upper wings met the fuselage and underneath too.

Don’t get the idea I think this kit is a bummer….it’s not. There are lots of finely molded details (I love the engine and the cockpit) and some things fit great but this is no shake and bake kit.

Using Model Master enamels, I sprayed the undersurfaces PRU Blue and the upper surfaces Medium Gray. Once the painting was done, I added the underwing radiator grills and housings (which must be sanded to fit properly), the pitot tube, the landing gear (I made the mistake of gluing on the knuckles way too early….as I was handling the landing gear, one of those knuckles popped off for a destination unknown…..argh. In other words, save those little knuckles for one of the last things you build onto this model). I also fitted in the engine and its supports plus the cockpit seat and control stick and added the exhaust stacks too.

I applied the decals with my usual 50-50 water-white-glue mix and they went on fine without silvering. They are very thin and delicate and cannot take much handling. The roundels on the upper wings have to fit over small raised details…and the decals split as I tried to snuggle them into place. That forced me to create the same shade of dull red from a mix of red paint with a touch of black paint and touch up those spots.

After a spray of Floquil Railroad Colors Flat, which I think is the best flat around, fter all the major assembly and painting were done, I finally added the canopy sections which had been dipped in Future sometime earlier and considered the kit finished.

The kit’s painting guides are good and there’s a color guide on the rear box top too. The kit has decals which permit you to build one of two versions: a gray and blue version flown by Sqn. Ldr. James O’Meara, OC No. 131 Sqn. at Colerne in March 1944 and another blue and gray version, but with the black and white D-Day stripes, flown by Flg. Off. W. Hibbert or 124 Sqn. at Bradwell Bay in June 1944 (an extra note here: you must paint the D-Day stripes because the kit has no such decals).

Conclusion

If you want a good-looking Spit, ICM has them and this is a fine kit. You must be aware, however, that this kit is not one where everything just falls together and your modeling skills will be tested at times.

The kit has a suggested retail price of $23.00.

Thanks to Testors for making this kit available for review.

PS . I’m presently building two more ICM Spits….another Mk VII (Kit # 48065) and a Mk IX (Kit #48061)….and their respective wingtips fit much better than the one for the high-altitude Spit I’m reviewing here. Also, because their gun bays were similar to this kit--just one cannon each--I chose to build them shut too and likewise, after the fit problems with the engine on the first kit, I chose to build the other two kits with their engine compartments sealed and glued their exhaust stacks into place later. When all the sanding, filling and sanding is done, they are nice kits though.