Eduard 1/48 Spitfire Mk.VIII Profipack
By Jacob Russell
The Plane
The Supermarine Mk.VIII preceded its more famous stablemate the Mk.IX in production. It was developed alongside the pressurized Mk.VII. In comparison to the Mk.IX, the Mk.VIII had wing leading edge fuel tanks, reduced span ailerons, the broad chord rudder, horizontal stabilizers with enlarged mass balances, the 'C' wing, and a retractable tailwheel.
Early Mk.VIIIs, which appeared in November 1942 had the pointed, high altitude wing. The Vokes Aero-Vee tropical filter was first fitted to the Mk.VIII, and it was considerably more aerodynamic than the bulky filters worn by the earlier Mk.V Trop (tropical).
The Kit
This is the Profipack boxing of the new Mk.VIII. It consists of 226 injection molded parts, molded in grey and clear on 5 sprues, plus a masking set and a photo etch fret containing 25 parts, some of which are pre painted. 54 of the parts go unused.
The Mk.VIII is based on Eduard's previous Mk.IX tooling, with the correct short span ailerons, wing leading edge fuel tanks, broad chord rudder, enlarged pointed wingtips, and “late” elevators with enlarged mass balances. The surface detail is excellent, and the multipiece cockpit in particular comes in for high praise. The wheels in particular are superb. Even though Brassin wheels are available the kit wheels are just fine with me! The kit includes 6 different decal options:
-
“DG-R”, LF Mk.VIII, MD280, F/Lt. Paul Ostander, No.155 Squadron RAF, Burma, 1945. The plane was Dark Earth and Dark Green over Medium Sea Grey, with a yellow band around the forward cowling with SEAC roundels and white bands around the wings and horizontal stabilizers.
-
“HL-R”, F Mk.VIII, JF470, 31st Fighter Group, 308th Fighter Squadron, Fano Air Base, Italy, 1944-1945. This plane was Medium Sea Grey over PRU Blue, with a red spinner and wing bands, and yellow wingtips. It also had “clipped” wingtips.
-
“HB”, F Mk.VIII, JF330, AVM Harry Broadhurst, 1943. This plane had the extended wingtips and standard rudder. It was painted Middlestone and Dark Earth over Azure Blue with a red spinner.
-
“GZ-M”, F Mk.VIII, JF404, No.32 Squadron RAF, Foggia Air Base, Italy, early 1944. This plane was Medium Sea Grey over PRU Blue (the “high altitude” fighter camouflage scheme) with a Medium Sea Grey spinner, extended wingtips and the standard rudder.
-
“FT-F”, LF Mk.VIII, MT714, F/Lt. A.W. Guest, No. 43 Squadron RAF, Ramatuelle Air Field, France, August 1944. The Squadron codes were red outlined in white. The plane was painted Ocean Grey and Dark Green over Medium Sea Grey. The spinner was red with a white backing plate. It had the pointed rudder and standard wingtips.
-
“RG-V” HF Mk.VIII, W/C Robert Gibbes, CO of No. 80 Fighter Wing, Dutch East Indies, 1945. This plane was Ocean Grey and Dark Green over Medium Sea Grey. It had a red spinner, white wing leading edges, and Sky Squadron codes. One of the “Grey Nurse” aircraft (that commemorated the nurse shark), it features elaborate shark mouth nose art.
The decals are very well printed, in register, and have accurate colors, and there is a separate decal sheet of stencils. The overall impression of this kit is of an excellent presentation that oozes quality.
|
Conclusions
This is a superb kit. The number of manufacturers who tried and failed to get the Merlin powered Mk.VIII and IX correct is legion (Occidental, Hasegawa, ICM) but Eduard has nailed it with their Merlin powered Spitfire series. It's accurate and well detailed right out of the box, and of course if so inclined you have recourse to Eduard's Brassin enhancements. I recommend this kit, and I would like to thank Eduard for providing the review sample.
References
Modeler's Datafile 3: The Supermarine Spitfire, Part 1: Merlin Powered, by Robert Humphries, SAM Publications, 2000