Origins of Airfix's Spit Mk.VIIIc

It is probably the Otaki kit, from the 80's? I have one to be built someday. The Otaki markings are English and Australian. The kit went on to a company named Arii, and now to Airfix.

A lot of Airfix's new 1/48 line are of Arii/Otaki origins.
I built the P40 which is a nice kit and the Mk8 Spitfire is currently in OR undergoing an operation to turn it into an Irish Army Air Corps TIX Trainer.
Recently ,a friend of mine built the Seafire MK III , which is the MKV with new wings added.
The wings showed up the fuselage just a little bit as the wing detail is recessed
and the fuselage is raised panel line , but It looks very nice when painted.

One Big problem with the MKVIII is the canopy ,which needs to be binned on sight as any spitfire that I ever sat in did not have a big flat spot.

The Airfix Mk VIII Spitfire kit is indeed the old Otaki kit that was released in the mid 70's IIRC. At the time the kit was "state of the art" and was much better than the previous 1/48th scale Monogram Mk IX Spitfire which had been the only contender in the 1/48th scale "long Merlin" Spitfire kit market since the early 60's.
Since then the molds went to Arii, and AMT, and now Airfix. The kit has long been surpassed by Ocidental, ICM, and Hasegawa since then, but with some work can be made into a nice model.
The Airfix/Otaki Mk VIII kit is really a Mk IX with an option for a retractable tailwheel to make it into an VIII. First off, the retractable tailwheel is not provided in the kit as it differs greatly from the standard tailwheel strut that they would have you use. The Mk VIII also had short span ailerons, not provided in the kit, and leading edge fuel tanks also not scribed in. Happily, Otaki originally provided a fixed tailwheel plug to be used to depict a Mk IX which is much more accurate if you don't want to make all the changes neccessary for an accurate Mk VIII.
E-mail me direct if you need any more Spitfire information.
<robert.swaddling@sympatico.ca>
Cheers
Bob S

The Spit Mk VIII, P-40E, P-51, and F6F are all re-issues of the Otaki kits. The Hellcat and P-40 are pretty good, but I've never seen the Spitfire or Mustang.

Hi Oggy4624
What are you using for a conversion to the T9? I have always wanted to do one of these up.
I am curious about the "big flat spot" that you refer to on the Otaki canopy.
The recent Airfix Seafire III / Spitfire Vc is a disaster. I built one up as a Spit Vc and the details are terrible along with a wing with a trailing edge that is way to thick. The cannon bay blisters look like chicklets and they went to the expense of offering flaps which are never seen in the down position on a Spitfire unless it is landing or having the flaps serviced. They don't give you an option of raised flaps and if you try to build them raised you run into all kinds of problems.
Airfix really dropped the ball with that kit. Gavia is slated to be bringing out a 1/48th scale Spitfire MkVc and a Mk XII. I'll wait for Gavia.
Cheers
Bob S.

The flaps were pretty bad alright.
The conversion is going to be fun.
The project is being built with a friend of mine using an aftermarket front cockpit and the kit cockpit for the rear.
I have some old copies of scale aircraft modeling and a book by Jeremy Flack ,
Spencer's brother ,which does a nice in-depth photo report on the restoration of G-AIDN. The ISBN number is 1-85152-637-4 and is called Spitfire The worlds most famous fighter.
First cut was last night and as I said before - Its going to be fun.
The canopy problem is another subject.
We will have to get new front and rear canopies.
As I said before , the kit's has a flat spot on top where the windscreen meets the centre section so thats a new MK V/ IX front canopy. The rear canopy is unique.
It looks like a mk24 bubble - heavily modified.
The windscreen will have to be scratchbuilt.

Hi oggy
So are you moving the entire cockpit the 13 1/2 inches forward too?
Can you e-mail me direct at <robert.swaddling@sympatico.ca>. The Flack book has nice pictures but no measurements. The T9 is a real challenge indeed.
Cheers
Bob S.

13-07-03
Hi there. I am the fella referred to here as "a friend of mine" by Oggy4624.
The Conversion of the MkVIII to a TIX IAC trainer is shaping up into the greatest cut and sand operation ever.
And I have to say that Oggy is pretty handy with a razor saw!
The major problem with this is that is isn't a true MkIX kit. Grateful thanks go to Moonwoka for the heads up regarding the flat bottom of the Airfix kit. (it was the only thing close to a mk9 i could get)

Now, as Oggy already said, i also have built the IAC Seafire, which was also an Airfix kit, with two sets of wings. And a good thing too.
What we did wasa Frankenstein hack-'n'slash. We cut the central section of both underwings, magic gluing the correct profile to the Aifix-Otaki underwings to give the correct profile.
We then noticed that the air intakes wouldn't fit, so we cut the grooves from one and pasted onto the other. With a bit of filling, once the intakes are placed over them, you'll never know the diference.

In theory.
The front cockpit ( my first and possibly last detailing set!) will be moved forward and the kits cockpit will squeeze into the rear section. As Oggy said, we'll need to replace the kits' canopy and adapt the Mk22/24 canopy to resemble the trainers rear canopy.
And there is a small mountain of sanded plastic waiting to be added to next week.

We'll be spraying it to represent the bare metal finish.
And if that's not enough, I want to do a Hawker Hurricane 2 seater next!!
(oggy despairs. he says i'm mad. not yet.........not yet.

We'll keep ya'll informed.
liam

That sounds very complex. Too bad that you couldn't have started with an ICM Mk IX kit. It would have saved you an awful lot of work with that saw. By "air intakes" are you talking about the radiator fairings? I thought that the Irish T9's were a green colour. Did you know that PV202 is being rebuilt at Historic Flying at Duxford and will be finished in the IAC colours that she wore when in Ireland?
Cheers
Bob S.

hey bob,
yes, i had read that on the air corps web forum. It's a work in progress and I was very surprised to see it! that's the second former IAC fighter to make it's way back here ( i hope).
the IAC IX trainers were presented in BOTH schemes. they were delivered in overall green ( red spinner), but later some or all were stripped to the metal with the anti-glare thingy in front of the canopy.
yes, i meant the radiator fairings and no worries, Oggy likes to cut up things, but usually if they are Monogram.
How do you post a photo to the forum? I have noticed a number of the posts have pictures with them. I could post a picture of the au-natureil T9's if you wish.

Liam

Hi, folks

I've just returned from holidays. Thank all of You for replys. I've decided to make this kit mostly OTB, because I'm not ready for a surgery, neccessary to correct flat underwing.

I have one more question - most Spitfire models (including this Mk.VIII), I've seen, have imitation of strengthening (or whatever) ribs in the wheel wells. As far as I know, these ribs where not very common and should appear in the wells only if they are on the upper wing surface, am I right? E.g. in Tamiya's 1/72nd Mk.Vb ribs are molded both in wheel wells and wing surface.