Outstanding work on all three! Looking forward to the additional photos 

1/48 Tamiya Spitfire Mk.I

This is a fantastic kit I spent about $30 on at the local hobby shop. I added an HGW microtextile seat harness (about $8, I think) and aftermarket markings in the form of Barracuda stencils ($2.50) and Montex masks/decals ($12). For the mathematically challenged like me, that brings the final cost to $52.50.

Pros: The fit is typical Tamiya, which is to say excellent. The detail is good as well, and it's what you expect from the mid-'90s Tamiya kits. I like the variety of windscreen and canopy options that range from the short early style to the Malcolm style. It fits the Spitfire proportions to my eye, and I like the ease of building, from the cockpit that drops in after the fuselage is closed to the grooves at the wing roots that prevent any gap there and the exhaust pipes that drop in at the end of the build.

Cons: The small parts count (two sprues plus one clear sprue) makes the model somewhat simplified compared to the other two in this build. Spitfires almost always sit with their elevators dropped when on the ground (unless the control yoke latch is used), and Tamiya molded them flat with the horizontal stabilizers. If you want to change it, you need to be good with cutting or go aftermarket. The Cockpit walls are also shaped incorrectly, following the slope of the outer skin and not sitting in the oval barrel shape on the atual aircraft. With the cockpit open, it is noticeable, but not a big deal in my book. Another con, which is a con in all three of these kits, is the cowling being molded in two halves (in this case connected to the fuselage). It's a seam that would be easily remedied if they'd molded it separately as one piece like on their Mustang kits. But now I'm being picky. The decals are thick, but I did use the Tamiya stencils for the black half of the underside of the wings, and they layed down pretty good. No harness was included, nor was an instrument panel decal, and thepanel itself has no raised dial decals to drybrush, so I used the decal from the Eduard kit, as I was using a PE set for that one.

That seems like a lot of cons, but there are WAY more pros, and it was a VERY enjoyable build. Definitely the easiest of the three to complete.

This kit came in a close second in the build in my opinion, simply because I prefer the Eduard rivet detailing and cockpit detail, even without the aftermarket add-ons.

Paints: I primed in Mr. Surfacer 1500 black. The underside was shaded with Tamiya Rubber Black, and the white was a mix of Tamiya White with a drop of Light Grey thrown in to tone down the brightness. The upper surfaces were painted with Gunze Mr. Color Dark Earth and Tamiya RAF Dark Green 2. Cockpit was Tamiya Cockpit Green. The insignia were painted with Tamiya Yellow, Tamiya White, Tamiya Blue and Model Master Insignia Red. Lettering is painted with Tamiya Sky.

Weathering: The upper surfaces and white half of the underside received Flory Dark Dirt wash over a gloss coat for the panel lines. The Black half of the underside got a Vallejo Wash for White Vehicles, which was layed down and wiped off haphazardly to give some variation to the paintwork and highlight panel lines. Artist's oils were used to dirty up the paintwork a little bit, and ground up Yarka Sauce pastel chalks were used for the shell ejection port streaking and the dirt on the tires and underside.

All in all, I was really happy with this kit, and I think this is probably the best effort I've put forward so far, maybe tied with the Eduard one. It's a fun little Battle of Britain Spitfire that an sit on my shelf with the Airfix Hurricane.

-BD-

1/48 Eduard Spitfire Mk.IXc (Early) Weekend Edition

This was my favorite kit of the three to build. The high parts count, excellent surface detail and great fit make it one of the best kits I've ever built. I spent $22 on the Weekend Edition kit. I then added the PE fret you find in the Profipack kit ($8) and the Eduard stencils, which weren't included in the kit decal sheet ($10). I also bought the Ultracast one-piece cowl because of the cowl seam on this kit ($10). That brings the cost of the kit to $50, which is about the same I spent all told on the Tamiya kit, and almost exactly what you can get the Profipack kit for if you opt for the one-piece cowling on that one (but I wanted these markings).

Pros: This is simply one of the best kits in any scale, in my opinion. It has a few questionable engineering choices, but the parts fit flawlessly and the molded detail makes for a fantastic finish. The high parts count allows for a lot of details to pop, and the decals (by Eduard) are easily as good as those produced by Cartograf. They snug down into rivet detail with just a little help from Micro Set/Sol, and the variety of separate parts means you can model the elevators dropped, and the rudder and ailerons are posable. Different canopies and cockpit doors for open or closed configurations make it look right regardless of how it's posed. For clipped-wing variants, the entire wingtip is molded in clear plastic, making the navigation lights look real nice (this isn't the case with the regular wingtips, which have molded detail). Slide molding means the exhaust pipes and gun barrels are already hollowed.

Cons: The most glaring con in this kit is the two-piece cowling top. The seam is a pain, and the nearby rivet detail makes it nearly impossible to sand it and get everything looking right without having to rescribe some of the details. The exhaust is also overengineered, with each side made up of four parts that must be added before the cowling is closed up (I used thinned white glue to hold the cowling in place for painting and only added the exhaust after the final painting and weathering, popping the cowling off and gluing it all together. Finally, the propeller lacks any means of staying in the plane. It's just a shaft that slides through a collar and doesn't quite sit right or stay in unless you midify it. I put one layer of Tamiya tape over the shaft, which provides enough friction to hold it in, allow it to spin and keep it in the right position. No harness is included in the Weekend Edition kit.

This was my favorite of the three in this build to actually build, even though I messed up a bit on it and didn't pay attention when I attached the fuselage, so the wings are slightly out of true with the horizontal stabilizers (which is only noticeable from dead front, thankfully).

This particular aircraft was used by the Americans in Tunisia, and had the British markings painted over. The color was unclear, and I used a mix of Dark Earth that came out looking vaguely like Olive Drab to define it separately from the RAF colors to show where the RAF markings were painted over.

Paint: I used Mr. Color Dark Earth and Middle Stone for the upper surfaces. The underside was Model Master Azure Blue, and the cockpit was Tamiya Cockpit Green.

Weathering: The model got a wash of Flory Dark Dirt after decals were sealed. I used Naples Yellow and Yellow Ochre artist oil paints to fade the paint and dirty up the underside, as well as ground up Yarka Sauce pastel chalks to add dust and streaks on the shell ejection ports. Paint chipping was dabbed on with a sponge.

I have one more Eduard SPitfire Mk.IX (a late one) in the stash, and while I am totally over painting Spits at the moment, I look forward to building this kit again in the future.

-BD-

1/48 Special Hobby Seafire Mk.III, French Aeronavale and Irish Air Corps

This kit was fun, but it took a lot of work. That said, it's a short run kit, so that was expected. I enjoyed it, but even though I thought I was going carefully, there was one thing I didn't notice that kind of makes the end result a little janky. I paid $32 for it on sale, including shipping, which makes it the cheapest kit in the mix by about $18 because it included PE and harness, and the decals were pretty nice.

Pros: Included PE fret and acetate instrument detailing means this kit has excellent cockpit details, an included harness and a realistic instrument panel. What I believe are catapult mounts on the fuselage are PE and give a great look at the finish. The adhesive vinyl strakes that strengthen the fuselage for catapult launches and strengthen the area around the radio compartment door on the port fuselage behind the cockpit are really nice, and spares are provided! Recessed detail is nice, if less refined than Eduard and Tamiya in places. The decals were also very nice, for the most part.

Cons: Large sprue gates and poor fit in many places make this one some work. The separate gun bay covers allow for multiple planes from the same molds, but the fit was really bad and took a lot of work to file, sand, smooth and fill to get right. The wing leading edges needed to be reshaped, and the fuselage was warped. Wing roots took a lot of work, most of which I was able to accomplish by test fitting, but filling was still required. The cannons were fine, but I used the Eduard pieces that were left over from my Mk.IX kit because they were pre-drilled (thanks, slide molding!) The wors part was the fuselage being warped. I clamped it together in what I thought was a good join, and only later realized the whole thing bends to one side, giving this Seafire a bit of a shark tail look (see top-down photo for what I mean). Now, this could have been corrected by heating the halves in water individually and clamping them flat to a piece of glass or something. Valuable lesson I will use in the future. Special Hobby also omitted most of the wheel well detail, which was an interesting oversight in a kit that othrwise gave more detail than the Tamiya Mk.I. The separate ailerons can be molded in different positions, but they are noticeably thinner than the wings around them and I added styrene to the bottom to make them match. The rudder is separate as well, but the elevators are molded with the horizontal stabilizers, which is mildly annoying, since, again, SPits sit with them down in most cases.

Despite all the work rescribing lines lost to sanding and making things fit, I did enjoy the build, and I built it as a French Aeronavale Seafire in use in Indochina/Vietnam in 1946. I did run into problems with the thin decals for the markings folding on me, and I used a second set of fuselage markings that the instructions don't acknowledge, but which match the style of the French ones. The roundel on the starbord wing didnt settle correctly and flaked a bit even after two clear coats. This could totally have been my error.

Paint: I used Model Master Dark Slate Grey for the greenish top color and a mix of Tamiya Dark Sea Grey and Rubber Black for the Extra Dark Sea Gray up top. Cockpit was Tamiya Cockpit Green, and the underside was Tamiya Sky. Spinner is Model Master Insignia Red. I stole prop decals from the Barracude Mk.I sheet for the blades here. Nice of them to provide enough for a four-blade prop.

Weathering: I used FLory Dark Dirt wash on the panel lines, then weathered it more with artist oils (burnt umber and raw sienna). The dark on the underside is Payne's Gray.

While this kit was the most challenging of the three, I would encourage people not to shy away from it. It's a short run kit, so comparing it to Eduard or Tamiya is unfair from a manufacturing standpoint, but fair from an "I have X amount of money and Y amount of time and want a Spitfire variant" standpoint. I've seen the Hasegawa Seafire Mk.III sprues, and this one seems like it gives you more bang for less buck, but probably more work, too. I'd recommend it with the caveat that it's not good for a novice, and I consider myself intermediate/average, and I still had issues with the warped fuselage. But I'm a sucker for French aircraft, so here it is.

-BD-

Brandon,

I think you've done an outstanding job on all three kits!

Thanks very much for taking the time to write your evaluations of each kit - it's much appreciated!

Not knowing much (yet) about WWII aircraft, are the markings on your finished Tamiya version representative of an English RAF fighter? I'm only curious because of what looks like a Kiwi. I have a cousin who lives in New Zealand and I've had my picture taken under the sign of the Kiwi when I was in Christchurch about 13 years ago. That's why the bird on the fuselage piqued my curiousity.

Mike

Gamera, Johnny and Bob - thanks for the compliments and for looking. I appreciate it.

Mike - Someone else metnioned it maybe being a Kiwi. Until your post, I thought a Kiwi was a fruit. According to the Montex Masks, this is an RAF bird based at Gravesend in 1940, but I believe the bird is a personal marking (possibly a squadron marking), so I would assume that in this case the pilot must have been from New Zealand. Thanks for the info and the kind words!

-BD-

Brandon, great looking trio of Spitfires, and excellent tribute to their anniversary.

----------------------

I don't know the story behind this particular RN-N, but the codes do indicate 72 Squadron of the RAF.  The kiwi is also a native bird of New Zealand, so it is likely a personal emblem and not of the unit as the Kiwi's did not have their own squadron during the Battle of Britain - though about 100 pilots had been sent to Britain by the time that event had started.

For some reason Xtradecal BoB decal set associates this aircraft with Australian Des Sheen, but his personal Spitfire was RN-J and his emblem was a boomerang on a white disc.  

regards,

Jack

Very nice work. Three really nice kits that look just steller.

BK

Beautiful looking Spits!

The Mark IXc, when you said the Americans used it, was it RAF machine flown by Americans or a USAAF unit flying British machines?

BD: Thanks for the rest of the photos. Great work there on all three. 

That's three beautiful Spitfires you put together there, Brandon...I love 'em!

Cheers

Martin