After Tamiya’s new Spitfire Mk.I, which is probably one of the best kits ever made, I was surprised that Eduard released a new early Spit series. Even Tamiya’s old 1993 Mk. I is quite good in my opinion. So of course I can’t resist an early Spitfire so I had to give the Eduard offering a whirl to compare the two and see if they set the bar even higher. I decided on their Mk.II release as something a bit different.
This is one awesome package. I love how Eduard provide two full kits, one Mk. IIa (machine gun) and one Mk.IIb (cannon) kit. I decided on Bill “Poppy” Dunn’s 71st Eagle Squadron Mk IIa machine from 1941. Dunn was one of several Americans who joined the RAF before America entered the war. They were placed into the 71st Squadron which would eventually become the 4th FG when the US entered the war. Dunn would hold the distinction of being the first American ace and would claim 8.5 in the air, along with 4 unconfirmed and 3 probables by war’s end. Of course I had to pay homage to this hero.
As I said I wanted to compare it to Tamiya’s Spitfire. In short, Eduard wins in surface detail as I don’t think they missed a rivet. I also appreciate all the extras included that you don’t have to buy, so you can just get busy building. I did have a few fit issuesm particularly the starboard wing root. It may have been my fault though.
This said, Tamiya’s engineering is second to none. Eduard still has the tenency to overcomplicate things, making the build more challenging than necessary, hence my wing root issue I suspect.
I wanted to depict a well used Spitfire and continued to practice chipping, however, I was going for a bit more restrained than a typical Japanese machine. I kept chipping limited to the port wingroot, nose, and wing leading edges. Paint is Tamiya XF-81 RAF Green, XF-82 Ocean Grey, over XF-83 Medium Sea Grey which was all heavily faded.
All main markings were painted on with Maketar masks. The decals I did use were wonderful. I’ve read all the hoopla about about their new decals and the film on them. Apparently if you try to peel it off the decal it will rip it off. I had no such issue. I just left the film there and it’s not even visible. Ammo Mig enamels were used for a wash and I added a dark brown fliter to dirty it up, especially at the wing root.
In conclusion, I’m quite happy. I see their new Zero 21 in my near future…
A few in-progress pics…