The Hamfisted Modeller: 1/48 Eduard Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXc Wing Commander Colin Grey RAF, Sicily and Italy, 1943

Wednesday 10 July 2019

1/48 Eduard Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXc Wing Commander Colin Grey RAF, Sicily and Italy, 1943

Another older build from November 2013.

Like many Spitfire fans I'd been eagerly awaiting a decent (accurate) Mk IX. I'd built Hasegawa's offering before but it's short fuselage just makes it look a little wrong. Thankfully Eduard stepped up so I decided to treat myself to the Royal Boxing, which allows you to build 2 of the 3 sub variants of the Mk IX.

I chose an aircraft flown by Kiwi Colin Gray, DSO, DFC & Two Bars He was a Royal Air Force (RAF) officer and the top New Zealand fighter ace of the Second World War. This aircraft was his personal aircraft when he commanded No. 322 Wing in Sicily.

The Kit

1/48 Eduard Spitfire Mk IXc Early (Royal Edition)

Detail out the box in this kit means very little aftermarket is required. The only thing I added was the bit of wire on top of the silver gas bottles. However the cockpit does take a fair bit of time assemble as there are lots of small parts.

In builds of this kit now however I now use a Ultracast or Barracudacast cowl cover. The split along the centre of the cowl is annoying and it's clean up can result in losing some of the nice detail there . The cowl is the worst part of this kit.