Eduard 1/72 Spitfire Mk VIII

[VegasAWACER13]

I've been building up quite the collection of Eduard kits in the stash and I thought it was time to finally build one. I've been a little intimidated by them because they're such beautiful kits and I don't want to screw them up. But I've also been jonesing to get started on one so I thought I'd commence with a 1/72 before progressing to one of the 1/48s I really want to go all out on. And this one is also a Weekend Edition (got several Profipacks waiting).

So far it's been a beautiful kit to work on. I've never done a 1/72 kit that's so detailed. I'm curious to see how well all the fine lines of rivets will show up on the finished product, but they do look nice. Had my first experience restoring rivet detail with my shiny new Galaxy tool. The only issue has been the upper fuselage seam behind the cockpit, which I cannot get rid of for love or money. I'm on the fifth attempt, and it's going to be the last, however it shakes out. At some point you've gotta call it done, and it's only a 1/72 kit. So I'm just about ready for primer.

I'm having fun with it. It's destined for a set of Italian theater USAAF markings, which should look pretty cool.

 

[VegasAWACER13]

The Eight is looking all right, I think. Had a delay after I went to spray the dark earth the other day and discovered the paint had turned to sludge. Must not have sealed it correctly. Oh well. A new bottle arrived today and I got the main camo finished. The clear coat won't be going on for a few more days. I need to spray "fresh paint" over where the RAF roundels would've been on the wings, plus a set of yellow theater stripes on the wingtips.

I've been having a lot of fun with this one. I had planned to make it a dirty bird, but it looks so pretty I may have to leave it factory fresh (and I mean the kit itself, not my work on it lol, plus the Eight was just a beautiful bird). Looking forward to seeing it with USAAF markings. It's my first time doing RAF desert camo. It's very cool. I may need to do it again on the 1/48 Eduard Mk VIII.

 

[BarleyBop]

RAF desert camo

Looking great! the Italian and German camo in that theater also very cool!

Watching with great interest!

 

[VegasAWACER13]

Looking great! the Italian and German camo in that theater also very cool!

Thanks! I've got an Eduard Bf 109F-4 in the stash that I'm going to build in North African theater markings. Should be pretty cool.

 

[BarleyBop]

Appearing over Malta

From

More specifically, this book has loads of inspiration:

 

[VegasAWACER13]

More specifically, this book has loads of inspiration:

Nice! I'll have to look those up. Those Osprey books are great. I have several of them. Is that Marseille's kite on the cover? I'll be using a set of his markings on the 109F.

 

[BarleyBop]

Marseille's

Yup, and there are 4 variants of 'yellow 14' illustrated inside, from February, May, June and September 1942...

 

[VegasAWACER13]

Paint complete, radiators and stabs installed—ready for gloss coat and some decals! Love the look of the "fresh paint" on the wings.

 

[BarleyBop]

Love the look

Absolutely!

 

[Littlemarten]

I've always preferred the "factory fresh" look, which is not to say I don't appreciate good weathering. I think it's related to the "new car look."

 

[VegasAWACER13]

I've always preferred the "factory fresh" look, which is not to say I don't appreciate good weathering. I think it's related to the "new car look."

Yeah, I got back into the hobby watching all these master modelers on YouTube building these awesome models that look like real warbirds. I want to develop my weathering skills, but I've had to remind myself it's perfectly legit to build factory fresh. They do in fact look that way too, even on old aircraft they are immaculately maintained.

 

[VegasAWACER13]

Decals are on, and man, were they a chore. I don't know if they're the new or old Eduard decals. They were super thin. The large ones—roundels, squadron codes, etc—were fine. But the stencils were awful. I'm not sure if I just had a bad sheet, but they came apart if I looked at them wrong. Didn't matter what I used—cotton bud, toothpick—they frayed apart at the slightest touch. I wasn't planning on putting most of the tiny stencils on a kit this small anyway, but I did need to use some of them. I was convinced I was going to destroy the wing walk lines, but those actually went on pretty easily. The rest of the stencils were a pain in my life. It was incredibly stressful putting the red machine gun patches on. I really didn't want to go back and paint those on. Almost lost one but, fortunately, I got them on there, however imperfectly. I hope future Eduard decals don't go that way. At least the big ones went on fine. Anyway, I got there in the end. Almost done…

 

[Jakko]

Those markings cause the average British modeller to have a fit. Which is part of why I intend to one of these days build a Spitfire like this one as well

 

[VegasAWACER13]

Those markings cause the average British modeller to have a fit. Which is part of why I intend to one of these days build a Spitfire like this one as well

Love it!

I've always thought it's cool to see a Spit with US markings. I've got plenty more Spits in the stash, some of which will also be rocking US roundels. Maybe I should build a P-51 with RAF markings as well.

 

[Littlemarten]

But the stencils were awful. I'm not sure if I just had a bad sheet, but they came apart if I looked at them wrong.

Since some of my kits and decals may be rather elderly, this is how I avoid the problem (most of the time.) I cut out either an unused decal (if there are any) or the manufacturer's logo (which is printed on the sheet as a decal) and apply it to a piece of scrap or a paint hulk. This tells me if there are going to be problems, especially with the decal coming apart. If it does come apart, I then coat the whole sheet with a thin coat of liquid decal film. Since I always cut away the clear film border on each decal (except for the very tiny), coating the entire sheet with film does not pose a problem.

 

[VegasAWACER13]

Since some of my kits and decals may be rather elderly, this is how I avoid the problem (most of the time.) I cut out either an unused decal (if there are any) or the manufacturer's logo (which is printed on the sheet as a decal) and apply it to a piece of scrap or a paint hulk. This tells me if there are going to be problems, especially with the decal coming apart. If it does come apart, I then coat the whole sheet with a thin coat of liquid decal film. Since I always cut away the clear film border on each decal (except for the very tiny), coating the entire sheet with film does not pose a problem.

Thanks so much for the technique. That's very cool and I will definitely remember and try that. I appreciate it!

 

[VegasAWACER13]

Yankee Spit complete. I'm really happy with this one. It's my first experience with an Eduard kit and it was everything great that I'd heard. Beautiful kit and just really fun to build. The only issue was with the stencil decals that I related above. Had a couple of decal issues during final assembly that I had to correct with paint and a brush. But that was fairly minor and I got that done okay. I did want to get this complete before Christmas so I did compromise in a couple of areas, mainly not obsessing over joint seams too much. I also generally take it easier on 1/72 kits. But it's definitely the most detailed 1/72 build I've done. I have a couple more Eduard Spits in this scale in the stash and I'm looking forward to them. And I've started on a 1/48 Eduard as well.

"Fargo Express," flown by 1Lt Leland P. Molland, 308th Fighter Squadron, Castel Volturno, Italy, December 1943. Leland finished the war a double ace flying P-51s. He was killed in the line of duty on May 16, 1951 in Korea.

 

[BarleyBop]

Nicely done!
Love the crisp detailing, and camo/colour scheme.
... and all in 1/72!

 

[kevin]

Very interesting to look at

 

[VegasAWACER13]

Nicely done!
Love the crisp detailing, and camo/colour scheme.
... and all in 1/72!

Thanks so much! Eduard certainly makes a high quality kit. It's very impressive the amount of detail they get into a 1/72 model.

 

[Tommergun]

Beautiful. Nice work.

 

[VegasAWACER13]

Beautiful. Nice work.

Thank you so much!

 

[Jantk14]

Well done! I have a British spitfire in my stash that may be next.

 

[Ron2]

Yankee Spit complete. I'm really happy with this one. It's my first experience with an Eduard kit and it was everything great that I'd heard. Beautiful kit and just really fun to build. The only issue was with the stencil decals that I related above. Had a couple of decal issues during final assembly that I had to correct with paint and a brush. But that was fairly minor and I got that done okay. I did want to get this complete before Christmas so I did compromise in a couple of areas, mainly not obsessing over joint seams too much. I also generally take it easier on 1/72 kits. But it's definitely the most detailed 1/72 build I've done. I have a couple more Eduard Spits in this scale in the stash and I'm looking forward to them. And I've started on a 1/48 Eduard as well.

"Fargo Express," flown by 1Lt Leland P. Molland, 308th Fighter Squadron, Castel Volturno, Italy, December 1943. Leland finished the war a double ace flying P-51s. He was killed in the line of duty on May 16, 1951 in Korea.

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Looks great! I wouldn't have had the heart to weather that either. I'm finding myself wanting to leave more of my builds pristine vs weathered.

 

[VegasAWACER13]

Looks great! I wouldn't have had the heart to weather that either. I'm finding myself wanting to leave more of my builds pristine vs weathered.

Thank you!

I've decided I'm going to do more factory fresh builds after this. It's definitely been a little bit of an effort to reject the notion that I should be weathering them all.

 

[BarleyBop]

factory fresh builds

... and you could spray them with 'eau de new car smell' !

 

[VegasAWACER13]

Well done! I have a British spitfire in my stash that may be next.

What's the kit?

 

[Jantk14]

This one

 

[VegasAWACER13]

This one

Look forward to seeing the build.