Kit: No. 2403
Scale: 1/24
Manufacturer: Trumpeter, distributed by Stevens International, P.O. Box 126, 706 N. White Horse Pike, Magnolia, NJ 08049, 856-435-1555
Price: $119.95
Comments: Injection-molded, 266 parts (13 cast metal, 25 photoetched metal, 6 vinyl), decals
Pros: Excellent fit, good exterior detail, good outlines, movable control surfaces, engine detail, realistic landing gear
Cons: Some details in the cockpit are poor, landing gear stance needs to be corrected, incorrect canopy, some inaccurate details
The Mk.V was the most-produced of all Spitfires, and the Vb the most numerous within the Mk.V series. So if you're going to make a big kit of a Spitfire, the Mk.Vb is a good choice.
When I first opened the box, I was stunned at the number of parts - and the size of them! The recessed panel lines and rivet detail are well done with no flash or sink marks. The plastic parts are molded in light gray, medium-soft styrene. Ejector-pin marks are well hidden, and the sprue gates are on the edges of the parts - that's good and bad news. Cleanup of the edges shouldn't mar the surface, but the little sprue nubs have to be carefully removed to achieve good fit.
The 20 clear parts are thin and include the engine side cowls for an optional way to display the Merlin engine. I painted mine. Four black Delrin parts are provided for the operating oleo legs. There are also six rubber parts, 25 photoetched hinges, 13 metal rods, one printed acetate film, a decal sheet, a color painting and decaling guide, and a 16-page instruction book. Whew!
There are many subassemblies in this kit, and I departed from the plans by building all of them in advance. Be careful painting them, as the color call-outs in Trumpeter's instructions are misleading.
Construction. I began with the cockpit, which is the weakest area of the kit for scale fidelity. The seat is poor. A part representing wooden boards for the pilot to sit on is provided, but there's nothing like that in a real Spitfire. I left that part out and added a masking tape Sutton harness to help make the seat look better. The seat also sits far too low, and there is no armor plate behind it.
Trumpeter provides a floor with cutouts for the rudder push rods, but Spitfires didn't have floors. The instrument panel is clear, with holes to view the printed instruments on the acetate sheet behind. This is the best part of the interior. The rudder pedals are oversize, and the spade grip has the wrong gun-firing button for a cannon-armed Spitfire. The undercarriage selection quadrant is nice but curiously has the selection lever in the up position.
Rolls-Royce Merlin. The engine is built from 32 parts plus five more for the engine bearers and firewall. Trumpeter includes flexible rubber wiring for the lower ignition harnesses. I drilled out the holes to receive them rather than try to super glue them in place. There is also a serpentine rubber part that adds detail to the firewall. Parts No. G34 and G35 represent the under-engine oil tank, which would appear only on later Spitfires and should be left off of a Mk.V. The exhaust stacks are well done but lack a back plate on the fishtails. The completed engine is a nice starting point for adding more realistic plumbing and wiring. The bracing under the cowl is not accurate, and none should appear over the engine.
The tail wheel is like a little kit in itself, and although the inner part will never be seen after the fuselage goes together, it does give the modeler a good understanding of the real one. The wheel and tire can be left off till after final assembly.
The rudder must be assembled with the photoetched hinges on the metal shaft inside. The hinges then must be super glued onto tabs inside the vertical stabilizer before the fuselage halves are glued together. This same procedure applies to the other control surfaces. I originally followed the instructions and made all the control surfaces movable, but they flopped around wherever gravity would take them. I eventually made them stationary with super glue.
The cockpit and engine/firewall assemblies fit beautifully into the fuselage. In cross section, the cockpit opening appears a bit too wide at the top.
On the wing. The wing is composed of one main lower span and two upper halves. The wheel-well enclosures are separate and include square mounting holes for the oleo legs. With trial fitting, I found that the oleo legs protruded from the wing at a 90-degree angle, rather than being "kicked" forward as they should have been. I elongated the holes at the rear and eventually super glued the struts at the proper angle.
The guns, ammunition trays, control surfaces, and even the hydraulic undercarriage actuating arms were installed in the lower wing before the upper halves were glued in place. I glued the landing lights in the closed position and left out the flap actuator arms, which protrude through hatches in the upper wings. The Spitfire never should be parked flaps down, except for maintenance, so I glued the flap actuator doors closed.
The fit of the wing parts was perfect, and the dihedral looked good, but the wing tips were too thick. The gun hatch panels fit tight enough without glue to stay in place for painting.
The coolant radiator has a separate flap with bracing, and the gun heater piping is included along with the fuel tank pressurization pipe. The oil cooler is correct for a Mk.V, and both of the assemblies fit into recesses in the lower wing with no trouble.
Details, details. Trumpeter supplies a bomb for the underside, but provision to carry ordnance came along late in Mk.V production. The bomb carrier mounts too far aft and is molded poorly.
Trumpeter detailed the lower horizontal stabilizer halves nicely but mistakenly depicted the upper halves as fabric-covered. This was easily corrected with sanding, but trying to replicate rivets was a challenge. The elevator and rudder are accurately shown as fabric-covered and have exaggerated stitching.
The wing-to-fuselage assembly is helped by a latch that locks the upper wing tight to the fuselage and ensures the dihedral is perfect. No filler was needed except on the underside at the forward and aft fuselage joints.
After camouflage painting with Testor Model Master II enamels, I added the tail planes, which fit perfectly. I used Model Master Acryl clear gloss as the undercoat for the decals.
The kit decals are as good as any I've used. They are opaque, and the red is accurate for the period depicted, but the presentation logo on the fuel tank reads "Ever Reauy N" instead of "Ever Ready II".
The squadron code letters are white when they should be sky. I modified the presentation logo and suggest hand-painting the white code letters sky after they are applied. The top coat is Model Master Acryl clear flat.
The kit propeller depicts a de Havilland unit with the short spinner. Although they were used on Mk.Vs, I would've liked to have had the more common Rotol unit.
Clear parts. The windscreen looks too wide, but don't try to make it fit into the cockpit coaming edge or it will break. The external armored glass is a separate part and should be a bit thicker.
The windscreen sits a bit too high, which makes it too steeply inclined. Consequently, the sliding canopy is also too high. It depicts the later "blown" hood but incorrectly has the clear vision panel, which should only be present on the earlier flat-sided hood.
The earlier canopy would be correct for this aircraft. The radio mast has the "flag" type pulley for the early radio wire not seen after late 1940. I modified mine to have just the two mounting tabs used on this version of the Spitfire.
The operating oleo legs were assembled at full extension using the locking pins. I sanded the rubber tires before snapping them over the wheels. Although I usually don't like rubber tires, these are the best I've seen. I used a small screwdriver as a tire iron to get them on. The main wheels are even held on the axles with castellated nuts, and the tail wheel tire is held on with a through-axle and nut. Except for the lack of safe pins, I felt like I was working on a real Spitfire!
The cowls stay in place without glue. The upper cowl has a blister instead of the fairing for the compressor on the rear upper quarter, and the shape in cross section should curve back in toward the exhaust stacks rather than straight down.
The cockpit access door latching mechanism is poorly defined, and instead of a crowbar on the door, there is some sort of cross brace which should be removed.
All done. The finished Spitfire measures only 2mm short in length and 2.5 mm short in span - very good for this scale. The vertical and horizontal tail surfaces are all a bit undersize but they don't detract from the overall look. I enlarged the A.R. Clint drawings from Robert Bracken's book, Spitfire - The Canadians, and the fuselage and wings fit almost exactly over them.
The Trumpeter Spitfire took me 47 hours to finish and was a real delight to build. The good fit and little need for seam-filling reduced the building time. Achieving correct proportions of the Spitfire is not easy, yet Trumpeter has done a good job on this super-size Spit. What isn't right will likely be corrected by aftermarket companies soon.
- Bob Swaddling