The British Mk.IX Spitfire equaled the performance of Germany's Fw 190s and Me 109s. In 1942, it replaced the battle-tested Mk.V and soldiered on until the end of World War II.
Pacific Coast's new kit is the first 1/32 scale Mk.IX. Molded in shiny gray plastic, its main fuselage and wing parts contain some flash and rough edges. Resin and color photoetched-metal parts are provided for the cockpit interior.
I began with the cockpit interior, one of the best I've seen right out of the box. It comes with excellent color photoetched-metal instrument-panel parts as well as a very nice resin seat and sidewalls.
Bringing together the interior bulkheads and fuselage, I discovered a minor alignment problem. In hindsight, I'd construct the cockpit differently, installing all the bulkheads first, then sliding in the resin cockpit detail parts.
I cleaned up the wings along the trailing edges. The detailed wheel wells feature two resin parts for each side. The cannon bay access panels are separate parts, accommodating bulge variations appearing on different Mk.IX production runs. With light sanding, the panels fit fairly well. The shell-ejector ports needed to be squared off and, in some instances, drilled out.
The fuselage test-fitted well with all the bulkheads in place. To get the excellent resin exhaust stacks to fit, I enlarged the exhaust opening. The instructions only show how to install the longer carburetor intake, but the original, smaller version is also included (in case you plan on building
Lady Ellen III).
I encountered a major fit problem when test-fitting the complete wing to fuselage. There was a mismatch at the wing root - a large gap near the front, and a step that started in the middle. I improved this with plastic strips and filler, but was somewhat disappointed with the result. The separate lower gull-wing panel insert also fit poorly, with gaps at the wing-root touch points.
The landing gear legs required careful cleanup. The attachment points are a bit understated, so strengthening them with glue is essential.
I painted with a combination of Tamiya acrylic and lacquer paints. Cartograf decals are provided for six aircraft. They went down well on a gloss undercoat with decal solution.
Based on my references, including
American Spitfire Camouflage and Markings (Paul Ludwig and Malcolm Laird, Ventura Publications), the finished model looks like a Spitfire but measures out several scale inches short.
Pacific Coast's Spitfire took me 28 hours, most of them spent getting a clean build and installing cockpit details. Its assembly requires special attention and modeling techniques, so it's not for a beginner. It is, however, a great addition to a 1/32 scale lineup long in need of a later-model Spitfire.
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