The Emperor's New Clothes?

The last couple of months have seen Tamiya's 1/32 Spitfire coming to life on my workbench, thorugh intensive stages of construction and paintwork.

This kit has been hailed as the superlative Spitfire build. Such hyperbole merits further examination, I think, and a realistic response. It's certainly an accurate kit, which is really important to me as a kit basher. Parts fit is maybe eight out of ten - everything fits perfectly till you get to the fuselage, and then things start to come apart a little. For example, the wings have fillets, or inserts, that allow Tamiya to offer different marks. These inserts have to fit precisely - and they don't. You need to be particularly careful when you come to build and fit the wings - test fitting comes in to its own here. Engine installation is equally uncharitable; bulkhead, engine bearers, hoses and engine itself need to be fitted in the exact spot or the covers won't fit. There's no margin for error.

I've always been a big exponent of Tamiya. I think their kits live up to their hype, which doesn't go for every manufacturer. They break new ground with almost every release. However, this is not a £20 kit, it's a big serious high-end bit of tackle, and as such you want a kit that offers the builder some respect. The Spitfire is good, but it's not that good. I would say it is over engineered, and leaves the builder a lot of unnecessary work. Nevertheless I enjoyed building it, and given my time over would cheerfully build it again. Just don't believe the hype....

Dora

A natural follow on to the recently completed FW 190 A8 is the D9, also from Eduard.

I happened to have Eduard's detail set, and a set of Kommandeur decals with an interesting colour scheme. All I needed was an appropriate kit. Then Eduard issued their D9 with perfect timing.

I posted recently on my Red 19 build, and this is essentially the same thing. This kit offers the open gun cowling and wing root guns. The engine is not included in this kit, but otherwise the overall build-up is the same.

There was an anomaly. On assembling the fuselage, the parts seemed banana-shaped, with one side looking longer than the other. To overcome this potential disaster, I attached the rear fuselage first, allowing twelve hours drying time. The forward half could then be secured relatively easily. Thus is the banana eliminated.

If you've built a few of these before and know where the pitfalls lie in advance, it helps. It's well worth a few scares for the results.

"Red 19'

Instantly recognisable is Ernst Schroder's 'Kolle Alaaf' or ''Long Live Cologne'. This aircraft was lost while trying to evade several Mustangs during a bomber raid. Schroder luckily survived the war.

So much for the history lesson. This model was based on Eduard's FW 190 A8/R2 kit - a superbly detailed kit which is nevertheless a bit hung up on its BMW engine and weapons. It's designed to have everything on show via appropriate panels and an open cowling. I'd built it before, and it looks great displayed in this way as Eduard intended for the kit.

With this brief, I had been asked to keep the panels closed. It was not too problematic; I just needed to sand the detail off the wing root gun panels. But the fuselage gun cowling was different; The gun tray and bulkhead needed to be eliminated. The overwide fuselage then needed to be braced around the gun cover and carefully cyano'd into place. Finally, the instrument bezel had to be secured to something as the gun bulkhead was gone.

Once this little procedure had been performed, I was able to proceed with the rest of the build. It was a positive experience, and I was left with a model to be proud of and a feeling of accomplishment.

The base and accessories are from the VP product range, and I think they set off the model beautifully.