Great Britain

Pros

• Most accurate Spitfire I to date (including Tamiya)

• Good pilot figure

Cons

• No cockpit detail

• raised panel lines

Spitfire Vb (Airfix)

Very basic kit with raised panel lines.

Pros

• Same basic kit as Airfix MkIa

• Most accurate Spitfire V to date (including Tamiya)

• Good pilot figure

Cons

• No cockpit detail

• raised panel lines

Spitfire Vb (Italeri)

I allocated this kit to the parts box because of grievous shape inaccuracies. I suppose the same would go for their IXc. I kept the decals handy for a Malta machine.

Pros

• good cockpit

• Nice decals

Cons

• inaccurate wings

• missing wing root join line (very prominent on a Spit)

• weird fuselage section shape (inverted U instead of oval)

Spitfire VIII/IXc (Hasegawa)

Pros

• good overall accuracy, best injection molded VIII/IXc

• depending on boxing, comes with round and pointed rudders, short and long air intakes, pointed a or clipped wingtips, fixed or retractable tailwheel, short or long ailerons

Cons

• skinny propeller

• rear part of canopy is flush with fuselage which is wrong for an unpressurized cockpit (simple paint correction)

• air intakes under wing too thin

• wheel bumps on wings not appropriate for all versions

Spitfire VIII/IX c/e (Esoteric)

This is an appropriately named exotic kit I picked up on sale at my local hobby shop. A dozen of them sat for years at $50(!!)! and sold out when discounted to $10. I needed a IXe so I bought 2. Resin kit with a one piece fuselage with detailed sidewalls. The wing is also one piece with inserts for the gun bumps (early/late c or e type). The rest of the kit is resin and metal. Varied markings for VIII and IX's come on an Almark decal sheet (a bit faded in my boxes).

Pros

• Good variety of options to build any VIII/IX c wing version

• detailed cockpit

Cons

• slightly warped fuselage (overpronounced banana shape to compensate for propeller torque)

• gull wing effect of wing too pronounced (wing is arched when seen from front)

• some panel lines crooked

• crude metal parts, especially the 20mm cannon

Spitfire XIVc (Academy)

Pros

• Good cockpit

• Good details (prop, exhausts, guns, etc)

Cons

• fuselage and canopy too wide (it really shows if you compare the canopy with other kits)

• wrong shape for air intakes (they should perpendicular to the wing not the ground)

• the prominent bulge above the exhausts is too short. It should extend further towards the rear. I only noticed when I placed my just finished 18e next to it.

Spitfire XIV c/e (Fujimi)

I wanted to build YB/A of 17 Squadron in Singapore 1945 so I needed a XIVe. Fujimi issued a range of XIV/XIXC kits using the same base. It shows in the parts breakdown (ie the fuselage spine is separate to allow bubble versions), which is not a compliment. The wing is a compromise, you get a c wing with e bulges. The kit is also issued as a XIX, in which case the wing is totally off.

Pros

• Good level of detail

• Good choice of versions (too may actually)

Cons

• No cockpit detail, just a bare tub

• Complicated assembly

• e wing needs to be corrected (outside gun chutes and panels removed)

Spitfire XVIe (Heller)

This cheap kit ($5) is still the only Merlin bubbletop on the market. It has raised panel lines and is not too bad. The decals are bad, the code letters being bright green.

Pros

• Choice of subject: clipped e wing and bubble canopy

• OK cockpit

• fine raised detail (I know some modelers will rate this as disqualifying)

Cons

• Wing dihedral not pronounced enough (flat wings)

• Underwing radiators too deep (like in XIV). I cut them off, sanded 1.5 mm of and clued them back on.

• propeller too large 1mm for each blade and too wide (especially compared to the Hasegawa prop)

Spitfire 18e (MPM)

Short run plastic kit with finger sized sprue attachments, very lightly engraved panel lines, and epoxy hard plastic.

Pros

• Choice of subject (decals are for Squadron 32 in Palestine 1948)

• Good overall shape

• etched brass detail sheet

Cons

• Soft details

• Some parts badly molded

• propeller and exhaust are unusable (I replaced with parts from an Academy spare)

• Very thick trailing edges for wings, elevators, and rudder. Wings were thinned from inside before gluing together. Elevators were replaced by Academy Spit XIV spares. Rudder was thinned from outside

• Dihedral too pronounced

• Nose group angle too pronounced (hard to explain, Griffon Spits seen from the side have the spinner/prop drooping slightly from the fuselage) I used HQDecal's Arab-Israeli War decals for this 208 Squadron bird. They were impervious to MicroSet, Sol and Future and presented the worst case of silvering I have ever come across. I touched up as best as I could but the results are disappointing.

Spitfire 18e (Ventura)

I haven't studied the kit. It has the same markings as the MPM kit, no interior but is reputed to be very accurate

Spitfire 22 (Ventura)

I haven't studied the kit. It has no interior but is reputed to be very accurate.

• On the real machine, the canopy overlaps the rear fuselage. On 1/72 models the fuselage is usually narrower to accomodate the thickness of the plastic canopy. The Revell model misses this completely so the whole cockpit is located 3mm too far back. By the way the Sword kit has it like the real model since the vacuform canopy is thin enough to overlap the fuselage like the real thing. A picture is better than a thousand words. The overlap covers about 60% of the third window frame.

• Air intake is wrong shape.

• Wheels are too big, and so are the wheel wells.

Hurricane MkIIc (Academy)

I passed on the Academy Hurricane. I read in a SAM review that its fuselage is too thin. Another review in SMAKR also mentions this and generally marks the model as undersize by a scale foot (30cm) both length and wingspan.
Click here for the SMAKR review.

• The markings for Closterman's JF-E are for NV724 in July 1945. It is a postwar plane with "parade" markings. For a wartime version, use NV994 with the same markings without the kill markings, "Grand Charles", rudder crest and Lorraine cross. The spinner is black and the upper wing roundels should have the yellow outline (as seen on a period photo). Closterman shot 2 FW-190 D9's down on April 20 1945 with this plane. More details here