Construction covered in eleven stages…
The kit offers quite a high level of detail, including a full engine as well as a well appointed cockpit.
The parts are well-moulded and, as you would expect with a new kit, no flash.
OK, the bad news: I’m no expert on the Spitfire but HobbyBoss, for some strange reason, have made the tailplanes with one side covered in rivets and the other side fabric covered!
I stand to be corrected, but as far as I know no Spitfire was ever built with the tail planes covered in fabric; it always being of all metal construction. I’ve been through every book I have on the subject and I’ve been on the Internet and I’m 99.9% sure that the kit is wrong and that both sides of the tail plane were metal covered. Control surfaces – yes; wings – no.
Unless any of you have a picture that proves me wrong and drawings don’t count (I’m building a barricade now!)
The strangeness continues with the flaps. The upper wing has the ribs you would expect, but the flaps themselves are just plain flat plastic. Not a great problem as unless the aircraft was landing or being serviced the flaps were usually up. Some squadrons even made pilots pay a fine for leaving them down.
All the control surfaces are separate but they seem to have a slightly flat face so there may be trouble placing them in any position other than neutral; time will tell. The gun-bay covers are moulded in clear plastic and again the instructions show them as being fitted in the closed position even though the gun bays are well detailed. Weird.
Now the good news.
As I’ve said, the kit is well detailed. The cockpit is made up from no less than 42 parts, the engine is another 32 including the bearers and bulkhead, the tail wheel assembly is made from no less than 7 parts. They’ve even remembered the operating arm for the flaps which pops out the upper wing when the flaps are lowered. They then go and ‘forget’ the Rolls Royce legend on the rocker covers, though this maybe a copyright issue?
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