Review by: Geoff Coughlin (December 2009)
Update: see two completed projects in Finished Now.
Julian Seddon’s Tamiya Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IXc 1:32
Dave Coward’s build straight from the box
Check out the IPR area where you can follow progress on BOTH of these major builds!
Oh my!…
Any release of the Supermarine Spitfire is going to attract attention and sales, and so with the announcement from Tamiya that they were going to give this most famous of aircraft their unique treatment, attention levels went through the roof! Well they did for nearly everyone I spoke to. And then first sight of sprues in the flesh came at the IPMS UK Scale ModelWorld at Telford and the levels of detail and precision (remember those ultra thin engine panels?) were astonishing.
It’s true to say that this new package from Tamiya genuinely appears to reach new levels of fineness and quality. My anticipation on opening the box that arrived from Graham at Relish Models in record quick time (Thanks Graham) reached almost fever pitch! (calm down Geoff, it’s only a commerc…. sorry).
ZOOM - Move your mouse over image
Back to earth… what’s in the box
We’ll take this stage by stage to build up the full picture for you. Umpteen sprues are what hit you – just so many immaculately and individually packaged for their protection. The box and contents arrived in perfect condition. The detail on all parts is sublime – fine recessed scribed detail that will look superb under paint and weathering. You can see here that wing underside – really delicate across the board. No flash of course, just precision tooled parts. The overall shape looks spot on and frankly, looking at the images of the completed model in the instruction book and individual parts Tamiya look to have done a great job on getting the overall shape and look just right.
The clear sprue containing the blown canopy, gun sight, instrument faces and clip-wing tips – clever as the navigation light is integral. The parts are crystal clear and thin.
A separate inner box contains the delicate parts like those amazing engine covers – how thin are they? And they even contain tiny magnets that will enable you to add and remove the covers at will to reveal the super-detailed Rolls Royce Merlin engine. The box contains many other items like metal strengthening and hinge rods for the main gear and to allow you a movable rudder – either the standard or pointed broad-chord rudders included. The usual screws, screwdriver and other metal parts are present. The etch fret is very neat including a lot of finely detailed parts for the cockpit – levers etc plus many other small parts.
Instruction Booklet
There’s a 36-page instruction book that explains perfectly how each item goes together and the construction sequence looks logical and practical. At every step you are made aware of the slight differences between the three aircraft options included in the kit. Perhaps one of the best features of this package is the full colour reference book. It may only have 15 pages but it’s a real gem in my opinion, giving plenty of walk around images of the key areas like the cockpit and that stunning Rolls Royce Merlin engine. Even the different wing / armament arrangements are explained and I for one am glad of that – always seems confusing to me with seemingly contradictory messages everywhere. Tamiya have at least taken the time to explain and illustrate that to me and I for one am very grateful.
Click on the thumbnails at the bottom of the page to view sample pages from the instruction book.
Then read on to find out about the Decals plus plenty more…
