Group Captain Clive R. Caldwell's personal aircraft
Always a subject I wanted on my shelf, G/C Caldwell is the leading RAAF ace with 27.5 victories (some sources say 28.5). When I decided to make 2013 a Spitfire year and July's challenge was a subject from "down under" necessity met opportunity.
The Subject
A58-464 is a Mk VIII delivered in the Desert Scheme of Dark Earth, Middlestone over Azure Blue. Upon receipt at 8 OTU in Australia it was repainted. In my search for the proper scheme I convinced myself that most in this batch of Mk VIII's were painted Foliage Green over RAAF Sky Blue. I've subsequently (after applying decals) discovered that possibly only the Middlestone was replaced by Foliage Green, making the scheme Dark Earth, Foliage Green over RAAF Sky Blue; so when I redo this scheme in the future, I'll get it right...whatever that scheme is.
This Mk VIII appears to be one of 3 (or 4) Mk VIII's with CRC codes flown by G/C Caldwell in 1944/1945.
The Model
I have a few of the older Hasegawa Mk VIII kits in the stash, but recently purchased the AZModel Mk VIII simply because it is supposed to be more accurate. It certainly is NOT as easy to build as Hasegawa, but I wanted to see if it really looks better.
The short answer: it does. The tail and nose looked balanced in length and overall it looks the part better than the Hasegawa kit...if sitting next to each other. If your Mk VIII's are all Hasegawa and don't sit next to more accurate late Merlin Spitfires, then it's a good choice, if you can find them.
Construction was straight forward with one exception: the wing tips. Why did AZModel choose to mold the wings with short span tips? It would certainly make a short span subject easier, but unfortunately I found the normal span tips to be thinner than the kit's wing, resulting in a step that required filling and sanding, losing a bunch of detail on the lower wing.
On the positive side, the canopy fit perfectly and all other construction was no harder than any other kit of a Spitfire.
I painted the kit using a mix of acrylics over Tamiya rattle can primer. The white trim is Humbrol, the Foliage Green is Model Master European I Green, and the RAAF Sky Blue is from Polly-Scale.
I used Master brass barrels for the guns, my first time trying them. At only about $6 per set, I think they are well worth it as they make a huge difference in appearance.
The decals are Propagteam, trimmed very close as the carrier covers the entire sheet. While the decals are thin, they readily broke apart, and are opaque resulting in a muted white with the green underneath showing through. The G/C badge was destroyed, I'll find a replacement eventually. I used some white to touch up the areas that tore, since most acrylic whites don't cover well, it actually turned out okay. The decals were expensive, but if you can find two sets cheap, douple them up and they'll look much better.
Summary
I'll do another one of these once I find some better decals. I will use the AZModel Mk VIII as the basis unless a better kit comes out, but I'll spend more time on those tips and hopefully not ruin as much detail.
Thanks for looking...
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