Naši se vracejí
Quattro Combo
Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IXC/E

Eduard, 1/144 scale

Reviewed by Mark Davies

Eduard’s 1/144 Naši se vracejí Quattro Combo is available online from Squadron.com

The Supermarine Spitfire really needs no introduction. This 1/144 scale release from Eduard is titled “Our Return” in Czech (according to Google Translate), but perhaps “The Boys are Back”, as used on Modelimex’s website, is more colloquial. The boxing is dedicated to Spitfires Mk IXc & IXe flown by Czechoslovak pilots in the RAF and the post-war fledgling Czechoslovakian air force.

Previous 1/144 Spitfire Mk.IX Kits

I do not have a wide knowledge of 1/144 kits, but I think Eduard was the first to release an injected kit of a Spitfire Mk IX in this scale, the same tooling featured here being released in 2012. Eduard’s kit has also been re-boxed with conversion parts to make a twin-seat T.9 by Retro Wings. The only other late Merlin-powered Spitfire I know of in this scale is a rather clunky-looking resin offering from Petersplanes depicting a Mk.VIII.

Contents

The parts come in a side-opening box with photographic artwork on the front and colour profiles on the rear. The eight airframe sprues are enclosed in a resealable cellophane bag, whilst the four clear canopy parts come in their own resealable polythene bag. The decals and paint-mask are enclosed within the same resealable cellophane bag as the instructions.

Instructions

The instructions are a glossy colour printed booklet of the same quality and style as those found in Eduard’s Profipack editions. They include a parts map and have very clear and easy to follow drawings. Other than a Czech-text aircraft history, English is used throughout.

Paint colours are cross-referenced to Gunze’s Aqueous and Mr. Color paint ranges (which Eduard stocks and sells on-line), and detail colour call-outs are provided throughout. 

The Kits

As they are almost identical, I shall use the singular “kit” when describing the four kits.

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However, one sprue features fuselage halves with the early rounded rudder, the other three being the later pointed style. There are also two sprues each of different wing styles, these being a C-wing with standard tips, and a clipped-tip E-wing.

The sprue with the early rounded rudder includes a choice of exhausts and four or five-spoke wheels. Where applicable, the instructions direct the removal of the torque links from the main undercarriage legs.

My first impression of the sprues was that the kit is simply exquisite; so much so I briefly suffered a lapse in faith to the One True Scale and considered building one! The scale finesse in terms of surface detail and small parts like exhausts and undercarriage is as good as I have seen in this scale, and is at least the equal of kits by Sweet or Platz.
To be fair to these two Japanese brands, they do usually include a cockpit interior with their fighters, which Eduard has not done for this kit; although it would be barely noticeable, so small is the model. However, Eduard knocks the ball out of the park, albeit at extra cost, with a colour PE set providing cockpit details that a 1/72 Spitfire would be proud to have.

The single-piece the clear canopy is commendably thin, and a nice touch is the inclusion of canopy masks, sufficient for all four kits.

The canopy is unsuitable for cutting into sections for an open cockpit; something that installing the aftermarket PE interior would demand to make it worthwhile. Fortunately, Brengun make a vac-form canopy for this kit, along with a PE & resin cockpit detail set that I reviewed here on HyperScale in April 2103.

Of course, a kit of a Spitfire Mk IX can equally well represent a Mk XVI, and it would also be a fairly easy matter to convert the kit to a Mk.VIII by modifying the tail wheel to the retractable type. So there are plenty of possibilities for this tooling.

The kit is straightforward and very well engineered, with crisply moulded parts and very fine sprue gates.  Assembly should a breeze.

Marking Options

The decals look to be of superb quality.

The kit has eight colour scheme options:

• LF Mk.IXc, MJ291, F/O Otto Smik, No 312 Sqn, Mendlesham, early 1944;

• LF Mk.IXc, MJ931, F/O Ladislav Svetlik, No 312 Sqn, January-June, 1944

• H F Mk.IXc, ML171, W/Cdr Tomas Vbiral, No 312 Sqn, North Weald, September 1944;

• LF Mk.IXc, MJ449, F/Lt Frantisek Truhlar, No 312 Sqn, Appledram, June 1944;

• LF Mk.IXe, SL628, pplk. Jaroslav Hlado, Praha-Ruzyne airfield August 13th 1945;

• LF Mk.IXe, TE527, skpt. Hugo Nrbacek, CO of No 312 Sqn, Praha-Ruzyne airfield, August 13th 1945;

• LF Mk.IXe, Te554, Air Regiment 10,  Praha-Ruzyne airfield, spring 1946;

• LF Mk.IXe, Te515, CO Flight of 2nd Air Division, June-December 1948.

Eduard’s Spitfire Mk IX kits are a testament to just how refined 1/144 scale kits can be, and quite possibly the best example of this that I have seen in this scale.

Whilst the limits of injection moulding inevitably mean that some details will be over-scale, Eduard has managed to convey such a high degree of finesse that the eye is deceived where a micrometer would reveal this fact.

I cannot recommend this quartet of miniature Spitfires highly enough.

Thanks to Eduard for the sample

Review Text Copyright © 2016 by Mark Davies
Page Created 18 February, 2016
Last updated 18 February, 2016

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