Spitfire Mk.V Gun Bays
for Airfix kit

Eduard BRASSIN, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Brad Fallen

Eduard's 1/48 BRASSIN Spitfire Vb Gun Bays are available online from Squadron.com

Airfix released its 1/48 Spitfire Mk.Vb kit in 2014 to wide acclaim.  Brett Green reviewed it here on Hyperscale and concluded that it was

an excellent kit…. Detail is very good, surface textures are crisp and restrained,and there is no reason to expect that it won’t be a straightforward build….Not only is it certainly Airfix’s best Spitfire kit to date, I would rate it the best Spitfire Mk.V currently available in any scale.

A wide range of aftermarket enhancements has since been produced for the kit.  Eduard has unsurprisingly led the way with at least ten products, including detail sets for the cockpit, landing flaps, wheels and the gun bays reviewed here.

It’s worth saying first up that this set isn’t for beginners.  Airfix moulded all of the gun access panels closed, so the first step in this conversion is to take a drill and scalpel to the kit’s beautiful upper wing halves.  Fortunately all of the panel lines you’re dealing with are straight, although you’ll have to negotiate the bulges on the wings to accommodate the Hispano cannon.

Surgery complete, you can then use Eduard’s resin and photo-etched brass parts to assemble the Browning and Hispano guns and their bays.  This will be a fiddly process that requires the photo-etched parts to be folded into rectangles and the gun breeches to be carefully removed from their pour blocks.  Take your time and all should be well, but some previous experience with resin and photo-etch will assure success.

Eduard provides resin replacements for the wing access panels that were removed, although I’d suggest these will work better as diorama accessories than snug fitting replacement parts.

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Thumbnail panels:

The resin parts are all perfectly cast, and attached to their pour stubs with small gates that should be easy to saw off.

The instructions are comprehensive and leave little room for error.  Colours are called out in Gunze paint numbers.

If you’re thinking about enhancing your Airfix Spitfire Mk.Vb, this set is definitely worth considering.  It will require concentration and some careful folding of photo-etch to assemble, but the results will be worth the effort.

Highly recommended to all but beginner modellers.

Reference

The Spitfire Site:  Variants and Technology – the Hispano Cannon

Thanks to Eduard for the samples and images.

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2017 by Brad Fallen
Except Blue Background CAD Images by Eduard
Page Created 4 April, 2017
Last updated 4 April, 2017

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