Spitfire Mk.VIII Gun Bays
for Eduard 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

Eduard’s 1/48 Spitfire Mk.VIII builds into a beautiful model straight out of the box. 

With little room for improvement of the plastic parts, Eduard has focused its subsequent Brassin upgrades on areas that will either be highly visible – like the cockpit – or weren’t tackled by the kit, such as the engine and the gun bay set being examined here. 

When photographing the resin parts I was struck by how similar the gun bays were their equivalents in the 1/48 Brassin Spitfire Mk.XVI set.  A little research prompted my memory:  the bays in ‘C’ wing-equipped Spitfires, such as the Mk.VIII, were almost identical to those in the ‘E’ winged Mk.XVI.  Only the type and location of weapons was different. ‘E’ wing Spitfires usually carried a 20mm Hispano cannon in the outer part of the bay and a .50 caliber M2 Browning machine gun in the inner bay.  In contrast, earlier ‘C’ wing aircraft typically carried the cannon in the inner bay and two .303 Browning machine guns in individual ports in the outer wing. 

This latter arrangement is replicated in Eduard’s Brassin parts for the Mk.VIII.  Construction proceeds as per the Mk.XVI set:  modify the kit’s upper wing halves by cutting away the moulded gun bay covers, and tidy up the Brassin bay structures by removing the waste resin.  The bays are then built as units with a combination of resin and photo-etched parts before being glued to the underneath of the upper wings.  Once you’ve done this, make sure you test how the upper and lower wing halves fit together before committing yourself to glue. 

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The accompanying double-sided instruction sheet presents the assembly steps clearly and logically.  Gunze-Sangyo paint numbers are used for colour call-outs throughout.

This is another straightforward Spitfire gun bay set from Eduard.  It looks relatively easy to build and install and will add a dash of extra detail to what’s already an excellent kit.  Highly recommended.

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 20 June, 2017
Last updated 21 June, 2017

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