As part of the China-Burma-India, and Western Front campaigns, I will be building a pair of Australian Spitfire Mk VIIIs, from Eduards 1/48 Aussie Eights Dual Combo.
This will be my (probably very), slow build log of these two aircraft.

Opened up on the bench.

The plan to stay organised is to build the CBI Spit on the right, and the ETO on the left. Plastic tubs will keep any sub-assemblies seperate, though I don't expect there will be a huge amount of those.

Since it's a dual combo, surprise surprise, you get two of everything:

Transparencies:


Fuselages


Wingy bits


Stickery outery bits


Flappy twitchy bits


Operator distraction panels


Bouncy ground touchers



Quality and detail looks pretty good. I did have some concerns over the transparencies, as there seem to be quite a few obvious distortions present, especially in the Malcolm hood. So as bit of a test I have placed it under some light next to a Special Hobby Canopy from a Spitfire V.

WARNING: LIMITED OR NO SCIENCE CONTENT IS CONTAINED WITHIN THE FOLLWING TESTS:
Two tests, one with light from almost directly above, and one with light from slighty off to one side.

From above:

With light from close to directly above(slightly left), the Eduard canopy shows significant shadowing due to refraction, whereas the Special Hobby canopy is showing more focusing of the light which would be expected from the shape of the canopy, indicating less imperfections (not none however).

From one side:

From slightly offset to the right, the Eduard canopy is starting to show more light focusing, and depending on the exact angle, improves significantly compared to its overhead results. This is not entirely surprising, as this angle provides light passage through the area of the canopy with the least amount of curvature.
All 4 Eduard Malcolm hoods(2 open, 2 closed), showed almost identical diffraction behaviour.

No real conclusions on my part, I simply though theses results were interesting, and as I stated, they are really almost entirely unscientific. Ultimately it won't make any difference to me, as the canopies will be posed open on both builds, so won't affect visibility into the cockpit.

Also roughly checked the alignment of the pre-coloured instrument panel pieces:



And alignment looks pretty good.

And on to the build!

First (and only thing so far really), is drilling some holes in the cockpit framework.



Would have preferred my 0.6mm bit as it would have been a better fit for the holes, but hamfisted me dropped and broke it.

Looks much better under a dab of primer.
Hopefully this week I will actually make a proper start on cockpit assembly.

Great choice of kit Iain!

Watching with interest!

Likewise, I'm following here Iain. Looking forward to your progress reports.

Cheers, D

So some actually assembly work has begun.
We start near the beginning ("Start at the Beginning"? what kind of seditious crazy talk is that?), with the cockpit.

I will be following the bulk instruction sequence, but not to the absolute letter.

I started by throwing some primer on the cockpit parts, black primer on one, and white on the other.




Two reasons for the differing primers:
1. Helps distinguish which cockpit is intended for which plane, though that's not a big issue as they will be physically identical
2. I plan to use this as an opportunity to experiment with different undercoats to see for myself how they affect the final colour.
Since both interiors will be done in the same final shade, I hope to provide visual variation at least in part, due to primer colour.







So far so good, no major issues after minor progress.

One issue on a couple of the small parts, is the presence of fairly prominent sink marks.



A little hard to see in the photo, but the will need filling. Two of these parts per cockpit, one on each side.

Had planned to put some paint on the cockpits and finish assembling them, but it turns out I don't have an appropriate shade.
The British bronze green I have is way too dark and the lifecolor interior green is too bright, more of a bright chromate green.
Will have try and pick up the right shade on the way home some time this week.

So finally got a hold of some semi appropriate paint and have carried on with assembly.

Colour used was Testor MM Interior green, mixed with a little white, and a little Humbrol 23 Duck Egg blue.

I started by painting most of the interior parts, and the inside of the bottom wing surface just in case.

Here you can see the difference in colour caused by the differing undercoats:





The rear of the cockpit, behind the pilots seat frame is painted in Alclad aluminium. I have seen pictures of a restored Spitfire that had this area unpainted, and thought it might provide a bit of visual interest through the window. I have no idea if wartime Spits were painted in this way or not.

From there I progressed with assembly of the cockpits.





Each of the three part, colour photoetch instrument panels was carefully assembled, though you can see on the top panel where I wasn't quite quick enough to get the middle 6 instrument portion fully aligned before the glue set.



There's also a tiny piece of photoetch for the compass. You get two per fret, I assume in case of loss.















And that is where we are at as of this post. Cockpits are ready to be inserted into the fuselages.

The fuselages are all buttoned up


The forward portion of the wing roots are separate parts, and the left hand hand side requires a 1mm hole to be drilled.
The right hand side of the fuselage, requires 2 1mm holes to be drilled at the very front.

For some reason the next step moves on to wing assembly before the fuselage is complete. So I have begun experimenting with figuring out if the colours I have are suitable, starting with the undersurface colour for India.
The instructions are all listed as Gunze which is too hard to get a hold of, and call for 370 - Azure Blue. I have is Lifecolor Sky Blue Azure, but I am not sure if this is too bright. I also have Lifecolor Sky Blue, which looks a lot more pale grey, and seems more appropriate for the Europe Spit.



Here you can see the Sky Blue Azure in the wheel well uppers, and a touch of the Sky Blue can be seen just at the right edge of the image on the wing inner.

The wings are where the assembly steps start to differ slightly between the two builds, so future pictures will be less mirror images.

Wing assembly in progress, subtle differences to start with, the Europe version gets a slight trim around the wheel well



More subtle differences in the wheel well walls




The wing uppers should be going on shortly.

There's about 15 parts in total just for the wheel well walls, but fit seems really good. Any seams visible at the moment should virtually disappear under a layer of paint.
The overall engineering of this kit seems really good so far. There are a few parts that I wonder why they couldn't have been combined into one, but the with the quality of the kit so far, the added complexity doesn't seem to be much of an issue at this stage.

Wing upper surfaces went on really easy, a quick swipe with some sandpaper should take care of any leading edge seam.

Test fitted the wings to the fuselage and had a moment of worry when neither wing would fit. Turns out it's just a really tight fit, and some careful squeezing and flexing got the two parts joined, and even without glue it's a pretty secure join.







Had a slight gap on one of the fuselages, unfortunately it looks like I didn't tape it securely enough while gluing, and the underside slipped out of alignment, so I will need to deal with that little issue somehow.

Progress continues with the expected pace.
I finally secured the wings with glue, and any obvious seams disappear leaving just fine panel lines


The detail on these kits is good, the variation in panel line or rivet density is quite obvious. I have a feeling some of the more delicate rivet detail may vanish under paint, but I think I ill lose a few anyway where I do need to do some seam removal on some other parts yet to be shown here.

After this I jumped ahead a bit in the instructions to provide a little visual differentiation between the two builds.

First off I installed the wing-tips:
CBI theatre extended tips


European theatre standard tips



The fit and alignment of the tips is good, a very slight tweaking to ensure proper fit and there was no gap to speak of and you would hardly know it was a separate piece







From there I moved on to the tail.
There were a couple of small bits that get added after the elevator assembly but before the rudder, and unfortunately I heard the dreaded 'ping-rattle-rattle', of a small part departing the tweezers and disappearing across the room.

So my European Spit has the indignity of a putty blob to fill in that small gap.


The little black part seen below is the piece that went missing part No.F52 or F53, with a touch of putty squeeze out from the other side


Rudder controls were added


And further visual differentiation in the completed rudders,
Europe on the left, India on the right

Working on the exhausts, 4 parts per side seems a little excessive to me





Primed them in black



Then sprayed as randomly as I could with Alclad Jet Exhaust followed immediately by Alclad Exhaust Manifold



I like the way they look at the moment, but they will get a bit more work done on them after final paint goes on the models.

Exhausts are installed and top engine cover panels are on.

There's a bit of a gap at the nose where the spinner attaches.even though it will be hidden by the spinner, I will still fill with putty and smooth it.

Getting very close to paint ready.

Just need to install the rear landing gear doors and the canopy, and mask.

The Euro spit needs a bit more work on the fuselage seam behind the cockpit.

I will deal with landing gear separately from the rest of the models. There's a bit of PE to go on them

Some sharp work, Iain. Love the way things are fitting together. After working on wing seams for the last couple days, I can appreciate Tamiya engineering.

I'm working on a kit moulded in Starodub, Russia. And shipped from the Ukraine.

Love the Spit with the pointy tips.

Gaz

Yeah the fit of these is really nice.
The front cowling and intake needed a bit of work on the seams, but everything else is pretty minor.
I did mess up and left out the clear pieces from the underside of the wings.
Unfortunately they get fitted from inside, so nothing I could do about it. Ended up using a few coats of microscale kristal klear to fill the gaps, should look good when painted in clear red and green.

I think these could easily go together in a couple of weekends without too much trouble.

So th India Spitfire doesn't have two of the underside lights, so the holes get some filler and sanding,



.

This will be my second time using Eduard masks, however the first time was on the Tamiya Quad Tractor, which were just basic flat rectangles.




I will also be using one of the spare canopies to experiment with some Parafilm M that I have had sitting in my tool box for years. I did play around a bit when I first got it but couldn't get it to adhere properly. This time I have followed some online advice regarding its application. My blade could have been a little sharper to trim it, but we shall see how this goes.



I am 90% sure I have put the rear transparency on backwards, but looking at it installed the other way just didn't seem right. It was glued pretty solid before I realised it was backwards so it's there to stay and I will have to live with it.



The cockpits are masked using tissues and Humbrol Maskol, so I think we are all ready for a coat of primer.

Painting has begun.

The resin wheels were primed in black and then masked using the Eduard supplied masks and touch of Tamiya tape around the edges



and then the hubs were sprayed Alclad Dark Aluminium.



Then priming the airframes:
Black with white shading for the Euro Spit




And white with black shading for the desert cam of the India spit


.

Hopefully I can get some paint on the India spit this weekend as the deadline for that campaign is approaching fast.

There are three options for wheels available for this kit, two in plastic and one in the resin.

The plastic come in both slick(on the left) and 'ring' tread.


Each plastic wheel consists of four parts, two tyre halves, and the front and back hubs. Front hubs again have two options.

The instructions only call for the resin wheels which are moulded with a full tread pattern, however the instructions do also use an image of the ring tread pattern in the undercarriage assembly, but don't indicate which of the plastic wheels and hub options, if any, might also be correct.
So the resin wheels it shall be. Care needs to be taken as the wheels do have specific sides they belong to due to the positioning of the rear hub. If you get the wrong tyre on the wrong side, the leftover casting attachment points will pointed up, instead of hidden touching the ground.

Paint is going on at last.

Underside is painted in Lifecolor, a mix of Sky Blue Azure with a touch of RAF Sky Grey to dull the brightness a tad.



Then masked up and a coat of Vallejo Model Air Middle Stone,



Once that has had a chance to dry properly I will mask for the second top colour.

I got it all masked up ready for second colour.



I used a product called Mask It, have had it sitting on my shelf for years but never got around to trying it



It's not bad, but doesn't deal very well with compound curves, and can take some persuasion and cutting to get to fit.

Started spraying Lifecolor Dark Earth, and thought something was odd, as colour didn't seem to be building up like I expected. Then shifted the light and realised it was a bit of a disaster, and I had massively over thinned the paint



Once it dried, I was able to mix up and shoot a better coat of colour



Unfortunately damage was done, and I will need to do a bit of touching up where the thin paint has managed to sneak under the masking.



Not the most successful first try of a new masking technique, but everything was down to operator error. Overall I am reasonably happy with the masking film. It does take a bit of work to get the pieces cut to shape, but for this model I used less than a third of a single sheet, and had I not over thinned the paint so badly I think it would have worked out really well.

Decals, and there are quite a few.
As far as roundels and squadron codes go it was pretty easy, but the stencils!!



So many and so small.

Applying the decals went surprisingly quickly even with so many to do.
The stencils need only the slightest dip in water and they come off the backing paper almost immediately.



Most of the stencilling is done on the underside of the aircraft so won't be seen in any great detail.

There are also a few on the prop and spinner



In comparison the squadron codes and fin flashes took a bit more of a soaking and some careful force before they would release. They also seem relatively thick, and even a good soaking in decal solvent doesn't seem to have done a lot.
Hopefully once the flat coat goes on they will look a bit better.

The CBI Spitfire is complete. Final coat of Testors Dullcote Lacquer.
Had issues getting a good gloss coat down before the decals, and a few of the decals show some silvering where they didn't adhere cleanly. I will probably go back later and just try and get some gloss cote underneath the silvering areas and retouch with flat after.

On close inspection it is also possible to see where I didn't quite smooth the top cowling seam.

Overall apart from a few areas to take care with I quite like these Eduard Spitfires.









Now it's time to look at getting some colour on to the other Spitfire from this kit.

Iain,
Your CBI Spit looks great! Love the colors! It really looks different with those elongated wings, too.

Thanks Gary. Yeah the colour and extended wingtips were part of the reason I chose this as one of the version to build.
Even though the kit is a pair of Mk VIIIs there are a enough options to make two aircraft with fairly obvious visual differences.
I think Eduard have done well with this combo.