Eduard Spitfire XVI Dual Combo Limited Edition

The box is simply gorgeous : two Spitfires XVI to build ; the first one with a bubble canopy and the second one with the Malcolm Hood.

First, I’ve removed from the sprues all the parts that will not be used. There is lot of spare parts ; that can be useful…

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Canopy transparent parts are put in Klir, to give more brilliance. Cockpit interior is airbrushed with Gunze H312. I don’t use black as recommended by Eduard for the back of the seat, I prefer chocolate brown that as a base… Pébéo gloss varnish is then airbrushed, and a wash is done, with black oil paint from Abteilung 502. Then pastels are used to give more nuances in the paint. After the interior green, it’s the turn to the black paint to be worked with pastels… Then I have prepaired the instrument panels. It’s photoetched elements on a plastic base. As glue I have used… Tamiya Gloss Varnish! It’s enough to glue the different parts together and very useful because gloss varnish is needed to represent the glasses of the instruments… Visor is prepared too and other instrument And finally seatbelts are glued on the seat (that were also worked on with pastels). Cockpit interior is finished and built; then inserted in the half fuselages.

After having worked on the wheel bays, wings and ailerons are assembled and fuselage placed. Very few putty was needed. All the remaining parts to be used are removed from sprue.

Primer revealed some minor corrections to do with putty. That takes me lot of time ; not the fault to the kit but I worked very badly for that stage. Fortunately I finally obtained a good result and the work could be resumed.

Radiators are assembled and Nuln Oil wash (Citadel Colors) applied with paintbrush on the grids, then radiators are glued on the wings.

After primer, I airbrushed the light grey of the undersurfaces and Ocean Grey on the upper surfaces and the fuselage. After that I have used the camo masking sheet proposed by Eduard for « Bubble ». I remarked something that is annoying: the ziplock bag mentions it’s made for Eduard kit, but the instruction sheet speak about the Airfix kit! I have begun by the wings and had some adaptation problems that decided me to drop the process after the wings and to mask the fuselage with my personal method (Tamiya masking tape). Don’t know if I have received a “faulty” sheet or if it’s really for use for Airfix AND Eduard; but personnaly I’m a little bit disappointed. The idea is often very good… Dark Green was then airbrusehd and masks removed on both aircrafts. Paint was « chipped » and exhausts painted. Pébéo gloss varnish is then airbrusehd.

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I decided not to represent one of the decos proposed by Eduard for « Malcolm ». I owned the Syhart decal sheet for Belgian Spitfires (350 Sqn). I’ve set the Belgian cockades and codes, and I’ve begun to set the stencils. For « Bubble », I represented one of Eduard’s deco : GE+D from Raymond Lallemant. MicroSet and MicroSol were used. After the decals were dry, I washed the kits with clear water to remove any trace of Set and Sol then I airbrushed gloss varnish angain before to make a wash with Tamiya Panel Action Liner.

Finally I’ve airbrushed Pébéo matt varnish and finished the work with pastels.