1:32 Spitfire Mk.VIII Updated (for Tamiya kit)

A Spitfire for the tropics and the South Pacific

The eighth version came about as a thoroughly strengthened airframe for Merlin engines of the 60 and 70 series. It received a retractable tailwheel, more fuel in the leading edge of the wing and more effective cooling. Over Britain it hardly appeared at all, but it dominated the Mediterranean, Burma and the sky over northern Australia, where squadrons of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) flew it. Pilots praised it for handling more pleasantly than the older variants and for taking long flights over the sea without trouble.

The set in brief

The package offers a newer treatment of the interior details for this type. Besides the front panel with its gauges it brings the side walls with their cocks and levers, the seat and the restraint belts. The drawing respects the British layout of the instruments, which differs conspicuously from German and American practice in the arrangement of the basic six instruments.

Procedure and compatibility

The parts are cut to the Tamiya kit, which is bought separately. First try the position of each piece dry and only then take the backing paper off. The smallest pieces are more comfortable to transfer on the tip of a dampened brush than with tweezers, which flick them away easily.

On British machines the cabin tends to be clearly visible through a canopy pushed back, so the time given to an interior comes back on the very first photograph of a finished model.

Australian squadrons moreover often taxied with the canopy pushed back because of the tropical heat, so unusually many photographs of the day revealing the inside of the cabin exist and there is something to go by.