1/32nd Scale Spitfires...

[LSP_Ray]

I have seen the old original Revell Spit I's around pretty cheap. According to Scott Murphy's article here on LSP, he says it isn't too bad and has recessed panel lines all around. Of course Scott can make anything look great. #>

I know the new Revell Spit I/II is the Hasegawa Spit V with new wings. Is the new one that much better? Which do you guys recommend?

[jfgesquire]

There is an article here at LSP where Brian Cauchi built the two at the same time and basically had to scratch build everything on the Revell kit to bring it up to the accuracy of the Hasegawa kit, in his opinion.

 

http://www.largescaleplanes.com/articles/article.php?aid=550

 

Brian was very critical of the Revell kit with these types of sentences throughout:

 

The Revell model has a very sparse and inaccurate interior which was totally scrapped and The Revell canopy was obviously discarded and where even the basic element of contour is completely wrong

 

His statements may have a grain of truth to them, but it sounds like if the cherry is not on the EXACT top of his sundae, he won't eat it, but then he'll never tell you exactly why he didn't eat it - you have to guess. He must have jabbed his finger with the x-acto knife while working on the Revell kit for that review!

 

 

As for MY opinions and mini review of the two kits:

 

 

Revell: The only MAJOR problem with the Revell kit is the lack of the lower "gull" wing center section. The panel lines and rivets may not be in the right places, but I think they are some of the best of ANY kit (fine lines and barely there rivets opposite, say, Doyusha). It has a very basic engine, moveable surfaces, separate tail wheel, very good fabric detail, but open wheel wells and poor wheel/tire detail, some incorrect interior detail. The earlier editions were better as the later releases showed that the molds were getting old with some lost surface detail in spots.

 

Hasegawa: The new "A" wings are mostly beautiful. Something bothers me about the ailerons. The wheel wells are boxed in but too shallow. You may be able to sand and rescribe the fuselage, but you will never replicate the beautiful little rivets on the fuselage that they put in the lower wing center section. There is no engine.

 

To a person (not a modeler) who has a casual familiarity with Spitfires, built Out of Box, the old Revell kit has better "ooh and ahh" factor with moveable surfaces, retractable gear, beautiful surface detail, etc.

 

For anal retentive modelers who can't stand if a fuselage is 0.5mm too narrow, the landing gear retraction mechanism is toy like, the engine only vaguely resembles a Merlin, the "gull" isn't there (actually that one does bother me), and the wheel wells aren't boxed in, the Hasgegawa kit doesn't have any of these problems and really is more accurate.

 

Either kit can be improved with Warbirds stuff, and if you are not building them out of box, both would probably require equal work to acquire accurate detail.

 

 

So after all that, I really didn't recommend either one yet, did I?

 

I think the Hasegawa kit has as many flaws as the old Revell kit, but the good surface detail of the Revell kit doesn't outweigh the wrong center section. And if you are going to cut up the center section to install a Warbirds correction piece, you may as well super detail it.

 

Recommendation:

 

Out of Box:

 

If that center section bothers you, get the new Hasegawa/Revell kit. If it doesn't bother you, get the old Revell kit. It bothers me.

 

 

Detailed:

 

Probably the Hasegawa kit, even though both kits need fixing here and there, the Revell kit requires major surgery to fix the wing.

 

 

 

Hope this was what you were looking for.

 

 

 

To Brian Cauchi - Please don't be offended - I couldn't come close to the beautiful work you did on those two Spits., and I was only kidding about the cherry and the knife.

[LSP_Mike]

Is the IR Gleed fighter the new hase release? which box is the new one with the revellagawa kit? mike in calif

[Rob Colvin]

I finished one not to long ago (the modern revell Kit) spit 1. Anyway, couple things u will notice quick. As mentioned above you can scribe the fuselage to match the wings, although rivets well up to u. I tried that but, after the nose, forget it. I would have never finished it. Sheet up the rad and oil cooler. If u do not u can see through to the bottom of the upper wing. The cockpit is more like a Vb not a 1or 2. Although i left mine otb for shame i know LOL. Ahhh also mentioned above the ailerons and wing seem odd. Well they are. The wing tips are from the old hasegawa vb. Anyone remember scale trailing edeges?? The new wing is a sandwich type. Not so scale trailing edeges. This creates a contour issue. The tips being very thin, and u can sand them out of shape in a hurry, so careful. Now i am a little heavy handed in everything I do, perhaps it is just me. To add to that some of the detail in this area is raised. I scribed mine and sanded off the raised detail. Over all it is a pretty darn good kit. The basics are there for the super detailer, and for the average cat it will look good otb. I have seen both, and given the choice between the two, I would take the new revell/hasegawa kit vs the old kit. My take. Pics are up on this site, as well as ,the skywriters page. Good luck.

S!

[LSP_Ray]

Thanks guys, that is what I needed to know. I didn't get past Scott Murphy's article, I should have done more searching. I think I will look for a good deal on one of the new Revell/Hasegawa kits then.

[bcauchi]

I'm sorry if I offended anyone with my comments on the Revell spitfire/seafire. I tried putting forward the difficulties I encountered. I am by no means a rivet counter so much so I remove all the rivets when rescribing and sanding raised panel lines. Just joking here!!

 

However, what is definite is that the Revell model lacks the gull contour on the lower section which is a design feature in the aircraft and this in my book is unacceptable. The fuselage is to be honest nicer than the Hasegawa offering but it is too narrow and needs correction. The wings are pretty bad because they are eingneered not with accuracy in mind but to accommodate movable ailerons. Again to me this is unacceptable. It is so unacceptable to me that whenever I used the Revell kit, I only used the fuselage and the rest is Warbirds stuff since the replacement wings I had came with the centre section. I have to date built two, one converted to a VC and the other to a IX. in both cases only the fuselage was used. Most other details in the kit such as undercarriage, wheels which do not even come close to a spitfire's, cockpit and engine are really inaccurate and way off.

 

So now you decide. After all any write up, article or review is objective and depends on the person's opinion. You may or may not agree. As for the cherry on the cake, were I the type of person to try to find easy routes, I would not have build any of the models I have in fact completed since they all required major work. I have never given up on any model no matter how inaccurate the basic kit is and feel that with a lot of work, anything can be modified or made into an accurate and acceptable model.

[Tony O]

Brian,

being "a bit good at Spitfires",

what would you recommend I use as a donor kit to build a PRXIX? Ive already got Vasko's griffon nose conversion, but do i need to cross kit to get the right wings? I'm not to bothered about internal content as its ultimately for a museum display on the evolution of the Merlin/Griffon family and wont be subjected to too much close up scrutiny ( just as well really...)

 

as for giving up on a model..stripping down P-40 and starting again does display some distinct signs of an almost reckless regard for your own mental health!!

modelling in a mediterranean climate can have its dangers.

 

are you planning to show the british modelling 'intelligensia' how its done again at scalemodeltwirl this year?

 

cheers for any info on the PR19 kit.

Maybe Vasko do do a full resin griffon spitfire....

Tony Oliver

[bcauchi]

Hi Tony, I don't know what you got from Vasko but you need more than the nose for the PRXIX. You also need amongst other things the C or E wing depending on the variant you're building and the rudder. As I already said, if you are replacing the wings and nose you can go for the Revell BUT this also depends on what wings Vasko sends you.

 

The wings Vasko is producing nowadays require the underside centre section to be used and this is totally flat for the Revell spitfire so they won't mate properly. YOu chance it here. If the plastic is thick enough you may file away and produce the contour. I had done this when I first converted the seafire into the VC (BR108. see my article) However, his early wings also included the centre section and I used these again when I converted the last spits I built into the MkIX and VC. You can refer to my article and see the unpainted parts from Warbirds which include half the centre section atached to each wing. In this case I would definitely go for the Revell kit since you'll only be using the tailplanes and a part of the fuselage.

 

Hope the above is of some help. As for Telford, I'm afraid that's all you'll be seeing of me for a while anyway. I've given up building for competition as it was taking the pleasure out of the hobby. Once you're spending so much money to get there (and believe me it is a lot!!) I ended up building what I thought the judges wanted to see and most of the times not what I really wanted to build. The last time I participated with the He219 was a real eye opener and so that's it with competition. Apart from this, I've trouble with my daughter's health which does not allow me to leave home for long periods and be too far off so that's it for now.

 

However, the rest of the lads are planning to visit next year and there are a few unusual models planned.

[Tony O]

Hello Brian

thanks for the info on the 19. I'm planning on doing the later pressurised version and I have the tail, fuel pump bulges and three spoke wheels plus a vac canopy. So it seems that I need to get a hold of C wings from Vasko as well?

Could I use the Has V kit and save myself some money?

 

I know what you mean about telford, it all got a bit to 'rivetty' for me a few years ago and as you say a hobby is supposed to be a pressure relief valve for life.

I don't go anymore as its a 450 mile round trip to look at plastic models. When I can do so on the web from my desk there's little point.

I remember seeing the 219.....and being a bit impressed. As I used to run an IPMS SIG for nightfighters I always wanted to get in touch with you for an article. Anyway that went the way of all things helped by family problems and ill health, so i can understand your situation to leave Malta for any length of time.

When confronted with real life issues they put into perspective the sometimes petty trivialities that hang around this hobby.

cheers again

Tony

[bcauchi]

HI again, so you understand my situation Tony. Well sometimes we tend to take a hobby just a bit too seriously until you are confronted by a real problem which takes up all your attention and dedication. Then you come down into the real world and really use the hobby as a relief. So you gave up on Telford too!

 

As for the spitfire, of course you can use the Hase model. It's just a pity that you're throwing most of it out since it is the better and more expensive spit. But as I see you're all prepared for the job in hand. If I were you I would drop Vasko a line for some advice. He is the true spitfire master and will give you all the details.

 

Cheers

[Tony O]

Hi Brian,

all too well and in every case family and health comes first.

i hope alls well with your daughter, ill health was one of the reasons I had to fold the Nightfighter SIG. Unfortunately and with the wonder of hindsight , I didn't do this properly and a great deal of stress and other personal issues meant that it just fizzled out.

Unfortunately too at the time I had become disenchanted with the rigmarole of IPMS, dictating that SIG members had to be society members..er yeah just how do i attract new blood if they are outside of the hallowed portals to start with?

One or two dingdongs too many contributed to me walking away from what at the time was a still coherent society. Aparently it has since spiralled in a flat spin of insidious political infighting and looks in great danger of going straight in from 1000ft. Thre are a lot of people who don't deserve this for their years of effort.

 

On the face of it its a shame, but I also think its true that the reluctance of the society to embrace forward thinking and to accept that the internet will be its nemesis has done for it.

Anyway there's enough vitriol on other sites about the pros and cons of the society.

I think we concur that we as individuals can live without it and that your models at least are non the worse for being denied the flight from Malta every year! (and mine a bumpy ride down the M6, I bet my petrol costs outstrip your air ticket! petrol here is now £3.55 a gallon about $5.50 im not sure if you are Euro or Lira? but its too much at any rate..).

I met many decent folk and quite a few unsavoury characters also who I think, used the society as a vehicle for their personal advancement ( to where exactly only they know...).

Personally I've been away from modelling as a pastime for the past two years almost and have recently with reservations drifted back into it ( its cheaper than the pub every night). experiences with several modelling publications also soured my enjoyment and a hard lesson was learned that it is very nearly impossible to keep your hobby intact if you try and turn it into something more serious. I'm now wary of the publishing industry but at the same time it did serve to raise the standards of my illustration abilities.

 

Ive spoken to Vasko a few times in the past and always found him to be very knowledgeable and helpful, I just daren't spend any money on resin wings at this moment in time, or I might be living in the garden shed again...

Anyway cheers for the spit advice

Tony