The fuselage and wings are on this Eduard Spitfire, and it’s ready for the paint shop. I’m learning to enjoy Eduard’s Spitfire, after my initial dislike for it. I still am not enamored with some of its engineering, but I’ve found ways to work around some of it, and to live with others.
For this build, I used Barracuda’s resin cowl. I’ve also used Ultracast’s, and I think I prefer the Ultracast rendition. Both examples look great and fit nicely, and are an improvement over Eduard’s two-part cowling cover. However, Ultracast has their casting block attached to the front of the cowl, and Barracuda’s to the rear. That means you must be much more precise in how you cut and sand the Barracuda part. With the Ultracast part, you can line things up and sand them after applying the part, and make sure it’s even. With Barracuda’s, the part has to be sanded just right with test fitting before being applied. Yes, it’s a minor thing, a very minor thing. But it shows how planning is so critical. it’s not just a part. It is a part that will be used by a modeler.
This is also the first time I’ve actually successfully assembled the kit supplied exhausts. In my two previous builds of Eduard Spitfires, I used resin examples- Eduard and Ultracast, of which I prefer Ultracast.
In the previous builds, I simply could not get the kit exhausts assembled correctly. it’s a bit of a puzzle, and the diagrams did not really make it clear to me. On this kit, I decided I was going to figure it out. And I finally did. There was that “aha!” moment when I thought “how did I not see that before?” Again- this is why planning for how it is built is so critical. Precision engineering and finesse of casting mean little when any joy of building is stolen by poor planning.
But now I’ve figured it out. Still- the fact that they must be assembled into the fuselage ahead of time is just a bad decision in my opinion. Ultracast’s resin replacements show how it could have been done correctly, adding the exhausts after painting. Hopefully Eduard will take notice.
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