ITALERI 1:72 SPITFIRE MK.9

 

Reviewer: Trevor Boxall  (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:  16 February 2003

The Kit:

Inside the box are two sprues of quality looking light grey injection molded plastic with recessed panel lines and lovely surface detail that is trademark of new tooling technology from Italeri.  There are optional components included such as a choice of rudder, carby air intake and canopies.  There are about 50 plastic parts in all plus a single sprue with 8 clear parts which are nicely molded and of medium thickness.

Instructions:

Plainly they are standard Italeri fare with modelmaster paints quoted keyed to alphabetical labels used throughout the construction phase.  Brief history in multi lingual text and four four-view diagrams are other features along with a sprue diagram.  The assembly stage is covered comprehensively and is very straight forward to follow.

Construction:

The cockpit is where the assembly process starts and Italeri provide a reasonable amount of detail to include.  There is a seat and instrument panel which are both nicely molded along with the control column but no sidewall detail.  Everything fits well and can be installed easily into the fuselage halves.

These are then brought together without any problems.  The engine cowling did not fit very well and was rather a nuisance when trying to blend it into the fuselage surrounding, with filler and sanding.  The propeller sub assembly presented no difficulties, although it took a number of coats to get the spinner looking white enough to affix.  The lower cowling was also a poor fit, but a bit of trimming and coaxing it around, one can get it to fit quite well.

Typical breakdown of the main wings greets the modeller with an underwing and two upper halves.  The sub assembly goes well together but the fit on the fuselage is not as good as it should be requiring filler in the roots and more sanding to blend it into the fuselage.  I wondered whether the wing was fully accurate knowing Italeri have a habit of including previous molds in their range as common parts but it looks okay to me compared to photos.  It also appears to have been revised when I compared to my Italeri Vb kit, however, I should qualify this point by adding that it only occurred to me to compare the parts on the two kits after I had finished this one.  The old ticker box upstairs failed to recollect I had the Vb in my collection!

From here the rest of the construction process was pretty straight forward with the tailplanes, tailwheel, main undercarriage and so forth quickly assembled and affixed to the aircraft.  This is true except for the super charger intake which was a horrid fit and even after a liberal dose of filler and some fairly rigorous sanding sessions, you can spot the less than perfect attachment.  

The canopy parts fit well too, but I found that test fitting first and planning this part would be of some benefit, as the rear portion and windscreen seemed to be best added first and the main canopy squeezed between these two afterward.  

Versions:

The kit provides a choice of three options for markings, and the instructions provide three four-view diagrams for the colour schemes and markings of each, with a fourth diagram for common decal placements.  Squadrons represented are 126th, 329th and 602nd in this kit and all are finished in the standard Dark Green and Ocean Grey disruptive camouflage over Medium Grey undersides.  

Decals:

These are of typically Italeri high standards with excellent colour register and respond well to decal setting solutions.  The fuselage codes and stencils seemed to be a bit undersized and I was ready to get the spares out and make the model better, but when a photograph caught my eye I looked into it a little more and came out thinking that they are actually perfect to scale, and most other kits I have assembled probably aren’t.  

Accuracy:

Apart from the areas noted above which were poor fits the other downer of this kit was a few flaws that appear to be just laziness on Italeri’s part, either in researching or revising their tooling from previous marks of Spitfire kits.  I have the Mk Vb kit (and Trevor has written an Inbox review - Ed) and although I forgot to compare the two until this kit was finished, I am confident most of the parts are identical as are at least one of the sprues. The gun blisters look a little off for my liking, but they are still reasonably acceptable and the wings look okay for the mark, but they do have a hint of Mk V about them.  The tailplanes are obvious flaws, being far too rounded.  The front engine cowling area certainly looks like a Mk.V conception than one for this model.  Dimensions are certainly very acceptable with both length and span being within a millimetre of reference sources.

Overall:

Disappointing that such a new tooling kit can require so much filler and to be also fairly inaccurate in parts of the kit.  It is still a fairly reasonable project to whack together in spite of the faults, but I would only recommend it to those who don’t mind filling, sanding and a model that looks like a Spitfire but not necessarily the mark being depicted.

 

Note: the following related reviews links have not been updated since early 2000's - more kit reviews of this aircraft may now be on SMAKR, not reflected below.  Refer to the Index for other kits of this type.

Related Reviews:- 

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