Saturday, January 30, 2010

New Airfix Spitfire I?

Quite a few eyebrows were raised when Airfix announced their 2010 releases. First off who actually believed that we would see an injected Vickers Valiant from Airfix in 1/72? I am excited to see a new tooled Sabre, but disappointed that Airfix decided to repeat the hard winged F-86F/Sabre F.4 that Fujimi and Hobbycraft/Academy has previously kitted. (Just how happy would modelers across the world be if they instead has chosen the Korean War vintage F-86E/Sabre F.2 with the early slatted wing? Why, Airfix, why?) But maybe the oddest choice was a new tool Spitfire Mk.I. I know that 2010 is the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain, but the Airfix Spitfire I released in 1980 is by far the most accurate Spitfire yet injected in plastic. The shape is pretty close to perfect, even if the detail is a little sparse, and the kit sports raised panel lines. I just hope the new Spitfire will share the same excellent shape of its predecessor and add more detail. First indications do look good. See the exploded view at around 25 seconds into Airfix's latest promo video. As the gear legs and doors are modeled together, I expect his is the new 1/72 Spitfire Mk.I. Cockpit detail looks much nicer then the seat and floor only of the recent Spitfire IX.

2 comments:

David M. Knights said...

What is wrong with the Tamiya kit?

Bruce Archer said...

The Tamiya kit suffers from being too fat in the fuselage, the chord in the wings is too wide, the wheel wells and the oil cooler are elliptical not circular and it is short.