BarracudaCals 72227: Spitfire Mk.VIII part 1

Units: See review

Price

  $10.95

Reviewer:

Scott Van Aken

Another aircraft that doesn't get a lot in the way of decals is the Mk.VIII Spitfire. Probably the main reason is that in comparison to other variants, not all that many were built. The aircraft was also not used in northwestern Europe, it being decided that these would all be send to 'secondary' fronts of the war. Hence you will find them in the southwest Pacific, the CBI, and the Mediterranean. These were areas where there was little opportunity for air to air combat so pilots of these planes were unable to rack up the scores one sees in continental Europe.

This is the first sheet and it carries a variety of aircraft camouflage schemes and markings. There is a decent list of available kits including those from Eduard, AZ models and Hasegawa. I have not seen the first two but the Hasegawa kit is quite nice. Below is a photo of that build and it duplicates the first offering on this sheet. Should you be wondering why this set of markings is on a sheet that has already been produced, there are several reasons. One is that the previous offering may well be quite difficult to find and, as in this case, the sheet will be over 15 years old. Second is that nothing is static. Over the years additional research may well have turned up differences in what we thought schemes were presented, so the newer the sheet, the more accurate the information.

Here is what is provided:  

Spitfire Mk. VIII, Serial JF349 HL-K 308th Fighter Squadron, 31st Fighter Group, 15th Air Force, USAAF. Pilot - CO of 308th FS. Flown by Lt. Leland P. Molland. Castel Volturno, Italy. February, 1944.

Spitfire MK. VIII, MT982 UM-C 152 Squadron RAF. SEAC. Flown by Warrant Officer Eric Clegg. Sinthe Airstrip, Burma, 1945

Spitfire Mk. VIII, A58-517 (RAF serial MT594) UP-F 79 Squadron RAAF. Flown by Flt. Lt. Norman Turnbull (surname legally changed in August to Smithells). Based at Morotai, Indonesia. Late Spring, 1945.

Spitfire Mk. VIII, JF476 QJ-D 92 Squadron RAF. Desert Air Force. Pilot unknown. Based at Taranto, Italy. September, 1943.

Spitfire Mk. VIII, JF835 UM-T 152 Squadron RAF. SEAC. Flown by Flying Officer Paul “Gus” Ardeline. Sinthe Airstrip, Burma, 1945

Instructions provide a lot of additional detail on each scheme. For instance, most of the camo schemes are very tight and the two 152 squadron planes may have had the panther on both sides, but that is unknown so extras are included just in case you wish to model them in that way. The decals themselves are superbly printed by Cartograf so you know they are the best. Note that I have darkened the sheet image a bit so you can more easily see the white bits.  This is a sheet that any 1/72 Sptifire fan should have on hand.

My thanks to BarracudaCals for the review set. You can get yours today at this link.

July 2016

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.