Supermarine Spitfire F Mk 21 'Contraprop'
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See the in-box preview of this kit here.
Kit Review
The Mk 21 first took to the air shortly before the end of 1942 but it was not until July 1944 that the first production models were completed. They only reached operational service with No.91 Squadron in early April 1945 and due to the end of the war, production was halted with just 120 airframes having been built.
In the box you get four grey plastic sprues, one clear and a set of resin gun fairings, plus a nice set of decals printed by Aviprint containing three options. You get a set of instructions that also show you additional aftermarket items that can be purchased for this kit.
Construction
This starts with the cockpit comprising nine parts, which build into a well-detailed assembly. In the instructions they call for cockpit and sidewalls to be painted in either grey/green or black. I chose to go with black; actually I use a black/grey as I find this gives a better scale finish. Some of the sidewall detail was painted in a darker black-grey to give a contrast, which was then drybrushed with a light grey to act as highlights. Areas of worn paint were replicated using a silver pencil. This was then finished off with a black oil wash. The only thing I added in here was a set of Eduard’s fabric seat belts. The whole assembly is then ready to fit into the fuselage halves. I found I needed to trim the upper sides of the instrument panel (#C43) to ensure that both fuselage halves went together well. I also removed the alignment pins to aid in this process. It’s then on to the wing construction. Each wheel well is made up of four sidewall parts, which are sandwiched between the upper and lower wing halves. At this point the instruction tell you to attach the three clear light covers, I chose to use white glue (PVA) instead, to be replaced after painting. The rear of the lower wing (#B3) had to be trimmed to enable me to get a flush fit to the lower fuselage and I also needed to trim the side of the fuselage assembly where it joins with the wings. Care needs to be taken to ensure the correct dihedral is obtained. Both radiators were then assembled and fitted along with rudder, tailplane and air intake and as I wanted the cockpit access door open when finished, this was temporarily glued in place using a small amount of white glue (PVA). It is at this point I deviated from the instruction sequence by fitting the front and rear transparencies (#K2 and #K6) using Araldite Rapid. When dry they were masked using thin strips of Tamiya tape and some foam was inserted into the cockpit to mask the area ready for paint.
Colour Options
In the box you have three marking options, one camouflaged and two silver machines. I chose the rather eye catching No.41 Squadron machine which, when I did a bit of research, threw up more questions than answers, so I chose to just stick with Special Hobby painting instructions. To start with I gave the whole aircraft a coat of Halfords plastic grey primer, which was then given a quick rub down with some 8000 grade Micromesh ready for the Alclad. I used Aluminum (ALC101) overall and for the engine cowls, Chrome (ALC107), then once dry, a coat of Johnson's Klear was applied ready for the decals.
The decals worked well, although they came off the backing sheet very quickly, so don’t leave them too long or you will be chasing the smaller decals around the bowl! Once in place any trapped air was removed using a cotton bud and they were then given a coat of Micro Sol, to help them settle down into all the recessed detail. In the instruction there is no mention as to which decals go along the forward upper fuselage, so for this I used #14. There is also no mention as to the port and starboard upper wing stripes, so I went with #22 for the port and #21 for starboard. Both were cut roughly, prior to soaking, to fit the roundel and then trimmed with a scalpel once they were in position and before using the Micro Sol. For the fin flashes the instructions would have you put the red bar forward on the starboard side and blue forward on the port. I chose to ignore this and placed the red forward on both sides.
Final Details
At this point I remembered I needed to paint the windshield surround red, which would have been a lot easier before the decals were applied. For this I used Humbrol #153 Insignia Red, which was also used for the spinner. This done the whole aircraft got a second coat of Johnson's Klear. Once dry I firstly applied a wash to the panel lines using a mix of Winsor & Newton Payne's Grey and Burnt Sienna diluted with white sprits, any excess being cleaned away using a cotton bud and a soft cloth. A further wash of Burnt Sienna and Payne's Grey was applied to the outer edges of the roundels and to the wing root area. When I was happy and the oil wash was dry I gave the model one last coat of Johnson's Klear. I replaced the white glue light covers in the lower fuselage with fresh PVA, which was then painted using Tamiya clear acrylics, and then all the other remaining parts were fitted. Stretched sprue was used to make the aerial leads.
Conclusion
This is a very nice kit with very nice surface detail. You have to be prepared to do a bit of trimming of the parts to ensure a good fit but that said, I can highly recommend this kit to all but the complete novice.
Our thanks to Special Hobby (www.cmkkits.com) for the review sample.
Kit Review
The Mk 21 first took to the air shortly before the end of 1942 but it was not until July 1944 that the first production models were completed. They only reached operational service with No.91 Squadron in early April 1945 and due to the end of the war, production was halted with just 120 airframes having been built.
In the box you get four grey plastic sprues, one clear and a set of resin gun fairings, plus a nice set of decals printed by Aviprint containing three options. You get a set of instructions that also show you additional aftermarket items that can be purchased for this kit.
Construction
This starts with the cockpit comprising nine parts, which build into a well-detailed assembly. In the instructions they call for cockpit and sidewalls to be painted in either grey/green or black. I chose to go with black; actually I use a black/grey as I find this gives a better scale finish. Some of the sidewall detail was painted in a darker black-grey to give a contrast, which was then drybrushed with a light grey to act as highlights. Areas of worn paint were replicated using a silver pencil. This was then finished off with a black oil wash. The only thing I added in here was a set of Eduard’s fabric seat belts. The whole assembly is then ready to fit into the fuselage halves. I found I needed to trim the upper sides of the instrument panel (#C43) to ensure that both fuselage halves went together well. I also removed the alignment pins to aid in this process. It’s then on to the wing construction. Each wheel well is made up of four sidewall parts, which are sandwiched between the upper and lower wing halves. At this point the instruction tell you to attach the three clear light covers, I chose to use white glue (PVA) instead, to be replaced after painting. The rear of the lower wing (#B3) had to be trimmed to enable me to get a flush fit to the lower fuselage and I also needed to trim the side of the fuselage assembly where it joins with the wings. Care needs to be taken to ensure the correct dihedral is obtained. Both radiators were then assembled and fitted along with rudder, tailplane and air intake and as I wanted the cockpit access door open when finished, this was temporarily glued in place using a small amount of white glue (PVA). It is at this point I deviated from the instruction sequence by fitting the front and rear transparencies (#K2 and #K6) using Araldite Rapid. When dry they were masked using thin strips of Tamiya tape and some foam was inserted into the cockpit to mask the area ready for paint.
Colour Options
In the box you have three marking options, one camouflaged and two silver machines. I chose the rather eye catching No.41 Squadron machine which, when I did a bit of research, threw up more questions than answers, so I chose to just stick with Special Hobby painting instructions. To start with I gave the whole aircraft a coat of Halfords plastic grey primer, which was then given a quick rub down with some 8000 grade Micromesh ready for the Alclad. I used Aluminum (ALC101) overall and for the engine cowls, Chrome (ALC107), then once dry, a coat of Johnson's Klear was applied ready for the decals.
The decals worked well, although they came off the backing sheet very quickly, so don’t leave them too long or you will be chasing the smaller decals around the bowl! Once in place any trapped air was removed using a cotton bud and they were then given a coat of Micro Sol, to help them settle down into all the recessed detail. In the instruction there is no mention as to which decals go along the forward upper fuselage, so for this I used #14. There is also no mention as to the port and starboard upper wing stripes, so I went with #22 for the port and #21 for starboard. Both were cut roughly, prior to soaking, to fit the roundel and then trimmed with a scalpel once they were in position and before using the Micro Sol. For the fin flashes the instructions would have you put the red bar forward on the starboard side and blue forward on the port. I chose to ignore this and placed the red forward on both sides.
Final Details
At this point I remembered I needed to paint the windshield surround red, which would have been a lot easier before the decals were applied. For this I used Humbrol #153 Insignia Red, which was also used for the spinner. This done the whole aircraft got a second coat of Johnson's Klear. Once dry I firstly applied a wash to the panel lines using a mix of Winsor & Newton Payne's Grey and Burnt Sienna diluted with white sprits, any excess being cleaned away using a cotton bud and a soft cloth. A further wash of Burnt Sienna and Payne's Grey was applied to the outer edges of the roundels and to the wing root area. When I was happy and the oil wash was dry I gave the model one last coat of Johnson's Klear. I replaced the white glue light covers in the lower fuselage with fresh PVA, which was then painted using Tamiya clear acrylics, and then all the other remaining parts were fitted. Stretched sprue was used to make the aerial leads.
Conclusion
This is a very nice kit with very nice surface detail. You have to be prepared to do a bit of trimming of the parts to ensure a good fit but that said, I can highly recommend this kit to all but the complete novice.
Our thanks to Special Hobby (www.cmkkits.com) for the review sample.
