V.S. Spitfire Mk XVI Bubbletop 'Weekend Edition'

Construction
If you are not one for adding lots of detail, then the 'Weekend Edition' series from Eduard is just right, especially when the tooling is like their superb Spitfire series. In the box you get four sprues of a dark grey-coloured plastic and a single clear one. A number of parts are not needed for this version, as all kits from the Mk VII to the XVI shared common parts. The level of detail is excellent with no real need to go with the complexity of photo-etched, the moulded detail was fine to me and with a coat of Mr Surfacer Finishing 1500 (Black) followed by varying degrees of interior grey-green, the cockpit looked the part. I did add seat belts, as there are none in the kit, but these were 3D-printed decals and thus much easier to deal with. Building this kit is not onerous, just follow the instructions and take care of things like the parts numbers when you are building the wheel well linings on page 5 (I tend to mark the outside, which is not visible, with the part numbers using a CD/DVD marker pen, that way things don't get mixed up). About the only complex aspect was the assembly of the exhausts stacks, which whilst lovely and having hollow outlets, just don't have positive alignment with both the component parts and when fitting the units into the fuselage halves. It may just be me, but the fit seemed vague at best. Everything else pretty much clicked into place and once the painting stage was reached I had the bulk of the airframe with the undercarriage, propeller, outboard gun barrels (as these would be painted red) and main canopy (the windscreen was fixed in place for the painting stage). I used the closed access door (#L7) to block off the opening during the painting stage and masked the cockpit opening with some bits of an old foam scouring pad, as they are great to fill voids without exerting pressure on the parts inside.    

Colour & Markings
The kit options were OK, but as I said at the start I wanted to build one particular aircraft and that was possible thanks to the Lifelike sheet 48-007, which offered the markings for Mk XVI, RW396 of the Central Gunnery School at Leconfield in 1946-47. The aircraft was natural metal (more likely High Speed Silver paint) overall with red spinner and cannon barrel fairings. The model was first primed with Tamiya aerosol extra fine primer, then after any lumps, bumps and other imperfections were dealt with (and more primer applied) the overall scheme was achieved with Alclad 2 metallics. Different shades and some additional tones created by adding a drop of other lacquer paint to them (e.g. brown, grey etc.) meant that the overall scheme was not too uniform. A gloss coat is not really needed for the decaling stage, but I went with it just in case the Lifelike decals were a bit thick. They weren't and settled down without any problems, whilst all the stencils came from the Eduard kit decal sheet and these also behaved beautifully. Once all dry the model was sealed with another coat of gloss acrylic varnish. Once this had dried an oil wash of Burnt Umber and black was liberally applies, thinned with a little white spirit and once that had dried for about 30 minutes, the excess was wiped off in the direction of the airflow with clean kitchen towel. Other weathering included oil, fuel and grease stains done with suitable shades from the AK range and the exhaust staining (a little too heavy really, when compared with period images), was sprayed on using a mix of a rubber colour with a touch of red brown.
            
Final Details
The outer cannon barrel fairings and the propeller spinner were painted red (Tamiya, I think), while the propeller itself had already been painted black with yellow tips and the stencils from the kit decal sheet added. The completed propeller unit was added at the end along with the undercarriage, all painted and weather in similar manner to the airframe. The only addition was a whip antenna made from fine stretched sprue that was positioned in a pre-drilled hole along the dorsal spine, with this then painted black.

Conclusion
Yep, I really enjoyed the build and I at last have the old Heller kit subject in my collection. OK, I am not a great modeller, nor do I go a bundle of weathering, but I have a model that I like and one day I may even go further and do it in 1/32nd, although I think in that case I will go with my 'other' favourite for the Mk XVI 'Winston Churchill', the option that was in the old Matchbox 1/72nd scale kit!

Paints used
Alclad II
White Aluminium
Aqua Gloss (varnish)

Gunze Mr Hobby Aqueous Hobby Color acrylic:
Mr Surfacer 1000 Grey
Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 (Black)
Mr Levelling Thinner
H58 Interior Green

Tamiya Color acrylic:
X-1 Gloss Black
X-2 Gloss White
X-7 Gloss Red
X-22 Gloss Clear
X-23 Clear Blue
X-24 Clear Yellow
X-25 Clear Green
X-27 Clear Red
XF-64 Red Brown
XF-85 Rubber Black