History Brief

The Mk VIII was the follow-up of the Mk VII without the pressurized cabin and differed little from it’s Mk VII sibling. All Mk VIII Spitfires were built solely by Supermarine. A few early production models had extended wingtips, but the majority had the standard version. There are three sub-variants; the LF Mk VIII for low altitude, the F Mk VIII for medium altitude and HF Mk VIII for high altitude. Each was powered respectively by the Merlin 66, Merlin 63 and Merlin 70 engines.

The Mk VIII served almost exclusively overseas in the Mediterranean, with both the Desert Air Force and the USAAF, in the Pacific with the Royal Australian Air Force and with the RAF in the China-Burma-India theater. After the Mk IX and Mk V, the Mk VIII was the third most numerous operational variant with 1,658 examples.

The kit is extremely well done with all the parts fitting together as they should. Revell even included chain to tie down cars and vinyl tubing to plumb all the hydraulic lines. The decal sheet has several new car window stickers that I thought was pretty neat.

There was very little to no flash on this kit, but the instructions were not very well done. Case in point – part #48, hydraulic line junction box. Instructions call for attaching two (2) to the underside of the frame. No problem there. The problem arise because there are twelve (12) of the part #48 and they’re not shown or mentioned anywhere in the instructions. You need to look at the box cover to discover the placement.

I have to mention that the completed kit is huge and will easily fit 6 cars and maybe even 8.

HOK white was used to paint the chassis and framing while HOK Galaxy grey was used for the ramps. I made the Crazy Auto Transport decals rather than using those supplied in the kit.

Summary

Academy apparently has teamed with Italeri to produce one of the first ‘Calliope Shermans’ to appear in some time. The M4A3 vehicle is produced by Academy, while the T-34 multiple rocket launcher looks like it is from Italeri, based on sprue shots of the rocket launcher parts. As with all of their AFV kits, Academy provides the builder with good value based on fewer parts without sacrificing a lot of detail.

Over the past few years, Master has established itself as a quality provider of turned-metal aftermarket details for ships, armor, and aircraft. Their latest set of new releases cover the F6F Hellcat, providing welcome metal details for three variants in three major scales. The detail set under review today covers the F6F-5 Hellcat’s late armament configuration, six covered .50 cal Browning barrels, in 1/72 scale.

Over the past few years, Master has established itself as a quality provider of turned-metal aftermarket details for ships, armor, and aircraft. Their latest set of new releases cover the F6F Hellcat, providing welcome metal details for three variants in three major scales. The detail set under review today covers the F6F Hellcat’s early armament configuration, six .50 cal Browning barrels with drilled cooling jackets visible, in 1/72 scale.