Warbirds | Spitfire Mk VII and C-Type Wing
Reviewed by Saso Knez
Warbirds productions is a one-man company based in England. It is a non typical cottage industry company. This is because of three reasons:
- The company is virtually unknown, and doesn't spend a lot of energy and money on advertising
- The subjects are almost all conversion sets for the Spitfire
- Warbirds excels in accuracy and quality far beyond the reach of all other cottage industry companies
Now to the Set
I was inspired to build an Mk VII ever since I read the chapter Dogfight in the Stratosphere in the book The Big Show by Pierre Closterman. Anyway that was a strictly an want to do subject and nowhere in my modeling plans.
Until I found Warbirds. The parcel in which the set came in was sturdy and had a lot of damping material to ensure that the parts came unharmed. And so they did. Apart for the parts Vasko also sent a few sheets of paper including instructions and some black and white profiles of Mk. VII Spitfires.
As said this is not the typical cottage industry. The set is tremendous in quantity. If it would have the fuselage then you would have the whole Spitfire. Anyway see the photo above and you will get an idea. The set is all cast and is in two medias: resin and white metal. The large majority of the set is in resin.
Some resin parts have the same colour as the Verlinden products and this leads me to believe that Warbirds is using the same brand of resin as Verlinden. I have tried to cut, sand, and saw the resin and to my great relief I found that this resin is not hard but it is quite soft. The large parts are also warpage free.
The most impressive parts are the wings and the nose, because of this items I would never ever built a Mk. VII. The wings are the 'C type style' the wing that was used on the most of post V.b marks. Anyway you get the wing and the extended tips for the Mk. VII this is normal since the Mk. VI had differently shaped tips and the wing is therefore supplied in both sets. Of course the wings are absolutely correct, but the thing that surprised me most was the level of detail. The panel lines are very delicate and correctly positioned.
The wheel bay is detailed and this is surprising since most conversion sets don't have any details. Well this one has it. Check the photo and see for yourself. The leading edge has some mold lines and along the edge and about 5mm back there is a multitude of micro-bubbles. This can easily be corrected by superglue. A nice surprise is that the set provides also the struts and the wheels.The two radiator cowls are provided separately. The wheels are excellent, but the struts are cast in white metal so because of the weight of the model I wouldn't use them (I don't want to see the Avenger story again). Anyway a tip to Warbirds is that they cast the struts in resin, but that probably isn't possible. The bulges on the cowling of the cannon are cast in white metal and are flawless so are the two cannon sleeves. You have to use the centre bottom of the Hasegawa wing.
Now to the nose. The brand new nose goes all the way to the panel which covers the fuel reservoir. No sense in repeating that this is also correct. You have to make one modification though, the air intake below the chin is the bigger type, you have to cut and clean this off then you can replace it with the correct one provided. The white metal exhaust stacks need to have the holes drilled into them.
The set provides the spinner and the propelor blades. Both out-of-the-box quality check the photo for the Rotol blades airfoil and shape. Simply great... I especially like the air scopes on the nose that have holes in it.
The rudder needs to have the trim tab 'trimmed off'. The horizontal tail fins are the correct version. The tail wheel is provided but one would search for a better solution. One neat thing is the white metal seat that replaces the awfully incorrect Hasegawa one.
This is about it in the set.
CONCLUSION
Warbirds is not a company it is a result of the hobby of Vasko Barbic. He is not influenced by the trends or modeling poles. And just because of that he's sets are so good. Remember that Vasko made the research for these sets off the real aircraft. Anyway he's love for the Spitfire is mirrored in he's sets and so be it. Personally I would like to see some details sets for the Spitfire in the future. Don't hesitate in purchasing one. I would like to thank Vasko for the set and for all he's help.
Recommended with no reservations.
© Saso Knez
This review was published on Saturday, July 02 2011; Last modified on Wednesday, May 18 2016