BarracudaCals 1/72 Spitfire Mk.VIII Part 1 Decals
By Matt Bittner
One of the best builds I've seen of a 1/72 Spitfire Mk.VII is one that was built by Roy Sutherland, owner of BarracudaCals. So it comes as no surprise that he should release decals for Spitfires in 1/72. His first release was for a set of Spitfire Mk.IXs and this time it's for a set of Mk.VIIIs.
While Eduard is developing their newest release into a Mk.VIII there are other options until then. There's the extremely nice but expensive CMR resin kit, the mostly-accurate Hasegawa kit and even better Mk.VIII from AZ Model (but requires a little bit more work) in injected plastic, so if you don't want to wait for Eduard – or have these already in the stash – then using these decals on those kits is definitely a viable option.
There are five Spitfire Mk.VIIIs covered in this release:
- Spitfire Mk.VIII, JF476, 82 Sqn, RAF, QJ-D, Taranto, Italy, 1943 (finished with Dark Earth/Middle Stone uppers and Azure Blue undersides)
- Spitfire Mk.VIII, JF835, 152 Sqn, SEAC, UM-T, Sinthe, Burma, 1945 (finished with Dark Green/Dark Earth uppers and Medium Sea Grey undersides)
- Spitfire Mk.VIII, MT982, 152 Sqn, SEAC, UM-C, Sinthe, Burma, 1945 (finished with Dark Green/Dark Earth uppers and Medium Sea Grey undersides)
- Spitfire Mk.VIII, A58-517, 79 Sqn, RAAF, UP-F, Morotai, Indonesia, 1945 (finished with Dark Green/Ocean Grey uppers and Medium Sea Grey undersides)
- Spitfire Mk.VIII, unknown, 308 FS, USAAF, HL-K, Castel Volturno, Italy, 1944 (finished with Dark Earth/Middle Stone uppers and Azure Blue undersides)
All but QJ-D had the standard wing tips; QJ-D appears to have the high-altitude, "pointy" wing tips. Decals are very well done and appear to be in register which is no surprise as they're printed by Cartograf.
So if you're looking for alternate schemes for your 1/72 Spitfire Mk.VIII definitely pick up this sheet. Huge thanks to BarracudaCals for sending the review sheet.