Eagle Editions 1/32 Corrected Oil cooler and Rotol Propeller

[benjaminsummerfield]

1/32 Corrected Oil cooler and Rotol Propeller
Eagle Editions
Catalogue# 70-32, 71-32
Available from Eagle Editions
Oil cooler $7.50, Rotol Propeller $19.75

 

 

 

 

 

A little bit of a special one for you all today, earlier this year we reviewed the new tool Revell 1/32 Spitfire IIa. Perhaps I was a little critical in my review of this kit but chief among my criticism was the fairly obvious over sight of not including the blunt Rotol Spinner that typified the Spit MkII and the early style oil cooler. At the time of my review, LSM's very own Jim Hatch was already well along into his build of this kit which was destined to be used for the latest "How to build" Book by ADH publishing, such an oversight as the wrong spinner certainly couldn't go unaddressed in such a book! After surveying his options Jim realised he had no choice but to take matters into his own hands, and now I present the results to you.

 

These upgrades have been brought to market by Eagle Editions Ltd (EE) which should immediately speak volumes about their quality, they are intended to complement their latest range of decals for the Revell kit reviewed here on LSM. Presented in fairly minimalist clear blister packs adorned with images of Jims finished model these relatively simple sets will have a big impact on the final appearance of your kit, let's start with the Rotol Spinner and propeller.

 

 

 

 

Rotol Spinner and prop blades #70-32

Among the distinguishing features of the Spit MkII the most immediately obvious was the blunt Rotol spinner and broad wooden jablo propeller blades, that said this also featured on many Mk1's and admittedly some MkII's had the pointier DeHavilland spinner. The new spinner was designed for Eagle Editions by LSM staff member Jeroen Peters who used his experience with CAD to design the part with the utmost accuracy, this was then 3D printed to ensure it would fit the kit perfectly.

 

 

 

The set consists of the spinner, separate back plate and three propeller blades. Interestingly EE have chosen to reproduce the spinner itself using 3D printing rather than resin casting, this means the detail will be perfect every time with no loss of definition as you may get over time with repeated casting. The spinner is reproduced in a creamy semi-transparent material which at first glance looks a little odd, 3D printing produces objects by layering material to form the shape and this results in a very slight ribbed effect to the surface, this will easily be smoothed out with some light sanding and to be fair EE allude to this in the instructions; a bonus of using 3D printing is a total lack of any flash!

 

 

 

The spinner really captures the bulbous look of the Rotol and features fine fastener detail and panel lining, the spinner backplate and prop blades however are cast the old fashioned way in fine grey resin. The wooden Jablo propeller blades are very nicely depicted and have virtually no flash or casting bubbles etc and feature a small peg to locate them correctly so the blades will have the right pitch.

 

 

 

A quick test fit revealed that the tubular lug inside the spinner (which is a by-product of the 3D printing process) interferes with the fit to the backplate slightly and will need paring down by a couple of mm.

 

 

 

The instructions are fairly minimal as construction is straight forward and pretty obvious, as I mentioned they do suggest a light sand to smooth the surface texture of the spinner and also to reduce the height of the circular plate on the tip of the spinner. They also give a nod to LSM's involvement in the development of the correction, something which is also proudly emblazoned on their website.

 

Corrected Oil cooler#71-32

 

Another obvious mistake Revell made with their Spitfire MkII was to give it a circular oil cooler as seen on the later Spitfire MkV, this was something that couldn't go unaddressed in a "How to build" book and Jereon's CAD skills where called upon again to correct this.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a really simple correction and actually much simpler than the multiple piece kit part Revell provide, consisting of just the oil cooler itself and a blanking plate to fill the recess on the kits wing, cast again in fine grey resin that is pretty much flawless with nicely recessed panel line detail; the semi-circular look of the real thing is captured perfectly. Instructions are again fairly simple but provide enough information to assist you.

 

 

 

 

Conclusion:
There we have it, two simple sets that easily address the main issues with the Revell kit in one fell swoop. You can be assured of their quality and accuracy as not only are they produced by Eagle Editions Ltd but also researched by the enthusiasts at LSM, it's great to see modellers themselves directly influencing companies and making sure new products are exactly what modellers want, I think we can expect more involvement from LSM in the future which can only be good news for the hobby.

 

Highly recommended.

 

My sincere thanks to Eagle Editions for the review samples seen here. To purchase directly, click the links in the article.

 

Ben Summerfield

 

 

[JeroenPeters]

Nice one Ben!

[GUY5Y]

Well done Ben Jeroen and Jim.

[judyc]

Hello Ben;

Thank you so very much for the fine review. Both Jim Hatch and Jeroen Peters worked very hard to get all the details correct. We are very proud of the end result.

Hannants has them for sale in the UK.

Cheers,

Judy

[Fran]

Great Ben! And a big thanks to Jeoren and Jim for this work! Having the Revell Spit these two sets are a must to have!

[Wingco57]

Fantastic Utterly Constructive not to mention Kool.

Nuff said

Cees

[JonathanReed]

That is SO Cool! Thank you fellas!