Damn, I had written 80% of this post and accidentally closed the window and lost everything. Seems that when you use the Edit function, there is no autosave feature that saves a draft of the post as happens with replies. So, here we go again.......
There are just 4 sprues with this kit including the clear parts. Below is sprue B which contains mostly the fuselage. You can see right away that there are large sections left out of the fuselage sides indicating a potential future Mk V release. There are 4 inserts provided, 2 each side for either an open or closed canopy.
Surface detail is the usual high Tamiya standard and there is absolutely NO flash. Note the tiny sprue gate located at a point where it's least likely to mar the visible surface, a feature that Geo will appreciate. Note also the absence of a provision for the small bulge for the Coffman started featured on Mk IIs. This, along with a second prop option discussed later could have been an easy addition to allow the kit to include Mk II options.
This area of sprue B is interesting in that it shows both undercarriage legs to be moulded together as a single unit. There will be no fussing with angles to worry about symmetry here.
These are the fuselage inserts for the closed canopy option. Oddly, the crash bar is moulded into the door whereas, as you will see later, the kit provides two doors for the open position, one with the bar and one without. In my opinion, Tamiya should have moulded a separate crash bar that could be glued on as an option. Separate ones look more convincing anyway.
The clear parts are the usual high quality we've come to expect. The armoured windscreens are separate and should be entertaining to fasten to the forward canopy without hindering transparency.
This is sprue G (4 sprues, A, B, E, and G...go figure) which contains mostly the main wings.
The underside of the wing shows once again the clean details. The inspection hatches either side of the center line are accurately depicted, with only one on the port side and four on the starboard.
The exhausts are beautiful and feature realistic weld seams down the center. The sprue gates attach to points that will be hidden once the separate fish tails are glued in place. The only thing preventing full marks here is that the exhaust will need to be drilled out.
As mentioned earlier, only one prop and spinner option is provided. Though the correct Mk I de Havilland units are included, a Rotol option would have been nice.
The insides of the gear wells feature the recesses for the tires and these coincide with the bulges on the upper surfaces. The trailing edge of the wing is moulded into the upper halves which allows a sharp edge to be displayed. However, this comes at the price of having to deal with a seam in the flap, though I don't expect this to be much of an issue given Tamiya's typically outstanding fit.
Continued....