1:24 SPITFIRE I

The first production Spitfire

The Spitfire in its earliest form came to the squadrons in 1938 and in the summer of 1940 it formed the smaller but most closely watched part of the British fighter defense. The elliptical wing was no fashionable whim but a solution to fitting eight machine guns and the landing gear into a thin section while keeping the drag low. The early examples still flew with a two-blade wooden propeller, soon replaced by a metal variable-pitch one, because with it the machine climbed a third faster.

Against the later forms the cockpit has a lower superstructure and a flat windscreen with an armored pane added on before the war. The sliding section is blown out into a bulge to make room for the pilot's head, and its thin frames are exactly the kind of detail that cannot be done cleanly with a brush or with tape.

Precision against protecting by hand

The set deals with the glazing by means of a pair of shapes, one from the outside and one from the inside, and complements them with four parts for the national insignia. A circular marking is thus sprayed straight onto the surface and the risk disappears that the edge of a decal film will lift in time or catch the light under matte varnish.

• scale 1:24
• a pair of shapes for the glazing
• four parts for the national insignia
• decals are not included

Spray the domed sliding section separately from the rest of the model, mounted on a stick pushed into modeling putty. You gain access from every side and you will not have to protect the surrounding areas of the fuselage. It is sensible to spray the inner side first, before assembly, because once the canopy is glued to the fuselage you can no longer reach the space beneath it.