1:32 Spitfire MkIIa P7350

The modern display schemes of the famous Spitfire

The aircraft P7350 has survived to the present day as the only Spitfire that has combat service in 1940 behind it and yet still flies. It was built in the dispersed production near Birmingham, survived damage and postwar withdrawal, and since 1968 it has formed the core of a historic flight of the Royal Air Force. Its present-day name came about on 1 January 1969, and its home is the Coningsby airfield in Lincolnshire, from where it sets out on dozens of transits a year.

The period 2001 to 2009

This sheet captures the most recent stretch of the machine's operation. First it carried the fuselage codes of No. 603 Squadron from Edinburgh in three successive changes of the final letter, namely in the guises XT-D for the seasons 2001 to 2006, XT-W for the years 2006 to 2007 and XT-L for 2008. In 2009 it moved on to the marking QJ-K of No. 92 Squadron, and in the same year the scheme EB-G of No. 41 Squadron joined it, which the aircraft kept in the following seasons as well. It is precisely the alternation of the final letter in the Edinburgh trio that tends to be tricky for the builder, because the rest of the coat stays identical and the difference is in a single character behind the roundel.

Working with the sheet

The printing is done on a translucent backing film, so the individual elements are separated with scissors or a scalpel close around the color. After a short soak the artwork is allowed to slide off the paper onto the surface of the model and is seated with decal softener. It is sensible to stick the fuselage letters on last, when the rest of the coat is finished. The package contains the sheet alone; plastic parts and painting colors do not belong with it.