1:32 Spitfire XVI

The Sixteen with an engine from America

The designation Mk XVI went to the Spitfire that differed from its Mk IX sibling in a single essential thing: under the cowling it had a Merlin built under license in the United States. It was produced from the autumn of 1944, many airframes had clipped wings for better handling near the ground and later batches received a cut-down rear fuselage with a teardrop canopy. It was flown mainly against ground targets and against the flying bombs launched at England.

When the main danger is your own side

The camouflage of the upper surfaces settled on dark green with gray on these machines and the underside lightened to gray; that is the predictable part. More interesting is what was added to the scheme. A light band ran behind the cockpit, the tip of the propeller spinner carried the same color, the leading edges of the wings received yellow strips and before the landing in Normandy broad black and white stripes appeared around the fuselage and the wings. All these elements work against the sense of camouflage, because on the contrary they make the machine stand out. The reason was simple: over a crowded sky and one's own anti-aircraft defenses, mistaken identity caused greater losses than enemy fighters. A scheme therefore always balances two conflicting needs.

What the set is good for

Inside wait two parts for the cockpit canopy, one for the view from outside and the other for the inner framing, and along with them three insignia masks. The British cockade has several concentric fields and its margins must be perfectly circular, otherwise the model suffers at first glance.