1:24 SPITFIRE I

The Mark I of the summer of nineteen forty

The Mk I carried prototype features far into series production: at first a two-blade wooden propeller of fixed pitch, a flat unbulged cockpit hood and eight machine guns of 7.7 millimeters in the wing. During the Battle of Britain the machines gradually received a variable-pitch propeller and a domed canopy, which finally allowed the pilot to turn his head. A modeler therefore has to decide which phase of the development he is building on the Mark I, and the shape of the glazing follows from that.

A sprayed marking against an applied one

National insignia in a large scale reach several centimeters in diameter. A decal of such an area has a carrier film that readily catches the light on a riveted surface and gives the outline away under sharp light. A mask gets around that problem: the paint lies directly on the finish, the circles are concentric and the surface texture under the marking stays legible.

The set holds

• covers for the cockpit glazing from both sides
• four masks for the national markings
• an accompanying sheet of decals

The proved procedure is to spray the lighter color of the circle first, mask it and only then add the darker ring. Anyone masking for the first time will appreciate that the parts can be put back after removal and a different order of shades tried.

The period the aircraft stands for

Before the Battle of Britain began, the squadrons received the Mark I in small batches and the machines differed from each other in several details at once. One still had a wooden propeller, another already a metal variable-pitch one, some of the aircraft flew with a protective plate behind the head and some without it. A builder therefore need not keep to a single form, but he should check the combination he has chosen against a photograph of a particular machine in advance, or he will easily end up mixing features from different months.

A kit of the aircraft is not part of the delivery.