1:32 SPITFIRE Mk I

A machine from the Battle of Britain

The Mk I is the first production form of the Spitfire and the aircraft with which the squadrons entered the summer of 1940. Eight 7.7 mm machine guns in the wing, a Merlin without a two-stage supercharger, the elliptical wingtip in its original shape and a weight that the later versions never had again. It was precisely this lightness that gave the Mk I its reputation for exceptional agility.

The early and the late Mk I are not the same thing

Within this single version more changes took place than in some later types put together. The first examples flew with a two-blade wooden fixed-pitch propeller, soon replaced by a three-blade variable-pitch one and finally by a constant-speed unit. A tailwheel replaced the fixed tailskid, the landing gear doors were dropped and in the cockpit a ring-and-bead sight gave way to a reflector sight. For a modeler, though, one change above the pilot's head is decisive: the opening machines had a flat canopy that did not let a tall pilot turn his head comfortably, and only from 1939 was the domed shape introduced that everyone knows from photographs of the Battle of Britain. The division of the frames changed with it and so did the shape of the masks, so it is useful to know which phase of production the model represents.

Use

The pieces are laid on degreased, completely dry glazing. The double version allows the framing to be sprayed in the covering color from outside and in the interior shade from inside. The box supplements a kit and does not itself contain a model.

The eight gun ports in the leading edge and the delicate cockpit framing are among the things that set the Mk I apart from all the later versions, and both can be brought out precisely by a clean sprayed edge.