1:32 Spitfire Mk22-24

The Spitfire at the end of its development line

The Mk 22 and Mk 24 versions close the long road this type traveled from the slim machine of 1938. Under the cowling there no longer sat a Merlin engine but a bulkier Griffon with a five-blade or contra-rotating propeller, the tail surfaces had grown into an angular form and the airframe was given a strengthened wing with four cannon. They were delivered in production form only after the end of the war and most of them served with reserve squadrons; the last examples still took part in fighting at the beginning of the 1950s over the Malay Peninsula.

Why paint gave way after the war

The wartime two-color covering of the upper surfaces was meant to hide an aircraft standing on a grass field from the eye of a bomber crew. As soon as that threat disappeared, the opposite requirement prevailed. Peacetime flying means mainly training and collisions in the air, so it is valued that a machine should be seen; a large part of the postwar examples therefore carried a silver finish and prominent stripes. Where the scheme was kept, brown gave way to blue-gray and the boundary between the upper and the lower finish moved lower down the fuselage, so that the machine would not flash a light belly in a turn. The pattern of camouflage therefore did not change arbitrarily but each time according to where an observer was expected from.

Set contents

The package carries one glazing mask for the outer side and a pair of national insignia masks. The bubble cover of the late versions has small framing and a sprayed edge on it holds up sharper than a line drawn by hand. The insignia masks help even where there is polished metal underneath, on which a decal easily silvers.