1:48 Supermarine Spitfire roundels and fin flashes - EARLY

1:48 and the summer of 1940

With fighters, 1:48 is the most widespread scale, and the Spitfire has more variants in it than any other British type. The model is big enough for an open cockpit and an exposed gun bay, and it still fits into an ordinary display case. That is exactly why it is not worth making a compromise on the national insignia, which dominate the view of a finished piece more than any other detail.

The early machines flew in two-color upper camouflage and the underside went through several changes during 1940. At that time the circle on the side of the fuselage had a wide white ring and a yellow outer ring, while the upper surface of the wing carried the more sparing two-color version. For building the first production machines this pattern is the only correct one, and with the later variant the model would miss a whole period of the war.

Masking films have one more advantage over a decal that is not talked about much: they do not age. After years in a display case a decal yellows where the carrier membrane is and the edge starts to lift, whereas a sprayed insignia is part of the paint and behaves just like the rest of the surface.

The die-cut shapes are transferred straight from the backing. After spraying and removing the film it is enough to go over the surface with matte varnish and the insignia merges with its surroundings into a single plane with no visible transition.

The order of work is worth following too. The markings go on over dried camouflage and before the layering of shadows and dirt, because those are then laid over them and the whole surface ages at once. Anyone who adds the insignia at the very end gets a model that looks freshly resprayed even if it is otherwise nicely weathered.