1:72 Spitfire Mk. I/II in Polish service

Early Spitfires in Polish hands

Polish airmen reached Britain by a roundabout route through Romania and France, and by 1940 they already made up a numerous group of combat pilots. First they received Hurricanes, but soon after them came the Spitfires of the first two production versions. Machines with eight machine guns in the wings and a single-stage supercharger were agile and fast for their day, and the Polish squadrons flew a large part of the offensive operations over occupied France on them.

The scope of the markings

The sheet carries the code letters of the squadrons, the serial numbers of individual examples, British roundels and the Polish checkerboards that the airmen had painted below the cockpit. They are supplemented by personal emblems and technical lettering. The Mk. I and Mk. II versions differ in details that have to be taken into account when choosing a subject.

Where the subjects come from

Photographs of the early Polish Spitfires are almost exclusively in black and white, so the reading of some shades still differs to this day. The reference material for such sheets is created by comparing surviving photographs with contemporary unit reports, but at disputed points it pays to look into more than one source before you reach for the airbrush.

What to watch out for

The early Spitfires have a very broken-up surface around the exhausts and in front of the cockpit, so a thin film is hard to draw down here. Applying a drop of decal softener and letting the element dry undisturbed will help. On the undersurfaces, remember that in the first months of the war the schemes changed and the black-and-white division of the underside appears on only some of the machines.

An accessory, not a kit

The package holds a printed sheet. A plastic model of an early version of the Spitfire is a separate item.