1:72 Spitfire Mk.II dashboard for IBG

The Merlin XII and a cartridge start

The Spitfire Mk.II differed from its predecessor mainly in what it had under the cowling. The Merlin XII engine brought higher power and moved to a coolant mix of seventy percent water, but it started in an entirely different way: in place of an electric starter it got a cartridge system whose explosive charge spun the shaft with a single blow. Production was a novelty too: the aircraft were not built at Southampton but in the huge shadow factory at Castle Bromwich, which after the confusion of the first year got going enough for the Mk.II to reach the squadrons while the Battle of Britain was still on. A number of machines carried on the fuselage the name of a town or an association that had raised the money for them in a public subscription.

Instruments legible even at 1:72

At this scale an instrument panel tends to be just a flat area with a few dimples, which the modeler rescues with a decal or laborious painting. A printed panel deals with it differently: the instruments have real depth, the bezels stand above the surface and the dials are printed so finely that they will take even a look through a magnifier. Through the glazed canopy it is then visible that there is something in the cockpit.

Recommended procedure

First remove the relief of the original panel, so the new part seats over its whole area, and try sliding it dry between the fuselage sides. Only then glue it. It pays to suggest at least a rough texture on the cockpit sides, so the new part does not read as the only inhabited area in an empty fuselage. Because the panel has its printing finished, paint comes into play only on the surrounding cockpit parts.