Supermarine Spitfire Mk.I In RAF Service 1936 To The Battle Of Britain

Supermarine Spitfire Mk.I with the RAF, 1936 to the Battle of Britain — Wingleader Photo Archive 1

This is a photographic book, not a kit and not a technical guide. This title is volume number 1 of the Wingleader Photo Archive series of the British publisher Wingleader, by the author Mark Postlethwaite. The series rests on large period photographs in a landscape album format, the text is limited to extended captions and color three-view profiles go with them; the publisher itself presents it as a present-day counterpart to the profile publications of the sixties.

The Spitfire Mk.I was the first production form of Mitchell's fighter. It flew in 1936, it was powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine and it carried eight machine guns in the wing. It is on the early machines that one can see how fast the aircraft changed: the two-blade fixed-pitch wooden propeller gave way to a three-blade variable-pitch one, the flat cockpit canopy to a domed one, and armored glass was placed in front of the pilot. Together with the Hurricane the Mk.I formed the mainstay of RAF Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain in 1940. For a modeler it is at the same time the most demanding period of the type, because the details differ from machine to machine.

What the book contains

• Large-format period and prewar photographs of Spitfire Mk.Is
• Extended captions to the photographs instead of continuous text
• Color three-view profiles of particular machines
• A landscape album format, a layout built on the image
• Author Mark Postlethwaite, publisher Wingleader

Who it is for

For modelers looking for period photographic support for the early Spitfires and for the markings of the years 1936 to 1940. This is a different line from the technical and modeling guides of Valiant Wings: here the carrier of the information is the photograph, not a technical drawing or an analysis of kits.

Check the extent, the arrangement and the language version on the box.