Review by: Paul Kirsopp
The Aircraft…
Well I’m no expert on the Spitfire, so as it’s such a well known and researched aircraft with hundreds of books, articles, photographs and websites available, I’ll be brief.
The Vb was introduced in February 1941, 91 Squadron being the first to equip with the type. Introduced as a stop-gap at first, it became the second most numerous of the Spitfire line.
Powered by a Merlin 45, the type saw the introduction of metal covered elevators and the now reliable 20mm cannon although with only 60 rounds per gun. Eventually the type evolved into the Vc which introduced the ability to carry a varied gun/cannon layout as well as capacity to carry a 250 pound bomb under each wing, this became known as the E wing. The most common layout was 2 X 20mm with 120 rounds per gun and 4 X 303 machine guns.
Something to get you in the mood…
The Box
The box is a good strong affair with a picture on the top that shows the aircraft off very well.
The Kit
Inside it’s divided into two. The smaller end is holding the two clear sprues, the ‘rubber’ main tyres and a small etched fret, with the bulk of the box given over to the seven medium grey sprues.
There’s two places where some of the more delicate parts are wrapped in protective foam padding or bubble wrap. This is a nice touch.
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We have about 229 parts in grey, 23 clear, 9 etched and two ‘rubber’ parts as well as one large and one small decal sheets. The airframe is covered in rivets but under paint they shouldn’t be too bad.
At first it looked like the under wing roundels are misprinted, but this is just the cut outs for the cartridge ejector ports.
There’s the instruction sheet and one double sided colour sheet showing the choice of finishes.
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