Supermarine Spitfire LF Mk Vb / VIII / IXe “Sexy Spitfires”

Exito Decals, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by David Couche

HyperScale is proudly sponsored by Squadron.com

Who are Exito Decals I hear you ask? Exito, a Polish company, was founded in 2008 as an internet hobby shop. In 2010, they expanded by launching a brick and mortar store in Cracow, Poland, and soon achieved a strong position within the modelling market in Poland.

One of the goals of Exito was to launch a range of quality products under their own brand. For this purpose, they teamed up with renowned aviation illustrator, Mr. Janusz Swiatlon, who previously worked for such publishers as Classic/Chevron, Osprey, Kagero, Stratus/MMP and AK-Interactive, and is now will drawing profiles under the direction of an experienced decal researcher and book author, whose participation will allow us to offer you accurate decals and include original photos of the covered subjects, wherever possible.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 

Thumbnail panels:

Exito Decals entered the market in 2018 with two sets of German Bf 109 and Fw 190 decals available both in 1/48 and 1/72 scale. This year they have now released further sets including the Spitfire “sexy Spitfires” sets in both 1/48 and 1/72. My review sample is the 1/48 set.

The decal sheets are printed by industry leader, Cartograf of Italy, which ensures top printing quality and ease of application. These are complemented by instructions that differ from the plain market standard. What you get are essentially high quality posters with accurate and inspiring illustrations created by Janusz Swiatlon. Each subject is presented on an A4-sized sheet, with large side aircraft profiles printed on the front, and the remaining artwork, photos and all necessary information laid out on the rear side. This way you not only get some good decals for your model kit, but also attractive posters to adorn your man cave, at the same time!

The aircraft in this set are;

• Spitfire LF Mk.Vb (EN921), coded YO-A of No. 401 Sqn RCAF, flown by F/O Jack Sheppard, Redhill,  Staplehurst, Biggin Hill, UK, July-October 1943.

• Spitfire LF Mk.VIII (MT841), coded U of No. 2 Sqn RIAF, Kohat, British India, spring 1946.

• Spitfire LF Mk.IXe (TA864), coded LW-L of No. 318 (Gdanski) Sqn RAF, flown by P/O Zdzis?aw Uchwat, Risano near Udine, Italy, May-June 1945.

For the very first time, artwork and markings of MT841 are correctly reproduced in decal form.
A close examination show the decal to be really crisp and clear and printed in perfect register as you would expect from Cartograf.

This is a really nice set of decals from a newer manufacturer in Exito. I do like their ‘marketing’ using the poster within the instructions. I also applaud Exito for adding reference photos and clear detail notes for each of their schemes. I look forward to further releases from this company in future. As an avid Spitfire builder, one or more of these schemes will adorn my future builds.

Thanks to Exito Decals for the review sample

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2019 by David Couche
Page Created 24 June, 2019
Last Updated 26 June, 2019

Back to HyperScale Main Page

Back to Reviews Page