The Supermarine Spitfire
Part 1 (Merlin Powered)
including the Seafire

by Richard A. Franks

Valiant Wings Publishing
Airframe & Miniature No.12 Second Edition

Reviewed by Graham Carter

This range of superb reference books need no introduction as they have become the go-to sources for modellers and those interested in specific aeroplanes since they first started to appear a few years ago. This second edition contains an expanded amount of information on the use of Spitfires by foreign forces , new kit builds and scheme illustrations, and an expanded living of kits and accessories released since the first edition in 2018. It is now a solid 272 page A4 tome, well bound with a glossy card cover and printed on quality glossy paper that allows excellent reproduction of images and drawings. While primarily aimed at the modeller, there is much to appeal to the historian and technically-minded person as well.

The cover has a nice bespoke drawing of an RAAF Mark Vc intercepting a ‘Sally’ near Darwin by Jerry Boucher.

Inside we find a Preface of over fifty pages tracing the lineage, development, RAF and Commonwealth usage and by foreign forces, all illustrated with masses of useful photos. This is followed by four sections covering the evolution of each series - Marks I to V, VI to IX/XVI, the photo-recon versions and then the Seafires. Again there are photos and side profiles to show the developments of each variant.

There follows a large section on the Camouflage and Markings carried on these different airframes and what a wonderful variety there are, all illustrated by Richard Caruana in full colour. The sixth chapter list of all of the available kits in all scales from 1/144 through to 1/24, after which are three builds of an AIrfix 1/72 Mk II ( Libor Jeki), Eduard’s Mk I in 1/48th( Steve A Evans) and Tamiya’s 1/32 Mk IXc ( Dani Zamabide). All of this builders are well known for the quality of their modelling and their clear photos and explanations of how they produce their models are worth a detailed read.

The next section is a huge one showing in isometric drawings by Wojciech Sankowski the differences between all the different variants. These annotated sketches are invaluable to the modeller although I occasionally think that it would have been useful to have had some undersurface drawings as well. There are two and a half pages alone to show the prototype as it evolved. 

The ‘In Detail’ section occupies 61 pages and give the reader an enormous number of colour and B&W photos from modern and contemporary sources, along with technical manual drawings and excellent notes. This is really a highlight of this and other volumes in the series and provides an invaluable source of information for the interested technophile or the super-detailer. 

Finally, there are four appendices covering, in alphabetic lists by scale, all of the kits that have been available, Accessories (nine pages of four columns of close print!!), decals ( three solid pages) and a two-page bibliography. The work that has gone into compiling the lists is quite astounding. 

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The volume concludes with a fold-out double-sided eight-page set of 1/48 scale drawings - sixteen pages in all - showing side and upper and lower views of a large number of variants.

This really is an exceptionally useful volume that should be in every Spitfire/Seafire modeller’s library, regardless of which scale one works in, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Thanks to Valiant Wings Publishing for the sample.

Review Copyright © 2019 by Graham Carter
This Page Created on 18 March, 2021
Last updated 18 March, 2021

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