Czech Master Resin 1/72 Supermarine Spitfire
Mk. XII
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History
In early 1941 the Air Ministry ordered two Spitfires be fitted with
the new Rolls-Royce Griffon engine; the Griffon at this point had a single-stage,
mechanically driven supercharger. The planes so modified were designated
Mk. IV. The first of these, DP845, made its maiden flight on November
27, 1941; the second, DP851, first flew on August 8, 1942. About the time
of DP 845's advent the Spitfire designation system was changed and the
Mk.IV became the Mk. XX! Shortly thereafter – bureaucracy thrives
on complexity and confusion – the Mk. XX became the Mk. XII; and
stayed that way.
Only a hundred or so Mk. XIIs were built. They were essentially Mk.Vcs
with a redesigned nose and strengthened engine mounts. Early production
models had fixed tail wheels, later production had retractable tail wheels.
All the XIIs had the "clipped" Vc wing with the usual large engine coolant
radiator and small oil cooler underwing and were fitted with one 20mm
and two 7.7mm guns in each wing. An oddity is that the XIIs had no wingtip
running lights. The XIIs were fast and worked best at low altitude. Only
two squadrons, Nos. 41 and 91 used them starting in April and May, respectively,
of 1943. Both squadrons later converted to Mk. XIVs
The Kit
 CMR's
familiar resealable plastic bag contains:
46 parts cleanly cast in cream colored resin,
Four undercarriage parts cast in an extra strength white resin,
Two vac formed canopies,
Three A-4 size sheets of instructions,
A decal sheet and
A computer-generated color profile of one of the four decal options.
The kit provides for both the fixed and retractable tailwheel options
and optional five-spoke or smooth hub mainwheels. You also have the option
of having the pilot's flap-door open or closed.
Apart from the one-piece wings and tailplanes, engineering of the kit
is conventional. The parts are all straight, bubble-and-void-free and
are very crisp regarding detail. The trailing edges are all very thin.
The, virtually, text-free instructions in the form of exploded isometric
drawings, self instruct. The kit looks like an easy, straight forward
project to build right out-of-the-bag.
 All
four decal options are for planes of 41 Squadron, which are all in Dark
Green and Ocean Grey over Medium Sea Grey with Sky spinners, body bands
and unit codes. The decal sheet includes the myriad stencil markings characteristic
of Spitfires.
Conclusion
Built out-of-the-bag this kit will yield an outstanding model. What
more can be said for a kit?
By my count, this is CMR's 16th Spitfire/Seafire variant and each new
issue is better than the last. There are a lot of Spitfire/Seafire variants
left unkitted. I wonder if they'll do them all.
References
(See the review of CMR's Seafire FR. 47 in the April issue of this
magazine, availbale by clicking on ARCHIVES above.)
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