MAQUETTE À MONTER - Spitfire Mk.Vb 'Red Star' Hasegawa | No. 09308 | 1:48**LIKE NEW INSIDE UNOPENED**

Characteristics

Description

The Spitfire, which fought throughout the Second World War on all fronts,has long been widely regarded as a true masterpiece of fighter aircraft design. The origins of the Spitfire are to be found in a British Air Ministry order to the Supermarine company in 1934 for a new fighter, given the alphanumeric designation F.5/34, that would mount a standardized armament of eight 7.7mm machine guns. The resultant design, now redesignated F.37/34, was fitted with Rolls-Royce's new liquid-cooled Merlin engine, and the prototype made its maiden flight on March 5, 1936. Convinced of the strength and high capability of the design, the Air Ministry immediately placed orders for the design to be put into production, mounted with the Merlin II engine and designated the Mk.I.

The advent of the Air Ministry's decision to go ahead with full-scale production was proven just a few years later when the Spitfire, fighting valiantly alongside the Hawker Hurricane, was probably the single most decisive factor in securing a British victory in the Battle of Britain. In 1941, keeping pace of developments and improvements upon the excellent German Bf109F design, the British met the Nazi challenge with the Mk.V, which improved upon the already superlative performance of the Spitfire Mk.I. 

The Mk.V line was divided into three main types depending on the configuration of the main armament loadout, with the Mk.Va armed with eight 7.7mm machine guns, the Mk.Vb armed with two 20mm cannons and four 7.7mm machine guns, and the Mk.Vc, known as the "universal type", which was armed with the loadout configurations of either the Va or Vb models, or else with four 20mm cannons. 

The Mk.V was mounted with nine different Merlin engines during its production run, namely, the Merlin 45, 45M, 46, 50, 50A, 50M, 55, 55M or 56. Perhaps most famous Mk.V design mounted a Merlin 45M powerplant, a special air intake filter for tropical operations and blunt or squared off wingtips which improved the design's performance at lower altitudes. 

The Mk.V was the most widely produced Spitfire mark at 6,500 aircraft by September 1943, comprising over 40% of the overall Spitfire production total of 22,000. Besides service with the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces, the Spitfire also served with squadrons in the U.S., Mighty Eighth Air Force as well as with the air forces of Turkey, Egypt, post-war Italy and Portugal, among others. Interestingly, large numbers of red star-emblazoned Mk.V aircraft were also issued to the Soviet Air Force under Lend-Lease.

More to read about the KIT here, thanks to scalemates, a Belgian Scale modeling database and here, thanks to modelingmadness