1:48 Supermarine Spitfire I-XVI Stencils

The small lettering that gives a Spitfire its scale

A machine in service was painted over with dozens of small instructions for the ground crew. By the filler necks stood what belonged in them and in what quantity, by the gun covers and the access doors stood bans on touching, on the wing ran a line marking out where it was allowed to walk, and on the fuselage the points for jacking and for slinging from a crane were marked. Without these details a model looks empty even with a perfect finish.

The span of versions the sheet takes in is a large one with the British fighter. From the first production batches with a two-blade propeller through the machines of the Battle of Britain and the versions proven at sea with a supercharged engine to the late examples with an American license-built power unit, a row of markings stayed the same or shifted only in detail, so a single sheet will cover a large part of the family.

What to do with it on a model

The lettering is applied onto a finished coat and markings, that is as the last layer before the final matting down. The printing is fine and at an ordinary glance merges into a suggested gray, exactly the way reality looks from a few paces away. Anyone building a machine with a worn wing root can lightly sand the edges once dry.

A procedure that has proved itself

Cut the marking out close to the edge of the print, dip it for a few seconds in lukewarm water and let it stand until the film begins to slide over the paper. Settle it with a brush, press the water out with a soft cloth and on a riveted area add a drop of softener. The dried surface then only needs to be covered with a matte coat.