COBI Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IXe Set 5764

COBI's Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IXe is a 1:32 model built from 364 blocks, 28 cm long with a 35 cm wingspan, in desert camouflage with Mary Rose printed on the side. The wheels and ailerons move and the canopy opens for the included pilot figure, supplied with two headpieces — a forage cap and a brown flying helmet. A collector's stand with a clear pin allows a dynamic pose, and a nameplate is included. All markings are printed; no stickers.

Built in a hurry because of the Fw 190

In late 1941 the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 appeared over the Channel, and it was better than the Spitfire Mk. V in every respect that mattered. The RAF had nothing to answer it with, and the next proper Spitfire was eighteen months away.

The stopgap was to take a Mk. V airframe and force in the two-stage supercharged Merlin 61 — a bigger, heavier engine the airframe had not been designed for. It needed a longer nose, a four-blade propeller, a second radiator under the other wing and ballast in the tail to balance it.

It was supposed to be temporary. It turned out to be the best Spitfire of the war: the Mk. IX could fight the Fw 190 on equal terms at any altitude, more were built than any other mark except the Mk. V, and a great many pilots who flew several versions named it as their favourite.

This particular aircraft is in Malta

EN199 served with 81 Squadron in North Africa in 1943, flown by Wing Commander Ronald Berry, whose initials became its code letters. It fought over North Africa and Malta.

After the war it was handed to the Malta Air Scouts and left standing outside from 1947 to 1974, where it was vandalised, weathered and partly dismantled. What was left was recovered and stored. In the 1990s volunteers spent two and a half years rebuilding it from salvaged parts collected across the island, finishing in 1995. It is in the Malta Aviation Museum today.

In the COBI range

Set 5868 is the Spitfire Mk. I N3200 from Duxford — the 1940 aircraft recovered from a Dunkirk beach. Set 5871 is the Fw 190 that forced the Mk. IX into existence.

Specifications

Pieces: 364 · Figures: 1 with two headpieces · Scale: 1:32 · Collector's stand and nameplate · No stickers
Model dimensions: 28 × 35 × 12 cm (11.0 × 13.8 × 4.7 in)