COBI Supermarine Spitfire Mk.VB Set 5725

COBI's Supermarine Spitfire Mk. VB is a 1:32 model built from 342 blocks, in the markings of Jan Zumbach of 303 Squadron. The wheels retract, the propeller turns, the ailerons move and the canopy opens for a pilot figure made with new parts inspired by Zumbach himself. A brick display base and a nameplate are included.

The pilot this aircraft belonged to had an extraordinary life

Jan Zumbach was born in Poland to a Swiss family, which made him legally Swiss and gave him a passport that would matter later. He joined the Polish air force, was injured before the war began, escaped through Romania to France and then to Britain, and flew Spitfires and Hurricanes with 303 Squadron through the Battle of Britain and beyond. He finished the war with twelve confirmed victories and command of the squadron.

Then it becomes unusual.

Unable to return to a communist Poland, Zumbach spent the late 1940s smuggling — cigarettes, gold, whatever moved — by air across Europe, and was arrested more than once.

In 1962 he was hired to build an air force for the secessionist state of Katanga in the Congo, flying under the name John Brown. He assembled a handful of aircraft and flew combat missions himself. Five years later he did the same thing for Biafra during the Nigerian civil war, running bombing raids from a converted airliner.

He died in France in 1986, and the cause was never established to anyone's satisfaction.

The Mk. VB

Introduced in 1941 with the more powerful Merlin 45, and armed with two 20 mm cannon and four machine guns — the cannon being the answer to the Bf 109's heavier armament. It was the most-produced Spitfire variant and the one that carried the RAF through the middle of the war.

In the COBI range

Set 5764 is the Spitfire Mk. IXe at this scale and 5868 the Mk. I from Duxford. Sets 5728 and 5762 are Hurricanes in Polish and Czech squadron markings.

Specifications

Pieces: 342 · Figures: 1 pilot · Scale: 1:32 · Display base and nameplate