MPM Production have announced an impressive line-up of new kits for April. A contra-prop Spitfire, Saab Viggen and two new post-war versions of the Fairey Firefly will be released under the Special Hobby banner.

SH72318 Supermarine Spitfire Mk.21 Contraprop 1/72
The first version of the Spitfire that had completely redesigned wing was the Spitfire Mk.21. The changes in its construction were so important that a new name Victor had been also considered. Design work on this plane were commenced in 1942 and in the beginning of 1945 the first production aircraft were issued to No.91sqn. After the war, the Spitfire Mk.21 enjoyed rather long peace-time service with both RAF and RAuxAF squadrons. And with this version of the Spitfire, a contrapropeller unit was being used on a large scale. And therefore, markings of two machines with a contraprop have been chosen for this boxing of our Spitfire model.

In the box containing a model of this beautiful aircraft you will find four sprues with highly detailed plastic parts, a set of clear parts and a decal sheet. We have indeed gone an extra mile with the construction of this replica, in the sprue with small parts you´ll get fish-tail exhausts for a war-time Spitfire Mk.21 as well and the rounded-type of exhaust for the post-war machines. There are of course also both three and four-spoked wheels included. The decal sheet offers markings for highly interesting No.41sqn machine that was originally delivered in a standard camouflage but later was repainted with Aluminium colour. While the fuselage and tailplanes were overpainted very carefully, the main wing wore visible streaks of aluminium colour. The original camouflage was also still visible around the top wing roundels. The fuselage, wing and also the tailplanes were adorned with red stripe markings which referred to the squadrons red cross of Lorraine insignia. The other machine served as a personal machine of two RAF senior officers. At first it flew with a camouflage and unarmed, later was repainted in standard post-war Aluminium. At the controls of the camouflaged Spitfire was Air Vice Marschal Thomas Cathcart Traill CB, OBE, DFC (8 victories during WW1), CO of No.12 Group RAF. Later, while the machine wore the aluminium coat, it was flown by an unknown Group Captain as suggested by the pennants on the fuselage sides. There is a resin set of various aerodynamical fairings covering the cannon stubs in the model which are intended for this machine. The decal sheet of course contains large amount of stencils.

SH48148 SAAB AJ-37 Viggen “Attack Version” 1/48
The SAAB AJ-37 Viggen was an aircraft ahead of its time. Its designers used an unorthodox construction which enabled the plane to meet all requirements which had been laid on it and in some parameters even surpass them. The Swedish Air Force ordered several various versions of the Viggen jet fighter.

The very first version in service was the AJ-37 attack-fighter (“AJ” letters stand for attack-jakt in Swedish) version and now it is a subject of our model. A total of seven sprues with grey plastic parts are accompanied by a sprue with clear parts. The model contains also a set of pre-painted PE parts, decal sheet and instructions. There are three aircraft depicted in the camouflage schemes, the first one in NMF overall shows us how the early Viggens looked like. This aircraft took part in an air show in West Germany and was adorned with two badges of German AF units. The other two machines in our kit wore a standard Swedish 4-tone splinter camouflage scheme. One of them, however, had one of its air intakes replaced with a new one in colour of natural metal. The decals contain not only the needed markings, but also a complete set of stencils.

Although the Viggen model is detailed enough, we also would like to offer the modellers some resin set which will be available separately.

SH48130 Fairey Firefly AS Mk.7 Antisubmarine version 1/48
The model consists of six sprues with grey plastic parts, one sprue of clear parts, you can find there also a optional vac-formed bulged canopy of the operators cockpit, undercarriage bay resin parts, exhausts and air intakes. The decals come with four options, all of them in post-war RN camouflage scheme. The machines depicted there are in fact only three, but one of them is in two various schemes known from contemporary photographs.

SH48166 Fairey Firefly U Mk.8 1/48
The AS Mk.7 anti-submarine version was soon replaced with anti-sub Avengers and later also with Gannets. As the Fireflies were still quite new machines, they found their new role as remotely controlled aircraft that served as targets for the new Royal Navy anti-aircraft missiles. The rebuilt machines also got a striking anti-camouflage scheme and were used mainly at Llanbedr base in Wales.

The sprues in the kit are the same as in our SH48130 model. There are also some extra-parts for the wing tips typical for the rebuilt machines. The decal options comprise of three cream-yellow and dark-red Fireflies, one of which was the very first rebuilt U Mk.8 machine.

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