Introduction

The Supermarine Spitfire, one of the most famous fighter aircraft from World War II, went through many changes, including the change to Griffon engines. While the first Griffon powered Spitfires suffered performance issues, the Mk.XIV’s corrected the issue with a two-stage supercharger. With almost 1000 Spitfire Mk.XIV’s built, about 430 of these were converted to the FR variant, meaning they were converted by Forward Repair Units to mount a single camera, and most of these were assigned to the RCAF.

A new set of decals from Exito Decals marks up these late war Spitfires.

Contents

2 Sheet of Decals
3 Two side Painting and Marking Cards

Review

Having reviewed a few sets of Exito Decals in the past, I am always amazed at the interesting subjects and quality of the decals. And this latest set from Exito Decals is no different, as well as being a little biased due to the Canadian content. The new release covers the late war Spitfire Mk.XIV’s or to be more specific the Spitfire FR Mk.XIVe.

The plastic sleeve packaging contains the cover sheet, three painting and marking cards printed two-sided and in color, and the decals, printed by fan favorite, Cartograph. And as stated in prior reviews, the best part of these decals from Exito is the painting and marking schemes included in the sets. An art like print in full color on one side of the aircraft and on the reverse all the details needed for painting and marking up the aircraft. In this set, they include black and white images of for the subject including notes about the specific aircraft and on two there are references include for further reading.

Paint reference included for the three aircraft include paint matches for AK Interactive and Mr. Hobby.

And not forgetting the decals, printed by Cartograph, they are very well printed with excellent color and all in register. The art work for the nose art is very well done, and looks to match exactly the provided reference image.

Included in this set are markings for:

• TZ198, coded 21-M, 443 Sqn RCAF, Uetersen, Germany, January 1946
  
• TZ112, coded DN-Y, 416 Sqn RCAF, Uetersen, Germany, December 1945 -January 1946
  
• SM937, coded 62, 151 OUT, Peshawar or Ambala, British India 1946

Summary

This is definitely another great set of decals from Exito Decals. Both a very interesting subject and great execution with the decals and marking schemes. The colors on the decal sheet looks to be very well done, and with the painting and marking guides you should be able to produce a nice finish on a late Spitfire. Highly recommended.