Special Hobby Plastic Model Kit Supermarine Spitfire F Mk.21 Contraprop — 1:72

Manufacturer and kit background

Special Hobby is a Czech scale-model manufacturer specialising in aircraft and other subjects that are often overlooked by the largest mainstream manufacturers. The company's range includes detailed aircraft kits in several scales, frequently offering unusual prototypes, lesser-known variants and historically significant aircraft.

The SH72318 boxing was catalogued in April 2015 and is specifically devoted to the Spitfire F Mk.21 “Contraprop.” The exact barcode, manufacturer and 1:72 scale are independently confirmed by multiple retailers.
Kit contents

The kit contains:

Four sprues of highly detailed plastic parts

Clear parts for the canopy and other transparent components

Decal sheet with RAF markings and extensive stencilling

Resin components, including aerodynamic fairings for the cannon positions

Alternative exhaust arrangements

Both three-spoke and four-spoke wheels

Components for the distinctive contra-rotating propeller

Assembly instructions

Special Hobby also provides alternative details allowing the modeller to represent wartime and post-war configurations. The exhaust options include wartime fishtail exhausts and rounded post-war exhausts.

The kit's packaged weight is approximately 230 g, with retailer measurements around 30 × 20 × 5 cm.
History of the full-size aircraft

The Spitfire Mk.21 was one of the most extensively redesigned versions of the famous Supermarine fighter. Development began during 1942, when it became clear that the increasingly powerful Griffon engines being fitted to later Spitfires were placing considerable demands on the original airframe.

The Mk.21 introduced a completely redesigned wing. The new wing had greater structural strength and increased area, together with larger ailerons. Its standard armament consisted of four 20 mm cannon, while changes to the undercarriage accommodated the larger propeller required by the powerful engine. The scale of the redesign was sufficiently substantial that the alternative name “Victor” was considered during development.

The Mk.21 was powered by the Rolls-Royce Griffon 61, a liquid-cooled V-12 engine considerably more powerful than the Merlin engines used by earlier Spitfires. The engine drove a large propeller, and later aircraft employed a contra-rotating propeller system.

A contra-rotating propeller uses two sets of blades rotating in opposite directions. This arrangement allowed the engine's considerable power to be converted into thrust while reducing some of the torque and propeller-related handling effects associated with a single large propeller.

The first production Mk.21 aircraft reached No. 91 Squadron in early 1945. However, the type arrived so late in the Second World War that it saw very limited, if any, meaningful combat service before the European war ended. The rapid development of jet fighters also meant that the Mk.21 represented one of the final stages of piston-engined Spitfire development rather than the beginning of a new generation of combat aircraft.

After the war, Mk.21s continued flying with both the RAF and Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF). The aircraft consequently had a considerably longer peacetime career than its limited wartime service might suggest.
The aircraft represented by this boxing

The Special Hobby boxing is particularly interesting because it focuses on aircraft fitted with the contra-rotating propeller installation.

The decal sheet provides markings for two aircraft, including a No. 41 Squadron machine that was originally delivered in standard camouflage and later repainted aluminium. The surviving camouflage around the upper-wing roundels is represented as part of the unusual finish.

Another option represents an aircraft used as the personal machine of senior RAF officers. One of the aircraft was flown by Air Vice-Marshal Thomas Cathcart Traill, who had been a First World War fighter pilot and commanded No. 12 Group. The kit includes the aerodynamic fairings associated with this particular aircraft.

This gives the kit considerable interest beyond simply being another Spitfire: it represents a distinctive late-war/post-war variant with a visibly different nose and propeller arrangement.