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Warpaint Series No.85 The Supermarine name is well known in aviation circles, mainly for the Spitfire of Battle of Britain fame. The company has produced quite a few other aircraft over the years, though, and the final design of the firm is the subject of this newest title from Warpaint Books. The Scimitar was Supermarine's answer for the Royal Navy's need for a nuclear-capable aircraft. It was also the first swept-wing, twin-engined single seat aircraft for the Navy, and at the time, it was also the heaviest and largest to operate from British carriers. The initial design of the Scimitar was the Type 508 aircraft, which had a straight wing and a V tail. Further research evolved into the Type 525 aircraft, which featured a traditional tail arrangement and swept wings. At this point, the aircraft had a very close approximation of what the final Scimitar would look like, and after a few more refinements, the type went into production. The first Scimitars rolled off the assembly line in 1957 and entered service shortly thereafter. Throughout its career, the Scimitar carried only one camouflage scheme, that of Extra Dark Sea Gray over White. This scheme was carried on the prototypes as well as production examples, and indeed there was only one Scimitar that carried a different scheme. As such, it is the details that set each plane apart, and this book highlights those quite well. The individual squadrons all had different manners of dressing up their Scimitars, from unit markings, tail colors, and style & location of aircraft numbers. These variations are documented in both color profile illustrations and photographs. Also present is a center section filled with scale drawings, a nice addition given the recent interest in Scimitar models. This is a very welcome addition to the Warpaint series, and one that is well overdue. My thanks to Warpaint Books for the review copy. |
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