The latest in MMP’s Spotlight On series, this, the 28^th volume, features the Spitfire IX. Author and artist Robert Grudzien opens the book with a quick summary of the type, then it’s straight into the meat of the book, full colour profiles of 40 examples of the Spitfire IX. These have been created especially for the book and are extremely well executed, exhibiting great detail, and they are split about evenly between port and starboard side views.

Examples of the plates include the first Mk.IX, some early service specimens, and some one offs, such as the Spitfire IX floatplane that was developed for use in the Mediterranean, but was (thankfully!) too late for production and service. There are numerous illustrations of Polish-piloted Mk.IXs and other nationalities shown include Czechoslovak, South African and New Zealand examples, while the USAAF also features. One plate that caught my eye is a specially-modified Mk.IX from the Egyptian Theatre, which was stripped of paint and much of it’s armament and radios in order to try to effect interception of high-flying German reconnaissance aircraft.

The plates are reproduced vertically, meaning that the book has to be turned on it’s side to view them, but this is a minor annoyance as it does mean they’ve been reproduced at full-page size. Each plate has a short caption detailing the location, pilot and date where known.

This is a great sampler and with the recent release of Airfix’s giant 1/24 example, and Eduard’s range of various Mk. IXs to 1/48, as well as many older kits in various scales, this is a very useful addition to Spitfire references. My thanks to Casemate for the review sample.