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Airfix's 1/72 Spitfire PR. Mk. XIX. Second spitfire built in my life, and second one with non British markings




What's next? 1/72 F4U-1, F6F-3 or P-47D Razorback?

Nice!

Very nice,like the weathering.

Model is well done but.... when I bilt models (...long time ago...) I always preferred paint them with the most representative scheme of that model, so THE Spitfire, must be in British color
Next model? CORSAIR forever!!!

Giorgio

Thank you!
Giorgio, the US decals provided with the kit are not great, so I need a new sheet! And RNZAF's Corsair don't look bad at all!
The F6 and the P-47 will be American instead, the decals included in the kit are very good!

+1 on the weathering, very good job. Now apply that same dirt/mud/muck to the F4U!

Victory103 wrote:+1 on the weathering, very good job. Now apply that same dirt/mud/muck to the F4U!

Thanks!
On the Corsair I'll try to make some better chipping. There are several different techniques, and salt seems to help!
Anyway, I won't make an excessive weathering, anytime I tried I only ended up to make a mess! So far, I'm satisfied!

RNZAF

Mr. Pappy Boyington, if you can hear me, please say something to this guy...

Well, the Hellcat will wear a tri-colour scheme (white-light blue-dark blue) like Pappy Boyington's Corsair! I think I'll go for the one with the angry mouth...
http://www.eduard.com/store/out/media/7076.pdf

The decal sheet in my Corsair box allows to depict the famous "Big Hog" (tricolor) and an overall dark blue aircraft with white markings, but there must be something different in my display case! The RNZAF had a beautiful Frankencorsair built with the parts of two damaged aircrafts, one blue and one tri-colour, but I cannot find the image!
Another interesting scheme is the one of the Corsairs that fought against each other in the Soccer War (El Salvador vs. Honduras)
http://hsfeatures.com/features04/fg1ddwa_2.htm

But I might decide to try to make some masking template on my own!

Was a few interesting Spit camos during the war -
1) 16sqn flying FR.IXs for recon on D-Day - all over PINK
2) Op Calendar Mk V Spits left UK in desert scheme - arrived in Malta with blue upper surfaces
3) Mk.IX that went to the US for trials arrived back having picked up a large nose art in Greenland.
4) Mk IX flown by Rolf Arne Berg had large Norwegian coloured bands on the wings, tail and rear fuselage.
5) Some of the early recon Spits were bare metal.
6) Some Malta Spits in various combinations of greys.

Generally the further away from Fighter Command the more you could get away with

Pink Spit - http://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/3269411347/

Of course not a camo change but JE-J jr with the two beer kegs -
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/lofi ... 11338.html

Weescotty wrote:Was a few interesting Spit camos during the war -
1) 16sqn flying FR.IXs for recon on D-Day - all over PINK
2) Op Calendar Mk V Spits left UK in desert scheme - arrived in Malta with blue upper surfaces
3) Mk.IX that went to the US for trials arrived back having picked up a large nose art in Greenland.
4) Mk IX flown by Rolf Arne Berg had large Norwegian coloured bands on the wings, tail and rear fuselage.
5) Some of the early recon Spits were bare metal.
6) Some Malta Spits in various combinations of greys.

Generally the further away from Fighter Command the more you could get away with

Pink Spit - http://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/3269411347/

Of course not a camo change but JE-J jr with the two beer kegs -
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/lofi ... 11338.html

And indeed these are interesting! I have a French magazine with a model of a Malta-based Mk.5. These aircrafts had the Vokes air filter underneath the nose and the upper surfaces were simply repainted with USN light blue covering the original sand-brown camo scheme. The engine area seems to be slightly darker, but it's an interesting subject. I also remember the one with Norwegian stripes.
On a similar wave, there were some unarmed Mosquitos used by BOAC to connect Stockholm and London during WW2. They could fly high and fast and could pass over Denmark without being chased by the Nazi aircrafts in the area
http://www.google.it/imgres?um=1&hl=it& ... 5,s:0,i:82

Xtradecals from the UK makes some very interesting decal sheets for several Spitfire versions if one is interested.
Here is the only Spitfire I've seen so far
http://www.airplane-pictures.net/photo/ ... itfire-ix/

BTW, the Corsair is already assembled and painted! Now I have to choose which decals to apply... several years ago I built Hendrick's F4U based on the USS Bunker Hill, overall blue with white big arrows on tail and wings and yellow cowling ring. Like this but with number 167
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/start- ... 20701.html

The decals provided in the box are for the famous F4U-1A "Big Hog" in tri-colour scheme and for C.P. Delong's F4U-1D, overall dark blue, no markings but white reg. "F107" and simplified insignia (white stars with two wings with no blue overlay) and several Japanes kill markings.
Decals for Bunker Hill aircrafts are available at a cheap price from Poland, and I think I'll go for it because it's a nice livery comparing to Delong's aircraft.
Also, yesterday the postman brought the 1/72 MiG-21 bis I bought online the day when I got the new job! I wanted to make a Finnish aircraft but the decals are yellowed and unusable. Suggestions and photos are welcome! No natural metal finishes, please!

RE: Malta Spitfire Vc's sent on USS Wasp (Op Calendar).
No-one knows what colour blue it was, debates have raged for years on that very subject.
There is only one known colour pic of one of them, after it crashed on a beach. It shows as you said a light blue of some kind, however many contend that the photographs age has probably changed the colour.
The concensus seems to be that they would have used a colour that was readily available aboard ship, and seeing as they were sitting on the deck that it would most probably be USN Deck Blue, which is quite a dark blue.
I did pick up on one forum where a guy had said his grandfather was on USS Wasp during Op Calendar and that although he couldn't remember what colour they used, it was thinned down and put on rather hurriedly using anything available, like deck brooms!

One of the famous blue Malta Spits photos (B&W I'm afraid)


Another on USS Wasp
http://ww2db.com/images/ship_wasp17.jpg

The one I meant is light blue, but I think there is something in common with this. There is a big article in French on the magazine, I'll take a look.
Here is the Corsair