Rolls-Royce

Eduard does produce a photoetch set for that kit that contains the pilot's armor plates. There are two versions, one for their older Mk I, and one for this kit.

My humble guess is that the pattern shown on dov's drawing was the artist's attempt to portray an irregular 4" overlap between two colors without having the ability to accurately reproduce it on the drawing. How would you show it otherwise?

Do keep in mind that all PH Zeroes were Mitsubishi production. That means no aotake in the gear wells, only the exterior color, with gloss black actuation wishbones on the inboard gear doors and black struts. The only visible aotake might have been the shaft of the tailhook, which could be either that color or gloss black.

I have that book, and it is an excellent photographic reference. You won't be sorry.

The primary reason was to maintain the claimed laminar airflow on top of the wing in order to reduce drag, improving speed and range. When your plane came out of the factory, it had filled, primed, and painted wing surfaces. Diagrams showing which wing areas were treated have surfaced here multiple times.

As always, there are exceptions to the rule. P9374 was brought down during the Dunkirk evacuation. At the time of its recovery in the 1980s, it had the behind-the-seat armor. The assembly was shown as-recovered in Andy Saunders' book on the aircraft, and the restoration now flies with that very same armor plate installed.

Aluminum would be my vote, if you're talking about the inside of the flap and its well. The lever is the radiator flap control.

The overhead installation diagram in Morgan & Shacklady page 56, if it is to scale, shows the outboard gun muzzles closer to the leading edge than the inboard pair, mainly due to its curvature. The outboard guns have flash hiders proud of, and at, the leading edge of the wing. This can be seen in photos of early Mk Is and before the muzzle cover patches were adopted.

Back then, the most corrosive element was the priming compound used in the rounds. This contained traces of mercury and formed powerful hygroscopic salts that needed to be removed very soon after firing.

The differences in powder staining at various locations on the Spitfire wing shown could be a result of the distances the guns are buried back from the leading edges of the wings and the length of the resulting blast tubes. The bullets (and gases) begin to decelerate as soon as they leave the muzzle. The outboard guns are closer to the wing leading edges, meaning their gases and residue are traveling somewhat faster than those of the inboard guns when they exit the blast tubes, giving a slightly better chance of dispersal in the airflow and less concentrated staining than the inboard guns. I may be way off base here, but that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

Yep. This is the 2014 new-tool A05125A kit reissued with new markings, so any review/build summary of that kit will detail the pros and cons.

Oops! Sorry about that. I found a couple on offer on Amazon.com (US), but the $175 being asked was a little rich for my blood...

Interesting that they have misprints, and that a new version will be out next year. Before I saw your post, I was able to find a used but Very Good (seller's description) copy in the UK through abebooks.com, and should have it in a couple of weeks.

I completely agree with you, Troy. I recently acquired a copy, and although it is absolutely filled with minute details, some of the "when did...?"questions that pop up here from time time to time aren't really answered.

As always, photos of your subject are the best bet...

Peter, those parts are very nice, but I'm sure you're aware that the gun switch on the column is different on a Mk I.

Very cool. As a former aircraft mechanic, I always find it interesting to see "how it was done" back in the day. I had seen an extract from these before that had contained parts of each film, but never the whole series. Thank you!

Perhaps it was an humorous oblique phonetic reference to the aircraft's squadron letter of "B". Also some aircraft are more or less reliable than others in the unit and quickly get a reputation as such. The aircraft may have been christened with the name due to being one of the less reliable examples.

IIRC, the blue gray was a protective sheathing on the wooden blades. As with all things WWII, photographic references of your actual subject are your best bet rather than generalized assumptions.

If Model Color (not Model Air) is what you have locally available, I'd suggest 70.921 English Uniform for Dark Earth and 70.892 Yellow Oliva for Dark Green. Both recently measured extremely closely (dE<2.0) to the samples of those colors in my copy of the RAF Museum book. Unfortunately, Vallejo Model Air's Sky is pretty far off the mark at a dE of >7.0. The best Sky I tested was Mission Models MMP-080, at a dE of <2.0

My apologies, Jerry. I was trying to go from memory, having seen your post several days ago, when I mentioned the 83-marked sample. No harm intended. I have edited my previous post to remove the reference.

This summarizes what Ullmann discovered. The posting is by the man himself: http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/rlm83darkbluemu_1.htm

Honestly, I wouldn't exactly say "fall for" is the proper term. Without wishing to start an argument, I would like to point out that there has yet to be discovered more than that single document referring to a short-term test of a dark blue 83, to be conducted in a limited operational area. And prior to that, even Ullmann himself described 83 as green and linked it to the pre-war 6x-series colors. Finally, it must be remembered that at least two generations of modelers have come to accept "RLM 83" as shorthand for "late war dark olive green" since it was first described as such in the late 70s or early 80s. So have other authors, paint, decal and kit manufacturers, etc. That's a lot of inertia to overcome.

I believe the Volume III is the book Graham Boak referred to in his post above...

If you're looking for available and affordable, or to get your feet wet on the subject: https://www.valiant-wings.co.uk/ekmps/shops/valiantwings/airframe--miniature-no3-second-edition-19-p.asp