ilj

I followed the suggestions in Paul Budzik's video, working slowly, and it worked out pretty good...

Great work! You nailed it. I'm working on a couple of XIVs, a c and an e, by combining Eduard and Airfix plastic. WIP images are over on the other side... https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/spit-xivc-spit-xive-wip-t531512.html ilj

How suitable would the pilot figure (very nice) from the recent Tamiya 1/48 Spitfire 1 kit 61119, that has a 1940 pilot, be? Would the appearance have changed significantly compared to a late ww2 RAF pilot? ilj

it's on there now: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/354097468174?hash=item5271da930e:g:k-UAAOSwDntinmwQ

Nice job! Credit could be given for Ron Lowry's interpretive painting of BR301 that was published in Robert Bracken's book "Spitfire: the Canadians". ilj

Outstanding! ilj

Amazing... and the background looks just like Dutch Harbour, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, summer 1942... YAY! ilj

This is the most amazing thing I have seen... in years. Well done ilj

Fantastic! Great interpretive paint job! I have a Malta spitfire question - which ac had yellow codes and which had those light-grey-sky ish ones? ilj

I did a conversion of a 1/32 Tamiya IXc to a Vc trop (the Vc obviously has the same wings as the IXc so more of your model is Tamiya plastic), using the Hobby Boss Spit V-kit's Vokes filter, oil filter and engine cowling. This was pretty easy. The results are here: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/rcaf-spitfire-vc-malta-1942-1-32-tamiya-conversion-t524599.html ilj

I just flipped through my collection of Malta Vb and Vc spitfires and I really don't see contrasting wing walk lines in any images - some pix are very clear and show no wing walks so skip this, I'd say... ilj

OK, having had another look (above photo), I think maybe 'much darker than roundel blue' NOT so much it still looks to me like some kind of dark overpaint... I'm wondering if the lighter areas visible on the outer upper wings are the roundels "the contemporary photo of T-Z EN500 shows a very dark overall colour, much darker than roundel blue ilj"

the contemporary photo of T-Z EN500 shows a very dark overall colour, much darker than roundel blue ilj

my amateurish speculation is that these ac came out of the factory in a tropical land scheme (dark earth and something like middle stone upper, over a very light blue or light bluish gray lower) and to give them a 'sea scheme' the middle stoneish lighter upper colour was overpainted with a dark bluish gray colour possibly extra dark sea gray I've never understood the argument that these had 'sky' (light pea green) undersides, I think this arises from confusion about colour terminology ilj

my Tamiya XF mixes 'extra dark sea gray' - Tamiya XF82 ocean gray 90% + XF6 blue several drops + XF2 flat black several drops + XF2 flat white 10% (how dark this should be is highly variable - check your contemporary photo references and adjust black or white contribution to the mix) 'dark slate gray' - Tamiya XF81 dark green 40% + Tamiya XF53 neutral gray 30% + XF52 flat earth 10% + XF2 flat white 20%, approximately 'sky' - Tamiya XF21 sky 50% + Tamiya XF2 flat white 50% add retarder for brush painting ilj

there are two other lights shown in the above plan drawing - they are just aft of and on either side of the radiator outlet, and just forward of the inner landing gear bay doors these are said to be found only on 'later production' aircraft in a recent popular paperback Typhoon reference we need expert advice on this here, and I am not qualified, so looking forward to reading more on this thread ilj

here's a related question - where do the 3" rockets' 'pigtails' plug into the aircraft? Was it in to part of the launching pylon assembly, or in to the underside of the wing, and if the later, where? is anyone aware of a photo or diagram that shows this? ilj

this thread is a terrific read: ilj

Pix of my recent Malta Beaufighter are over at the other site: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/viewtopic.php?p=2812730#p2812730 Reference pix seemed to show 250# bombs on universal-bomb-carriers, so that is what I went with. I believe the colours were more likely a modified temperate sea scheme (medium sea gray and dark slate 'gray' over azure blue or light bluish gray), except V T9068 which looks like either non standard blackish brown and dark earth over light bluish gray, or extra-extra dark sea gray and dark 'slate' gray over light bluish gray (based on ac in the colour series posted by the IWM). ilj

The aircraft 'to the right' in that Adak photo is a P-40E (those didn't have the added medium green splotches) ilj

Thanks Carl - I thought those were Kittyhawk 1as so good to know. The Bristol Bolingbrokes never made it anywhere near the Aleutians as far as I can tell. I have seen an image of a Bolingbroke in Anchorage, and I heard a rumour that at least one may have visited Nome in Alaska's north. If a Bolingbroke ever visited the Aleutians, it would have been to Umnak where the Kittyhawks were deployed, but I've never seen anything indicating that, and it seem unlikely. btw Kodiak Island is not in or anywhere near the Aleutian Islands. Cheers! ilj

Combat aircraft used in Aleutian Campaign 1942-1944: USAAF: P-38EGJ, F-5A, P-40EKN, P-39F, B-25CDG, B-17E, B-24D, B-26, A-24B RCAF: Kittyhawk I (corrected), P-40K USN: F4F-4, PV-1, PV-2, PBY-5,5a, OS2U IJN: A6M2, A6M2N, B5N, D3A, E13A1,1a, G4M1, H6K, F1M, E7K, E8N http://aleutianplanes.com a few more American and Japanese ac types appeared as the Aleutian air war transitioned to American attacks on the Kurile Islands 1944-45 ilj

In terms of visible external modifications visible on a model, the 'winterization' feature presents as sheet metal (often appear as bare metal) items affixed around the exhausts (not present in all contemporary images). I suspect a lot of these were improvised field modifications as there is a lot of variation. Best to use a good reference photograph of the ac you are modelling and try to duplicate that (I have had some success with both cut brass sheet and sheet styrene). ilj http://aleutianplanes.com/P-40E-Umnak.html

All markings on the Vc BP989 N-4 model except the serial numbers and tiny stencils were done with masks and Tamiya XF acrylic paint (serial number xtradecal Raf #s). ilj