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I'm looking to build the new Tamiya 1/48 Spitfire in a PRU Blue scheme, but not wanting to put my modelling skills to the test in removing the armament panels, would like to build it as an armed PR 1G. I have found this older profile on the IPMS Stockholm website and wonder what the consensus is on its accuracy. I've also found this picture on a Britmodeller thread which seems to broadly match the profile above, although the color looks a bit dark for PRU Blue. (Could be just the lighting/print of course.) I also wonder about the red spinner depicted in the profile - the color does not seem apparent in the photo. Finally, are there any thoughts on the exhausts? The back two in the photo and profile are clearly a lighter color, silver perhaps? Thanks for any help with this.

I very much enjoyed turning a completely standard Spit XIV into a PRU blue painted decoy (thread here) . While the urge is still in my system, I'm doing it all over again with a Revell 1/32 Spitfire IX. I won't go into the 'What If' scenario again, because it's covered on the old thread. First of two consecutive Revell 1/32 builds This is the first of two consecutive builds using the Revell kit. I really like this kit, and it's not expensive. First build is this PRU blue. I was going to use minimal AM parts on this one. Maybe just the PRU decals and Quinta Studios Cockpit 3D decal set. Having seen the kit now, I've added some quick boost exhausts to the mix, and used Eduard PE belts. After the PRU blue build, I was planning to go to town on the second build, with the Eduard cockpit replacement set, brass wheels etc. Getting started on the first build. Possibly the only complex part of the entire kit is the seat and seat frame That's all for now, hope you fancy coming along for the ride 🙂

Just a quick question for the Spitfire mavens here. A couple of days ago, I watched a video on YouTube posted by the RAF Museum about the Spitfire vs the Bf-109. Among other topics, the host discussed the general evolution of camouflage on the two aircraft, with emphasis on the underside colors used by the Spitfire. At the end of that sequence, they showed a Spitfire in what was apparently PRU Pink (in fact, the host specifically said "pink"), stating that this was the RAF's answer to camouflage at higher altitude. It's my impression from my reading that PRU Blue was the high-altitude solution, while the Pink was meant for low altitude, dawn and dusk missions. Am I mistaken?

Well I am back....after nearly 2 years away from the bench, given the current situation I have a bit more time on my hands.... Where did I go? Well its a bit of a story, a combination of things...my last GB was the Hawker Siddeley in June 2018 - I didn't complete my 2 x 1/32 hawks as I went off to Russia 18 world Cup with work. On my return and after some leave, my boss and Head of the team told me he was moving on to News UK, leaving me to step up as acting Head. My younger son, then playing grass roots football in goal was also asked to go to Ipswich Town for some training, ending up at the centre of excellence, playing on goal, a year up at U14. So a new busy job plus 3 nights at footie training plus games at the weekend left little time and I drifted away from the hobby.... I applied for the position and with luckily got the job...football continues at a pace, as does work, time away, family life etc ...then COVID 19 has struck us all....leaving e working from home rather than a 2hr each way commute to London, all football off until at least early July, strange work tempo...what to do? All the 'Man Jobs' quickly completed, including the garage where my work bench area was...... So here I am, I will need to remember and brush up on a lot of skills, check my kit, paints, filler etc.... Now the time has come! I had this little 1/72 Spit in the stash, thought it worth being a bit of a mule to recover my skills on, I am normally a 1/48 or 1/32 builder, so will be a bit fiddly, but hopefully straightforward... Standard pre build pics.... UK or Swedish.....will have to choose....

I am wanting to do my Accurate Miniatures 1/48 B-25C as one of the aircraft in the below profiles: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e1/9c/26/e19c26615eac39d2044a745723211fc7.jpg I would really like to do MA956:E, but I have been unable to find any decals for the unique mission marks pictures. They sort of look like winged bombs. Does anybody make those markings in 1/48 decal form? I guess I would also need a suitable Air Vice Marshall's pendant. Larry

Hi everyone, let me present to you my 1/72-Spitfire Pr. 1G as operated by the PRU in Spring 1941 in St. Eval. Some photos of the construction and photos of the real thing as well as some very helpful discussions can be found in the WIP-thread ( http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235011939-spitfire-pr-1g-172/#comment-2540126 Historical background: The German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had arrived in the French port of Brest in March 1941 after an Atlantic Operation against convoys. The two ships represented a major threat to British shipping if they would leave port for the Atlantic again, so naturally the British tried to keep a constant eye on them. This was the task of the PRU Spitfires at St. Eval. When the sky was clear, blue Spitfires PR IFs would overfly Brest at high altitude, when the sky was overcast, the pale pink Spitfire Pr IGs would try to sneak in flying just below the clouds where their unusual camouflage would hopefully conceal them. During their stay at Brest, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were harassed by British air attacks and as another Atlantic operation was considered too dangerous, they finally returned to Germany via the famous Channel Dash in February 1943. Autobiographical background: When I started university in the late 1990s, I immediately began to search the university library for anything related to military aviation. This was in no way related to the courses I took, actually, military history was rather frowned upon among the teaching staff and the students. So I kept secret what treasures I hauled from the library, it was a bit like lending out porn or other secreta. However, following a personal passion turned out to be good way to learn how the catalogues and the library worked, something that definitely paid off during my studies. Among the first things I had found was Alfred Price’s “Spitfire at War” which includes both pink Spitfires: the Pr. IG and the FR.IX. These unusual subjects and the stories about the “dicer-missions” of the PRU immediately fascinated me. Nevertheless, I never built a model of a pink Spitfire in these days, because at least the Pr. IG would have been difficult to model without a dedicated kit or a conversion set and decals. Additionally, there were, as always, so many other interesting subjects to build. Much more recently, my interest switched back to WWII aircraft and I discovered that AZ had produced kits for the Pr. IG and the FR. IX. I bought both and finally, decided to do the earlier pink aircraft while the FR. IX will become a standard IX . The model: Ingredients: - kit: AZ Spitfire Pr. IG - additional parts: Airfix Spitfire Mk. I (oil cooler, cockpit door, airscrew and spinner (IIRC) - vac-formed canopy: Falcon -paints: Tamiya (black base and home-mix PRU Pink made from a lot of white and very little hull red) The kit is one of AZ’s earlier short-run Spitfires and the same sprues are used for the whole Mk. I-family, therefore there are some inaccuracies. The only things, that distinguish the Pr. IG-kit from the other Mk. I-kits seems to be the inclusion of a vac-formed canopy with the armored windscreen and the PR-bulges as well as the specific decals. The kit is a short-run product, the cockpit assembly was somewhat unclear and fit is not perfect. On the positive side, however, it looks very much like an accurate Spitfire to me, and it has fine surface detail. R7059 by all likelihood had a Merlin 45 and a circular oil cooler, but the AZ kit only includes the semi-circular cooler of the Mk I. The Airfix Mk. I, however, does include it (or at least the “Mk. I/Mk. IIa”-kit and, I guess, the Mk. Va). The vac-formed canopy by AZ is a bit softly moulded and I did not succeeded in making it fit right. The Falcon canopy looks better, but I couldn’t make it fit either (I am not very experienced with vac-formed canopies and obviously the canopy was designed with a another kit in mind). That is when I decided to build the Spit with an open cockpit although this meant cutting the cockpit door open (another option would have been to insert a pilot figure to show the aircraft taxiing with the canopy open and the door shut). The Airfix kit donated the open cockpit door because it has nice (if a little heavy) detail on the interior side. The airscrew and spinner are also Airfix parts, if I remember correctly. Both kits come with different airscrews and spinners and I tried out several combinations. The cameras: AZ’s instructions indicate a split pair of ventral cameras with both cameras slightly offset from the vertical (e.g. like on the Pr. XI). According to the literature, it seems, however, that the G had two perfectly downwards facing cameras, not to take overlapping high altitude photos like on the Pr. IX, but one camera each for different altitudes plus the oblique camera for very low altitudes. The idea behind this camera outfit was apparently that the Pr. IG always operated just below the cloud base and therefore had to be flexible to adjust to cloud levels at different altitudes. On the model I drilled three holes in the fuselage (two ventral, one on the port side) where I had previously beefed up the fuselage with putty and plastic sheet on the interior. After the model was painted, the holes were painted black and a lens (or glass cover) punched out from thin clear plastic closed the hole and was fixed with Future. On the starboard side, I scribed a small circle to indicate a covered oblique camera window. Painting and weathering: As described in the WIP-thread I tried out a black-basing technique to achieve a slightly patchy, irregular paint scheme. It was fun trying out, but I believe a simple pre-shading with some random patches would have done the same job more quickly. Anyway, the idea was not to create a super-weathered, abandoned wreck, but even if the PRU aircraft were well-cared-of aircraft, they would still be exposed to the elements. The photos also clearly show some fuel, oil and dirt accumulated in the panel lines on the forward fuselage. Oil spills on the bottom of the fuselage seem to have been near inevitable on Spitfires. My interpretation of PRU Pink is an only slightly reddish off-white, which I mixed from white with only very little Tamiya Hull Red. After applying a coat of Future, the kit’s decals were used and they worked fine. Nevertheless, I almost ruined the model at this stage by applying too much Mr. Mark Softer. This turned out fairly aggressive and permanently wrinkled the decals at some points and attacked the paint coat. You can still see some of this effect on the wing roundels. You will see no wing guns on my model. Based on the literature one would expect guns on the Pr. IG, this was one of the features telling it apart from the other PR-Spitfires. However, I could not see any traces of them on the available photos. The gun muzzles were certainly not covered with the red canvas patches familiar on the Spitfire fighters. Maybe the PRU used more permanent covers painted in PRU Pink that do not show on the photos. I just don’t know. So without any further ado, here are the photos. Any comments are welcome.

Mind if I play? Got a Home Bargains £2.99 Airfix Spitfire IX kit and was thinking it'd make a good quick build subject as this machine. All the references I can find have this one in overall white but I'm wondering why it couldn't be PRU Pink.

My tenth and FINAL build for this group... It was going to be a lovely Matchbox Hawker Fury but I've decided to convert it to a Yugoslavian built version so I'll wait and take my time. So in it's place I'm doing a little PRU Spitfire in pink with fictional markings, I really can't justify spending more than the kit cost to print out a few grey letters and a serial number My kit came with two sets of decals, I'm sure they'll come in handy for something else as some point. All parts removed from the sprue. Wings and fuselage glued and setting... It's going well seeing how I only opened the box six minutes ago!