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Spitfire Mk. IXe | 1/72 | Eduard flown by W/Cdr Rolf Arne Berg, CO of No. 132 Wing, Twente AB, the Netherlands, winter 1944 – 1945 I finished this on October 20, 2019. It is the Spitfire Mk. IXe from Eduard's "The longest day" dual combo with decals from Eduard's royal boxing of the Mk. IX kindly provided by @Procopius. Since I am roughly half Norwegian, I've wanted to make a collection of all the fighters the Royal Norwegian Air Force has flown. While Rolf Berg was a Norwegian in the RAF, I figured it was a good one to start my collection with because of the prominent Norwegian pre-war markings on the tail and wings. When I first saw Berg's spitfire a couple of years ago, I knew I had to make a model of it! From the instructions: "This aircraft was flown by the CO of No.132 (Norwegian) Wing W/Cdr Rolf Arne Berg. Berg ordered ground personel of his unit to paint the pre-war Norwegian national insignia on the wings and rudder in the fall of 1944 and asked RAF Supreme Command for permission to carry this marking. RAF Command deemed the marking as forbidden and Berg was forced to remove it in January 1945. Berg met his fate on February 3, 1945. At the very end of his combat tour he decided to fly one more combat mission. His Spitfire PV181 was hit by AA-fire over Eelde, the Netherlands. Wing damage led to a crash and Berg's death. He scored 5 3⁄4 confirmed and 1 1⁄2 probable kills with 3 damaged." The instructions say he was killed "...at the end of his tour...", but the great article here (https://www.norwegianspitfire.com/rolf-arne-berg-the-legend/) said it was on the very day he was leaving service and that the mission was voluntary! Very sad, indeed. He sounded like a great pilot, and a gentleman. I built this at the same time as an Eduard Mk. XVI. WIP is here Finishing: Seams filled with CA (superglue) Paints: Mr. Surfacer 1500 black primer > Hataka Ocean Gray/Dark Green/Light Sea Gray/Sky > Mr. Surfacer 1500 black spray and Mr. Color Aircraft Gray for invasion stripes Decals: Eduard Royal Class boxing decals Weathering/Wear: Selected panel lines highlighted with 0.2 mm pencil > Tamiya weathering pastels (black) > sun fading with white oil paint > oil staining and dirt streaks with Black and Burnt Umber watercolor Paints > Chips with Testors Chrome enamel applied with a spotter brush Thanks for looking, I hope you enjoy. Constructive criticism, comments and questions welcome!