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Luftwaffe Mi224D-1 Spitfire, II./JG3, Murmansk, February 1947


Adam Maas

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When Gen Patton's court martial in late 1945 for insubordination from his public agitation

for war with the Soviet Union leads Stalin to assume that the Western Allies are

unwilling or unable to fight a war with the Soviet Union. Stalin, already intended to press

the West aggressively chooses instead to attack in early 1946. Without sufficient force in

place to truly push the Allies, the Soviet forces settle into a slow grinding advance into

Germany while both sides hurry to build up desperately needed forces. The Allies, facing an

exhausted France unwilling to commit forces outside its borders and the need to bring much

of their needed manpower back across the Atlantic from the Americas as well as from

points further west in New Zealand and Australia, realize that they will need to enlist the

aid of the recently defeated Germans, as well as the Spanish and Portuguese, who were

relatively untouched by the war but are also threatened by the Soviet attack. Recognizing

the massive casualties suffered by the Germans during the later portions of the war it was

concluded that Germany would be unable to field significant ground forces, but Germany did

retain a core force of trained aviators, as well as a small but very competent naval component.

The allies decided to reconstitute the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine, primarily using Lend-Lease

equipment that the UK had intended to destroy otherwise, as well as certain other surplus

equipment that had been slated for replacement, such as Merlin and early Griffon Spitfire's

and Typhoons. With these transfers, Luftwaffe fighter and tactical bomber wings were stood up

again based around what cadre could be found from pre-VE day. These wings were then paired

with Allied wings as a security measure, and to build up much needed camaraderie between

recent enemies. These pairings would endure long after the First Soviet War's end.

With the resumption of procurement programs which had been cancelled in the aftermath of

the end of WW2, the more advanced Allied development programs would slowly turn the tide

of the war, slowly pushing the Soviet forces back out of North Eastern Europe. Churchill,

returned to power after the fall of Atlee's government over the renewed hostilities, would

successfully push a bid to open additional fronts, with forces pushing towards Romania from Italy

as well as pushing into Soviet-controlled Karelia from Finland with the aid of formerly

neutral Sweden. Additional US and Allied forces positioned in Persia and in Manchuria along the

Siberian border would force the Soviets to pull resources off the main line of resistance

to honor these threats, increasing the speed of the Allied main advance. Eventually facing

logistical limitations, with the Soviet's inside line advantage and the poor infrastructure

of eastern Poland limiting strategic mobility, the war would settle into a stalemate with

the border, later to be known as the Iron Curtain, dividing the remnants of Soviet controlled

Europe, primarily in the south-east and including Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Eastern Romania and Greece, the latter falling to a communist coup, while the Allies controlled Czechoslovakia, Poland, Austria, Hungary and Western Romania. Additionally the Finns would regain Karelia and an allied occupied region surrounding the

port of Murmansk.

The subject will be a Spitfire XIVc, aka a Mi224D-1in Luftwaffe service. Mi for Mitchell, the designer,224 as the manufacturer model number for the original Spitfire. D for the fourth major variant, A's were single-stage Merlin, B 2-stage Merlin, C's were Single-stage Griffon and D's are 2-stage Griffon, E's are the late Griffon's with the new wing, sub-types designate the actual mark. So a Mi224A-5 is a Va, an A-7 is a Vc, a B-3 is an IXc while a B-4 is an IXe, the only C is the XII and the D-1 is of course the XIVc, the first 2-stage Griffon Spit, the D2 the XIVe, D-3 is the XVIII, E-1 is the 21, E-2 the 22 and E-3 is the 24). The Luftwaffe operated a mix of Spitfires during this period, with small numbers of Vc's, as well as a solid force of IX, XVI and XIV's. The Luftwaffe would later standardize on the Mk.22, the Mi224E-2 in German Service as one of their two primary fighter aircraft during the First Soviet War, the other being the F4U-4B, aka the Vo101B-1 in German service. The Germans, having little need for the range of the Mustang and disliking its susceptibility to ground fire fairly quickly retired the stocks they originally were given from left-over Lend-Lease aircraft and the Typhoons, while well liked by the Luftwaffe, were out of production and new Tempest production was dedicated to RAF and RCAF needs, the Luftwaffe never received P-47's as their initial forces were all from Lend-Lease stocks in Europe or surplus RAF and RCAF aircraft). All allied aircraft received designations starting with 100 when in Luftwaffe service unless there was an available manufacturer model number, Mosquito's in German service were DH98's while Mustangs were Na73's for example. The Vo100 is the OS2U Kingfisher, which the Germans also received small stocks of as a coastal patrol & SAR aircraft.

The subject is a Mi224D-1 of II.JG3 operating in the Murmansk Salient in early 1947, paired with 126 Wing of 2 TAF, which transfered to the Karelian Front in August 1946 as the primary Allied air component operating with the Ilmavoimat after the Finns entered the war and opened up the third front. Murmansk was a primary goal of allied forces to improve supply lines to Finland given the continued Soviet naval presence in the Baltic prior to late 1948 and the difficulty of transfering supplies from Norwegian ports to Finland.

The kit is the Academy, chubby fuselage and all, with decals drawn from Airfix's Bf109G-6 boxing as well as some modern Luftwaffe insignia stolen from an Academy F-104G, all in 1/72. The paint scheme is undecided, but will be a Luftwaffe Eastern Front winter scheme of some sort with 2TAF theater markings (black spinner, yellow outboard leading edges)

Pictures will be posted shortly

Edited by Adam Maas
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Thanks for the welcome,

As promised, here's some pictures. First off the obligatory start pic, including the kit and the two sets of decals I'll be raiding for markings.

8211575565_c7c73afa06.jpg

Academy Spitfire XIVc 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr

And the kit itself pretty much falls together, It didn't take much to go from bare sprues to a built-up airframe.

8212664228_c96c3e0a3b.jpg

Academy Spitfire XIVc 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr

8211575333_bf106754e5.jpg

Academy Spitfire XIVc 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr

I've been filling seams now, only one real gap at the rear of the wing/fuselage interface which will need some proper putty, otherwise it's just a bit of Mr. Surfacer 500 and everything is good. In fact I need to decide pretty quick on a winter scheme because she's about ready for paint.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Painting has begun, first the underside RLM65

8299586270_f819a0502f.jpg

Academy Spitfire XIVc 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr

I'm doing a splinter scheme up top, in RLM70/71. Overall scheme is a combination of the high-demarcation Seafire EDSG/Sky scheme and the classic high-demarcation 70/71/65 splinter scheme from the Bf109E, I've decided to skip the white overcoat due to the area of operations (the Finns rarely used winter schemes due to the heavy forests they operated over, and the same went for many of the Luftwaffe units operating from Finland). I'm going to experiment with some mottling though.

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Thanks Parabat,

I overdid the mottling though, couldn't get nice mottles with the method I was using (dabbing sponge bits) so I decided to go heavy to cover it up.

Here's the completed model. Spinner and Leading Edge stripes are 2 TAF identification, the fuselage band is the theater marking.

8323786037_bf3f5a5dd2.jpg

Academy Spitfire XIVc 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr

8323786285_0c98bfb45b.jpg

Academy Spitfire XIVc 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr

8323786371_f284c58da6.jpg

Academy Spitfire XIVc 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr

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Nice one Adam, that scheme suits the Spitfire, perhaps the angular nature gives a contrast to the smooth curves but it also makes the Academy fuselage look less portly and mishaped.

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