Spitfire XIV NH926 help.

[Gwart]

Any help ,further images notes etc for NH926 would be much appreciated.

 

I only have the linked pic of this aircraft  and it's very low rez but even with that you can see the clipped wings and 21 style rudder.

[Troy Smith]

FWIW, the white serial suggests that the Ocean Grey has been redone with Dark Earth,  (Arabic numerals used for clarity) . and the rudder is the Mk.18 type,  it was fitted to Mk .21's when they used a contra prop IIRC.  There are threads on this.

I don't now the 18 rudder was used during the war,  so I assume post war.

@gingerbob is likely to know more, and this should give him a notification.

 

HTH

 

PS  http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/p081.html

Quote

NH926 FRXIV KEAG 656MU 24-5-45 215MU 22-6-45 Empire Gambia 5-8-45 India 30-8-45 ACSEA 13-9-45 28S SOC 25-9-47

 

Edited June 7, 2018 by Troy Smith

[Gwart]

Many thanks Troy.If anyone knows of or has a higher rez pic or can point me towards any book it's been published in etc.

 

Shane.

[Graham Boak]

I looked in Geoff Thomas's Eyes For The Phoenix: no luck, but it did have a clearer picture of near-sibling NH689.  As FR.XIXe these should have small windows behind the cockpit for an oblique camera, which the cleare photo shows to have been painted over on the starboard side.  The photo also shows the serial to have been repainted in black on the white tail stripe, just to be different.  Although clipped wings were normal for the FR XIVe, NH689 has full-span tips.

 

The old Aircam booklet on Griffon Spits has other photos of 28 Sq aircraft, and they all appear to have the full span.

 

PS  Guideline's Scale Aircraft Monographs 5: RAF Fighters 1945-50 includes photos of 28 Sq. examples, but not NH925.  Lots of other interest though.

Edited June 7, 2018 by Graham Boak

[Troy Smith]

3 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

I looked in Geoff Thomas's Eyes For The Phoenix: no luck, but it did have a clearer picture of near-sibling NH689.  As FR.XIXe these should have small windows behind the cockpit for an oblique camera, which the cleare photo shows to have been painted over on the starboard side.  The photo also shows the serial to have been repainted in black on the white tail stripe, just to be different.  Although clipped wings were normal for the FR XIVe, NH689 has full-span tips.

 

The old Aircam booklet on Griffon Spits has other photos of 28 Sq aircraft, and they all appear to have the full

 

The Aircam booklet is scanned here 

https://boxartden.com/reference/gallery/index.php/Modeling-References/Osprey-Aircam-Aviation-Series/08-Supermarine-Spitfire-Mk-XII---24

 

These are the 28 sq ones

 

 

Perhaps of use?

 

Note similarity of finish to middle two photos.

 

@Gwart  what are you wanting to find out?  For modelling purposes I'd suggest the above along with original picture maybe enough?

 

HTH

[Gwart]

Just a clearer picture would be great,it caught my eye because it's the first Spit in SEAC colours to have the later enlarged split tab rudder that i've seen.I have the decals from Freightdog and Xtradecal and i'm not 100% that it's DE/DG on the upper colours.

 

 I just had a scan through Eyes ot P and it mentions that MV349  'A' is in Day fighter scheme.

 

 It's the minefield of white serial on a late/post war Spit in  SEA = Temperate scheme .

 

  

 

[Giorgio N]

That A is in DFS is shown clearly by the cancellation of the original fuselage roundel with dark green, that is very visible in the picture. Looking at the picture carefully, the repainted area over the sky rear band can be identified.

Other aircrafts had the original roundels repainted in a much neater style, at least on the fuselage. Roundels on the wings were generally just repainted in dark green.

The white serial numbers have been generally associated with aircrafts completely repainted in green/brown, however have previously voiced my doubts about this and wrote in a thread:

 

".... However the possibility of the availability of grey paint to overpaint the roundels should not be discounted.

There is a picture showing 3 aircrafts of 17 Sqn in flight taken in October 1945. In this picture the first aircraft (RN152 YB-E) is clearly in DFS, with large green circle over the roundel, sky rear band and balck serial. The aircraft behind (RN205 YB-C) has no green circles, white SEAC bands and white serial.... however the two aircrafts have the same contrast between the paint in the camo scheme. The 3rd aircraft (YB-H, serial can't be read) is darker than the previous 2.

I know, interpreting B/W pictures is a minefield, however the 2 aircrafts look exactly the same, I'd have expected that an aircraft repainted in dark earth would have shown a different contrast in the same picture. It's also true that the reflectivities of dark earth and ocean grey are not far (13% and 16% respectively) but still I'm not discounting the possibility that markings at some point started to be repainted with ocean grey."

 

The picture I referred to is visible in this page:

 

https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?144149-Looking-For-Mk-XIV-Spit-Markings-Out-Of-The-Ordinary

[Bedders]

Interesting stuff. As I ponder a paint scheme for my primed-up Sword high-back XIV, I too wonder about how many SEAC aircraft really got the dark brown. It's pretty (the low-back XIV in the States and the recently-pranged French-owned XIX both look nice), but I'm not sure it's actually correct in many cases. Once all those crated XIVs in Burma are found, that will help...

 

Justin

[Giorgio N]

16 minutes ago, Bedders said:

Interesting stuff. As I ponder a paint scheme for my primed-up Sword high-back XIV, I too wonder about how many SEAC aircraft really got the dark brown. It's pretty (the low-back XIV in the States and the recently-pranged French-owned XIX both look nice), but I'm not sure it's actually correct in many cases. Once all those crated XIVs in Burma are found, that will help...

 

Justin

 

It was probably not that common, as really most XIVs reached the theatre when the war was over. However there are pictures showing high back XIVs that have likely been repainted, one is shown in this thread (the same from which I extracted my own previous quote)

 

 

Still, for a few that were fully repainted, it's likely that the majority simply retained their original scheme

 

Edited June 8, 2018 by Giorgio N