Original Airfix 1/48 Spitfire Vb

[junglierating]

Sorry for gash phots .

Bit of a nightmare this one as it has been in the dope shop twice the first time looked good then i sprayed a matt varnish and it reacted.I tried to lightly remove the lacquer layer on the wings with micromesh but that had the effect of polishing the errant layer.....which is what it was supposed to do duh!

So stripped it started again and here we are.

I have two mk 1 inbound in both the gentlemen and ladies scale ....im not saying which is what lol

[bigbadbadge]

A lovely looking Spitfire, even though it put up a fight.  Kudos for staying with it. Great work. 

Chris

[junglierating]

9 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

A lovely looking Spitfire, even though it put up a fight.  Kudos for staying with it. Great work. 

Chris

Just cant throw anything away 😁

[bigbadbadge]

With good reason.   I am the same, I  have the I will make use of that one day pile.  

[Troffa]

Nice Spit!  Can't beat some Royal Air Force action 🙂  Well done with the recovery. 

[socjo1]

This Spitfire with "gwiazdozbiór Wielkiej Niedźwiedzicy" badge (Ursa Major, the Big Bear constellation) was of Polish 308 (Cracovian) Squadron:

(photo from: https://www.polishairforce.pl/dyw308zdj.html )

Its pilot was Tadeusz Schiele (sitting on its plane). His was not an ace (shot 1,5 confirmed plane and 1 probably) but was very interesting person. He was son of Kazimierz - engineer, well known Tatra mountaineer, climber and skier (he was skis producing factory owner). Son loved in mountaineering like his father Kazimierz, morover before war he became glide-pilot. In 1939 he was officer cadet and became POW. Thanksfully he escaped and through Slovakia, Hungary, Italy and France finally arrived Great Britain. There he fought untill war's end.

 

(from: http://szlakzz.pl/zakopianczyk/tadeusz-schiele/ )

In 1943 he married English WAAF, Jeanne Johnstone. In 1947 Tadeusz with Jeanne went back to Poland. Unfortunantely, Poland ruled by communists was quite different country then before war. As many polish soldiers figtning in UK, Tadeusz was imprisoned. Many soldiers were then accused of being spies, some of them were sentenced to death. Tadeusz spent one year in prison, then he had work as worker. In 1950s marriage broke up and Jeanne went back to her homeland. Few years later Tadeusz went back to the mountains activities (including speleology!). From 1956 political regime in Poland became less severe ant Tadeusz could again flying in glides high over Tatras. He was a instructor of airplane-flying in aviation-club. He is author of the few very well written books about airplanes and mountains (i don't know if they were translated English). 

 

(http://www.aeroklub.nowytarg.pl/79/tadeusz-schiele)

 

I hope this story was  interesting/ inspiring for you, I know @Procopius like such details... And first of all sorry for all my language mistakes...

Best regards,

Michał

Edited March 27, 2021 by socjo1

[junglierating]

Socjo,

How fascinating and he was a caver (speleo) as well...all the best people cave for a pastime .The decals I got for a very reasonable price on line .....Techmod....Polish I believe.

Im going through a Spitfire phase atm so maybe a Pole in the desert may happen.

Always good to get some background thanks 😊 

 

[junglierating]

6 hours ago, Troffa said:

Nice Spit!  Can't beat some Royal Air Force action 🙂  Well done with the recovery. 

Well better than some inaction of a certain a/c fleet  😆👍

[Spitfire31]

Very good looking Mk Vb, with an enviably smooth finish!

 

The radio aerial is an unnecessary addition, though – Mk V:s (and later) had VHF radios with short antennas integral to the antenna mast.

 

Nice work!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[junglierating]

50 minutes ago, Spitfire31 said:

Very good looking Mk Vb, with an enviably smooth finish!

 

The radio aerial is an unnecessary addition, though – Mk V:s (and later) had VHF radios with short antennas integral to the antenna mast.

 

Nice work!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

Ahggh was wondering about that ....i broke the original fashioned a new one then added the now pointless long antenna cable ....ah well thanks for letting me know.Obvious really HF long aerial V/UHF short blade.....I really should know that lol

[socjo1]

6 hours ago, junglierating said:

Im going through a Spitfire phase atm so maybe a Pole in the desert may happen.

 

 

There are many interesting polish Spits - early and late. The most known is of course Zumbach's Vc RFOD with Donald Duck, another nice are W/C Aleksander Gabszewicz's IXs with boxer-dog

 

(City of Warsaw)

and Eduard's Spit IX "Pat" with invasion stripes and girl on bullet.

 

You can easily find many interesting decal sets from manufacturers: Techmod http://techmod.pl/ and ModelMaker http://www.modelmaker.com.pl/?i=en and Montex (masks and decals) http://www.montex-mask.com/en/home. And one set from Exito decals "Sexy Spitfires" with interesting late war LF.IX with nude girl: https://exito.sklep.pl/pl/p/EXITO-DECALS-ED48003-148-Sexy-Spitfires-Supermarine-Spitfire-LF-Mk-Vb-VIII-IXe/49231

 

 

If you want do polish desert Spitfire best option is early Spit from Eduard, however you will find proper decals in Techmod set. Best resource is book from series "Polish Wings" by Stratus Publishing. In no. 13 you will find about 10 pages fully loaded with great photos and profiles devoted "Skalski's flying circus" (or officially known Polish Fighting Team) Spitfires:

 

When you will look for something interesting, just write PM, me I will try help.

HTH

Regards, Michał.

 

 

Edited March 27, 2021 by socjo1

[RMCS]

Lovley