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Info regarding Spitfire Mk.Vb W3528 "W.D.F.U.N.Z."


k5054nz

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 Hi all,
W3528/OU-C was one of the more successful of 485Sqn's Presentation Spitfires with one 109E destroyed, x1 109F damaged, a Fw190 destroyed and another probable, and (from Gerard S Morris' Spitfire: The New Zealand Story) "6 E-boats dam 1/10 share" over 42 combat sorties.

I'd quite like to build a 1/48 model of this airframe, however aside from the photos in the book and this one on the AFMNZ site:

PR8897

images of this airframe are proving a little tricky to unearth. [a href="https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/DKD72034"]DK Decals[/a] produced a 1/72 sheet with a bunch of 485's Presentation Spitfires (including W3528 - Option 5) 

DKD72034 01

but I have learned these instructions are incorrect:

On 10/1/2019 at 8:39 AM, Smithy said:

5. Profile 5 should certainly be in the new DG/Mixed or OG/MSG scheme. She was TOC by 485 on the 30/8/1941 so over two weeks after the changeover and would have had the new scheme applied when she was with 24 MU immediately prior to 485. All the photos of W3528 at Redhill show her in the new scheme.

I'd be grateful to see what images of this aircraft may be lurking in forumites' collections.

 

In addition I'm curious about various details, prompted by the below posts:

On 9/23/2012 at 7:07 PM, Mark12 said:

Another possibility is that 485 painted the spinners of their Spitfires a unique colour. A RNZAF official photo of a Mk V, claimed to to be Redhill in 1941, has a light coloured spinner, possibly white, mounted to a dark spinner back plate, possibly red. It would not have come from the factory with a dark spinner back plate.

On 9/23/2012 at 7:32 PM, Mark12 said:

485 Squadron Spinners.

A dark back-plate on a single DH prop could be an anomaly.

5-485Sqn1941PeterArnoldCollection01_zpsc8d240df.jpg

Three Mk V's with Rotol props and dark back-plates starts to look like a pattern.

5-485Sqn1941PeterArnoldCollection02_zps57fbd11b.jpg

On 9/23/2012 at 9:42 PM, Mark12 said:

W3528 OU-C, W3652 OU-V and AB918 OU-Y all had dark colour spinner back-plates.

On 2/8/2018 at 4:17 AM, Graham Boak said:

W3322 was the first to have the new canopy yes, but W3373 still had the earlier canopy, as did W3506 and W3528.

 

So with all this in mind my model should have:

- Dark Green/Mixed or Ocean Grey/Medium Sea Grey camouflage over Sky 

- a Sky spinner with a dark (black?) backplate

- an "early" canopy

Does all this sound correct? I need educating as which kits offer to the correct canopy, and would appreciate Tamiya XF paint suggestions for the relevant colours if possible. 

 

On the paint issue, Troy Smith had this to say:

  

5 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

someone will say

 

Tamiya XF-81, 82, 83, with XF-21 plus white for the Sky....

 

If not joyless colour nazi,  these will probably do.  

 

I'd disagree, but I've been turning into (turned into?) a JCN,  so  if you want something accurate to references using Tamiya, you need to mix....   if you want to down that rabbit hole ask away.....

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/30/2022 at 8:34 PM, wmcgill said:

W3528 has the rare "triangle" version of the fishtail exhausts. I don't think anyone does these as aftermarket.

Thank you, that's a real "gotcha"!

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