1/48 Tamiya Spitfire in 1941 interim scheme

[neilfergylee]

Another b----y Spitfire!  This is the excellent Tamiya Mk.I that I modelled as a Mk.II following an inspection of the Loch Doon Spitfire at the Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum.  Back in the summer, I visited the museum and the staff there were absolutely lovely and allowed me to get very up close and personal with the airframe.

 

The aircraft crashed in Loch Doon in 1941 and was rescued in the 1980s after several attempts to find it.  The restoration has taken the wreaked fuselage, rebuilt it and mated to a set of replica wings.  Importantly, the cockpit is more-or-less intact and I can publish images if anybody is interested.  In th emeantime, take a look here for more information.

 

https://www.dumfriesaviationmuseum.com/the-collection/loch-doon-spitfire/

 

After much umming and ahhhing, I decided to model the Tamiya kit as a Mk.II by adding a Quickboost Rotol spinner and adding the all-important bulge that accommodated the Coffman starter geartrain at the front of the engine.

 

Now for the colour scheme.  I was brought up reading Ian Huntley's articles in Scale Aircraft Modelling in the 1980s.  These were utterly fascinating for their precision and personal insight but could be frustrating as he did, at times. 'go on a bit'.  I remember one particular article where one minute I was reading about colour shades and the next I was being instructed on how to fabricate a measuring spoon!  In these recent times, both to protect the original magazines, and allow rapid interrogation, I have digitised the articles and one advantage is that I can search for and go straight to the detail.

 

The period of 1941 to 1942 would have been fascinating as colour schemes morphed from Dark Earth to Ocean Grey.  However, according to Huntley, Ocean Grey was not specified until the Spring of 1942 and between August 1941 and then, a shade known as 'Mixed grey' (7:1 ratio of Sea Grey, Medium and Night) was used.  Better still (controversy alert), th einitial instructions in August 1941 specified retaining Sky undersurfaces for home defence aircraft although MSg was to be used for offensive aircraft and soon after, it became the standard for all fighters.

 

I used MRP colours, including creating my own mixed grey (which is noticeably paler and less blue than Ocean Grey) and retaining sky undersurfaces because I could.  After priming, I painted the port wing black before mottling in white with black mottling for the rest of the undersurfaces.  I also practiced by chipping skills (using AK chipping fluid), building up the colours with a limited covering of silver to represent bare metal, then interior grey green to serve as primer and, finally, a little dark earth to the chipping would reveal different layers.

 

Comments and criticism welcomed.  By the way, I discovered I had the Czech roundel wrong after I had finished the varnish. 🤨

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Neil

[Vingtor]

Nice model! 👍

According to recent articles by Paul Lucas, there was not just one single "mixed grey". Day Fighter Scheme was originally described as dark green and grey, not specifying the shade of grey. It seems that any grey colour between Medium Sea Grey and Extra Dark Sea Grey was used.

[spitfire]

That looks great, I had not heard of the Loch Doon Spitfire before reading your post so I just had to look and what a great story it was.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Unfinished project]

Super Spitfire  looks great I need to have one of these in my stash 

[ian1485]

Paint wear on the port side is amazing! Well done.

[matti64]

Excellent model  and really great transitional scheme. i completely  agree with you  about Ian Huntley, there was some gold there among the dross. you just had to dig for it.

[neilfergylee]

18 hours ago, Vingtor said:

Nice model! 👍

According to recent articles by Paul Lucas, there was not just one single "mixed grey". Day Fighter Scheme was originally described as dark green and grey, not specifying the shade of grey. It seems that any grey colour between Medium Sea Grey and Extra Dark Sea Grey was used.

 

Thanks Vingtor.

 

I have no doubt that there were numerous variations: as soon as individual units received instructions to use grey, I am sure there was a bit of a free-for-all.  However, the official instruction was for the 7:1 mix and as it's paler, it does seem to explain some of the pictures of that time: the Spitfire Mk.IV prototype being a case in point.

 

 

Neil

[neilfergylee]

20 hours ago, spitfire said:

That looks great, I had not heard of the Loch Doon Spitfire before reading your post so I just had to look and what a great story it was.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Thanks Denis,  It's a fascinating story.

 

Neil

13 hours ago, Unfinished project said:

Super Spitfire  looks great I need to have one of these in my stash 

 

Thank you - it's a lovely kit.

[neilfergylee]

2 hours ago, ian1485 said:

Paint wear on the port side is amazing! Well done.

Thank you - I used AK chipping fluid and it works a treat!

 

Neil

1 hour ago, matti64 said:

Excellent model  and really great transitional scheme. i completely  agree with you  about Ian Huntley, there was some gold there among the dross. you just had to dig for it.

 

Thanks Matti, absolutely regarding Mr. Huntley.  Just finding those nuggets!

 

Neil

[Spitfire31]

A beautifully realistic Spitfire! The weathering looks very convincing (just compare with the photo below!)

 

Two little nitpicks: the formation light behind the mast should be clear, not red, and the elevators would typically droop on a parked aircraft, as per the Mk IV prototype photo above.

 

 

All in all, superb modelling!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[Remus389]

Very nice

[bigbadbadge]

What a cracking model and great background too.   Like the chipping effects.

Great work 

Chris

[TonyOD]

You can’t have too many Spitfires, and that’s a beauty.

(Wasn’t Loch Doon what the Scots had during Covid? 🤔)

[georgeusa]

Lovely Spitfire.  (I am appreciating them more and more as my stash of them seems to be taking on a life of their own and keeps growing.  Working on the new Tamiya 1/48 Spit.)  I do like your paint scheme and the explanation for it seems reasonable.  The weathering is precise and not overdone.  I am sure you fought hard on the underside roundel to get it to conform to the lumps and bumps it has to cover.  Hard to do but it looks like you won the battle.  Thanks for sharing.

[mick]

great work