More painting conundrums..this time it's British.

[stona]

So everyone knows that on 7/6/40 the air ministry ordered the undersides of British fighters to be painted in a new colour, Sky typeS. I'm not going to debate what or how this colour was interpreted but most of us have assumed that the erks rushed along to the stores and immiediately started over painting the previous black and white undersides. This led ,very shortly,to all frontline aircraft being painted in some version of the new colour. When stocks were insufficient they made a local brew to conform with the order.

And yet,three days after the order to paint undersides in the new colour came this:

this doesn't mean that Sky and local brews didn't co-exist. It does mean that there may well have been aircraft operating much later than 7/6/40 with the old black and white scheme. All I need now is for Tamiya to release a nice 1/32 MkI Spitfire. My examination of the MkIX box makes this,I think,a distinct possibility.

Many thanks to Edgar Brookes whose (I imagine) many hours digging in the P.R.O. at Kew continues to turn these documents up for our enlightenment.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

The new one appears to be a Mk VIII as per 1/32 Supermarine Spitfire Mk.VIII

[stona]

The new one appears to be a Mk VIII as per 1/32 Supermarine Spitfire Mk.VIII

Yep,that one's on the way.

There are some parts in the box relating to gauges,antennae and armour that would seem to be for a MkI. All these bits cost money to make so I doubt Tamiya have done it for fun. I hope that if they estimate the market to be worth their while that they would do a MkI. I suppose it would need a different wing,but that's one sprue.

There could be other Mks possible. I'm not expert enough to identify all the "extra" bits.

Cheers

Steve

[Ian M]

So what are the extra bits you found in the box.....

Ian M

[stona]

There are a lot of unused bits,obviously for various Mks. I am not a Spitfire expert but some which look MkI/II ish to me are.

A28 Armour plate (head armour). It has a couple of holes at the top which could be for the head rest and early style regulator on an early Mk,I or II which apart from the engine and armament were basically the same.

A11 The pulley that was mounted on the aerial for use with the TR9 radio. That's the one which had the antenna wire running to the tail. The little mast is molded into the early rudder and you have to remove it for a MkIX. This must be for a fairly early Spitfire as I know it was replaced with the VHF radio system (no antenna wire) fairly early.

L8 is an alternative clear part for the right side of the instrument panel. It would seem to fit a MkI which had different fuel gauges or a MkII with its Coffman starter.

There are probably more in all the unused bits which are beyond my knowledge of the Spitfire.

Steve