Here are a few photos of my recently finished Tamiya 1:48th Spitfire MkI. I was looking for something unusual, so I chose do convert and paint as one of the low altitude flying PRU Pink Spitfires. Be sure to click on the link to the article I wrote, there you will see a complete description of how I built and painted the kit as well as more detailed photos.
Very nice build [tup][tup]. Excellent painting & weathering. I didn’t know Mk. I’s flew in this scheme, always thought they were the later Mk. VIII/ X’s. Learn something from this Forum everyday. Thanks for sharing.
If you do some more research next time you do a Spitfire PR1, though, you’ll find that a) they were unarmed, so no red gun-port patches or spent cartridge ejector chutes; and b) the cameras were in underwing fairings, which you have to scratch-build. This also means that there’s no camera port on the port fuselage side. Also, the sliding portion of the canopy had bulges each side, to make it easier for the pilot to look down at what he was photographing. Finally, they weren’t equipped with radios, so no radio aerial wire or mast, and also no rear-view mirror.
There was an article on this in Scale Aviation Modeller International a few years ago. If I can find it, I’ll let you know which issue.
Chris, as I mentioned the Spitfire was the early “G” type which would have retained all the original equipment. The only thing which this particular aircraft may have had different were the tail flash which could have been smaller, I used the kit decals here so they are only the larger ones. I pretty much used the article by Gordon Stronach “The Pink Spitfire” in the Verlinden Magazine Vol. 8 No.4. He outlines the build of the aircraft and it’s conversion. HTH
BTW for anyone who is concerned the canopy did not have bulged glass.
Cheers
Anthony
The article, which was on the development of photo-recce aircraft in the RAF from 1939 to 1997, was in the April 1997 issue of Scale Aircraft Modelling (vol. 19, no.2). It contains a number of interesting and useful profiles and photographs, from which it appears that a number of equipment and markings arrangements for the Spitfire PR1G were possible; (some with radios, some without; some with bulged canopies, some without).
One point that is made, however, is that the shade of pink used was paler than the normal PRU pink, because the planes were mostly used over the sea, to recce coastal targets in northern France.
