This
Spitfire is painted in the colours of the 331 squadron of the Royal Norwegian
Air Force as it was painted in Dec. 1945. They were then stationed at Gardermoen
airfield from when they returned from England after the end of hostilities,
until early -46. They retained their English camouflage and the codes. The
Norwegian markings were painted directly over the English ones, and consequently
they were of the same size, as shown in this example but they were later reduced
in size.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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The
first mistake I did was to buy the wrong version of the mk.IX. due to lack of
research I ended up with a Hasegawa mk.IXc and not IXe as I should have,
consequently making extra work for myself.
some blisters were sanded down and the cannons relocated, so I ended up
with something akin to an IXe..I added the detailed cockpit from
and Control surfaces from and finally
the Eduard flaps. Soon the assembly was finished and ready for my second
mistake; Painting.
I decided somewhat unwisely to prime the Spit with Humbrols 11 chrome
silver, to obtain a metallic sheen through the camo. This was an experiment that
flopped tremendously. As a carefully tried to remove the masking tape after
having painted the camo, it came off in flakes. So I sanded it down and painted
it again from the beginning.
Finishing and weathering is many modellers favourite part of the process,
and this one is no different. The decals from Norseman were super, although they
left little possibility for adjusting once they were on. Due to my previous
mistake on the finish I was still haunted by my Nemesis, namely silvering.
Although not too much.
Finally I weathered the Spit fairly heavily, as they had seen extensive
use in this livery in the last year of the war.
Hope you like it..
Espen
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