USAAF Photo Recce 1945

[NARSES2]

In late 1945 the 14th PS of the 7th PG swapped it's Spitfire PR XI's for PR XIX's in readiness for the expected allied invasion of Northern Europe in 1946. As we all now know this invasion never actually happened as Churchill's much maligned "soft underbelly" approach came to fruition with the collapse of Turkish forces in 1946 and the opening up of the Danube Front. This together with advances in Italy and Southern France and the death of the German Fuhrer led to the collapse of Germany in early 1947 just a few months before the unconditional surrender of Japan in August of that year.

Model is the Airfix Spitfire PR XIX with markings taken from the MPM Spitfire XI and wing walkways and some stencils from an Airfix Vc. The overall natural metal finish was from a Halfords spray can with the remaining paints coming from Humbrol, Xtracrylic, GW and Tamiya. This is a nice little kit although as mentioned in the blog it took me a little longer to get the wing/fuselage joint sorted then on my previous build of the kit.

Next build should be one of the aircraft from the Turkish front.

[JayBee]

Very, very nice Chris. 

[Army of One]

Love the finish on it.....great model Chris....

[TallEng]

Thats nice
One thing bothers me though, arn't the fuselage stars and bars a little bit
too far to the rear?

Regards
Keith

[comrade harps]

One thing bothers me though, arn't the fuselage stars and bars a little bit
too far to the rear?

I've done the same kit as a USAAF machine and the thing is positioning the US marking around the camera window; this is located exactly where the stars and bars would normally be an a USAAF Spitfire. Perhaps my stars and bars were a too big and they go a bit low on the fuselagehttp://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,35578.0.html. Chris's star and bars look a bit smaller than mine, so, with no other unit markings there, they can go further back on the rather slim and low profile fuselage. The other option is to use the more forward location and an even smaller marking (as some USAAF photo recon Spits appear to have had in reality - but then it looks a bit too small  ).

I think this looks terrific just the way it is. 

[comrade harps]

One thing bothers me though, arn't the fuselage stars and bars a little bit
too far to the rear?

I've done the same kit as a USAAF machine and the thing is positioning the US marking around the camera window; this is located exactly where the stars and bars would normally be an a USAAF Spitfire. Perhaps my stars and bars were a tad too big and they go a bit low on the fuselagehttp://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,35578.0.html. Chris's star and bars look a bit smaller than mine, so, with no other unit markings there, they can go further back on the rather slim and low profile fuselage. The other option is to use the more forward location and an even smaller marking (as some USAAF photo recon Spits appear to have had in reality - but then it looks a bit too small  ).

I think this looks terrific just the way it is.  

[Mossie]

Something about low back spits in silver/NMF, just gives it that little something.  Nice build Chris!

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Nice and simple, nice clean build. Another nicely done PR machine, Chris. You gettin' better and betterer, friend. 

Ian

[NARSES2]

Thats nice
One thing bothers me though, arn't the fuselage stars and bars a little bit
too far to the rear?

Regards
Keith

Your'e right Keith but Comrade Harpo has beat me to the reason why. It's the camera window position that causes it. They are the markings from a real USAAF PR Spit, albeit an earlier mark, so presumably the right size.

Nice and simple, nice clean build. Another nicely done PR machine, Chris. You gettin' better and betterer, friend. 

Ian

Thanks mate and thankyou gentlemen all

[James]

Nice build Chris. 

[tc2324]

That is pretty sweet.    Very subtle and really looks the part.

[The Wooksta!]

Nice enough model but it doesn't work for me.  There's some markings I don't like Spitfires in, they just don't look right.

[pyro-manic]

Looks good, but the pics are tiny! Can we have some decent sized ones?

[NARSES2]

Looks good, but the pics are tiny! Can we have some decent sized ones?

I keep meaning to change the size I hold the pics at on Photobucket, but keep forgetting  Can you change the size when they are on there ?

[pyro-manic]

I don't use photobucket, but I would have thought so. You'll have to edit the post to change the links to ones that show the large pics.