Israeli Spitfires – 66th anniversary
Israel's first Spitfire ד-130 took to the air on July 23, 1948. The test flight conducted by former WWII South African Air Force Spitfire pilot, the late Boris Senior, initiated Israel's love affair with the Spitfire which began 66 year ago. Most of Israel's Spitfires were retired from service prior to the October 1956 Suez War, some ending up as kid's toys in Kibbutz playgrounds and others in airworthy condition over the skies of Europe. One Spitfire, known as "Ezer's Black Spitfire" was retained in Israel, thrilling on lookers during pilot's acceptance ceremonies and holiday IAF museum openings.
Last year's release of new tooled 1/72 Spitfire Mk.9e kits by AZmodels and Sword models of the Czech Republic, inspired me to build eight Israeli Spitfires that saw service between 1948 and 1956. The text below provides colors notes used to paint my Israeli Spitfires.
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Israel's first Spitfire 130-ד – Israel's War of Independence - Summer 1948:
AZmodel 1/72 scale D-130 is painted overall Testors Model Master # 2062 RAF interior green
(FS 24172). Red used on spinner and rudder stripes "Ferrari Red" Humbrol 220.
Star of David roundels1/72 dimensions - large roundel on the sides of the fuselage, 17.5mm inches diameter, 16.5mm diameter under wing roundels. Tail number ד-130, and blue used in tail band and stars of David roundels are Humbrol 15 Midnight blue (~RAL5008).
Note that on the real aircraft, the rear view mirror was taken from a car, and thus its forward end comes to a sharp point. The wing is a C-wing and the locations of the cannons are inboard, unlike the E-wing on all other IAF Spitfires.
Yoav Efrati
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