Although
the RAF had been engaging in high altitude, high speed reconnaissance for some
time by 1941, the need for low-altitude photography on the many days when
European targets were clouded over and invisible to high-flying aircraft
resulted in the Spitfire PR1G. These aircraft carried one oblique and two
vertical cameras mounted close together in the fuselage behind the cockpit along
with full armourment as they had a much higher chance of being intercepted low
down. Often these Spitfires were finished in a light shade of pink, the theory
being that when seen from the ground and flying beneath cloud this was the
best camouflage.
By
the spring of 1941, some of these aircraft were flying from St Eval in Cornwall,
photographing the German fleet moored in French naval bases. This scene as meant
to representative of a dispersal pan in one corner of this airfield on a
winter's afternoon, the main players being a pink PR1G, and a Bedford QL
refuelling lorry.
The
Spitfire was built from the Tamiya Mk1. Some have criticised the wing shape on
this kit – true, it doesn’t have the complete precision of the ancient
Airfix offering in terms of planform, but to listen to some critics it renders
the aircraft unrecognisable! This isn’t the case, and a few minutes sanding
easily gets it into shape. Details are from the Aires set.
I just added a pilot’s mirror (got to keep the lipstick looking good in a pink
aeroplane) and the undercarriage indicator rods.
The vacform
hood was from Aeroclub. The curved glass cover of the oblique camera port was
made from a section of old Spitfire canopy selected for the correct curvature.
The
one exception to my use of the Aires set were the engine bearers. There was no
way I could get the lower tubes of this one-piece moulding to fit their
stations, tucked inside the wing root leading edges. They were simply far too
wide, and to get them into place would have necessitated hacking back the wing
roots in an outboard direction to quite unacceptable levels, completely
destroying the accurate complex curvature of the fillet panels.
I
resorted to the metal engine bearers from Aeroclub, which of course didn't fit
the Aires engine block, or the bottom cowling. Some serious (and risky) surgery
was required, and in the end I ended up with ragged results and a bottom cowl
made from an HP Hampden bomb-bay door! For me, this is the least satisfactory
part of the completed model to look at, and a lesson learned.
Photo 5 below.
With hindsight, I’d have filed the bearers down a little further –
they look a little thick and chunky with paint on. I bent the cowling
rails by accident when removing them, and never managed to get them back
into shape. Engine 'plumbing' was built from fuse wire,
copper wire, and stretched sprue.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Not
sure what scale the Airwaves weighted Spitfire wheels are supposed to be,
but they sure aren’t 1/72 like it says on the packet! I ended up using the
fairly accurate hubs from the Airfix 1/72 Spitfire inserted into the wider,
squarer-sectioned tyres of the Tamiya. There are also stretched sprue brake
pipes running down the undercarriage legs. Unfortunately, the starboard leg had
an accident on the day of the photoshoot..
For
the pinkification process, I chose PlastiKote Satin Super 'Cameo Pink' in a
great big spray can from the DIY megastore. This is as near as dammit the
'right' shade, judged by photographing in daylight, in monochome and comparing
the results with the few existing original photographs.
Decals
are from Model Alliance. Second deliberate mistake – yes, the serial IS
spurious! It belongs to a PR Spitfire, just not a pink one from St Eval.
Attempts to put an accurate serial together from my spares box ended in tears as
decals split, folded or spontaneously combusted (ok, I made the last one up, but
that’s about the only thing that didn’t go wrong). In the end, this was all
I had left. Sorry purists and sticklers..
The
airman’s ladder was scratch built from an old credit card. Not RAF standard,
but a lot of fitters and riggers brought along their own, apparently (ladders,
not credit cards). The airman himself is from the Airfix RAF refuelling set, of
which more later! (Tip of the day – if a cowling refuses to fit properly and
sits at an angle, add one airman in the process of removing it and no-one would
ever guess)
For
the concrete pan, after much trial and error I arrived at thick layers of
appropriately mixed artists’ watercolours over a dark base, left to dry
thoroughly and then scored into 1.5 inch (9 foot) slabs with a craft knife
(always better than drawing them on). Grass in the cracks looks good.
The grassy areas were landscaped with a little filler (just a few subtle
undulations) and painted green/brown. Then static grass was applied
(nothing too scientific – lashings of Copydex, sprinkle the grass on
between finger and thumb, and perk it up on top of a good old fashioned
CRT telly. Remember to switch the telly on).
The
dry stone wall was assembled stone-by-stone from semi-dry filler (squished
slightly into place to look like carefully selected and fitted stones),
with slates on top from a thin dry sheet of filler. There are many national and
regional varieties of dry stone wall – I expect railway modellers are way
ahead of me here. This is meant to look like a Cornish one.
The
RAF standard airfield perimeter fence posts are matchsticks cut to length and
coated in Copydex, textured with a sprinkling of sand and sprayed with a fine
mottle of grey primer. The wires between the posts are stretched sprue. (Tip of
the day – if your stretched sprue wires are saggy, taughten them up by
touching them momentarily with the head of a recently-extinguished match. The
plastic contracts instantly, pulling everything straight. It works on biplane
rigging, too).
Finally,
the truck. Old hands will instantly recognise Airfix’s Bedford QL. I
don’t have much to add to Greg Ewald's excellent review at modelingmadness.com,
except to advise that you dry-fit everything, and when it comes to fit,
assume nothing.
Additions
included the quarter-light pillars, one wing mirror and the flexible hoses
leading from the tips of the refuelling wands.
I’m
sure many readers will already have spotted my third deliberate mistake. The
high-visibility yellow-topped paint scheme of the Bedford QL is completely wrong
for 1941 – I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to make this an unusually
colourful wartime scene. (A drab camouflage scheme would be more authentic, but
boring). One just has to imagine a local senior officer being about three years
ahead of the game in adopting this scheme for his airfield’s vehicles.
Lastly
a word on the decals – you will need to trim them to the edges of the
printing. The transparent edges will – and did – overlap several raised
parts and edges in a way that no amount of Decalfix will.. er.. fix. In other
words, many of the decals, untrimmed, simply do not fit the model. All the same,
this was a very satisfying build – my first model vehicle for 27 years!
Copious
amounts of blood, sweat, tears and thinners went into this one, and I learned a
lot along the way (this is my first full diorama). I would recommend the Tamiya
Spit Mk1 in conjunction with the Aires detail set to anyone. I personally think
the single pink colour shows
off the aircraft’s lines more than any camouflage scheme, and it’s certainly
a talking point.
Thanks
Steve!
Photo
15 and 16 by Sam Potter
Matt Bearman
Click on
images below to see larger images
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