ReluctantRenegade

I’ve never seen a green-gray Mk.1 before. Does anyone have more info about it?

1 reply

betheyn Senior Editor

From the Eduard instruction sheet.
Spitfire Mk.Ia, carrying the serial X4828 and RF-K code, belonged to No. 303 (Polish) Squadron and is representative of the new Day Fighter Scheme,
introduced on August 19th, 1941. From that date, RAF day fighters were painted in Dark Green and Ocean Grey on the upper surfaces and Medium Sea Grey
on the lower surfaces. The aircraft letters were by then changed to Sky, and the fuselage band and spinner remained in the same colour. Note the thin dark
border around the letters and the stencil data inscriptions painted on the Ocean Grey surfaces, which are believed to be remnants of the original Dark Earth
layer. No. 303 Squadron was moved to RAF Speke from RAF Norholt on July 17th, 1941, leaving their Spitfire Mk.IIb aircraft behind to receive old war weary
Mk.Is for training purposes. RF-K was flown by AFlight leader F/Lt Kolaczkowski, who was later No. 303 Squadron Leader from November 21st, 1941 to May
7th, 1942. The name ‘Vojtek’ is Kolaczkowski´s nickname and the name ‘Krysia’ was the nickname of his girlfriend Kristina. It is not known with certainty
if these inscriptions were painted on the right side as well. No. 303 Squadron returned to Norholt on October 7th, 1941 to be re-armed with the new Spitfire
Mk.Vb and engaged the new German Fw 190As in intense combat on the other side of the Channel.
Andy

ReluctantRenegade

Thanks Andy, much appreciated! So the new scheme actually debuted on a Mk.1?

Cheers,
Israel

Panzer_modeler

Looks like a very nice kit!