I love that it’s been taken back to Spit I form. Great to see the knock out panal in the slab side canopy too.

Just one question out of curiousity not complaint. Did the late Mk Is have the rounded oil cooler intake like the V or did they still have the half circle?

Here’s mine.

Was Spitfire XII EN234 EB-Q modified with a camera behind the cockpit into an FRXII in the Spring of 1943 for low level recces as being flown by 41 Squadron at the time from Hawkinge?

F/L Douglas Hone was assigned to that kite and it was his recollection of using it for low level photography that has left me wondering. Does a photo of it exist out there somewhere?

Yeah I know, not very earth shattering, but I’d like to know.:D

The photo was taken by Charles Brown from an Oxford, midmorning on October 17, 1943 between Worthy Down and Keevil near Trowbridge.

This from a letter I have from Clive Gosling who is the pilot of MB882 in that picture. Obviously it was taken prior to going to 41 Squadron. The well known in flight photos of DP845 were taken the previous day with F/L Gosling flying DP845 on that sortie as well.

I tried blowing up a good copy of another photo from the same flight but I can’t make out what the handwriting is.

As for 41 history, go here:

http://brew.clients.ch/Body41.htm

Lots of info from lots of folks. Much of my Spit XII stuff is there. MB882 was a Flight Commander’s aircraft, first flown by F/L Don Smith RAAF and then F/L Terry Spencer when Smith went on to command 453 squadron. It had one of the last two Spit XII kills of the war when F/L Spencer shot down LW “Experten” Bully Lang and his 190 on September 3, 1944. MB882 took hits to the tail during that fight. Spencer downed a number of V-1s flying MB882 and it’s the bird he was flying when he ‘tipped’ a V-1, something difficult to do in particular with a clipped wing Spit.

Peter Cowell was flying MB882 at low alt over the Channel when he ‘bounced’ off the water, shattering evenly all 4 blades about halfway down on each. He barely limped back at full throttle. This was in June 44.

Get me going on XIIs and I can talk or type for days 🙂

Dan

Neil996
I do ALL of it in Photoshop, though as you can see from mine, not a “blackline” showing. For color wash in line work, it probably would be best to do the line art in Illustrator, and color it up in Photoshop. Lots of layers is best. Copy a layer before you do anything drastic. That is the wonderful thing about layers as opposed to hand painting….whoops….wash it off….start over !!

This ’17 I have been working on is not just nose art, it is full length, 36″ and high resolution. BIG file. Still tracking down rivit patterns for the aft section, tail and wing bottoms. Just takes time!

I start in Illustrator then take it to photoshop. Lets me have templates of different birds and adjust them before going to Photoshop. The 109E started there and finished in photoshop with lots of layers. The Mustang hasn’t made it to photoshop yet as I keep adding detail as I find it.

Good to hear & she looks very nice indeed. 🙂

Congrats to all who have worked on her.

Interesting to note she hasn’t been restored with a ‘b’ wing though!

Seems it’s a ‘c’ wing without the spare chimney pot!

Cheers

Paul

I know it’s not my money and not my Spitfire, but why go to all that expense and not get the look of the cannons right?

I love the early roundel/later gray green combo. That’s a nice change of pace.

I do remember well hearing that rumor of crated Spits in Australian caves when I was in college and did a semester in England. Some old guy in a pub was talking about it. That was 1980.

Now if I could just find a crated Spit XII in my back yard, I’d have it made!

Checked the logbook of the Spit pilot that I have. He started on Spits in December 41 and finished up his combat flying in August 44.

His totals were 569.15 hours in Spits.

I’d assume that might be about normal for the average Spit pilot during the war.

He flew Is, IIs, Vs, IXs, XIIs and XIVs

Dan

It’s a wonderful film, well worth seeing.

As for the aircraft. When the Andrews character and two others get back from overseas, they hitch a ride in a B17E going their way. Lots of good film of that bird too.