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Kotare 1/32 Spitfire Mk.Ia (Mid), with Mk.I (Early) and Mk.Va announced


John Stambaugh

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2 hours ago, Rick Griewski said:

Received email. Pre order is on

Just placed my order.  The $26 USD shipping cost to Michigan 48843 helps me to again appreciate the lower cost of the WNW kits.  The postage was “included” in the price.  It is a new ouch postage world. 

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2 hours ago, BiggTim said:

Dang, too broke right now to do it. I'll have to wait and hope it doesn't go up!!

I pre-ordered, however I only did that to support Kotare.  I suspect that when sprue brothers orders these. By the case you will get for slight less not more.  I bet once these are available in volume norm will be $100.00 range including shipping where I paid over $130.00. Normally I just won:t do this, but for me this is a worthy exception.

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17 hours ago, Dpgsbody55 said:

Looking more closely at both of the pictures of FZ-L you can make out the plane's serial number K9906.  The picture I posted is clearer and it may be that the 5 character number on the tail fin is this same serial number.  Whether the number was painted over in service or scrubbed out by the official censor I have no idea.

 

Incidentally, consulting my books again, I find that K9906 had  quite a long life.  It was first flown on 21st Marck 1939, issued to 65 Squadronj on 24th March 1939, then moved to 64 Squadron on 17th April 1940.  Next, it went to 7 OTU on 11th October 1940 then withdrawn on 18th October 1941 for conversion to PRIII standard and issued to 1 PRU at Benson.  On 26th February 1942 it suffered a category E flying accident and subsequently repaired.  On 18th March it was issued to 8 OTU before beingf sent to Scottish Aviation on 29th November 1942.  It seems that by late May 1943 it was on Royal Navy stocks, but was struck off charge almost immediately.

 

At the time this picture was taken, the paint scheme on Spitfires was fairly standard.  IE; green and dark earth disruptive camouflage on the upper surfaces and aluminium lower surfaces.  By the time of Dunkirk, lower surfaces were usually Sky Type S, though Supermarine's interpretation of that colour was usually a more blue shade than any other's.  As you say, during the Battle of France, a lot of ideas were tried out to aid aircraft recognition, and given the individual unit variations, the period is very confusing for us modellers.  Many such variations were still about during the Battle of Britain, so more confusion.  Tuck's Hurricane V6864 (257 Squadron) still had port black/starboard white lower wings in November 1940.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

I have to disagree with some of what you are saying here Michael. Firstly, at the time of the 65 Squadron photo, the lower surfaces were painted in the black/white scheme. You can see this more clearly in those aircraft towards the rear of the formation. Some aircraft closer to the camera have aluminium lower surfaces on their fuselages, and the wings/lower centre section in black/white. Dunkirk was executed from 27 May to 4 June. The order to pain’t lower surfaces Sky didn’t come about until 6 June on service aircraft and 11 June on production aircraft. Spitfires operating over Dunkirk would have had the black/white lower surface scheme, in all its variations (some fully black white, some with aluminium fuselage lower surfaces). I have never heard of Supermarines version Sky - ? I know they had a slightly different version of interior green. Some Spitfires in service did receive a different shade of ‘Sky’ when the order to repaint lower surfaces came through because I believe Squadrons had not received an allocation of the new paint so mixed their own.

Tucks Hurricane was not painted in the early black/white scheme in November 1940. It had Sky lower surfaces, with a black port wing, an identification measure brought in on 27 November 1940 which lasted until 22 April 1941. Aircraft with this scheme also had a yellow outline to the type A roundel on the lower port wing.

The serial number on Tucks Spitfire, in the photo of 65 Squadron aircraft, has been overpainted. This measure was taken early in the war, apparently in an effort to disrupt any spying or intelligence gathering by the enemy. Sensors tended to use a more crude method of altering photos.

 

 

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On 9/19/2022 at 7:34 AM, mozart said:

Yep, I’m also a fan of the very early Spit with the Watts prop. I have very happy memories as a young lad in the 1950s looking at my Dad’s aircraft books and the one picture that always held my attention was of a two-blade Spitfire, so elegant and graceful. This is the picture:

 

E5qXWk.jpg

 

As a child I wasn't sure whether the pilot was wearing a diver's mask or not!!  Look at that pitot tube under the port wing. 

Sorry to point it out Mozart but the prop is a De-haviland three blade two speed jobie. Yes I too used to wonder why the pilots were wearing a diving mask. 

regards

jon

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23 hours ago, ade rowlands said:

I was going to pre order a couple of them from Kotare directly but the shipping and taxes made it not so cost effective. No complaints, tax is what it is and a fact of purchasing from abroad. So I’ve put a couple on back order with Hannants instead. No price listed there yet but easy enough to cancel if they are too pricey when announced.

Just checked the Hannants site, price is listed as £109.99.  I already put it on backorder and ntend to purchase.

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15 minutes ago, Gerhard said:

What, no engine? Uhm, no thanks then.

The Tamiya Mk IX with engine retails for more than this kit.  They are not so expensive used but retail on the Tamiya Mk ix in the US is $185.00 having built three I have never spent that much on one though.  Usually 75 to 80 pre owned.

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