Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX Photo Reconnaissance

Here are some more images of Trumpeter/Heritage's 1/24 scale Supermarine PR IX Spitfire. The reason some photo reconnaissance Spitfires were painted pink is that it was believed the aircraft would be camouflaged against the rising and setting suns when taking photographs. This however did not settle the concerns of its pilots, not out of any sense of a perceived attack on ones masculinity but rather because they felt it would not camouflage them as stated but make them stick out like a sore thumb. The colour eventually did dull to an off white pink over time due to the elements. I built this aircraft from the Trumpeter 1/24 scale MK VB kit and the Heritage MK IX conversion kit. To convert it to a PR IX I had to create a camera port on the side of the fuselage as well as scratch out a camera. The seat belts were made from wire and masking tape. Some of the lettering on the aircraft I got from some old Letraset sheets I have lying around . Overall a fun model to make although there were some challenges fitting the resin parts to the aircraft but that seems to be the way it always is with resin parts.