Mk Vc, VF-R, 5th FS, 52nd FG, February 1944

Back in late 2004 I wanted to model a Mk Vc, but unfortunately nobody made one.  Okay, to be fair, Airfix provided their Mk Vc(t) which was their Vb with that atrociously thick blob of a wing.  I actually attempted that kit and the result was pretty poor, as expected.

Earlier that year I'd begun a number of Spitfires, and starting building my stash of Spitfires and Seafires.   Only a couple of years before that I'd had only 1 Spitfire in my collection and it was on my shelf.  An '80's build of the Airfix Vb.  But there didn't seem to be a decent Vc.


So after studying a CMR Seafire IIc kit I realized the c wing from it was identical to a Vc (that would be a real "duh" moment today!).  Since I'd made the realization that the Revell Vb kit was inaccurate but detailed (cheap yes, no gull wing, though) I considered my first cross-kit by marrying the Seafire's c wing to the Revell fuselage.

An expensive option, yes.  But I was lucky enough to get a free wing out of the effort by publishing my build article for WestCoastHobbys and sharing the info with Petr at CMR.  My hope was a resin conversion set from CMR but Petr assured me other things were in the works...I'm sure that meant Sword's Vc, ultimately.

The Subject

Spitfire Mk Vc, VF-R, 5th Fighter Squadron, 52nd Fighter Group, USAAF, Italy, February 1944.  Flown by Lt John Anderson who achieved 2 kills over Me-109's on 15th February.  The aircraft has a non-standard camouflage scheme of a dark green, brown and sand to a non-standard pattern.

It's possible the colors are RAF Dark Green, Dark Earth and Middlestone, or alternatively USAAF ANA 613 Olive Drab, a brown, and ANA 616 Sand.  Or a mix of USAAF and RAF paints or even captured Italian paints.

The underside is thought to be a light blue, possibly a lightened ANA 609 Azure Blue, or RAF Sky Blue or an Italian light blue.

The Model

Since I had a few Revell Vb kits laying around, and the kit is reasonably detailed I cut the lower fuselage until the CMR wing would fit.  Like nearly all Spitfire kits in a single scale, the wings and fuselages are interchangeable and this made construction very easy.

Once I was satisfied with the wing/fuselage fit, I made the kit per the instructions.  

Masking and painting was straightforward.  I used Testors Model Master paints all around, specifically ANA 613 Olive Drab, RAF Dark Earth, and a lightened ANA 609 Azure Blue.  For the Sand color, I used an Italian Sand by Aeromaster that I had on hand.  I thought it would look better than MiddleStone, and it did.  It actually had that "desert pink" look to it next to the Olive Drab, so probably wasn't far from the basic ANA color.

The decals are from Rising Decals 72-019, Yankee Spitfires Corsica & Italy, 1943-1944.  It has a number of unique subjects on this sheet, I've already done one other and plan to do the other two.

Summary

This was an easy build and is an unique subject for a Spitfire.  I've since made another Vc using the Aeroclub wing with the Revell fuselage and both of these are as easy as the Sword Vc to build, albeit not quite as accurate.  If you can find the Aeroclub wing the price of the Revell+Aeroclub is better than the Sword kit.

Thanks for looking...