Small Scale Military Headquarters

I've got a question about the markings on one of my XD Spitfires that has bugged me for quite some time...

I've long noticed that the oversized roundels on my 610 Squadron "DWK" Spitfire were slightly out of alignment from each other. I long attributed this to poor QC on the part of 21c (as other models I've seen of 610 Sq Spitfires had them aligned and profiles and photographs weren't helpful for the most part). However, some recent research I've come across seems to indicate that the misalignment was indeed correct.

My question for the experts: Is the roundel misalignment actually accurate?

I know that the oversized letters, roundels, and lack of underwing roundels were all accurate for aircraft from 610 Squadron in the August-September 1940 Battle of Britain period. Also, any QC issues aside, I know 21c, especially during the Roy Sutherland years, was known for painting things accurately.

Thanks for any help

yes it's accurate.

while it was more common that the roundels would be aligned on RAF aicrcraft, it was always the case that they were aligned and many times they weren't. Why this was i don't know; maybe simply because it wasn't a big deal and with larger codes it would be harder to have the roundels aligned properly.

During wartime, prim and proper things such as roundel alignment would go out the window pretty quick, when there was no practical benefit to it.

ps having said that it's not all peaches and cream with that spitfire, the code colours themselves aren't accurate.....the grey is too dark. That's more likely a chinese factory error, than a R.S. error.

Thanks

You're right on the gray - it should be much whiter, but that was of much less concern to me...

The roundel alignment thing had always bugged me, particularly after I bought a 1:48 diecast HobbyMaster model of the flight leader's aircraft from the same squadron which had aligned roundels. It was in following a discussion on that particular model that I saw a note about the possible roundel mis-alignment on 610 Squadron aircraft which made me think of my 1:18 scale model.

The omission of the underwing roundels is another puzzling fact of 610 Sq aircraft and that wasn't standard on all RAF planes even from the same period. Unfortunantly, I intentionally made my plane inaccurate by adding lower wing roundel decals... but Jackson made them in the exact color and they look good

Tristan:

Andy is right in the answer. I've seen aircraft with aligned and misaligned roundels and codes.

As for the no roundels on the lower wing, I've seen more Hurricanes like that than the Spitfires. In fact the Russel Aviation Group's Hurricane Mk. IIC which flies the Canadian and North American airshow circuit does not have the roundels on the lower wings.

Corey

Here's the info I've found:

The underwing roundel (or lack of it) is due to when the markings were actually introduced.

The transition from black/white undersides to all sky was effective June 6th 1940 for service aircraft, and June 11th for new production aircraft, but underwing roundels weren't introduced until August 11th, so there is a period in the summer where there could be sky undersides but no roundel, and even when the roundel was first introduced, there were examples of non-standard placement and size.

Hope this helps.
Sam

I also learned the roundels where transfers not painted on.

Transfers? I didn't think so, I have given my spit a thorough clean 2 or 3 times now with warm soapy water and the roundels were not damaged.
Nev

No, on the real ones. The models are painted on.

Well, good then! The modifications I made to my 610 Spitfire are then at least somewhat accurate (to an extent) as the lower wing roundel decals I added are indeed "transfers"



Really, not accurate for the plane during the historical moment in which it is depicted, but I'm happy with the way it looks as that plain gray underside was just a little too bland...

bird looks good.....

At the moment my Spitfire is in storage, so I can't check, but from your photograph there are possibly no serial numbers on the model?

If that's the case, your roundels could make it accurate for DW-K X4102 which was written off following a crash landing after combat with 109s on August 24th 1940.

The previous Spitfire coded DW-K was lost in similar circumstances but on August 12th, which was probably too close to the date when the underwing roundels were introduced.

Mad Sam wrote:At the moment my Spitfire is in storage, so I can't check, but from your photograph there are possibly no serial numbers on the model?

If that's the case, your roundels could make it accurate for DW-K X4102 which was written off following a crash landing after combat with 109s on August 24th 1940.

The previous Spitfire coded DW-K was lost in similar circumstances but on August 12th, which was probably too close to the date when the underwing roundels were introduced.

Yes, no serial numbers on the 21c model and that was production-wide, meaning all 21c DWK Spitfires did not have the serial numbers. Not sure whether they were left off by mistake from the paint master or if they were not specifically on that version of the DWK Spitfire depicted by the 21c model... I'm looking at the period photo in my first post and while the resolution isn't the best, I can't make out the serial number on any of the planes & it should at least be partially visible on one of the three if its there... I pulled the photo from a website, so unfortunantly no provenance.