Tamiya 1/48 Spitfire Mk.Ia
by Kursad Albayraktar
(petaflops@yahoo.com)


 This is my 1/48 Tamiya Spitfire Mk.Ia depicting an aircraft in Turkish Air Force 
service during late 1939/early 1940. 
 
 Spitfire Mk.I was the first Spitfire variant to serve in Turkey, albeit in very small 
numbers. No Turkish Spitfire collection would have been complete without one, so I decided
to build the Tamiya kit in Turkish colors. 

 Turkey originally ordered 15 Spitfire Mk.Is and negotiated a licence to build more, but
the outbreak of war foiled these plans. In the event, only three were ever delivered: One
was diverted from the Polish order, and two were from the Turkish order. The rest of
the Turkish order were diverted to RAF service during the Battle of Britain.

 All three Turkish Spitfire Mk.Is were out of service by late 1940. The service history of 
Spitfire Mk.I in Turkey was therefore less than a year long. Two of the aircraft 
(2902 and 2903) later showed up in a RAF fighter school in Egypt in 1942, having been 
returned to the RAF in December 1940 due to lack of spares.


The Model:

 Much has been said about Tamiya Spitfire Mk.I, so I will not dwell on the subject further.
It's a very nicely engineered kit with quality touches overall, and perfect fit. Only
modifications to the kit were a Cutting Edge Spitfire seat, and the elevators from
Cutting Edge's Spitfire flying surfaces. Per Bob Swaddling's Spitfire modeling guide 
published in FSM, I painted the seat RAF Interior Gray-Green and weathered it heavily
to almost an aluminum color. 

 Elevators were cut and replaced with the CE parts, since they had to be dropped as 
they always were on a real Spitfire on the ground.

Fortunately, at least two very clear photos of Turkish Spitfire Mk.Is exist. The undersides
are said to be completely black. In the past, I had some doubts about the accuracy of 
all-black undersides on a Spitfire Mk.I at the date (late 1939/spring 1940), 
but I was convinced when I finally saw a photo of an ex-Turkish Spitfire Mk.I 
in a RAF fighter school in Egypt, carrying the RAF serial "HK 954"
(from a block that is used for impressed aircraft only!) and apparently with completely 
black undersides. I decided not to delay the project further, and stick with the 
all-black undersides. 

I used Polly Scale acrylics to paint my Spitfire Mk.I; an applied a "sludge wash" of
dark brown to accentuate the panel lines, and weathered further with chalks and Berol
silver pencil. 

All markings on the model are decals. The serial "1" is from an Aeromaster sheet, and
the national markings are made from Tauro red and white decal sheets.

The flags on the rudders of Turkish Spitfire Mk.Is were obviously painted in the UK since 
the shape and proportions of the star and crescent were slightly wrong. Fortunately the 
Hobbycraft MS.406 kit includes Turkish flags that are also wrong in a similar way, and I 
was able to use these. They are not spot-on accurate, but they look the part.

The photos show that the wing walkway stencils were applied, so I used the walkway decals
provided in the kit. 

The gun ports were usually covered with red cloth before flights, and I simulated these 
with small strips of Tauro red decal sheet. 

I left the antenna wire out since I will be moving shortly and did not want to deal with
repairing the wire later.

The finished model depicts the Spitfire Mk.Ia serial number "2901" of the 4. Hava Alayi,
7.Tabur, 57. Av Blg. based in Corlu during October 1939. This plane is almost certainly 
L1066, a Spitfire Mk.I which was originally intended for Poland but was diverted to 
Turkey during September 1939.

I enjoyed building the Tamiya Spitfire Mk.I, and the model was a welcome addition to my
growing collection of WWII era Turkish Air Force aircraft. The next installment will be
a Spitfire Mk.Vb!