This is my tribute to
one of the most famous WWII Allied fighter pilots. He was the officially top
scoring British pilot until Johnnie Johnson overtook him only in June 1944
(leaving Pat Pattle aside with his probable between 41 and 50 victories).
Merit to Malan is
derived from the fact that most of his victories were achieved when Britain was
fighting alone against the Germans.
As most of you must
know, his nickname comes from his times in the Merchant Navy before the war
(where he met another great ace, Bob Tuck).
After fighting in
over Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain (now as Squadron Leader) he became one of
the first Wing Leaders in the RAF. He finished with 27 kills confirmed, 7 shared
destroyed, 2 unconfirmed, 3 probable and 16 damaged.
Recent research
seems to show that Sailor did not shoot down “Vati” Moelders during the
Battle of Britain. It now looks like that a pilot in 41 Sqn was the one that
actually hit Moelders’ 109 taking him out of action for one month.
After the war, he
continued fighting for the ideals they defended during WWII and struggled to
eliminate the Apartheid in South Africa. His organization, Torch Commando, had
at one point 250,000 members!
Sadly, he died
before his 53th birthday of Parkinson disease.
THE KIT:
I decided to use the
very old and basic Revell Spitfire MkII and convert it to an MkI.
This kit has several
shortcomings, especially now that it is made in China (i.e. the transparent
parts in my kit were completely distorted). One of the most important ones is
that it does not have the typical seagull shape under the wings.
After putting
together the wings and fuselage, I sanded carefully the undersurface and
rescribed several panels.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The
union of the wings and fuselage was also a weak point and after some sanding
and careful aligning, I had to cover the gap with acrylic base (see white lines)
that is easy to work with as it can be wiped with a wet cloth and you can
achieve a smooth union without sanding.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The propeller
has a different shape so I sanded it until it got the profile of a Mk.I
one. The exhausts and spinner came from the spares box.
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images below to see larger images
The undersurfaces
were painted in black and white leaving the ailerons in metal (dope). This
Spitfire had originally had the large yellow/blue/white/red roundels over the
wings. This roundel was overpainted with new paint, I first gave the kit a coat
of green and brown (Humbrol 29 and 30), masked the wings and applied another
coat thru the template with the same colors with some drops of black to
represent fresh (unfaded) paint.
Paint chips were
done with a silver pen and the moveable surfaces were highlighted with a very
sharp black pencil. Weathering (exhaust, guns) was made with a brush dirty with
sanded black pastels. Finally, a hand of Future sealed everything and left the
surface ready for the decals.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Decals are from the excellent
Victory Models “Aces of the Empire”. It is in this Spitfire that Sailor
Malan achieved at least two of victories, shooting down two Heinkels 111 (an
outstanding fate considering that he had no radar in his Spitfire) on
the night of June 18/19, 1940 and a Bf 109 E destroyed and 2 Do 17 Z damaged on
May 27th near Calais.
The antenna was scratch built.
Fabric covers for the guns were made with red decals. Windshield and canopy came
from the spares box (only part I was able to save from the original kit was the
fixed canopy behind the pilot and the light behind the antenna). Exhausts were
drybrushed with copper paint.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Finally, the
kit was given a hand of satin barnish and the little details were added.
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