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Ian Foulkes
60 articles

Pacific Coast Models Spitfire MkIX Johnny Johnson’s personal markings

February 9, 2019 · in Aviation · · 9 · 2K

This is the . Lovely kit, a real gem. Maybe not as great as the Tamiya kit, but much cheaper by comparison. You pays your money and takes your chance, as they say. I made this kit when I was having treatment at Combat Stress in Leatherhead. I entered it into the annual art exhibition they have every year and was lucky enough to win one of the certificates they issue (I think it's about 5), the first time a model kit had ever been recognised.

It was a great kit to put together, it only needed a little more care, but then it is a short run injection kit! The cockpit was truly superb, to me that is the make or break area of an aircraft kit. The whole thing is OOB. I kept the weathering restrained and the invasion stripes very well painted on, the privilege of high ranking officers! In reality, the invasion stripes were only painted on the night before D-Day, so most aircraft had VERY roughly painted on stripes, although some units did "jump the gun" with their painting... The kit now resides on the desk of a Doctor who has helped (literally) thousands of veterans suffering from PTSD

Reader reactions:
6  Awesome

10 additional images. Click to enlarge.


9 responses

  1. This is really nice. It's no wonder it won a prize.

    I'm glad you paid note about how the stripes were applied. The only Wing Commander I can find who had perfect stripes from the first was Roland Beamont, since Hawkers painted his Tempest for him. The only photos I could ever find of JEJ and MK392 show it with the broom-applied stripes - an effect that is far harder to achieve than just doing them right, and one I'll probably never attempt again. JEJ's stripes were probably repainted like this the next week.

  2. beautiful work on a great scheme...a great hero

  3. Nice clean looking Spit. Glad building kits has helped you through some tough times.

  4. Thank you for your kind comments.

  5. Beautifully done, Ian!

  6. Great to see a kit used as art therapy and win. Anything out side of the box when, it comes to modeling is positive in my book.

    Two thumbs up Ian

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