Nichimo 1:48 Spitfire Mk.IX(?)
This started as serious build, but when I put the plastic up against scale plans, absolutely nothing lined up and I wasn't sure what Mark it was. Usually I'm not a rivet counter, but it was the rivets that threw me off. Bazillions of over-scale rivets(Notice the starboard roundel). Back in the box she went for a few years until I happened upon a photo-shop site that was having a contest "What if zebras were in charge of painting" Along side the zebra striped White House, Pyramids and such was a zebra striped spitfire. Once built and painted, my youngest daughter fell in love with it and wanted it. A new snag hit when the clear parts wouldn't fit and so it sat for about 4-5 years. In the spares box I found a canopy that would kinda, sorta fit, another model gave me the windscreen(wrong type) and I sawed apart the Nichimo clear parts for the rear piece. May I present a fictitious South African squadron hack, coded ZB⦾A. In hindsight, darker decals should have been used
Hello George,
Amazing piece of artwork.
Fiction goes perfectly with our hobby.
Regards, Dirk / The Netherlands.
Thank you Dirk
Fiction, seriously?! There is even photo evidence there was one. At least one. I´d stick my neck out and say there was probably a whole squadron.
Good one, George!
Hi George!
I love the scheme!
I also love the fact that, even this "loaded with never ending difficulties" kit was not thrown away, but was built in a nice way indeed!
Thank you, my friend
Fantastic scheme, George.
From what I have learned is that zebra's have this pattern to keep away gadflies, not sure if this also works to keep away enemies from this Spitfire.
Thank you John
Absolutely fabulous work George. A Zebra painted Spit, now who would have thunk it. Well done.
Much appreciated Tom
I forgot his name, but a model friend of mine in Cape Town, South Africa has a real live Zebra so he built a wooden model of it about 15 years ago. I then built a 1/32 scale racing P-51D Mustang & painted it in Zebra stripes. Wow! what fun that was as there was a real 'Tang" painted up with Zebra stripes that raced @ Reno.
Your model is really eye catching!
Thank you
Being South African, I love it, we should paint all our aircraft in this scheme.
Thanks Marc. After my daughter left with the model, my few remaining brain cells collided and I thought, I should have painted the other half in tiger stripes and coded it,
TG⦿R
A fabulous use of an old kit! Nicely done.
Thanks Greg
Cool paint scheme George.
Thank you Dale
Far out ! Positive waves, looks great.
Cool! I think that kit is a copy of the old Monogram (1962?) Spitfire IX.
One of my first kits!
Thank you According to Scalemates, it may have started on its own
Good one George ! @blackadder57
I'm happy to hear that you didn't give up on the kit. The background story on this model is just as good as the build... How cool are Zebras ? When I was a little kid, my mom told me that I used to call them "Horses in pajamas" when I saw one on TV.
Thanks Louis
Not sure why I can't post under the name this one time but, thank you very much Robert @roofrat
🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
That is a very rare one George. Very time consuming paint job but nice results.
I was looking at the photo and clicked on it to enlarge.
This aircraft has no exhaust stacks.
The props are not spinning, yet the tail wheel is off the ground.
And the wheels show no rotation.
I will soon look more closely.
Thank you very much
Fantastic bit of whiffing.
FWIW, the Nichimo Spitfire is a licensed copy of the ancient Monogram "Spitfire IX(ish)" from 1962.
Thanks you Tom. It may be 1:50 scale as well