Greenshirt Modeler

Belgian Spitfire XVI

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Greenshirt
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TD231, MN-J, 350th Squadron Belgian Air Force, Fassburg 1946

The last of my Heller XVI kits.

The Subject

With the war over, many squadrons were allowed to revert their RAF roundels to their home country colors as liberated countries re-constituted their air forces from their RAF organizations.  In the case of Belgium, red, yellow and black.

350th Squadron, Belgian Air Force begin in November 1941 as No 350 (Belgian) Squadron, RAF from remnants of the Belgian Air Force evacuated from Europe in 1940.  They were initially formed on the Spitfire II, transitioning via Spitfire V and IX to the Spitfire XIV in August 1944.  They operated this mark until transition to the BAF, when they reverted to the Spitfire XVI in 1946.

350th Squadron has operated continuously since 1941; currently flying the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

The Model

Not much more can be said by me about this kit.  I’ll likely never build another, but I also believe one should never say “never”.

This one both gave me the most trouble and looks the best now that it’s completed.  Fit was very bad on this one, the fuselage having a twist to it and the wings being too flat (little dihedral).  It’s a “black plastic” kit so must be one of the latter moldings.  I was able to fix the dihedral, but gave up on the twist (warp) in the fuselage.  If I look down the centerline I can see the fin/rudder twist, but otherwise not.
The paint scheme came out quite well; I finally beat the yellow leading edge into submission.  Until now that one bit of the Day Fighter Scheme has been my bane; never able to mask it and get it painted properly.  This time I got the tape to lay down right and the consistency of the Tamiya yellow paint was proper.  It airbrushed down perfectly and after a few minutes I removed the mask with no bleed through.  Happy days!

Summary

I’ve a Sword XVI in the stash.  I hope to build that one soon, and then all my future XVI will either be the Sword or Eduard kits.  I forget who said it, but “Life is too short for crappy kits.”

If you don’t mind the raised detail, these Heller XVI Spitfires are not bad.  Just not modern.

Thanks for looking…

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