This is Wally McLeod's Mk.IXc Spitfire, No. MK636 21-E. It has a pretty cool story of it's own...

Last year when I got the local Hobby Club's 2003 Contest Calendar, the SPITFIRE special in May came to my attention. So, I got the plane around New Year's day.
It was a choice between a Tamiya Mk.IV or the one I finally Got, the Hasegawa Mk.IX. (chosen because IX must be better than V...). When I got home and opened the kit, I Dug onto the Cockpit. I had to mix the green color, but it turned out pretty nicely. I drybrushed the dials on the Instrument panel, and I cut the door open. Cockpit walls were painted and assembled, so I used Steve Bamford's Chalk/Water/Soap Mixture to give it a realistic look. For the seat, I was going to get some seat belts, but then I decided to scratch build them. I used aluminum strips for this, cut to size and painted. I did them on March 21, I spent the ENTIRE day doing them. Fuselage Halves, wings and ailerons were glued together. I also scratch built the Pitot tube, the sensor in the right Radiator, the antennae, the light behind the antennae, and cut the Elevators for a relaxed position. I painted the plane with Model Masters RAF Ocean Gray and Dark Green. The "Belly" was painted Tamiya Light sea Gray with a touch of blue, to make it look medium sea gray. The band and spinner color were painted Model Masters Sky. However...

On the Hobby Club's meeting I saw how some of the competition took other models and I said to myself "Daaaaang! I'll have to put Invasion Stripes on it!!" I had been uncertain if to put them or not, until that day. I painted them that night. Just letting you know that Since I got this model for this particular contest as an incentive, I might as well Do something REALLY good about it. After painting the Stripes, I now had to check for SQDN markings. The modle has decals for 443 Sqdn and 416 Sqdn. After some research I found out that the 443 Used the Mk.IXc, but I had no Number nor airplane letter. That's when Graham Boak gave me a tip and I decided to do Wally McLeod's Mk.IXc Spitfire, 21-E No. MK636.

When the plane was ready to have the decals on, I ripped a wing roundel, so I used the secondary (newer ones) instead. The Letter E was cut from a D letter, the MK came out of an N, a 4 and a T. The roundels under the wings gave me trouble too, so I used some spare that I had. Then I recieved advice from the gang at the Forum here, so I had to correct the roundels. Thank God for Aeromaster Decals. Now came weathering, I used primarly the same Chalk/Water/Soap mixture in most parts. However, I didn't like the plane that clean, so I used direct chalk on it on the exhaust and on parts where the mixture didn't work. Final FLAT was applied on it and VOILÁ!! Here it is.