Spit and Polish

[jankees]

During our Dutch outhouse meet last weekend, I found a booklet about 'Indian' Spitfires, containing lots of information about spitfires that were payed for by the Dutch government from funds that where collected by the inhabitants of the Dutch East Indies. Funnily enough, these aircraft were not flown by Dutch pilots in a Dutch squadron, but they were simply distributed over the regular RAF squadrons, but with the name of the town that paid for them on the nose.
While I was browsing this booklet, Huub was looking over my shoulder, and told me to paint one of those spits, one that flew with a Polish squadron, No.303 'Warszawski'. He liked the squadron logo..
So here you have 'Krakatau', a RAF spitfire, paid by a small community in the Dutch East Indies, that served with a Polish squadron, and to make the story complete, was lost in action while flying with an Australian squadron.

 

[stiz]

nice not enough paints of this bird

 

[JensOle]

Interesting story and great job on the paint! No need to learn modern history in school when you can read the posts here at the SoH! <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

 

[jankees]

It turns out that one of the "Dutch East Indies' Spitfires not only survived the war, but even survived to this day. P8322 'Soebang' served with no.222 Sqn first, and later with the RCAF, and can be seen today in the Canadian War Museum in Ottowa, see here.

 

[huub vink]

Thanks Jan Kees!

Cheers,
Huub

 

[danyboy21]

Great job.

It is the A2A spitfire ?

 

[Chuck_Jodry-VJPL]

Jan Kees has proved himself a master punster as well as painter, 10 / 10 on both counts.

 

[lucas81]

Thank you very much, Jan!
As for the squadron's insignia, I will describe them a bit, because it's origin is very interesting and, again, international

The RAF 303 (Polish) squadron consisted originally of the pilots from the 1.Pulk Lotniczy (1st Air Regiment) based in Warsaw (this is why the 303 is called "Warszawski" which means "from Warsaw") The 1.PL was an elite unit and consisted of four fighter squadrons: 111, 112, 113 and 114 (and few recon and bomer sqns, but that's another story). The 303's squadron's insignia were taken from the 111.Eskadra Mysliwska, perhaps the best unit of the 1.PL.
But the origins of the insignia are from 1919/20 and war with the Soviet Russia. Before being called the 111.Eskadra, the unit served as the 7.Eskadra Mysliwska. It was an interesting unit because most of the pilots were American volunteers and they called the unit "Kosciuszko Squadron" from the name of Tadeusz Kosciuszko who fought during the Independence War in the USA and later lead Polish rising against Russia in 1794.
The insignia consists of two elements: US stars and stripes and Polish regional cap and combat scythes popular during the rising lead by Kosciuszko.
For more reading, please take a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_7th_Air_Escadrille
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_111th_Fighter_Escadrille
Lucas

 

[jankees]

Both paints are now available at OZX, happy flying!

and yes, the A2A spit.

 

[padburgess]

Great paints Jan. Congratulations.

Question. Is it possible that someone (like you) could produce the Alan Deere rendition that was available in FS9 for the A2A spitfire for FSX?

just a suggestion.

Regards
Paul

 

[Sphinx_58]

Great paints Jan. Congratulations.

Question. Is it possible that someone (like you) could produce the Alan Deere rendition that was available in FS9 for the A2A spitfire for FSX?

just a suggestion.

Regards
Paul

Paul could this quite easily. Just extend the texture names with _t. So rename spit1.bmp into spit_t.bmp, spit2_bmp into spit_t.bmp, etcetera.

S_58

 

[Bomber_12th]

Paul, I'll upload that repaint, and a couple of my others, converted for the FSX version of the A2A Spitfire, soon.

Jan Kees, thank you for these additional repaints!

 

[jankees]

you're welcome, John, but back to the ponies now, you hear!