PRU Pink

hannants own? IICR

Fun! A second Cousin of mine who was a U.S. Navy flyer in W.W.II used to tell a funny story. He was on one of the Carriers in the Invasion of North Africa, not sure if Ranger or Santee. Anyway, they were recovering aircraft after one mission over the beach and one of their Wildcat Pilots comes aboard and climbs out of his cockpit and heads straight for the flight surgeon's office. The kid was real upset, swore he had seen a "Salmon Pink" Spitfire over the beach. I'm not sure if he was upset because he thought he was developing eye trouble or going "round the bend". It was a couple of days before they were advised about the odd colors of some of the British reconnaissance aircraft. Not so funny! In the meantime, there were several encounters with what pilots described as a "black Messerschmitt", which was ultimately shot down by someone. Turned out to be a recon Spitfire painted a very dark blue.

Bill Shuey

I believe Compucolor made it and Xtracolour did at one point. Search Hannant's website. hth

The Keeper (of too much crap!)

Ok, I was being rather blond and thought that Xtracolour did not make PUR Pink bacause the list of their paints I have is out of date. X034 is what I need aparantly and as soon as I am near a local stor that stocks their paint I will get a tin. Thanks to all for their help.

Regards

Alastair Macfarlane

"being rather blonde"? careful, sparky, some people might email you a bag of poo for that prejudice.

I suspect it should not be PRU Pink anyway -the mk X was a High alltitude PR aircraft, and pink was a low altitude colour.

I think it should be PRU Blue

Don't reply to the btconnect address - and remove nospam!!

FWIW The Mk. XI was the high altitude recon bird, I believe the Mk. X was a low level tactical bird and was armed. It also was built in very small numbers, possibly it is the least produced Spitfire to actually enter service.

Bill Shuey

Just been checking My references, the FR IX was in pink and armed as a low altitude tactical recon sircraft. My references also state that all low altitude PR aircraft were painted PUR Pink and also that the PRU Mk X did not have an air intake for prseurisation which is the main external difference between that and the PRU Mk XI. The PRU MkX was only built to a total of 16 exampels.

I hope this helps clear up a few questions that people have. I will probibly stick with the kits painting instructions.

Alastair Macfarlane

The upper wing roundels should be the fuselage type with yellow borders and be about 1/3 the span from the fuselage sides.

I happen to be sitt PR Mk X - PR equivalent of Mk VII fighter - only 16 built - pressure cabin gave visibility problems.

Googling for pink Spitfire references indicate that the problematic pressurisation was removed on some PR X's and that some were painted pink. No photos found though

PR Mk XI - developed from the Mk IX fighter, unarmed, spec mentions max speed 422mph at 27,000ft but thats all. However: -

PR Mk XIII - designed as a low altitude, armed fighter reconnaissance version of the PR Mk VI. 26 built, armed with 4x .303 Browning.

The whole dam PR version identification problem is that the origonal PR aircraft were based on the early fighters and were only a few conversions of each, sometimes each aircraft would be converted again to a diferent PR version which may have been by camera fit initialy. It was only with the advent of the MK VII, VIII & IX family of fighter aircraft that specific manufacturing of PR aircraft was started so that the PR MK X and XI and XIX were actual main stream versions rather than the origonal convertions which may well have had PR version numbers the same as or exceding the manufactured mark numbers. This does not help one bit in trying to identify any PR aircraft. I am definatly going to stick with the kits markings and hope they are correct for a manufactured PR Mk X

Alastair Macfarlane