Airfix Spitfire XII 1/48 - finished

Just a few additions and this one is finished. I can see where I've gone wrong here already - DL-K wasn't fitted with the retractable tailwheel for a start and I've drooped both ailerons (thank you Paul!)....oh well. Can't get through a build without making at least one (make that two or three..) major blunder(s). Finished in the markings of Sq. Leader Raymond Harries. Harries was appointed CO of 91 Squadron in December 1942. Based in Hawkinge this unit was one of the first to receive the new Griffon-engined Mark XII in April 1943.

Harries was ultimately the most successful pilot to fly a Rolls-Royce Griffon powered Spitfire, scoring 11 kills including a brace of Focke-Wulf Fw 190s on 25 May 1943. Flying Spitfire XII DL-K (EN 625), Harries intercepted Fw 190s from SKG 10:

" I was leading Blue Section on a defensive patrol. I had just returned to base, with my No 2, had just landed when the scramble signal was given from the watch office. We both immediately took off again, and saw enemy aircraft approaching Folkestone. I sighted one lone Fw 190 at sea level returning to France. I came in from his starboard side, delivering a three-second burst at 250 yards. The enemy aircraft hit the sea tail first, split in two, and sank immediately.."

The Fw 190 was thought to be Fw 190A-5 Wrk Nr 2511 of 6./SKG 10, flown by Oberleutnant Josef Keller.

"..I then spotted another Fw 190 to starboard. I flew straight over the top of it in order to identify it in the failing light. The enemy aircraft pulled his nose up and gave me a quick squirt. I pulled straight up to about 1000ft, and turning to port, dived right onto his tail, opening fire from 300 yards and closing to 150 yards. I fired a four-second burst, seeing strikes and flames all over the enemy aircraft. The enemy aircraft gradually lost height, with smoke and flames coming from it, skimmed for some distance along the surface of the water and then sank. I orbited around taking cine gun snaps of the oil patch and pieces of wreckage that were visible..."