Israeli Spitfires – 66th anniversary

     Israel's first Spitfire ד-130 took to the air on July 23, 1948. The test flight conducted by former WWII South African Air Force Spitfire pilot, the late Boris Senior, initiated Israel's love affair with the Spitfire which began 66 year ago. Most of Israel's Spitfires were retired from service prior to the October 1956 Suez War, some ending up as kid's toys in Kibbutz playgrounds and others in airworthy condition over the skies of Europe. One Spitfire, known as "Ezer's Black Spitfire" was retained in Israel, thrilling on lookers during pilot's acceptance ceremonies and holiday IAF museum openings.

     Last year's release of new tooled 1/72 Spitfire Mk.9e kits by AZmodels and Sword models of the Czech Republic, inspired me to build eight Israeli Spitfires that saw service between 1948 and 1956. The text below provides colors notes used to paint my Israeli Spitfires.

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Spitfire no.03 –– prior to October 1956:
    AZmodel 1/72 scale Spitfire no. 03 wears the Scorpion Squadron insignia on the left side of the nose, along with a yellow spinner and yellow and black rudder stripes. The camouflage colors match US f.s.595b standard: Gray f.s.26373 lower surface with upper surface camouflage Blue f.s.25045 and Brown f.s.30145. 

    Blue used for the star of David on a white background circle is slightly lighter than RAL5008 and also slightly lighter than f.s.25045.

Yoav Efrati

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