This is a repaint for the Flight Replicas Spitfire Mk.Ia masquerading as the prototype Spitfire PR.III Type D P9551. Hopefully someone will make a nice series of PR Spitfires one day but until then I can only pretend. There are several drawings of the this aircraft, mostly profiles for modellers, but I've yet to find a decent photograph.
The PR.III Type D was fitted with so-called 'Bowser' wings. In place of guns each wing carried an extre 66 gallons of fuel in the leading edge, more than doubling the Spitfire's internal fuel capacity. It would have had a curved windscreen with no armoured glass, and a large bulge in either side of the canopy with markings to help aim the ventral cameras.
P9551 first flew on 15th September 1940 and was in Malta a few days later. The aircraft failed to return from an operation on 2nd February 1941 after being hit by flak over Viareggio. Pilot Flt.Lt.Peter Corbishley baled out safely and became a Prisoner of War.
Repaint by Steve Mercer based on the paintkit and textures by Flight Replicas.