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Malta Spitfire EP706


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My father, who will be 94 in October, was an aero-mechanic with the RCAF during WWII. He was stationed in Moncton, New Brunswick in the summer of 1943 when George "Buzz" Buerling was doing his Victory bonds tour and met him briefly when he lent him a Harvard trainer to "go for a tilt". When I asked him what he was like, Dad said he seemed like a "nice-enough" fellow, but "there was something about his eyes....he had the eyes of a ....." and then he didn't say anything more. I finished his sentence by saying "a killer?" and he just nodded. You have to know my Dad, he refuses to speak poorly of anyone and has been that way his whole life. He also laments the fact that he never saw combat, or went to Europe, or as he puts it, "made any real contribution to the war". I get all over him for that but I know it bothers him. So, I want to dedicate this to my Dad and all the other veteran "erks" who kept the planes flying. Without them, we couldn't have won it.

I am building a 1/32 Hasegawa Spitfire Mk. Vb which I will do up in Malta colours. The a/c was designated T/L and was s/n EP706. According to records I have found, Buerling flew it on several ops and is said to have made his 19th-22nd kills in this aircraft. For those of you who don't know about Buzz (aka "Screwball") Buerling, he was the top Canadian ace in WWII, credited with 31 1/2 kills. Twenty-six of these came while he was stationed on Malta in the summer of 1942 and he scored them in a mere 14 days of flying. He also scored numerous Probables and Damaged while there. As they had no gun cameras, they relied solely on eye-witness accounts from other pilots as verification.

I highly recommend the book "Malta Spitfire" written by Buzz and Leslie Roberts, first published in 1943. It is an amazing first-hand account of this offbeat but extremely gifted fighter pilot and of the battle over Malta.

The obligatory boxshot...

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A representation of EP706's paint scheme...

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An actual colour shot of a Malta Spit Vb.....

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I am currently looking for aftermarket parts, whatever is available as well as a good decal sheet for this project. Any comments, pos or neg, are welcomed!

Edit: I have ordered the Aires Spit V Cockpit set & Aircraft Conversions landing gear set.

Thanks,

Don

Edited by Big Daddy
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