Norwegian Spitfire IX mega pack

[JensOle]

Hi,

Over the last 5 years I have been working on a rather large collection of paints for the Realair Spitfire IX covering the entire period the mark IX was used by the Royal Norwegian Air Force (1942-1952). Both 331 and 331 sqn aircraft are included. The count is now 18 texture sets..!

Main periods with distinct scheme variations which are covered:
-Early war years 42-43
-Late war 44-45
-"Homecoming flight" with flag rudders 1945
-Early post war 46-49
-Final years-50-52

The problem is really to hold control of all of the texture files and mods right now... So I'm searching for a few Spitfire maniacs here at the forum for some test work on the package. If anybody are interested, please send me a pm with email adr. The files will be delivered as a dropbox link.

[jankees]

wow, those look really good to me!

[racartron]

Awesome effort there JensOle! Once published I had better have finished my hanger expansion to fit them all in. It is winter and those lovelies should not have to sit outside in the foul weather.

[JensOle]

Thanks!

It is a quite a lot of work to check all the textures that they are to the latest standards and have all the changes made over the years I have worked on this project, but I think I'm getting closer to a release.

Of historical interest is that AH-Z EN177 was flown by the Norwegian ace 2.Lt Marius Eriksen on April 20th 1943 when he shot down a high flying German Ju-88 T-1 at 35000 ft over England. Eriksen was by many believed to be the most talented Norwegian fighter pilot of the entire war, he scored 9 victories before he was shot down in May 1943. Back to the Junkers history, As you maybe have read so was it the personal aircraft of the B-flight commander Capt. Werner Christie. Christie was actually on readiness alert at North Weald that day and Eriksen had leave, but he cycled over to the squadron area and when the scramble came, Christie was at the toilet so Eriksen just in shorts and civilian clothes jumped in the aircraft and took off to intercept the intruder!

Another side fact is that Marius has sort of been immortalised in Norway, most people don't know his war history, but the knitted sweater called "Marius genser" in Norwegian which his mother made to him is maybe the most knitted sweater pattern in the country! He also played in several films in Norway after the war, in one he actually played a F-84 sqn commander which had flown Spitfires during the war. The movie was shot at Rygge AB involving Thunderjets from both 330 and 332 (his old squadron from the war!). The flying scenes are actually quite good.

[SeanTK]

As someone with a majority share of Norwegian ancestry and as one who has had the good fortune to travel for a bit around your absolutely beautiful country, these liveries are right up my alley!
I'm already familiar with a few that you've previously released, and it'll be nice to have a complete set!

[gribouil]

Good evening JensOle,
check your mails... I found a small issue in your cfg file regarding Spitfire EN177 (AH-Z)
Cheers,

Stéph.

[Scandinavian]

I love your RNoAF repaints and what must be a ton of researched aviation history.

You don't happen to use DCS? The Saber there is in bad need of your RNoAF repaints. They are even working on a Spitfire IX right now.

[JensOle]

No dcs for me. But i have moved over to p3d. Quite happy with the update and smoothness. I'll include 4 more paints. Two clipped wings paints of nh550/ ah-s of the homecoming flight and 46' look with Norwegian roundels. The last two will be IXc's flown by Leif Lundstein, both coded fn-r.

[JensOle]

Merry Christmas everybody!

The beta testing is going forward and I hope to have it ready for release in a few days.

The pack has been extended with 3 more texture sets:
-IXe clipped wings NH550 "AH-S", homecoming flight in 45
-IXe clipped wings NH550 "AH-S", overpainted RAF decals-early Norwegian decals 46.
NH550 is a bit interesting since it is also in this pack in its 1951 look as AH-Z with normal wing tips and pointed rudder.

-IXc BS125 FN-R of B-flight commander/later sqn commander 331, Leif Lundsten.

[HenryW]

Those look great!

Here is my attempt at a 1/72 scale model of Z*AH, i know it shouldn't have the antenna wire but i struggled too much attaching the wire before i discovered it was wrong.

Merry Christmas

[JensOle]

Nice model, but just like the realair model, it has the wrong IX wing armament (the IXe as Norway used after the war had the 20mm canons in the outer bay and the .50-cal in the inner). Which decal set did you use? The Norwegian roundels looks to have the wrong dimensions and only the wing roundels should have the half width white ring (fuselage had same dimensions on both blue and white ring).

AH-S. This is actually one of my favourite schemes. Compared to the FN-K scheme of the same time period, 332 sqn used smaller sized wing roundels (you can see the overpainted RAF roundel), but full size fuselage roundel (same size as RAF roundel). Most 331 Sqn Spitfires were painted the other way!

[JensOle]

IXe NH550 "AH-S" of 332 Sqn, homecoming flight to Norway 1945.

The plan is to upload the package tomorrow.

[JensOle]

Nh550 has a typical RAF late war/ immediate post war scheme where the b type roundel has been replaced with the c type and the serial number is painted on the underside of the wings.

[gribouil]

Hello JensOle,
the link you sent in the mail for v3 is invalid at the moment... may be is that too late?

[JensOle]

Yes, i deleted the beta files. Several changes since v3 already.

[gribouil]

No probs!

[JensOle]

Historical accuracy is a sort of a can of Worms when you first starts to dig for more information and Reference pictures.. One new details suddenly needs to be implemented on several other of the paints for a given period etc and so it continues..

[gribouil]

Take your time... We're not in a hurry!!!

[JensOle]

The beta team has been of great help.

Several issues have been brought to my attention. Bradburger also pointed out that the panel lines/bump files of the original Realair textures and paintkit have a lot of errors for the IX mark; the radio hatch on the left side is not included, rear access hatch on both sides when it should also be on the right side etc. The cockpit crowbar has the wrong colour for a wartime spitfire, Realair has painted it red (as seen on most modern warbird spitfires), it should be either green or metal, the propeller blades has decals for modern Hoffman/Dowty ones and not the original wartime Rotol blades.

These issues should also be of help for other Spitfire IX painters as the errors are included in the Realair paintkit/original textures.

[JensOle]

The Norwegian Spitfire IX pack has now been uploaded and should be available shortly, enjoy!

It now covers 22 Spitfires IX's flown by the Norwegian squadrons in the period 1942-52. A last minute addition is Spitfire IXe PL187 with clipped wings from 331 Sqn as it looked during the homecoming flight on May 22 1945.

[gribouil]

Fantastic!!!

[JensOle]

Thanks!

I'll also post the aircraft and pilot background info as found in the package:

1.IXc "AH-W" (BS507), 332 Sqn, 1942
BS507 "AH-W" was the personal aircraft of the Squadron commander, Major Wilhelm Mohr of No. 332 (Norwegian) Sqn in late 1942/early 1943. Mohr continued in the RNoAF after the war, his postings included "Chief of the Air Force" and he retired as a Lt. Gen in 1975. He flew in the Spitfire for the last time (so far!) in 2014.

2.IXc "FN-B" (MH603), 331 Sqn, 1943
This aircraft survived the war and is currently under restauration in Australia. Standard 331 Sqn scheme of the period.

3.IXc "AH-T" (BS255), 332 Sqn
BS255 "AH-T" of 332 Sqn was often flown by the ace 2.Lt Marius Eriksen. He claimed several of his 9 victories in this aircraft. It was also the aircraft he was shot down in on 2. May 1941 after first having shot down an Fw 190. Eriksen survived the war as a POW. He briefly continued to fly fighters after the war before becoming a businessman and noted sportsman.

4.IXc "FN-L" (MA568), 331 Sqn , 1943
MA568 "FH-L" was the personal aircraft of Captain Svein Heglund of No. 331 (Norwegian) Sqn, the highest scoring Norwegian fighter ace of WW2, credited with 16 victories. This particular aircraft was used during seven of Heglunds victories when he was serving in No. 331 Sqn of the North Weald Wing in 1943. Svein Heglund later also served with great success as a night fighter pilot flying Mosquito's with No 85 Sqn RAF, getting three BF-110 victories during bomber escort mission over Germany. Heglund continued in the RNoAF after the war and retired as a General in 1982.
The aircraft was also used by Lt. Nils Kolbjørn Jørstad for one victory in June 1943. The aircraft have 4+ probably destroyed German fighters on its tally.

5.IXc "FN-R" (BS125), 331 Sqn 1943
BS125 "FN-R" was often flown by 331 Sqn B flight commander Capt. Leif Lundsten. During the spring of 1943 Lundsten shot down both an Fw 190 and a JU-88 in this aircraft. He took command of 331 Sqn in the spring of 44 and led the squadron during the “D-day”. Sadly he was killed on 9th June 1944 when he was shot down by friendly fire from a naval vessel in the English Channel.

6.IXc "AH-Z" (EN177), 332 Sqn, 1943 Summer
"EN177" coded "AH-Z" of No 332 (Norwegian) Sqn. flown by B-flight commander Kaptein Werner Christie in the summer of 1943. At the time Christie was credited with 3 kills. He became squadron commander for 332 Sqn in 1944 and led the squadron during the D-day. Christie shot down 6 enemy aircraft in Spitfires. Werner Christie was one of a very few Norwegians which took command of both a British Squadron (234 Sqn) and later an entire wing (150th Wing/Hunsdon Wing). He shot down 4 enemy aircraft while flying the Mustang III and IV which brings his total to 10. After 244 operational missions he was shot down over Germany on 18 April 1945 and held as a POW until the war's end.
After the war Christie continued in the air force. In 1968 become a General, finally retiring in 1977. He died in December 2004 in Oslo.
“EN177” was also flown by 2.Lt Marius Eriksen on April 20th 1943 when he shot down a Ju-88 at 35.000ft.

7.IXc "AH-O" (ML244), 332 Sqn, 1944
ML244 "AH-O" of No 332 (Norwegian) Sqn. flown by 2.Lt Ola Gjert Aanjesen from the forward airfield Bognor Regis in the summer of 1944. This aircraft took part in the “D-day”. Aanjesen shot down 5 enemy aircraft and survived the war. After the war he continued to fly Spitfires as the squadron commander of 332 Sqn until 1946.

8.IXc "AH-Z" (NH171), 332 Sqn
NH171 "AH-Z" of No 332 (Norwegian) Sqn. flown by the squadron commander Major Werner Christie on the “D-day” (6th June 1944). For more information see texture set 6.

9.IXe "RAB" (PV181), 132nd Wing, 1945
PV181 "RAB" was the personal aircraft of Wing Commander Rolf Arne Berg of the 132nd (Norwegian) Wing of the 2nd Tactical Air Force in late 1944. As was the privilege of a Wing Commander, the aircraft bears his initials (RAB) as the aircraft code, but he also added Norwegian national markings on the wings and rudder. Rolf Arne Berg was by many considered to be one of the best Norwegian Spitfire pilots and he enjoyed high respect as a commander, he was credited with 6 victories. Tragically he was shot down by and killed during his final combat mission in February 1945.

10.IXe "RAB" (PV181), late scheme, 132nd Wing, 1945
Same aircraft as above, but at a later stage. RAF higher authority did not approve Bergs use of the Norwegian flag stripes on the rudder and wings and demanded PV181 to be brought back to RAF regulations. PV181 become one of the first Spitfire’s to be painted in accordance to the new marking regulations for the 2. Tactical Air Force. This included a small C1 roundel on the wings, no sky coloured band on the aft fuselage and a black spinner. The aircraft had this scheme when Berg was shot down and killed.

11.IXe "AH-F" (NH475), 332 Sqn, 1945 Homecoming
NH475 “AH-F” of No 332 (Norwegian) Sqn. as it looked during the homecoming flight to Norway in May 1945. Of interest are the C1 roundel on the wings, serial painted on the underside of the wings and of course the Norwegian flag stripes which was painted on the rudder. This aircraft also have the pointed rudder. This aircraft continued in RNoAF service after the war and was later coded A-AY. It was written off after a landing accident in 1949.

12.IXe "AH-S" (NH550), 332 Sqn, 1945 Homecoming
NH550 “AH-S” of No 332 (Norwegian) Sqn. as it looked during the homecoming flight to Norway in May 1945. Of interest are the C1 roundel on the wings, serial painted on the underside of the wings and of course the Norwegian flag stripes which was painted on the rudder. This aircraft has clipped wings. This aircraft continued in RNoAF service after the war and was later coded A-BO and AH-Z. See texture set 17 and 20 for additional schemes used by this aircraft.

13.IXe "FN-L" (MJ931), 331 Sqn, 1945 Homecoming
MJ931 “FN-L” of No 331 (Norwegian) Sqn. as it looked during the homecoming flight to Norway in May 1945. Of interest are the C1 roundel on the wings, serial painted on the underside of the wings and of course the Norwegian flag stripes which was painted on the rudder. This aircraft continued in RNoAF service after the war and was later coded A-AI. It was written off after an accident in 1947. See also texture set 15.

14.IXe "FN-Z" (PL187), 331 Sqn, 1945 Homecoming
PL187 “FN-Z” of No 331 (Norwegian) Sqn. as it looked during the homecoming flight to Norway in May 1945. Of interest are the C1 roundel on the wings, serial painted on the underside of the wings and of course the Norwegian flag stripes which was painted on the rudder. This aircraft has clipped wings. This aircraft continued in RNoAF service after the war and was later coded A-AS. It crashed after an engine failure in 1949, the pilot parachuted successfully.

15.IXe "FN-L" (MJ931), 331 Sqn, 1945 Summer
MJ931 “FN-L” of No 331 (Norwegian) Sqn. as it looked during the summer of 1945. As the Norwegian squadrons were still under RAF command, RAF roundels are still used. 331 Sqn introduced Norwegian flag stripes on the rear fuselage, covering the RAF sky coloured band.
This aircraft continued in RNoAF service after the war and was later coded A-AI. It was written off after an accident in 1947. See also texture set 13.

16.IXe "FN-K" (PT882), Feltflyvingen, 1946
PT882 "FN-K" of the "Feltflyvingen" of the Royal Norwegian Air Force in 1946. The "Feltflyvingen" was a short lived cadre/Operational training unit in the immediate post war years when both 331 and 332 Sqn were temporarily disbanded due to personnel shortage. It still carries 331 Sqn codes.

17.IXe "AH-S" (NH550), 332 Sqn, 1946
NH550 “AH-S” of No 332 (Norwegian) Sqn. as it looked in 1946. At this stage the RAF roundels have been overpainted with the new Norwegian roundel. The fuselage roundel has the same size as the British, but the wing roundel is smaller. 332 Sqn introduced Norwegian flag stripes on the tailfin in a position similar to the RAF tail flash. This aircraft have clipped wings. This aircraft was later coded A-BO and AH-Z. See texture set 12 and 20 for additional schemes used by this aircraft.

18.IXe "A-CD" (JL361), 331 Sqn, 1950
Spitfire Mk IXe JL361 "A-CD" of 331 Sqn of the Royal Norwegian Air Force in 1950. From 1946 the RAF wartime squadron codes were changed to a new system with one aircraft type letter (A for Spitfire) and two individual aircraft letter codes regardless of the squadron. This new system was not popular with the squadrons and during 1951 the old squadron codes were reintroduced.

19.IXe "AH-H" (MK671), 332 Sqn, 1951-52
Spitfire Mk IXe MK671 "AH-H" of 332 Sqn of the Royal Norwegian Air Force in 1951. It has a pointed rudder. Standard Norwegian scheme after regulations of 1951 which brought the old squadron codes back into use.

20.IXe "AH-Z" (NH550), 332 Sqn, 1951-52
Spitfire Mk IXe NH550 "AH-Z" of 332 Sqn of the Royal Norwegian Air Force in 1951. At this stage of its career it has got normal wing tips and a pointed rudder. Standard Norwegian scheme after regulations of 1951 which brought the old squadron codes back into use.

21.IXe "FN-L" (PL912), 331 Sqn, 1951
Spitfire Mk IXe PL912 "FN-L" of 331 Sqn of the Royal Norwegian Air Force in 1951. It has a pointed rudder. Standard Norwegian scheme after regulations of 1951 which brought the old squadron codes back into use.

22.IXe "FN-C" (ML363), 331 Sqn, 1951
Spitfire Mk IXe ML363 "FN-C" of 331 Sqn of the Royal Norwegian Air Force in 1951. It has a pointed rudder. Standard Norwegian scheme after regulations of 1951 which brought the old squadron codes back into use.

[JensOle]

I'm having another go at the famous (at least to Norwegians) Spitfire IXe PV181 "RAB"of Wingco Lt.Col. Rolf Arne Berg. New information has become available and I have done some work to the scheme. Berg was the well respected Winco flying of the 132nd (Norwegian) Wing of the 2nd Tactical Air Force in late 1944/early 45. PV181 was actually on the books of the British 66 Sqn which also was part of the wing, but it was painted up for and used by Berg as his "personal" aircraft. The Norwegian wing hoped to get British approval to use the pre war flag stripes for the wings and rudder and RAB was painted up in late November 44 as the first aircraft when it was at B.60 Grimbergen in Belgium. The RAF did not like the idea of Norwegian flag painted Spitfires and the Wing had to remove the stripes except on the spinner. It was a brand new aircraft at the time it arrived at the wing and was kept in pristine condition. I believe my first attempt among several errors has to much weathering and some errors on the shape on the serial number and RAB code. Pictures of aircraft in the PV series show that the serial is painted with a non standard font. I have handpainted it to match pictures of PV181. The RAB code also had to thin letters and have been hand made. Some changes on the location of the fuselage roundel and D-day stripes as well.

Rolf Arne Berg enjoyed high respect as a commander and he was credited with 6 victories. Tragically he was shot down and killed during his final combat mission in February 1945. He had actually finished his last tour and was about to be rotated back for staff duties. He wanted to fly one more mission and talked his superiors into letting him fly one last mission leading a strafing mission against possible german aircraft at Eelde. He was well know for his high level of professionalism in planning and execution of missions, but on this tragic mission he broke his standing rule of attacking with the external fuel tank still attached.

[Bomber_12th]

She really looks fantastic, Jens-Ole! I really admire your attention to detail. Funny thing is, I just go done shooting a ton of screenshots from a recorded flight using your previous version of "RAB" and the shark-mouth Mustang, but I won't mind doing the screenshots all again with this new version of the repaint, if you choose to make it available. ; )