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Don Gentile's Spitfire Mk.V

Old Dog

Well-known member
Doing something different this time due to my abysmal record for completing campaigns. I decided this time to not post until I was actually finished. Since I have provided the obligatory start photos hopefully no one will get their shorts in a knot over it. Seems better than leaving an abandoned incomplete build in the archives.

First some history:

The primary reason for building this kit is to honor the memory of fellow Ohioan Don Gentile. Gentile was born in Piqua, Ohio, on December 6, 1920. After a fascination with with flying as a child, his father provided him with his own plane, an Aerosport biplane. He managed to log over 300 hours flying time by July 1941, when he attempted to join the Army Air Forces. The U.S. military at the time required two years of college for its pilots, which Gentile did not have, so he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air force and was posted to the UK in 1941. Gentile flew the Supermarine Spitfire Mark V with No. 133 Squadron, one of the famed "Eagle Squadrons" during 1942. His first kills (a Ju 88 and a Fw 190) were on August 18, 1942 during "Operation Jubilee".

In September 1942, the Eagle squadrons transferred to the USAAF, becoming the 4th Fighter Group. Gentile became a flight commander in September 1943, now flying the P-47 Thunderbolt. Having been Spitfire pilots, Gentile and the other pilots of the 4th were displeased when they transitioned to the heavy P-47. On 16 December 1943 Gentile claimed a third-share destroyed Ju-88, and a Fw-190 west of Tours on 5 January 1944. Two Fw-190s were claimed on 14 January and another on 25 February.

By late 1943, Group Commander Col. Don Blakeslee pushed for re-equipment with the lighter, more maneuverable P-51 Mustang. Conversion to the P-51B at the end of February 1944 allowed Gentile to build a tally of 15.5 additional aircraft destroyed between March 3 and April 8, 1944. His first victory flying the P-51 was on 3 March, when he claimed a Do 217 in the Wittemburg area.

After downing 3 Fw-190s on April 8, he was the top scoring 8th Air Force ace when he crashed his personal P-51, named "Shangri La", on April 13, 1944 while stunting over the 4th Fighter Group's airfield at Debden for a group of assembled press reporters and movie cameras. Blakeslee immediately grounded Gentile as a result, and he was sent back to the US for a tour selling war bonds.

His final tally of credits was 19.83 aerial victories and 3 damaged, with 6 ground kills, in 350 combat hours flown. He also claimed two victories while with the RAF.

After the war, he stayed with the Air Force, as a test pilot at Wright Field, as a Training Officer in the Fighter Gunnery Program, and as a student officer at the Air Tactical School. In June 1949, Gentile enrolled as an undergraduate studying military science at the University of Maryland. On January 28, 1951, he was killed when he crashed in a T-33A-1-LO Shooting Star trainer, AF Ser. No. 49-0905, in Forestville, Maryland.

Gentile was buried with full military honors in Saint Joseph Cemetery in Lockbourne, Ohio. This cemetery is only about a 30 minute drive from where I live so I recently traveled there and snapped a photo of his headstone.

gentileheadstone.jpg


While he is most usually associated with his P-51 "Shangri La"

gentilep51.jpg


I decided to build the Spitfire V that he flew in the "Eagle Squadron" and the early days when it was transferred to the USAAF as part of the 4th fighter group and marked as it was after the transition. The aircraft carried most of their RAF codes and serial numbers and only the roundels were replaced with the US star. The yellow band around the fuselage star was the outer ring of the former roundel and not related to the yellow surrounds used during the "Operation Torch" landings.

The kit chose was the 1/48 scale Tamiya.

spitfire-Vb-box.jpg


The only after market I used was this long out of production decal sheet from AeroMaster which I happened to in stock with Ultracast in Canada and ended up paying as much for it as I did the kit itself.

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And since the instructions that came with the decal sheet indicated that Don's aircraft had a non standard shorter propeller spinner I assumed it was most likely the one supplied with the Rotol propeller so I acquired one of those from Quickboost.

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OK, here are the obligatory time stamp photos...

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I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on the build. The Tamiya kit is well know and lives up to their shake and bake reputation. I didn't spend a lot of time in the cockpit as little of it can be seen once complete, just the basics and some shoulder harness and lap belts from Eduard. The photos below show the cockpit finished.

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Probably the most tedious part was removing some ribs from the upper surface of the wings which was required for this version.

All buttoned up and wearing primer...

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And with color on.

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When it came time for weathering I found that many of the aircraft in these three squadrons actually appeared rather clean.

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The guys in this next photo apparently were getting ready for some publicity photos, judging from the movie camera in the background. The aircraft itself may have been spiffed up for the occasion. It looks like the guy to the left of the star needs to see a tailor to get his trousers altered. Smoke 'em if you got 'em !

Spit%20in%20us%20markings.jpg


I didn't find this one showing Don's Spitfire until after it was too late for the decals but it too appears relatively clean. This time period was well after the Battle of Britain so I assume the the ground crews had more time to look after the air frames. As you can see the 'T' was set farther forward than I placed mine and it appears the British serial number had been painted over. Seems like the photo you need always appears after the fact.

spit%20in%20us%20markings6.jpeg


And finished ! A few inaccuracies still exist but for me trying to fix them is one thing that usually results in the model becoming a permanent resident of the shelf of doom, so I plan to just live with them.

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All in all a relatively fun build.

Thanks for looking !
 
Really nice, you going to do Shangri-La next?

I always thought a 4th FG campaign would be cool but it's not very inclusive.
 
Thanks guys ! No Shangri La for me Bob, the masking and decals would do me in ! I have a couple Mustangs to do but not one of Don's.
 
Sensational job, and congrats for finishing one of these campaigns. I truly love the story as well, it made this whole build come to life.
 
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