Finucane’s Spitfire
Irish fighter pilot Brendan Finucane ranks among the most famous figures in the history of aerial combat during the Second World War. Not only his combat career and tragic death are surrounded by numerous question marks, but even one of his Spitfires required a thorough reassessment of all previously published material during the preparation of the kit and box art. The non-standard upper-surface scheme depicted in Piotr Forkasiewicz’s box art has already sparked debate within the modelling community. It is therefore useful to explain in more detail how we arrived at this interpretation.
Finucane’s SpitreFinucane’s Spitre
Michal Krechowski
Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz
Irish fighter pilot Brendan Finucane ranks among the most famous figures in the history
of aerial combat during the Second World War. Not only his combat career and tragic
death are surrounded by numerous question marks, but even one of his Spitfires required
a thorough reassessment of all previously published material during the preparation
of the kit and box art. The non-standard upper-surface scheme depicted in Piotr
Forkasiewicz’s box art has already sparked debate within the modelling community.
It is therefore useful to explain in more detail how we arrived at this interpretation.
Surviving period photographs of Spitfire
BM124 suggest, at first glance, a major anomaly
in the aircraft’s upper-surface colours when
compared to standard camouflage patterns.
The reason why the Temperate Sea Scheme
shades were ultimately selected for the upper
surfaces of BM124 in this kit is something I will
attempt to explain briefly, as deciphering colour
schemes from black-and-white photographs
can be an almost alchemical process, one that
at times produces surprising conclusions.
Spitfire BM124 was a brand-new aircraft,
donated to Britain by Queen Sālote of
Tonga and assigned specifically to S/Ldr
Finucane. On March 14, 1942, it was delivered
to No. 602 Squadron, already in the new
Day Fighter Scheme (DFS) of Dark Green/
Ocean Grey/Medium Sea Grey. For reasons
unknown, shortly after its arrival, the upper
surfaces were completely repainted in a new
camouflage layout. This is well documented in
numerous black-and-white photographs taken
at Kenley on March 26, 1942, by a Life magazine
photographer. These photographs of Finucane’s
BM124 show a low contrast between colours,
strongly reminiscent (on closer examination)
of the “maritime” shades Dark Slate Grey/Extra
Dark Sea Grey. The wing leading edge exhibits
an unusual wavy demarcation between upper
and lower camouflage, and the upper wing
surfaces are missing the characteristic
black walkways and stencilling, all of which
were overpainted by the new camouflage.
The undersides remained in Medium Sea Grey
with factory stencils intact. Three further
photographs of BM124 are preserved in the
IWM archive under catalogue numbers CH5575,
CH5576 and CH5577. These were taken on May
21 1942, when the Home Office commissioned
images for propaganda purposes and for
distribution to the media in Tonga. For this
purpose, the inscription “QUEEN of SALOTE”
was painted on the left side of the fuel tank
cover. As it later became clear, the inscription
was not grammatically correct, and the
Air Ministry subsequently demanded that
the caption be altered on the photographs
from “QUEEN of SALOTE” to “QUEEN SALOTE.”
The word “of” was therefore scraped off the
negatives, and all three images show obvious
retouching.
It is thus certain that Brendan Finucane
flew BM124 carrying the incorrect name
“QUEEN of SALOTE.” Besides the inscription,
HISTORY
INFO Eduard62
December 2025