This is the Eduard 1/48 Tempest, a very nice kit. I did it as the NV994 the 1st Costermann's JF-E and the only one who have known combat with this code.
This plane was affected to No3 squadron in April 45, and Clostermann took it on the 14th of this month.
Some famous pictures were taken the 18th April
On these pics we can see that the E was pretty clean while the JF was dirty. Maybe the single letter was paint after, and no more than 4 days before the pictures.
The 20th Cloclo scored his two last aerial victories with this plane, and belly landed after he was damaged by flak.
After V day this plane had his nose painted in red and the victory marks were added "to show off" as Clostermann himself said.
One of the 18th april pic
I tried to make my model look like the photo with the E cleaner than the JF. This was a pretty new machine so except for the exhaust stains I applied only a little weathering.
Cheers
Secu
