Thanks all.
I've been trying to narrow down a scheme to use on my model while retaining the yellow spinners and the red and white stripes on the tail as shown in the photo on page 1. In doing so , I've come across A LOT of conflicting information. First of all, there really aren't a lot of pics on the net of aircraft with these red and white stripes. The few that do exist mostly come from references I already have but some are unique. The photos and references often confuse these aircraft as belonging to 60 Sqn SAAF or 680 Sqn RAF and there is also differing information as to whether or not the yellow vs red spinners seen in colour pics were used to distinguish aircraft between the two squadrons, which used the same base for a time at Foggia and which did not display squadron codes, or whether the different spinners distinguished aircraft of different flights within the same squadron. At any rate, I want to make my subject one that can be supported by photographs showing enough detail to support the choice of code letter, spinner colour, and serial number. It came down to the following choices.
The first and most likely is aircraft K, serial NS674 shown on page 1 of this thread:
The "K" and serial are clearly shown and the light coloured spinner suggests that it is yellow. This scheme is also used by Airfix in their 1/72 scale PR XVI kit.
The second candidate that I liked is shown in the below profile, aircraft H, serial NS851:
I have decals for the H as well as a complete serial "NS850" from my Aviaelogy set. that could easily be modified to make NS851. But wait a sec. That decal set was for some RCAF FB VIs so if NS850 is an FB VI, then what is NS851? Turns out that NS851 is also an FB VI, not a PR XVI. Now there are discussions of 60 Sqn SAAF flying FB VIs painted in PRU blue and the only apparent photos I have of this bird are here, from the Squadron/Signal In Action publication:
In the above pic, H is behind G and the serial can't be made out. It also looks as though it has the observer's dome window, which the FB VI would not have had, unless it was modified.
The other pic is here (H is only partly visible at left, serials illegible):
The same photo in colour linked from the net:
In either case, I can't make out the serial and if it truly is NS851 then it rules it out for me since I'm doing a PR XVI.
The other subject I warmed up to was this one for which two shots seem to have been taken in quick succession. The first is linked from the web:
Closely followed by this one from Osprey's Combat Aircraft 013, in which the s/n is quoted as NS644:
I like this one because of the odd fuselage roundel - until I saw that a pic of G captioned with the same s/n shows up in the Squadron Signal publication. The pic upthread of G in the foreground shows the same crooked invasion stripes as above, the same "G", and yet the fuselage roundel does not have the white separation between the blue and red (orange?). So is one of these publications stating the wrong s/n? Are these two different G's? Probably not, given the same crooked stripes. Maybe the odd roundel reflects that the SAAF maybe repainted this one with orange centers to replace the red after the other pic was taken - something I didn't know that they did until doing this research. This one remains intriguing.
Finally there is this excellent shot of RG129, again linked from the web:
This one was a late delivery to 60 Sqn SAAF on Aug 9, 1945 so the pic was probably taken post war. Interestingly, it retained the red and white recognition stripes with, I would hope, the risk of friendly shootdowns being gone by then. Technically, this one might be considered outside the scope of the GB with the war in Europe over.
Any thoughts or further info on the above musings would be welcome. Can anyone confirm the serial for G from the above pics or elsewhere? What about the orange roundel centers? Applied or not? When?