One of my Spitfire models has the D-Day invasion stripes, which were painted on allied planes to try and avoid them being shot down by 'friendly fire'. Recently, I bumped into a Spitfire model which had stripes around the nose and on the tail, rather than on the wings.
Digging a bit further, it appeared that this (earlier) configuration of stripes was meant to be used for Operation Rutter, an invasion plan prior to Dieppe, which was called off when it became clear that the Luftwaffe was aware of the plans. A bit more about 'invasion stripes' generally is here.
And, as far as I can ascertain, this is a picture of the actual Spit that the model is based on.
