This is a 1:48 Hasegawa kit which I made many years ago. This small twin-engine ground attack aircraft has always been one of my favourites and deserves a place on any aircraft modeller’s bench. Besides, my Luftwaffe collection needs building up! I wanted to make it look more weather beaten and worn than it was when I originally made it. I am not 100% sure but I believe this is the B-2 version. The aircraft has the most unusual triangular shape, rather like a Toblerone bar! I believe the technical term is ‘trapezoidal’. This was to help deflect shells or bullets but it made for a very restricted space inside the aircraft and there was hardly room for the pilot’s instrument panel some of which was located outside the cockpit! Even the gunsight is mounted outside on the nose. The cockpit was encased in a heavily armoured ‘bathtub’ to protect from ground attack fire.
The aircraft was progressively upgraded to mount heavier ordnance including a cannon under the belly. Although it was not a very successful design with poor performance it was used to great effect as a tank buster on the eastern front.
North African front30mm MK 101 cannon I believeThis is what I want to own one day. The Zoukei-Mura Henschel Hs 129 B-2 in 1/32. The ultimate in injection moulded scale modelling. A snip at 22, 472 yen or £150 sterling. One can but dream!
Doing what it did best as a ‘Panzerknacker’ destroying Soviet tanks. 1 minute and 29 seconds of pure joy this video!
Another one of my ventures into classic British post-war jets, this time the famous Blackburn Buccaneer which entered RN service in 1962 ‘to counter the significant threat of a massive Soviet naval expansion programme’ (Airfix).
This was quite a challenging kit as most jet models are and needed a bit of forethought before actual construction. There is an option for folded wings as it is a carrier aircraft but I decided to keep mine down as I like the lines of this aircraft so much. As you can see, I have also deployed the airbrake at the back of the aircraft although initially I had left it closed which required a bit of delicate surgery to remove it!
The model has been primed with grey primer. The pilots came with the kit. A lot of modellers leave the pilots out which I think is a pity as it adds a bit of interest. Besides, I like to get my money’s worth! A little filler was needed round the nose cone and engine air intakes but nothing too drastic!The markings underneath had to be applied before the underwing stores and fuel tanks were added. Some careful masking was needed as well, as can be seen. The jet pipes can be seen in the undercarriage bays which I gave a burnished look to replicate heat. Have no idea if its realistic but it looks nice! The key to these modern complicated aircraft is patience!The funny looking airbrake assemblyThe fuel tanks and Matra rocket pods had to be assembled and painted separatelyAnd here she is in all her glory sitting on the deck of HMS Eagle. The other option was an Ark Royal aircraft. The slight sheen of the satin dark sea grey comes through but not too much as I wanted an aircraft that looked slightly weather beaten and faded, perhaps having seen a few Atlantic gales!I enhanced the panel lines slightly using a black wash and airbrushed Tamiya ‘smoke’, which is ideal for this type of weathering. It is very subtle and you can add or subtract with thinner as much as you like according to taste. There are a few stains towards the rear of the jet where the exhaust fumes would have exited. The Buccaneer was a very rugged design for obvious reasons and has a curious ‘coke bottle’ shape which apparently enhances the aerodynamics, but don’t ask me why!I left off quite a few of the tiny stencils underneath as I could barely see them and they were just too fiddly for this old dog to bother with! Unfortunately the code letters ‘silvered’ slightly, probably due to lack of gloss so good thing they are underneath and out of sight! One tiny detail was missing from sprue D, part D15, which I believe is an air intake device? I refashioned another one from scrap and am quite proud of the result. It is the elongated thing to the right of the starboard intake, which is the left one in the pic, oh heck, you know what I mean!I went to a lot of trouble to get the canopy to close and then later decided to leave it open dohhh. Incidentally, I had to hand paint the desert yellow lines on the canopy frame, not the most pleasurable of jobs but had to be done as masking would have been virtually impossible in this scale. Overall I am pleased with the look and I shall never say grey jets are boring ever again!The box cover depicting the Ark Royal version. Both are attractive schemes.
History
Just a note about the Buccaneer from James Hamilton-Paterson’s book ‘Empire of the Clouds’. Apparently, the Navy had been against the TSR.2 (the eventually aborted ‘Tactical Strike Reconnaissance’ aircraft ed. )because they had been promised a carrier-borne strike aircraft for their own use, the Blackburn Buccaneer, and they worried that the TSR.2 project would consume all available funds before the Buccaneer became airborne. The RAF wanted an aircraft which was to be supersonic, which the Buccaneer unfortunately was not, and after the Lightning anything else was considered a retrograde step. As he puts it, ‘Additional heat was supplied to this argument by the ancient inter-service rivalry in which the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm each pretended the other hardly existed, let alone was competent to fly an aeroplane’ (!).
In the end, Blackburn came up with a proposal for the P.150 supersonic version of the Buccaneer.
Airfix states:
‘British thinking at the time was to use their new strike jet to destroy the Soviet ships with a combination of conventional and nuclear weapons. Capable of extremely high speeds at low level, the Buccaneer proved to be ideal even though the performance of the first Buccaneers to enter service was affected by a lack of power from their two de Havilland Gyron junior engines. Addressing most of the issues which prevented the early aircraft from realizing their full potential, the Buccaneer S.2 was a much improved platform, boasting a modified wing, increased fuel capacity and a pair of powerful Rolls Royce Spey engines. This new variant provided the Fleet Air Arm with a truly exceptional strike aircraft, which excelled in the low-level environment. As the Royal Navy retired their larger carriers in 1978, their much-loved Buccaneers were transferred to the care of the Royal Air Force (along with their pilots I might add), who were already admirers of the many qualities possessed by the aircraft and grateful for this increase in their inventory. At its peak strength in the early 1970s, the Buccaneer equipped no fewer than six Royal Air Force squadrons.’
Specifications:
Max speed: 667 mph
Armament: various combinations of unguided bombs, laser-guided bombs and the Red Beard tactical nuclear bombs. 4 Matra rocket pods, 2 x AIM-9 sidewinder or 2 x AS-37 Martel missiles, or 4 x Sea Eagle missiles.
An interesting video showing how the Buccaneer used a feature called ‘boundary layer control’ to be able to fly at extremely low level. The Desert Storm version is one I hope to make one day!
I live in Exeter and this is about the most exciting thing to happen here since World War 2!! It certainly put the city on the map from all the publicity. Who knows, maybe they will find some more!? It was thought to be an SC 1,000 (Sprengbombe Cylindrisch 1000) or 1,000kg ‘Hermann bomb’ and was found on a waste site near the University campus. Exeter was badly damaged during the so-called Baedeker raids in April-May 1942. I live about a mile or so from the site and the boom was very loud but luckily no damage done to the house! When my parents first came to Exeter in the early 1950s, the whole of the city centre was practically in ruins. There used to be a common saying here that what the Luftwaffe started the City Council finished off when it redeveloped the city in the post-war period!
One of the most famous and easily recognizable aircraft of World War II, the Stuka needs no introduction. I made this model a few years back and decided it definitely needed a place on my site! It was a fairly straightforward build as I recall with not too many parts. I decided to liven it up a bit with a yellow-nose version and this 6./St.G 77 sports a RLM 04 yellow cowling and spinner cap.
By the time of the Battle of Britain in 1940, tactical coloured markings accompanied the revised sizes of Balkenkreuz to make aircraft recognition easier in the busy skies of the Channel and South coast of England.
The famous gull-winged Stuka was the main weapon which Göring turned against the RAF fighter bases. But the easy victories of the past campaigns had been won in the absence of adequate fighter opposition, and RAF pilots found the Stuka an easy prey (see clip at end from Battle of Britain movie). Severe losses in operations throughout August destroyed its reputation as the all-conquering weapon of the Luftwaffe, and the Ju-87 was withdrawn from the spearhead of the attack.
The ‘Trumpet of Jericho’ sirens are clearly visible on this particular aircraft, usually they were not installed or capped off to reduce drag by about 20mph. The aircraft is in the standard RLM 70/71 over 65.
Well Manfred, how about another bombing mission on Exeter!?Box art
She is quite a beast even in 1:72 scale! No. 92 Squadron, Royal Air Force Germany, RAF Gütersloh, 1974. Lightnings were used as all-weather interceptors to interdict Soviet bombers in case of nuclear attack. This was known as QRA ‘Quick Reaction Alert’ and they were on standby 24/7, 365 days a year, ready to scramble in seconds.
Despite this being a relatively new tooling by Airfix, it had a number of issues. I found it impossible to get the fuselage halves to join near the nose without major surgery inside to the jet intake, fortunately none of which can be seen when complete. It also needed liberal amounts of superglue. Even then I still had to sand the sides to get the canopy to fit better but still not 100%. The missiles were a nightmare to attach and I should have done that at the start and not at the end when the model was already painted! Still, as an experienced modeller, you get used to these problems and overall I am fairly pleased with the final result. This was only my second Lightning model. I built the Frog/Novo version many years ago which I painted all silver from a spray can! Needless to say, I have come a long way since those days!
The iconic Lightning has to rank as one of my all-time favourite jets and I should imagine every young boy who saw one flying dreamed of being a Lightning pilot. I remember seeing one at Exeter airport air display as a child. It was deafeningly noisy at low level and after streaking past the crowd just above the runway it went straight up like a rocket almost vertically and disappeared into the blue in seconds. Unforgettable!
Armament: 2 x Firestreak or Red Top AAM and 2 x 30mm cannonThe large belly for fuel. The Lightning was a gas guzzler with limited range unless it could be re-fueled mid-air. It is said pilots would have to check their fuel gauges about every 3 seconds!Capturing the sleek lines. The Lightning was built for speed and could achieve Mach 2+, the only UK-designed-and-built fighter ever to do so. It also had a phenomenal rate of climb and could reach a ceiling of 60,000ft! I used Vallejo Duralumin acrylic metallic paint for the bare metal finish. I lifted some after masking as it is so thin so needed a bit of touch up. A quirk of the Lightning was the fact that its nose wheel retracted forwards into the undercarriage bay instead of backwards. As the take-off was so fast, if a pilot didn’t retract it in time, the wheel would be impossible to raise due to the power of the air flow. Scary!A unique feature of the Lightning was the engines within the fuselage, one on top of the other. These were Rolls-Royce Avon turbojets, which could use afterburner or reheat especially on take off. From the front it’s hard to tell if it’s a Lightning or Soviet Mig-21! Note the cambered wing.
The Lightning was an incredibly complicated piece of engineering and it took about 1,000 hours of maintenance for each hour of flight. This fact together with its ‘short legs’ or restricted range, meant that it was not a great export success although some were bought by the Kuwaiti and Saudi air forces. It was later developed by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and equipped 9 squadrons which were the backbone of British air defence for a quarter of a century. The Lightning was eventually superseded by the Tornado, a far more boring plane in comparison in my opinion!
Box. This was a gift set and came with the basic colours in the usual pots, which were pretty much useless! I used Vallejo Green Olive instead for the main camouflage colour.
Flown by Flight Leader Charles H. Older, Third Squadron. A very colourful bird as you can see, which is what attracted me to this build.
This is my rendition of the Curtiss Hawk by Airfix. I have displayed a 1:48 Warhawk on my site elsewhere so wont go into too much detail here.
However, this is the information that came with the kit from Airfix:
The P-40B, in its various incarnations, served the United States Army Air Force throughout the Second World War, fighting in Europe, across Asia and in the deserts of North Africa. The first model to see active service, the P-40B proved to be an effective and tough low level fighter. While not as manoeuvrable as the Japanese Mitsubishi Zero, or as fast as the German Messerschmitt Bf109, the P-40B still proved to be a tough opponent. Pilots liked the fact it could often get them home after sustaining heavy damage, as well as being able to inflict it with its armament of six machine guns. The P-40B became synonymous with the shark mouth motif, due to both its use with 112 Squadron and the American Volunteer Group i China. Today the P-40B continues to fly in the UK as well as its homeland of the United States of America.
Speed: 350mph
Armament: 4x.30 cal Browning machine guns, 2 x .50 cal Browning machine guns: range 730 miles
For this scheme, I used Vallejo acrylics: Tan Earth, US Dark Green and Gull Grey. I highlighted a few of the panel lines and rivets to show all the fine detail of this superlative kit.Box art
Irresistible artwork. Looks a typical Ukrainian scene, which is what initially inspired me!
As soon as I saw that box art, I knew this was going to be one of those ‘must have’ kits! I am always drawn to the exotic or unusual, at least as far as model kits are concerned, and this project certainly filled the bill! There is a bit of a personal connection as well, however, as I will show below. It was quite a challenge but a definite labour of love at the same time. In a way, I suppose it is another tribute to my Father, Anton. By the way, MiniArt are a Ukrainian model manufacturer based in Kiev.
Austin armoured cars were exported to Russia and also manufactured there. They were used by various sides in all the civil and military conflicts in the aftermath of the First World War.
There are several interesting marking options for this model, including Georgian and Polish, but I was immediately drawn to the one on the box top with the name ‘Petlura’ in Ukrainian on the turret sides.
Army of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. Would have loved to have made this version just for the beautiful Georgian script alone! The only word I know in Georgian is ‘Gamarjoba‘-‘Hello’, which also means ‘Victory’! The language is unique and not related to any other. The Democratic Republic of Georgia was crushed by the Red Army in 1921.Very drawn to the Polish Republic version as well with the Polish coat of arms on the side of a white eagle. Maybe for another day, then I can have a duel with my Ukrainian one!The kit has full interior with engine and chassis detail. When I first looked at the instruction sheet, I thought I might have taken on more than I could chew! Unbelievably, there were even tiny photo-etch parts for the cylinder heads, which might have been spark-plugs. They kept getting stuck to my tweezers with the super glue and so in the end I had to leave those out, my eyes, patience and tweezers couldn’t take the strain!To undertake a model like this, you have to be either mad, dedicated or both! Lots of tiny delicate parts including photo-etch. The last of 74 stages in total-agggghhh!!Starting to take shape with the chassis finished and engine installed. That probably took 2 weeks alone! Note there is also a rear-facing driving station, not quite sure how that was supposed to work! Quite clever for its time, I think. There are gear/brake levers and even foot pedals. I used steel wire for some of the longer pieces as the plastic snapped very easily-MiniArt please take note!Floor on and the positions for the turret bins. To the left is the photo-etch fret. I was starting to feel a sense of achievement by this stage, but it was still like only being half way up Everest!Commencing on the upper hull…Example of the photo-etch. It’s a bit wonky but never mind it’s those Ukrainian blacksmiths again! Wait till you see my ‘secret weapon’ below!More photo-etch! The white little blobs on the side of the hull were extra rivets I made from modelling putty. The instructions suggest you carve off tiny pieces of plastic from the sprue and stick them on instead! Absolutely impossible!!! Mine are a bit uneven but hey, extra realism I say!The engine frames were very delicate and later caused a certain amount of difficulty!Interior rear facing with clear window ports. I think by now you are getting the picture this is a complicated model!My ‘secret weapon’! A handy device I saw someone make on Youtube. It’s just a door hinge screwed to a piece of wood for bending photo-etch parts! It actually works but a pity I only came across this about half way through construction!The moment of truth! I managed to get the hull onto the chassis without too much trouble. I knew that was going to be the most difficult step but we got there. Note the photo-etch on the back wheel arches. Attaching those arches to the hull was extremely tricky with only the tiniest of guide points. Unfortunately, I inevitably broke the tiny photo-etch clasps on the bonnet and had to make substitutes from scrap plastic card.One of the Maxim guns, at least I presume it’s a Maxim. Unfortunately, the instructions came with no reference material about the vehicle itself.The photo-etch side supportsIncredibly starting to look like a vehicle!Finally, the finished article. Phew!Left the front panel off to display the engine
Polish-Ukrainian War 1919. Diorama.
The personal connection I alluded to earlier is the fact that my Grandfather’s brother, Anton, had served in the Sitch Rifles and was killed fighting the Poles during the war in Eastern Galicia in 1919. My Father refers to him in his story, God Save Me From My Friends:
‘Father had two brother called Michael and Anton. Anton had volunteered for the Ukrainski Sitchovi Striltsi (Ukrainian Sitch Riflemen), the Ukrainian corps that fought on the Austrian side in World War I and later tried to join up with Petlura in the East in the fight against the Bolsheviks. In my childhood at home, we kept photos of some of these men still in their Austro-Hungarian Army uniforms.
My grandmother told me that Anton had died in 1919 during the Polish-Ukrainian war in eastern Galicia. The Ukrainians could not withstand the stronger Poles, whose Army under General Józef Haller had received equipment and support from France. The Ukrainian Galician Army had to retreat to the East, and the Poles killed Anton in a skirmish in the village of Saranchuk, about three villages from Kryve. He had been shot in the head just above the eyebrow.
Anton became a hero to the Ukrainians. My grandparents fetched his body from Saranchuk and buried him in a large mogila (grave) in the centre of our village cemetery. Usually the dead were interred in family plots, marked with just small white, wooden crosses.
Every year during our holidays, such as the spring holiday or the third day of Easter, a special service was held in honour of Anton. The priest would always lead the procession to sing and pray at the grave of Anton first, as he had lost his life for Ukraine.
In the church, there was a plaque commemorating all those from Kryve who had died in that war for Ukrainian independence. They probably christened me after Uncle Anton, and my relatives in Kryve today still go to visit his grave.
Grandmother told me that in the war with the Poles the Ukrainians were not very disciplined, the officers sometimes went off to brothels and left their men without orders. The soldiers were mostly peasants, who were more concerned with tilling the land and putting in the crops than fighting. They would try to sneak home from the front to visit their families and to do their washing (as they were so lice-infested) or carry on farming.
Of course, the people then were not so nationally conscious and still called themselves ‘Rusyni’ (‘Ruthenians’) and not Ukrainians. I heard that the village priests had mobilized the young men. The Greek Catholic clergy was the most educated class of the population in that backward period, acting as the political leadership to the Ukrainian peasantry. In Kryve, our priest had organised the Sitch Riflemen and taken them to Berezhany.
Symon Petlura did a deal with the Polish leader Józef Piłsudski, ‘trading’ Galicia in exchange for support to liberate the rest of Ukraine from the Bolsheviks. Piłsudski’s Polish-Ukrainian Army did advance as far as the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, though the Red Army soon drove it out. After the Polish-Soviet war, eastern Galicia became part of Poland and was officially renamed Małopolska Wschodnia (Eastern Little Poland), although we regarded it as west Ukraine. Although at first we enjoyed some autonomy under Poland, the Ukrainians called Petlura a traitor in my youth for abandoning us to the Poles after 1919.’
In Ukrainian:
‘У батька було два брати, яких звали Михайло та Антон.
Антон пішов добровольцем в Українські Січові Стрільці – український корпус, який воював на австрійському боці в Першій Cвітовій Bійні,а пізніше намагався приєднатися до Петлюри на Сході в боротьбі проти більшовиків.
У моєму дитинстві вдома ми зберігали фотографії деяких з цих чоловіків, які все ще були у формі австро-угорської армії.
Бабуся розповідала, що Антон загинув у 1919 році під час польсько-української війни на сході Галичини.Українці не могли протистояти сильнішим полякам, чия армія за генерала Галлера отримувала техніку та підтримку з Франції.
Українській Галицькій армії довелося відступити на Схід, і поляки вбили Антона в сутичці в селі Саранчук, яке знаходиться приблизно в трьох селах від Кривого. Антон загинув від пострілу в голову безпосередньо над бровою.
Антон став героєм для українців.
Бабуся і дідусь забрали його тіло у Саранчука і поховали у великій могилі в центрі нашого сільського кладовища.
Зазвичай поховання померлих відбувалося на сімейніх ділянках, позначені маленькими білими дерев’яними хрестиками. Щороку під час наших свят, таких як свято весни чи третій день Великодня, на честь Антона проводилася спеціальна служба.
Священик завжди керував процесією, відспівував і і молився спочатку на могилі Антона, оскільки він втратив життя за Україну.У церкві була встановлена табличка пам’яті всіх кривчан, які загинули у війні за незалежність України.Можливо, вони охрестили мене на ім’я дядька Антона, і мої родичі в Кривому сьогодні ще їдуть відвідати його могилу.
Бабуся сказала мені, що у війні з поляками українці були не дуже дисципліновані, офіцери іноді ходили в публічні будинки і залишали своїх солдатів без нагляду.Солдати в основному були селянами, котрі більше турбувались обробкою землі та посівом врожаю, ніж боротьбою.
Вони намагалися втекти додому з фронту, щоб відвідати сім’ї та помитись, оскільки вони були так заражені вошами, або продовжувати землеробство.
Звичайно, люди тоді не були такими національно свідомими і все ще називали себе “русинами”, а не українцями.
Я чув, що сільські священики мобілізували юнаків. Греко-католицьке духовенство було найосвіченішим класом у той відсталий період, виступаючи політичним керівництвом українського селянства.
У Кривому наш священик організував стрілецький загін і відвіз їх до Бережан.Саймон Петлюра уклав угоду з польським лідером Йозефом Пілсудським, «торгуючи» Галичиною в обмін на підтримку звільнення решти України від більшовиків. Польсько-українська армія Пілсудського просунулась аж до української столиці Києва, хоча Червона Армія незабаром її вигнала.
Після польсько-радянської війни Східна Галичина стала частиною Польщі та офіційно перейменована на Східну Малу Польщу, хоча ми розглядали її як Західну Україну.
Хоча спочатку ми все ще користувалися деякою автономією під Польщею, українці називали Петлюрoю зрадником у моїй молодості за те, що нас покинули поляками після 1919 року.’
My Father’s home village of Kryve! The sign reads: Kryve village, Berezhany district, Ternopil region, Western Ukraine in 1919 during the Polish-Ukrainian war.The little boy waiting for his milk is wearing a Soviet-style tall peaked ‘Tatarska’ cap with a red star badge. Perhaps he is an early Bolshevik, the traitor!All figures and accessories by MiniArt apart from the apple tree and cottage or ‘khata‘, which I made myself. Ataman Symon Petliura 1879-1926. He headed the ‘Directory’ or Ukrainian government from February 1919. Over the next few years he battled the Bolsheviks, the Poles, Denikin’s Whites and Makhno’s anarchist groups in the hope of achieving Ukrainian independence. Kiev changed hands 16 times in the course of the war!! In the final stages of the Russo-Polish war, he allied himself with the Poles whose price for supporting hm was Ukrainian recognition of Polish rule in Eastern Galicia, which had long been a bastion of Ukrainian nationalism.
Józef Piłsudski. Chief of State 1918-22 and Marshal of Poland from 1920. Son of an impoverished Polish-Lithuanian nobleman from Vilnius (Polish Wilno). He wanted to restore the ‘Greater Poland’ of the 18th century by including Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic States in a Polish federation to act as a buffer against the Bolshevik menace which he saw as the greater threat than Germany. But instead of an alliance, Poland found itself in bitter border conflicts with her neighbours between 1918-21, fighting Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians to the east, Lithuanians to the north, Germans to the west and Czechs to the south.Polish forces entering Kiev. They occupied the Ukrainian capital by 6th May 1920 but were driven out after five weeks by the Red Army. Note how well-equipped they appear and the French-style helmets.Following the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, its subject peoples all tried to gain their independence. A Ukrainian government or Rada was set up in November 1918 and formed the ZUNR (Zahikdno Ukrainska Narodnia Respublika-Western Ukrainian People’s Republic). The ZUNR’s army was known as the Ukrainska Halytska Armiia (UHA), and it immediately began fighting the Poles in the region who wanted Galicia for themselves. The core of the UHA was provided by the legionaries of the Ukrainian Sitch Rifles. The figure on he right is an NCO of the Sitch Rifles 1917. The early UHA wore a mixture of Austro-Hungarian uniforms and civilian dress with Austro-Hungarian equipment. The cap is called a Mazypynka. My Father, Anton, at the end of his life, under a blossoming tree, which symbolizes regeneration, hope and life. The little figure under the apple tree in the diorama reminded me of him.
This is the recent release by Airfix which I opted to do in the USAAF markings just for something different! It’s a very pleasing kit despite the fact I made a pig’s ear of hand painting it and had to strip it all off again! I used Hataka blue line paints from their North Africa set at first but found the paints extremely thin and added too many coats which led to an uneven finish and obscuring some of the fine detail. I went back to my trusty airbrush and favourite AK interactive paints of RAF Middle Stone, RAF Dark Earth and RAF Azure Blue.
The kit has an amazing amount of interior detail for this scale and has fine recessed panel lines, a lot finer than some of Airfix’s other recent releases.
Unfortunately, you can’t quite see all the little details in the cockpit but believe me they are there! It is unusual in this scale to have a separate cockpit tub.307th Fighter Squadron, Twelfth Air Force, United States Army Air Force, La Sénia , Algeria, November/December 1942.I found a discrepancy in the instructions to do with the exhaust stacks. Both sets of stacks had little pipes protruding front and back but it appears the American version didn’t have these so I removed them. You can check with the photos below. I believe on good authority, i.e. my researcher Doug, that this had something to do with warming the guns.Note the blanked roundel on the starboard wing. As this was a Spitfire in American service, it is in keeping with the standard practice of American markings at that time which only had one star on the upper wing.At first I thought the exhausts protruded out too much but having checked photos, I believe they did stick out quite a bit, which makes sense as they would have wanted the exhaust fumes to be far out from the fuselage. The yellow rim around the star markings was used in Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa, to match the RAF insignia in order to avoid ‘friendly fire’ incidents. The American pilots were brought to England first to train intensively in flying Spitfires.The belly, again with a blanked roundel. I added the big slipper tank (for extra fuel) just for interest. The big front filter and slipper tank do obscure slightly the elegant lines of the Spitfire but from above it still looks beautiful!BoxThe alternative RAF version flown later in Italy
Operation Torch was the Allied code name for the simultaneous Anglo-American invasion of North-West Africa on November 8, 1942. General Eisenhower was in overall command, a surprising choice as Eisenhower was relatively unknown at the time. A press officer referred to him as ‘Lt. Col. D.D.Ersenbring’!
Torch had several strategic objectives:
To trap Rommel’s Afrika Korps between the British forces moving from the East and Americans invading from the West.
Gain suitable bases for further operations in southern Europe.
Tighten the blockade of the Axis by concentrating on Southern Atlantic and Mediterranean sea routes.
Help solidify the alliance with the USSR by taking some pressure off the desperate and weary Soviets and show them the Western Allies were serious about invading Europe and defeating Hitler.
Prevent Franco’s Spain from entering the war.
Forestall any similar action by the Axis.
Landings
Three separate task forces made up the Torch invasion. Some 35,000 American troops left the United States for French Morocco; another 35,000 came from England to take Oran in western Algeria; and a third task force of 10,000 Americans and 23,000 British moved from England to take Algiers. The British and American naval forces transported all the troops in this undertaking.
The landings began on November 8, 1942. The British managed to get ashore with little difficulty, but the French forces at Oran and in Morocco did not surrender until November 10 and 11.
The operation was complicated by a confused political situation. The attempt to win a rapid French surrender was foiled when the anti-British Adm. Jean Darlan returned unexpectedly to North Africa two days before the invasion He at first led a fierce French resistance. Some French forces in North Africa were loyal to General Charles de Gaulle’s liberation movement in England; others backed General Henri Giraud, who had just escaped to France from a German prison camp; and some were pledge to their commander, General Henri Petain, head of the Vichy Government. Darlan broke with Petain and ordered the surrender of Algiers on the evening of November 8th.
From: Louis L. Snyder’s Historical Guide to World War II
The British were initially opposed to a landing on the Atlantic coast as they were primarily concerned with moving into Tunisia and trapping Rommel. However, the Americans were concerned that if anything went wrong, they would not be bottled up in the Mediterranean and should have an Atlantic escape route just in case. They got their way!A well-written book on Torch
Now for some entertainment!
From the great movie ‘Patton’ starring George C. Scott. A nice example of ‘ululating’!
This incident didn’t happen but hey, its great to watch those Heinkel He-111s!
A very detailed kit for 1:72 scale and this is just the basic version! You can just about see tiny markings on the tyres. These were actual decals, something I have never encountered before in a kit! With a magnifying glass it is even possible to read them. The top one says ‘Stomil’ and the bottom one is a string of numbers and all clearly printed. Now that’s what I call attention to detail. Amazing!
Cześć! Greetings to everyone. I had to say it in Polish as the theme of this post is very Polish!
This tiny model is made by Polish manufacturer Arma Hobby and they make several versions of the famous PZL aircraft, PZL standing for ‘Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze (State Aviation Works)’.
Arma Hobby have not been in existence long and I have not made one of their models before. However, I have to say I was very impressed with the overall quality and level of detail and am now tempted by other models in their relatively limited range.
This version caught my eye because it was operated by the K.O.P (Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza-Border Defence Corps) in the Kresy Wschodnie or simply Kresy, Eastern Borderlands or Borderlands, the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period (1918-39).
The K.O.P. was the Police Force which my Father remembered well:
‘A special police force, the K.O.P (Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza-Border Guard Corps), which operated only in the kresy wschodnie or eastern borderlands, was also sent to Galicia. These police wore a greenish uniform similar to the Army’s and they arrived on horseback or in vans. Their sirens wailed as they approached and the villagers would run into the forests to hide’. Page 42 from ‘God Save Me From My Friends, memoir of a Ukrainian exile’. Kindle Version.
There is an interesting article about the Kresy on Wikipedia:
My Father recalled seeing a Polish plane crash near his village:
‘A small Polish plane of just wood and canvas crashed in a field near our village, breaking its undercarriage. It was loaded on top of a big farm-cart drawn by a pair of horses and hauled to a yard that would later become part of the collective farm. The pilot, wearing a fur coat and felt boots, wasn’t hurt and I heard him describing to a policeman how he had been forced to land because of a bushing that had overheated and started to smoke. However, instead of trying to land parallel to the fields, he had cut across them and hit a mezha or boundary-strip used in our district for partitioning the land. The people were very excited and curious, never having seen a plane at close quarters. The children crawled all over it and I clambered into the open cockpit and played with the lever controls, making the flaps and rudder turn. I don’t recall seeing a machine mounted on the fuselage and so perhaps it fired through its propeller.’
page 44 Kindle ed.
This incident took place at the start of the German invasion in 1939. I haven’t been able to work out what type of plane it was, or if it flew with the K.O.P. but it may well have been a PZL P.11.
Anyway, this was the version I had to go for! It was quite fiddly and a bit of a challenge but I am quite pleased with the final result. The radio antennae are made from stretched sprue apart from the straight piece on the fin which is fine wire. They are a little out of scale but will have to do!
Showing the parasol wing to good effect. This PZL always reminds me of a sleek bird of prey-just a pity it was quite obsolete by the time Poland was invaded in 1939!Just forward of the cockpit are the gunsights made from photo-etch. I inevitably lost one (front) and had to carve a substitute from plastic! Tiny holes had to be drilled to fit them. Just visible on the propeller are microscopic decals! This model required a lot of care and attention but in the end you are rewarded with a very detailed and accurate representation of the real thing.Sorry its a bit blurred but this photo shows the tiny size of the cockpit ‘tub’, not much bigger than my thumbnail. There are photo etch seatbelts.The model was given a bit of a wash and some highlighting to bring out all the tiny details, especially the square pattern you can see on top of the wing.The red and white chequer markings are the national insignia from the colours of the Polish flag.The PZL could carry bombs but this version didn’t. I made the undercarriage cross supports from stretched sprue. Note the machine guns on the leading edge of the wings. There are also machine guns on either side of the fuselage but not visible here.The starboard side showing the turkey emblem. There appears to be some doubt as to the colour of this badge as photo references only show it in black and white! Another version is included in the kit in black and grey but I went for the more colourful bird!Sadly, this is how most PZLs ended up.Some of the marking options. I chose the one on the left of 161 Fighter Squadron from Lvov, Spring 1939, pilot Ltn Jan Dzwonek. Aeroplane with unofficial new squadron emblem design (turkey), painted on starboard fuselage side. The emblem was painted by the pilot during duty in the K.O.P. outpost in Sarny (Volhynia), Spring, 1939.Box art with turkey badge clearly visible. Well it is coming up to Christmas!Showing side machine gun and tyre detailPolish Aviation Museum
Hunting Percival in RAF Red Pelicans display team livery
This is the famous Jet Provost trainer, a rare venture for me as I usually concentrate on weapons of mass destruction as you have probably noticed if you are a follower of my site! However, it was later developed into a ground-attack aircraft under the name Strikemaster and developed by BAC (British Aircraft Corporation). The Jet Provost served in the RAF from 1955 to 1993, quite a longevity! Of course now the RAF uses the Hawk trainer instead.
Airfix info:
‘The Jet Provost was introduced in the late 1950s and quickly became the RAF’s premier jet basic trainer. The T3 model, introduced in 1959, featured an uprated engine and an improved canopy design, offering the side by side seated pilot and pupil a much improved view. The Provost was a joy to fly, forgiving and easy to learn on, with many of the 1960s and 70s RAF front line pilots learning their trade on its un-swept wings. Its reliability and strength also added to its suitability as a jet trainer and the addition of wing tip tanks on the T3 also added to its endurance. The T4 model was visually identical to the T3, but featured a more powerful engine again, and both variants served with a wide variety of RAF squadrons and training colleges. The T4 even served with the RAF’s Red Pelicans display team. Today a few ex RAF Jet Provosts remain flying, their suitability as training machines making them highly suitable for civilian jet operations’.
This kit was a breeze to put together which was as well, as the painting was quite tricky. The upside is that you really don’t need to add a varnish finish and can get straight on with the decaling.
As this is a trainer, the instructor and pupil sit together in tandem. The logo ‘Central Flying School’ is just aft of the fuselage roundel but its hard to see in the photos.Sitting in the palm of my hand to show the diminutive size of the model!The only way I could figure to hold it while airbrushing was to stick an old paintbrush in the fuselage through the rear exhaust! Notice the latex glove as I had to be careful not to leave sticky fingerprints while working on the model.Has a very low undercarriage. I added weights inside the nose as recommended in the instructions.It is similar in appearance to the American Cessna Dragonfly with the tandem seating configuration and straight wing. But very attractive, in fact it does remind me of the flying insect! To the left is the small pot of red gloss paint which came as part of the kit, along with black, grey and silver.This is how I kept the model safe while working on it. It required several fine mist layers of red gloss. Luckily, there was just about enough paint for the job!Box art. Airfix also make the Jet Provost in other schemes, but I like this one for the sheer simplicity.I believe this is a Strikemaster I saw at Fairford although I have no idea who it belongs toAnother Jet Provost also at Fairford this time in RAF colours.
