[Non-BT] WWII Aircraft- Tiny planes - Large collection!

[theCrowe]

Hi folks, I just thought some of you might be interested in seeing what's been keeping me busy for the last couple of years while I've been away from Battletech.


Tiny WWII Aircraft!


Thats a US quarter And a UK 10p for scale.


I've got a growing collection of these and plenty of pictures to share if anyone is interested in seeing more.

[Vlads Fangs]

 O0

[shadhawk]

That is some very nice work  O0

[Louie N]

Well done

[jimdigris]

 O0

[Bren]

Good ol' Wimpy.

[theCrowe]

Thanks for your interest and enthusiasm folks. I'll kick things off with my RAF bombers.


A pair of Briatol Blenheim IV - Long nose medium bombers.
By the start of the war Bristol's Blenheim was already a little long in the tooth. It wasn't the fastest plane nor the most heavily armed but it was a rugged machine and very useful. Blenheims were flown everywhere. Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Finland, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Yogoslavia, even Romania. The various marks of these versatile aircraft served in every role imaginable, light transport, reconnaissance, night fighters, bombers, torpedo bombers and more. Somewhere near 1,930 were built and served in airforces across the world long after the end of the war in Europe.


And another pair of Bristol aircraft, a MkI Blenheim and a Beaufighter.


The two largest aircraft in my collection, a pair of Short Stirlings.
The Short Stirling was the first of the RAFs four engine heavy bombers. It was a powerful and agile design beloved by its pilots and very well armed. Not at all an easy target for enemy fighters. However as the bombs got bigger and bigger the design of the Stirling's loading bay proved unsuitable and more adaptable airframes like the Lancaster and the Halifax took over as the Stirling was phased out of bomber service and into transport and glider tug roles.

Dehavilland's Wooden wonder the famous Mosquito. Had to have one in invasion stripes.
De Havilland ingenious plan for an all wooden, High speed, high altitude unarmed bomber was just what the air ministry needed in 1941. Construction didn't have to compete for war materials like steel or aluminium and its clever plywood-balsa plywood sandwich was both light and surprisingly durable. It provided a high level reconnaissance platform that could outrun intercepting fighters and also replaced the venerable Blenheim MkI and IVs to become Bomber Command's premier medium bomber. They caused considerable consternation for the enemy with their high speed precision attacks and as the war went on its many variants went a long way to enhancing the RAFs contribution to allied victory.


Next up we have a couple of Vickers Wellingtons. Love these things!
The Wellington bomber was comprised of a light geodetic frame covered with lacquered canvas. The airframe could absorb crazy amounts of punishment and still fly but it afforded little protection for the aircrew inside. One of Bomber commands first main bombers it dropped the first 4,000lb block-busters in August 1940. As better and more capable bombers took over its many variants saw service in as many roles as could be found, magnetic mine sweepers, torpedo armed submarine hunters and transports. It even saw service right up until 1953 as a pilot trainer.



And lastly for now a big bomber formation shot.

Edit:One little update to my RAF bombers.

These three Fairey Battles of 12 Squadron. (they're actually Fulmars but I use them as Battles) The code on the leading aircraft PH-K is that of Garland, Gray and Reynolds who were shot down in their attack on the Veldwezelt bridge in Belgium on May 12th 1940.

Aircraft PH-F is that of Thomas, Carey and Campion who led the attack on a second bridge at Vroenhoven in the same operation.

There seems to be some discrepancy over the actual success or failure of the mission. Different sources are telling different things. Either way it seems a lot of pilots and aircrew died and its debatable how much the German advance was slowed.

Its listed in the Check Your 6! Battle of Britain champaign book under the title "Impossible Mission." Which probably says it all.


More to follow soon. RAF fighters and lots of Luftwaffe still to come.

[theCrowe]

An update to the aircraft gallery, this time staying with the RAF and moving onto fighters.


The Aircraft of NewZealand hurricane ace "Cobber" Kain who fought in the battle of France and became one of the first aces of the war. He died pulling stunts on take-off and the wreckage of his plane was left as a warning to other young pilots not to showboat.


These are the Hurricanes of 245 Squadron who were stationed at Aldergrove, Northern Ireland (not far from where I live) The Aircraft Marked DX-? is that of Squadron Leader J. W. C. Simpson.


The Spitfire of Brendan "Spitfire Paddy" Finucane. An Irishman flying in the RAF who, before his death in 1942 was believed to have shot down as many as 32 enemy aircraft.


Adolph "Sailor" Malan, South African Spitfire ace and one of the highest scoring pilots to have served wholly with Fighter Command during WWII.


These are a pair of Spitfires of 41 Squadron who saw action over Dunkirk, in the Battle of Britain and on into the invasion of German occupied Europe when they were stationed on the continent until the end of the war.


A Beaufighter of 252 Squadron Coastal Command also stationed at Aldergrove.
The air ministry needed an escort fighter to accompany longer range night bombings and the Beaufighter was the result. Its development reads like something out of the A-team where a team of crack improvisers borrow parts from here there and everywhere and botch them together in a shed only to emerge (in this case only 8 short months later) with a fully formed radar equipped night fighter. It also had great success as a torpedo bomber (dubbed the Torbeau) taking out German U-boats. Australian Beaufighters became the scourge of many a Japanese merchant and naval ship earning them the name "the Whispering Death"


The hapless Boulton Paul Defiant- practically obsolete from inception and pressed into desperate service during the Battle of Britain it eventually found a more suitable role as a night fighter.


Three Fairey Fulmars. These were the first carrier-borne aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm that had any real success against enemy aircraft.

[Mech42ace]

Very nice collection! I remember seeing some of these at the local hobby shop, on display on a matchbox when I was younger. I was always amazed at the fine paint work that went into these! Nicely done.
Out of curiosity, what size paint brush did you use?

[THUD]

What rules set do you use? I'm partial to Check Your 6! myself.

[theCrowe]

What rules set do you use? I'm partial to Check Your 6! myself.

Yes it's Check Your 6! I'm playing. Great wee game, but honestly I'm not getting much opportunity to play so its been slow going learning the rules to a fast playable standard that would open the game up to more planes and scenario options. Still it hasn't stifled my enthusiasm.

Now it's the turn of the Luftwaffe, Bombers first as before. There seems to have been a lot more variation in the Luftwaffe's paint schemes so mostly I've just gone for ones I like the look of rather than any specific groups.


My first Luftwaffe bomber was this Do-17z. (The Flying Pencil) An early medium bomber it quickly proved woefully under-defended and easy prey for fighters.


Next up was the Ubiquitous Ju88, probably the most significant aircraft of the Luftwaffe used in virtually every theatre for a wide range of jobs. These three were some of the first German planes I painted. They turned out a little darker than the rest that would follow and the Yellows didn't come out quite so cleanly.


The venerable He111 medium bomber. It was an ageing design that proved more and more under-par as the war went on. These account for more of my Bombers than any other type. I've done half of them in green and another four (smaller crummier miniatures) in grey.


Another instantly recognisable airframe the Ju87- Stuka seen here in their later Night bomber black/grey. The classic dive bombers were equipped with howling "Jericho Trumpets" that wail as the aircraft dives down on its target. A potent terror weapon. They were older but still very accurate ground attack aircraft but were quite vulnerable to more modern fighters.


And I'll round out the Luftwaffe bombers section with another great big bomber formation, this time with a couple of fighter escorts.

[theCrowe]

Finally  got around to bringing the USA into the war. (Think that's an actual quote from FDR)

I'll kick this one off with a couple of early paint scheme aircraft from the United States Navy.
these are both in the early 1942 scheme with the red disc in the center of the National Aircraft Insignia and horizontal red and white rudder striping.



the absolutely beautiful Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat. These were the most versatile and widely used flying boat of the war and continued to see service long after in some armed forces as late on as the 1980s!!! Some modern day fire fighting services still use them as water bombers!


This is the Douglas SBD Dauntless of pilot Stanley "Swede" Vejtasa who once, when attacked by three A6M2 Zero fighters shot two of them down and cut off the wing of the third in a head-on pass with his wingtip. Proper aviation badassery that.

Next up its a few more painted planes, that is planes based on ones that were painted in American factories.  The USAAF was using this kind of olive drab officially but some factories just stopped painting them altogether cutting down on production times.


These are the mean greens.


This is of course "Ye Olde Pub" the B-17 of USAAF pilot Charlie Brown (yes really) whose plane got shot to absolute shreds on a bombing run over Bremen. A Luftwaffe fighter, Franz Stigler took off to investigate and found it to be the most damaged plane he'd ever seen still flying. He chose not to attack the B-17 but attempted to convince Brown to land and save his wounded crew. Brown did not wish to be captured in Germany or make for nearby neutral Sweden and kept flying for England. Stigler escorted the B-17 to the coast before returning home. Both pilots met 40 years later and were friends until Stigler's death in 2008.
You can read lots more on <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brown_and_Franz_Stigler_incident" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> The Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident here.</a>

Next up its one of my absolute all time favourite planes the Lockheed P-38 Lightning aka "the fork-tailed devil"


This is "Scat II" the P-38 flown by a young Captain Robin Olds. In the 479th fighter group over occupied France in preparation for the invasion of Normandy. Olds went on to fly P-51 Mustangs over Germany finishing his wartime service with a plethora of medals and awards. His <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Olds" target="_new" rel="nofollow">long and distinguished airforce career </a> continued until his retirement in 1973 as Brigadier General.

Thanks man. Glad to be back at it.

Sticking with the P-38 for now (because look at these things!) but this time I've done a couple in bare metal silver schemes.


No more famous flyers (that I know of) this time. Just a couple of examples of the kind of style I was seeing. Note the black anti-glare panels painted in front of the cockpits and on the sides of the engines facing the pilot. These were often done in black or the standard USAAF green.

This sleek looking light bomber is a Douglas A-26 Invader.

Another shiny silver scheme with invasion stripes. (It is an 'Invader' afterall) Though their deployment was delayed due to terrible visibility from the cockpit needing to be rectified, so they didn't see service in Europe until September 44 missing the D-day invasion by a few months. Still there's every likelihood a new Allied plane in Sep 44 would've warranted identification stripes until they were all done away with by the end of the year.
 
These machines were fast and lethal ground attack and low level bombing aircraft and packed an absolute metric butt-load of weaponry compared to anything else of their type. They remained in service after WW2 on through the Korean War and into Vietnam finally retiring in 1969.


And while we're on the topic of Invasion Stripes.

These are all my invasion striped aircraft so far. Given the wide variety of paint schemes from the various allied airforces involved in the invasion of Normandy you can see the need for this kind of identification marking.

Next up I've taken us back to both sides of 1942 with a pair of Brewster Buffalos.
The attack on Pearl Harbour gave the Top Brass of the USAAF a lot of thinking to do, and among the many changes to be made was a new paint scheme. Gone were the yellow wings of the 1930s and in January 1942 the National Insignia roundels were added to both upper and lower wing positions.

This picture shows both a Brewster F2A Buffalo and a larger Douglas Dauntless in early 1942 colours.

Then in May 1942 the roundel was revised to remove the red portion to better distinguish it from the Japanese Hinomaru, and the tail stripes were dropped too leaving just the plain blue and white insignia in six positions. Buffalos that flew in the Battle of Midway would have been painted like this.

The Brewster F2A Buffalo was over-weight underpowered and unstable and the Japanese fighters it was up against could fly rings around it. By 1942 the much derided "Flying Coffin" was largely considered an obsolete 2nd line aircraft better suited to training duties than front line fighting. That said the Finnish Air Force made a great success of their Buffalo squadrons producing 36 Buffalo Aces.


I've also done an earlier model B-17 in an early 1942 scheme.

The B-17 D and E were two distinctly different aircraft. Following front line deployment by both the RAF and USAAF the new B-17E got a redesigned tail with a larger vertical stabiliser, a dorsal gun turret, a tail gunner position and the ventral 'bathtub' gunner's position was replaced with a bubble turret.


Thunder! Thunder! Thunderbolts! Ho!
Yes folks, the mighty Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter bomber. These are some older Razorback models introduced in November 1942.


The mighty "Jug" (Juggernaut) was among the heaviest single engine fighters of the war. It was a big bruiser of a fighter that could give as as good as it got and it became the real workhorse of the USAAF.


They weren't good climbers but man could they dive. German fighter pilots soon learned that you couldn't dive out of a fight with a Thunderbolt like you could from a Spitfire but they had no trouble climbing up and over them. A new propellor helped solve that problem.


This Thunderbolt was one flown by Francis Stanley "Gabby" Gabreski, the highest scoring Thunderbolt Ace of the war. Gabreski flew 166 combat sorties and was officially credited by the USAAF with 28 aircraft destroyed in air combat and 3 on the ground. He was captured in July 1944 and remained a POW in Germany until he was liberated by Soviet forces in April 1945. He would go on to become a Korean War jet ace and eventually retired from service in the USAF as a Colonel in November 1967.


This is "Margie II" flown by Gerald Grace who Flew 96 missions with the 396th Fighter Group. Once shot down by ground flak near Soissons, France, Aug. 31,1944 in German held territory, he evaded capture and managed to make his return to base exactly 24 hours after being shot down, setting a new record for passing through Paris. His plane was named after Marjorie, his sweetheart back home, whom he married in 1945. They had nine kids together.

The beautiful, fast and deadly North American Aviation P-51 Mustang.

Often considered the finest piston driven single engine fighter ever produced. After an engine swap and the addition of greater fuel capacity the P-51 fulfilled a vital role as a long range, high altitude bomber escort.


I had to paint at least one of my P-51s as one of the Red Tails of the 332nd fighter group. I remember watching the old Tuskegee Airmen movie (the one with Laurence Fishburne) as a kid and finding it a really compelling story. Still haven't seen the new one (though I've read mixed reviews).

Benjamin O. Davis Jr. Led the 99th Pursuit squadron of the "Red Tails" flying sixty missions in P-39, Curtiss P-40, P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustang fighters. His life and career has been celebrated with countless public recognitions of his achievements in overcoming adversity and signalling an ongoing change for racial equality. He died a Four Star General in 2002.
Clarence E "Bud" Anderson -"Old Crow" - a triple ace promoted to Major by age 22. Often considered one of the finest pilots in the force he went on be a test pilot for the airforce. At the grand old age of 95 he still retains his pilots license and gives lectures on experience.


These are the aircraft of Ray S Wetmore - "Daddy's girl" (green nose) And John C Meyer- "Petie 2nd" (blue nose)
Both men were high scoring P-51 aces in WW2 who went on to fly the F-86 Sabre jet fighter after the war.
Major Wetmore was a quadruple ace during WW2 and the youngest Major at 21 on VE Day. Major Wetmore was killed in a freak accident when his F-86 crashed in Feb 1951.
Meyer went on to become a jet ace in the Korean war. He retired in 1974, as commander-in-chief of the Strategic Air Command.


Another plane often hailed as one of the best fighter aircraft of the USAAF is the Vought F-4U Corsair. Seen here in tricolour night camouflage with a radar dome mounted on the starboard wing.


The US Navy had mixed success with the F4U which had difficulty with carrier landings. Following the introduction of the Grumman Hellcat the Navy used some of its Corsairs as radar equipped night fighters.


And lastly for now it's probably the most significant and controversial aircraft of the entire war. The Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay. Which of course dropped the first atomic bomb, "Little Boy" targeted on Hiroshima.


The Boeing B-29 Superfortress was the product of one of the biggest, most expensive, most state of the art research and development projects of the USAAF at the time. Introduced in May 1944 it was a high altitude strategic bomber capable of flight at altitudes up to 31,850 feet (9,710 m) at speeds of up to 350 mph. Higher and faster than most Japanese fighters were capable of.


In the 1980's debate persisted about the correct historical context for the display Enola Gay, and a 50th anniversary exhibit in 1995 sparked controversy. It has now been fully restored and on display since 2003.


Size-wise its the largest aircraft in my collection so far. This is a comparison against my three other allied four-engine heavy bombers and the largest German bomber in my collection the He111. Looking at these bombers in comparison you can see about a decade worth of development in bomber design and modernisation unfolding.

[agen2]

Wow!

[worktroll]

Incredible collection - great work! Thanks for sharing!

W.

[Valkerie]

Top notch man, top notch.  8) 8)

[avon1985]

Very cool.  Love to Brewsters!

[theCrowe]

Thanks folks. Glad to see you're all as excited about tiny planes as I am. Battletech collectors really get it, i think the scale being close to what we're used to.

I'll just add a series of my objective pieces. In all so far I've made 5 pieces. Scale-wise they're much smaller scale than the planes. The scenarios call for a 4 hex size factory or a 5 hex airfield. So really I'm just fitting the object into the size I have available.
I made all of these mostly from balsa wood except the radar towers that are made of some play clay that my kids left out. I flattened it into about a 1/4 inch thick block and cut out the pylon shapes once it had dried.

First up is the Vickers Factory at Brooklands.

This is where Vickers built Wellington bombers.
On Sep 4th 1940 the Zerstorers of Erprgr210 made a daylight raid on the Vickers factory flying in at treetop level under the radar. 83 workers were killed and many hundreds injured in the bombing.

The reacting Hurricanes of 253 squadron beat a vengeful pursuit of the raiders all the way out of England.

This one is based on the radar towers of Britain's Chain home stations.

The radar defence system was a massive tactical asset giving Fighter Command a good 20 minute warning in advance of enemy raids to scramble and position its fighters.

They were often the target of Luftwaffe bombing raids like on 16th August 1940 when Stukas of StG2 fell upon the Chain Home station at Ventnor, only recently restored to operational condition following an attack on the 12th. It would remain out of service following this attack for over a month.


This little bridge is (very) loosely based on the one in Vroenhoven Belgium.

One of the bridges in the mission I detailed above in the Fairey Battle's blurb; when the RAF attempted to destroy a series of Belgian bridges in an effort to slow down the German advance.

I built a little pair of German anti-aircraft guns for each side of the bridge but they mostly just throw the scale out an make it look like a much smaller bridge. Still I'm pretty happy with it.

Lastly we have a pair of airfields, complete with balsa wood command buildings, hangars, barracks huts and bunkers.


They even have a pair of light anti-aircraft guns each to defend against low level enemy bombing raids.

[worktroll]

Sir, those are absolutely gorgeous! I dips me lid in your direction. That's quality work on such a small scale!

Definitely most excellent. If you're ever in Australia, let me know so I can get a game of this with you! ;)

W.

[theCrowe]

Many thanks to all of you. Glad you're enjoying the collection.

The latest instalment in my aircraft gallery is the Luftwaffe fighters. A few more names and numbers this time and I've added a little more description of each type of aircraft too.


Here is a selection of Bf 109 aircraft. There's so much variation in the markings and styles I was just picking and choosing ones I liked and famous flyers. So no proper squadrons this time.
Mescherschmitt's Bf 109 was the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. Very advanced for its time it first served in the Spanish Civil War and then on into the beginning of WW2 hostilities where its combination of speed, agility and deadly firepower was a tall order to match. Through constant development and in the hands of some of Germany's top aces it remained competitive to the end of the war.


The classic yellow nosed Bf109 of Adolf Galland. <<+-


Gerhard Schopfel's Bf 109 marked 1+1


One of my favourite WWII aviation stories is of this guy, Franz Stiegler escorting a crippled B17 out of Germany in this Bf109 marked 2+~


Moving on to the Bf110 which was the aircraft of choice for many top German pilots in the early years of WWII. The German top brass really believed in the Zerstorer concept; the fighter-Bomber, one plane to rule them all or something like that: but the reality of the Bf 110 was a more of a jack of all trades and master of none. Too slow and unwieldy to really cope with more modern fighters and too light and limited in range to carry much of a bomb load.
Its shortcomings in daylight operations saw it withdrawn to night fighting where its spacious canopy allowed for adaptation to radar guidance and it soon became the bane of many a night bomber.


 This example marked S9+CB is the aircraft of Walter Rubensdörffer who was the leader of ErprGr210 and was shot down in England following a low-level raid at Croydon Airport on 15 Aug 1940.


This is one of my favourite nose arts seen on the Bf 110 the 'Wespe' Tricky enough to paint at 1:300 scale!


Hans-Joachim Jabs << + AA who flew 720missions both day and night claiming 50 enemy aircraft many of which would have been considered technically far superior to his own ageing Bf 110.


This is the Bf 110 of Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer  G9 + EF the port tail fin of which recently sold at auction for £90,000. Schnaufer claimed 121 victories in 164 combat missions.


Wilhelm Herget   M8 + HP - flew over 700 missions as a night fighter mainly against RAF bombers over the western front. I enjoyed painting the shark teeth on this one.


The long awaited and delayed replacement for the venerable and much maligned Bf-110 came in the form of the Me 410. (The original designation was going to be Me 210 but the prototype and initial production craft had such a poor reputation that the final redesign was given a new designation in an attempt to allay concerns) By the time of its entering service in 1944 It was a case of too little too late for the Luftwaffe as the old Bf 110 had muddled through most of the war and early jet technology was already in development.


Often considered the very best of the piston driven fighters the Luftwaffe ever developed the Focke Wulf 190-D (the Dora) in the hands of a decent pilot was more than a match for the Spitfire or the P-51. However by the time it was available in large scale use in early 1945 its deployment was limited by serious shortages of aviation fuel.


This is the FW 190-D of German ace Hans Dortenmann who flew mostly in Russia and in Germany until the end of the war. He painted the entire vertical surface of his tail fin yellow for easy identification.

[theCrowe]

I'm going good guns these days painting up a lot of Soviet lovelies for you all. But in the meantime I'll show you a couple of German Jets I got done.

The Messerschmitt Me 262 was the world's first operational jet fighter and at the time of its introduction in April 1944 was the fastest most heavily armed fighter in the sky. Arriving too late in the war to have any significant impact on the outcome it was none the less an important pioneer in early jet technologies.


On the left is the Me-262 of Heinrich Bär. 'Red 13'
Heinz Bär was credited with 220 aerial victories, including 16 while flying the Me 262. He was also known for his ill discipline and lack of respect for authority. Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring had a particular dislike of him and three times denied him the highest award, the 'Diamonds' to his Knight's Cross.

Then on the right its another of Franz Stigler's rides. Franz Stigler, you'll recall was that B-17 escorting fella. (Well, he escorted one B-17 out of Germany, he was known to have shot down another 11 heavy bombers) "White 3" was his personal jet, flown by him directly from the production line at Leipheim to join Galland's JV44. Adolph Galland was known to pull rank and  borrow it on occasion as 'White 3' was considered something of a "hot" ride.

[Pooman]

Very good and terrific write ups. Looking forward to your Soviet stuff.

[I am Belch II]

Looks really good.

[theCrowe]

Soviet Saturday

Welcome back folks. Glad to finally have my collection of Soviet fliers painted and ready to show. I've got the usual mix of common and notable aircraft with a few odd stories along the way. So hold on to your ushanka it's Soviet Saturday.

Not surprisingly I'll kick this off with the ubiquitous  Ilyushin Il-2 "Shturmovik" which comrade Stalin once famously stated was "as essential to the Red Army as air and bread."

Such high praise from Uncle Joe is hardly surprising when for every 90 tanks the Germans fielded the massed Ilyusha flights of the red army could claim as many as 270 in a matter of hours.

Apparently it doesn't matter if your plane is over-heavy and woefully inaccurate so long as you can build in excess of 42,000 of them and grossly exaggerate their effectiveness in your post-battle reports.


Another monster of mass production was the Yakovlev Yak, the various models of which (1, 7, 9 & 3) numbered some 37,000 produced.

One of the smallest and most agile fighters of the war the Yak1 was able to hold its own against invading Bf-109's and Fw-190's providing vital cover to allow Soviet attack aircraft like the Il-2 to operate.


The Soviets weren't the only airforce that had women pilots but they were the only one to allow their women pilots to operate as front line combatants. This is the Yak-1 of Lydia Litvyak. Known as 'the White Lily of Stalingrad' in the Soviet press. She had flown 66 combat missions and had 12 victories to her credit before she was shot down in the Battle of Kursk.


First lieutenant Mikhail Baranov, leader of the 183rd Fighter Regiment was a prominent and inspiring ace who became a national hero; his skill and service earning him the Title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin before his death in a test-flight accident. He painted the legend "Death to Fascists" on his plane. Hey Woody Guthrie, Mikhail Baranov called, he wants his guitar back.


And the last (but by no means least) of my Yak-1 aces is Aleksey Alelyukhin who's years of service from 1938-1985 made him one of Russia's most highly decorated Major Generals. Twice awarded the order of Lenin and Twice named a Hero of the Soviet Union he flew this Yak-1 in 1942 as commander of the 1st Squadron of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment.



Next up in the Soviet hall of fame its a biggie. The Petlyakov Pe-8 was the only four-engine heavy bomber produced by the soviets during the war.

Limited numbers saw use in propaganda bombings and high visibility political trips. There was simply little need for more long ranged heavy bombers when the enemy was right on your doorstep banging your door down but it always looks good to have a bigger plane with a heavier bomb load than the other guy.


What the USSR did need was a fast and versatile light bomber which it found in the Petlyakov Pe-2.

It proved a deadly accurate dive bomber and capable ground attack aircraft with production figures in excess of 11,000 that saw variants produced as reconnaissance platforms, fighter-bombers, light bombers and night fighters making it one of the most ubiquitous and successful twin-engine combat planes of the war.


In addition to the Soviet Air Force the USSR maintained an Anti-Air Defence Force as a separate military branch. It operated in 13 strategic Zones. Their forces consisted of Anti-aircraft guns, searchlights, troops and intercept fighters like the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 seen here in a white winter scheme.

The MiG-3 had a troubled and difficult career. It was a fighter designed for high altitude operations but much of the fighting on the eastern front took place at lower altitudes where its performance suffered badly.

This is the MiG-3 flown by Capt Ivan Zabolotny in defence of the Moscow region, February 1942 which bore the slogan 'For Stalin!'  He's another of these hard-nut fighter pilots (like 'the Swede') that was known to ram the enemy when he'd run out of bullets.


Now for something completely weird. The Zveno project conducted in the 1930's was a composite-aircraft experiment consisting of a "Mothership" bomber with smaller fighters mounted either on top or under each wing. It was primarily concerned with defensive formations which proved largely unsuccessful but in August 1941 an offensive formation, the Zveno-SPB, comprising a TB-3 with two I-16 fighter bombers attached was used with some success against ground targets in Romania.

Each of the I-16 fighter bombers carried a pair of 250kg high explosive bombs. (normally an I-16 can only take off with a maximum bomb load of 100kg) and were equipped with a drop fuel tank for the return flight. Inbound they would be fuelled by the TB-3. Using the TB-3 increased the operational range of the I-16 by up to 80%.


Both the TB-3 and the I-16 were older 1930's aircraft which couldn't really stand up to the more modern fighters of the Luftwaffe and the Zveno was especially vulnerable while the three aircraft were combined in the air due to reduced manoeuvrability. Success relied heavily on the element of surprise and the enemy's lack of appropriate air defences being so far out of range of more conventional fighter bombers.   

The programme operated five such composites at its peak but was denied any expansion due to significant Soviet Airforce losses elsewhere at the time. In all the Zveno-SPB flew at least 30 combat missions.


And just for good measure, or perhaps propaganda purposes, here's a group shot of my massed Soviet aircraft.

 Be inspired fearless comrades! Loathful fascist invaders beware!

[Daemion]

Wow! Their props are moving so fast, I can't see 'em.  ;)

These look good. Curious - Some GHQ stuff I picked up a while back, like an Apache copter, came with transparent plastic disks to use for props in motion. Do these as well?

[theCrowe]

No, they don't tend to do prop-discs for planes at this scale. At least I havnt ever got any with mine, or seen any examples at 1:300. I don't think they need them but its an option I suppose if you wanted to, if you could find a supplier too.

I can see that Helicopters really need them though, they'd look daft without it. Discs for Planes I'm not too bothered about.

[mdauben]

I just stumbled across this thread, but I wanted to jump in and say how great your work is!  I spent a lot of time drooling over your British planes (Britain is my first choice for WWII wargameing; air, land or sea).

[theCrowe]

Great, you'll be happy to hear I just got some Swordfish and Gladiators! I'm excited anyway!

Thanks for your compliments. Always glad to be able to provide drool-worthy miniatures.

[faithless]

Very cool. These made me think of all the episodes of Wings I watched with my day back in the day. Great work.

[theCrowe]

Hi folks, I just realised I somehow missed a kinda significant one. So, before you read any further you're going to have to
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r7Si2H479Es

open this link in a new tab for some appropriate atmosphere music.

Done? Then on with the post.

That's right if you haven't guessed already its the mighty four engined symbol of British wartime Britishness. Its the all time champion of dam-busting, tall-boy toting, blockbusting, grand slamming and general purpose aerial bombardment, the mighty Avro Lancaster.


Probably the most recognised heavy bomber in the history of ever. A testament to its seemingly endless versatility and adaptability. It's large unobstructed loading bay could accommodate the demands of ever increasing sizes of bombs (unlike the Short Stirling) and it was said to have been a remarkably fast and nimble aircraft for its weight.





And just for the spectacle of it here's all my RAF bombers in a big group shot.


I'll drop another few odd ones in here that I've missed along the way too.
Like these Macchi C.202 Folgore (Italian "thunderbolt")

These fast machines look sleek and deadly. A real piece of Italian style in the air. Unfortunately for the Regia Aeronautica that was about as far as it went.
A woefully insufficient compliment of only two nose-mounted machine guns (that were quite prone to jamming) combined with  faulty radios and inefficient oxygen systems meant that their pilots rarely had the resources to push these elegant fliers to success.
But still, they were the best fighters the Italians had and were best not underestemated.

Next up its the first lend-lease plane in my collection. An American Curtis P-40 Tomahawk in Chinese colours.

This is the aircraft of Charles Older- A Marine Corps Reserve Pilot who resigned his commission to join the American Volunteer Group, the Flying Tigers. They travelled with an order of P-40 Tomahawks bought by the Chinese and were to instruct the Chinese airmen in their use against the Japanese before America officially joined the war.
By the end of the war Older was a Lieutenant Colonel and a triple ace. He would go on to fly B-26 Invaders in Korea following which his career in law saw him the Judge in the trial of Charles Manson in 1971.

And lastly for now my burgeoning Japanese force, starting small with just a handful of planes. First up its the absolute icon that is the Mitsubishi AM6 "Zero"

When these bad boys appeared in the skies of the Pacific Theatre they were faster and more manoeuvrable than any of their USAAF adversaries. Speed was very much their armour though as their light weight airframe couldn't take much punishment.
 

This is the Zero of Petty Officer Tadayoshi Koga whose final mission ended in a crash landing on the North Pacific Alaskan island of Akutan. In July 1942 the plane was found mostly intact and was the first flyable Zero the United States had gotten a hold of. It was considered a prize beyond value in the fight to defeat the Imperial Japanese forces and was quickly tested and evaluated by the USAAF. They learned a lot about its capabilities and limitations but mostly confirmed what many of their pilots in the pacific were already learning the hard way.

Next up its the venerable Mitsubishi Ki-21 "Sally"

These were first deployed in 1938 flying bombing missions over China proving their worth as reliable long range medium bombers.
They underwent numerous upgrades including a remote controlled 'stinger' tail gun, larger loading bays and engines and control surfaces however by 1942 they were becoming increasingly obsolete.

Originally designated the code name 'Jane' it was changed to 'Sally' due to General MacArthur's objections, Jean being the name of his wife.

That's all for now. Working on the French air war story next. Its a complicated and tragic tale, best told with 6mm miniatures.

Thanks for looking folks. 

[Daemion]

As small as those are, you're doing an outstanding job with the lines. Are those part of the sculpts, or are you having to paint in the 'window panes'?

And, I'm assuming decals in some cases? Regardless, the details are amazing.

[theCrowe]

Thanks Daemion, I'd say about 90% of the canopy detail is in the sculpt but there are times when it doesn't look quite right and I have to paint in extra lines.

There are decals available in some cases but I havnt used any yet. I prefer to just do some research and then paint what I see.

[theCrowe]

Still working away on my French aircraft but in the meantime I'll show you a couple of odd ones I've been working on.

An early French fighter of the 1930's the Dewoitine d.510 that first saw combat with the Chinese Air Force fighting Imperial Japan.

On the 4th November 1939 Captain Shen Tse-Liu flying this D510 over the Lanchou area managed to destroy a Japanese G3M in a head on assault.

As the D.510s came around to attack from behind defensive fire from the Japanese bomber formation damaged Shen's engine forcing him down. He was injured in the crash but soon flew again.

But what's a Japanese G3M? I hear you cry! It's one of these.

The Mitsubishi G3M was a contemporary of the old D.510 being first flown in the Second Sino-Japanese war of from 1937. By the time Pearl Harbour was hit the G3M (allied reporting name "Nell") was considered a bit long in the tooth but was none the less a common sight over the Pacific theatre.

They saw use as long range medium bombers and torpedo bombers until eventually being withdrawn to serve as glider tugs, aircrew and paratroop trainers, and transports for high-ranking officers and VIPs.

Other Sino-Japanese news of the day is that Flying Tiger ace Charles Older now has a fully painted wingman.

 P-40 Tomahawk #47 flown by R.T. Smith of the Third Pursuit Squadron — Hell’s Angels. Smith once buzzed Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander, South-East Asia who was giving a pep talk from his jeep on the airfield. The extremely low pass of Smith's P-51 going at over 450mph almost took his hat off. 

They no doubt chased down their fair share of G3Ms in their time.


My other two P-40's have been finished in a different scheme altogether.

These are two Curtis P-40 Tomahawks of 112 Squadron who were one of the first units to field the type in July 1941. The P-40 didn't perform well at high altitudes but much of the action in the North African theatre happened closer to the ground so it was still able to tangle with the best the Germans and Italians had to offer.

The 112th adopted the "shark's mouth" motif for their P-40s and it soon became a P-40 standard, famously also adopted by the Flying Tigers in Burma. Although it was first used by some Bf-110 pilots earlier in the war.

[theCrowe]

In 1936 in response to Germany's continued remilitarisation France was taking a long hard look at its Airforce and finding that it was long overdue a major update.

Fighters like the Dewoitine D500 and bombers like the Bloch MB210 not long ago considered the very leading edge of modern aviation were already practically obsolete and in need of replacing. 

The Dewoitine 510 was still in production at the time. A beautiful little monoplane plane with long, low wings, fixed undercarriage and open cockpit it was clearly an outmoded mount yet a shipment had just been delivered to China where they saw action against Imperial Japan.


The old Bloch MB210 had been an improved design based on the older MB200 and as such had been easily rolled into production to outfit a number of bomber groups. However both were now considered too old and vulnerable and suitable for night bombing only. They were scheduled for replacement by newer and faster bombers as soon as these could be designed, produced and equipped.

 The war came sooner than the replacements however and the old Blochs remained in service as reserve units and were occasionally pressed into service. Many French MB210s survived the war intact by dint of rarely seeing action. However the Romanian Airforce operated their MB210s with some success. Some of the even older MB200s were used by Vichy French forces in the Syria-Lebanon campaign where they were eventually destroyed on the ground.

Many private aircraft manufacturers in France were swiftly bought up and nationalised in an effort to meet the needs of National Security. However it proved too little too late as German production outstripped that of its neighbours and by 1940 the Armée de l'Air were still woefully under-equipped to have any real hope of success against the Luftwaffe.

One product of this nationalisation project was the Morane-Saulnier MS.406, designed to replace France's ageing stock of 30's fighter planes. Over 1000 were produced making it one of the most numerous of France's fighter planes.

Although it was a considerably more modern design than the aircraft it replaced it was underpowered, underarmed and critically outperformed by the Luftwaffe's Bf 109E.


Pilot Sgt. Mirolsav Jiroudek, like many airmen escaping the German occupation of their home nation, fled to France to continue his fight against Nazi Germany. He flew with Groupe de Chasse III/1, operating this MS406 during the Battle of France. Upon the fall of France Jiroudek was able to escape to Britain where he flew Hurricanes and later Beaufighters in service with the RAF. He returned to Czechoslovakia in July 1945 and flew for a Czech Air Line until 1950.


At age 18 Pierre Le Gloan joined the Armée de l'Air at the outbreak of the war. He served in the GC III/6 fighter squadron, flying the Morane-Saulnier MS.406 from Chartres in the air defence of Paris. He scored victories against four German bombers in the battle of France. Two Do17 and two He111.

Le Gloan's unit GC III/6 were re-equipped with new Dewoitine D.520 fighters in June of 1940 and moved to the south of France. Le Gloan in his new D520 soon added a number of Italian aircraft to his tally before the Armistice between France and Germany. Le Gloan's unit were sent out to Syria where he scored victories against RAF Hurricanes and Gladiators before being withdrawn back to Algiers.

Following the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942 GC III/6 defected to the Free French. They were equipped with Bell P-39 Airacobras which Le Gloan flew until his death in a landing accident in September 1943.
Pierre Le Gloan had shot down 18 aircraft during his flying career, four German, seven Italian and seven British making him an ace for both sides.


The Dewoitine D.520 was the best modern single engine fighter that France produced, out-performing the MS.406 and able to hold its own against invading German fighters. However due to delays in development, production and delivery (France's aeronautical industry being frightfully ill-equipped for the war) there were nowhere near enough available to defend France. Had more D.520's been ready in time they might have made a much more significant contribution to the war.

They had a great range, good manoeuvrability, powerful weaponry and handled very well. The Italians who received some following the armistice thought them excellent.

This Dewoitine 520 was captured from the Vichy French in Lebanon by Free French airmen flying with the RAF.  It was marked with the Cross of Lorraine, the symbol of the Free French Forces led by Charles de Gaul. A fine prize to be sure, to liberate one of your own, however the few D.520's in Free French hands could only be used as advanced trainers as their radios were incompatible with other RAF combat aircraft.


Another product of the Armée de l'Air's desperate modernisation programme was the Lioré et Olivier LeO 45. This medium bomber was originally designed to meet the1936 B4 specification (which itself had shifted a number of times since 1933) With the imminent threat of war looming and continued delays due to engine reliability the LeO 45 was hurried into production despite known teething problems.

The LeO 451 entered service flying recognisance over Germany with Groupe de Bombardement I/31, but by the start of the Second World War this unit had only five LeO 451s and eight practically obsolete Bloch MB200s. (Honestly, is the MB200 not the ugliest plane ever to lift off from the face of the earth?)

In fact by the start of the Battle of France only 54 of the 222 LeO 451s that had been delivered were actually ready for combat. Too few in number and often without fighter escort the LeO 451 was none the less a remarkably fast and very agile bomber and enjoyed some success against Italian forces.

Following the armistice LeO 451s continued to fly under Vichy direction in the Syria-Lebanon Campaign and a number were captured and used by both sides as unit hacks and transports.

And the last two aircraft in my (not entirely comprehensive) French roundup are the Potez 631 and Potez 63.11

The Potez 63 was originally designed to fulfil the role of Fighter Control, bomber escort, interceptor and night fighter. Something in the vein of the German Bf-110 or the Soviet Pe-2, you can see the similarity. Unfortunately so could many French anti-aircraft gunners and "friendly" fliers and often the Potez 631 was mistaken for its German counterpart and attacked by its own.

 Due to the French aircraft industry's inability to produce high powered aircraft engines most German bombers were able to outrun the underpowered Potez 361 so it wasn't much use as an interceptor, day or night.

The most useful and therefore most numerous of the variations was the Potez 63.11 which had been developed to serve with the Groupes Aèriens d'Observation (Army co-operation squadrons) as a reconnaissance aircraft.
It had a completely redesigned crew compartment and extensively glazed nose. The pilot's seat was moved higher and further back to accommodate the changes.

A note on colour schemes before we're done. Most of what I've been able to find suggests the Armée de l'Air did not employ any standardisation in camouflage patterning so there was much variation in the blue/grey, green, brown tri-colour scheme.


National cockade roundels typically were placed in the usual 6 locations with the wing roundels being located on the very end of the wing.


Aces wore diagonal stripes and squadron codes and insignia vary a great deal.

The Vichy era saw the addition of a white stripe and outline to the fuselage roundels, and in mid-1941 the introduction of the infamous yellow and red "Slaves' Pyjamas" striping on the tails and engine cowlings.

That's all for now folks. Thanks again for looking.

[theCrowe]

Ive been having a look at some of the bi-planes of the second World War. They weren't the fastest or most modern aircraft in the sky but they had their uses. First up, the massive production and use of the Soviet crop duster, the Polikarpov Po-2 was about as retrograde a plan as can be imagined. But it worked a treat.

They were used for just about everything conceivable and often got away with it due to their top speed being about the same as the stall speed of the Luftwaffe fighters ordered to shoot them down.

One of the most famous operators of the Po-2 was the all female 588th Night Bomber Regiment known to their german enemies as the 'Nachthexen' (Night Witches). Their pilots like Yekaterina Ryabova and Nadezhda Popova, (who famously flew eighteen missions in a single night.) were notorious for daring low-altitude night raids on German rear-area positions. With engines throttled off there was little warning to the sleepless nerve wracked enemy below as the bombs fell from the whistling shadows gliding low overhead.

Continuing my theme of four-winged wonders are a few more recent additions to the collection.

These beautiful British bi-planes are all coming from <a href="http://www.heroicsandros.co.uk/index.php?app=gbu0&ns=splash&sid=37620x96w348299965o302ttxx8cmf45" target="_new" rel="nofollow">Heroics & Ros </a> (Another very nice selection of 1:300 scale aircraft to choose from. I got those Po-2's and some of my French collection in the same order.)

First up its the RAF's "modern" bi-plane, the Gloster Gladiator.

The Gladiator was developed to replace the obsolescent Gauntlet but did so only for a short time as    more modern monoplane fighters like the Hurricane quickly outstripped its performance and replaced it.
None the less Gladiators were pressed into service by the RAF and Fleet Air Arm in France, Malta and the Middle East and Gladiators saw service in many other theatres across the world with various other forces on both sides.

The Hal Far Fighter Flight were formed during the Siege of Malta. A group of Gloster Sea Gladiators formed the air defence of the Island from June 1940 for a number of weeks under bombardment by Italian bombers.

In September 1940 Pilot Officer Roald Dahl (yes, THAT Roald Dahl!) flying this Gloster Gladiator over the Lybian desert made a crash landing and received severe head and back injuries. Although he returned to service with 80 Squadron and had some success flying Hurricanes his injuries from this crash put an end to his flying career and he was invalided back to England. Dahl often expressed the belief that this head injury had produced the change in his personality and creativity that made him one of the world's best loved and most celebrated children's authors.


Next up on our British bi-plane bonanza its Fairey's quintessential Fleet Air Arm icon the Swordfish.

It might have appeared practically obsolete when first introduced in 1936 but this large and rugged biplane had all the right qualities for deck flying operations and torpedo dive bombing.

Affectionately known as the 'Stringbag' for its adaptable multifunctional capabilities the 'can do, will do' Swordfish outlasted all expectation continuing its distinguished service all throughout the war, outlasting even Fairey's replacement the Albacore to become Britain's last serving bi-plane.

Famous for the attack on the Italian Fleet at Taranto in Nov 1940 and the operation to seek and destroy the Bismarck the Swordfish was also instrumental in protecting Allied convoys from German submarines.

Another stalwart of the Fleet Air Arm and of the Air Sea Rescue service is this, the Supermarine Walrus.

The "Shagbat" as it was sometimes called, for its frankly disastrous aesthetics may not have been a looker but to anyone stranded out in the Channel seeing it swoop in to the rescue it was the very vision of beauty.

Originally designed for catapult launch and spotting duties for the Royal Navy the old Shagbat though somewhat unsuitable proved a rugged and able rescue craft. Unable to take off from the water when carrying more than 6 men, there were countless instances of Walrus crews landing to effect a rescue knowing full well they would have to taxi back to shore often for tens of miles in mine infested waters and rough seas.

Hundreds of men were returned safely to shore by the doughty Walrus who would otherwise have perished.

That'll be all for bi-planes for the time being. I've got another order incoming so expect some more WW2 bi-plane action here some time in the hopefully not too distant future.
As ever, thanks for visiting the tiny aircraft gallery.

[Empyrus]

Oh, Po-2! Nice!
The only biplane ever to get a jet kill. (A Starfighter slowed down to under its stall speed while trying to attack the Po-2.)

[theCrowe]

Ha! Gotta love the underdog.


Hi folks. Glad to be able to show my first lot of Regia Aeronautica at last.

This little batch are all from Scotia Grendel. Beautiful sculpts as ever from them and a joy to paint up. I hope you enjoy these as much as I have.

Fiat G50 Frechia (arrow/dart)

Italy’s first single-seat, all-metal all-modern monoplane fighter was much celebrated for its excellent manoeuvrability when it first entered service in 1939. Despite its inadequate armament of only two machine guns and its lack of pace and range compared to contemporary rivals it was extensively used by Italian forces throughout the war in many theatres.

Macchi MC200 Saetta (Arrow, or a flash of lightning)

Marginally more capable than the Fiat G50 the first all modern monoplane fighter produced by Macchi was ultimately another under powered and under equipped offering. On top of that the Saetta also had a dangerous tendency to spin out of control resulting in a hurried improvement program which soon saw the development of the C.202 Folgore to replace it. However a shortage of engines for the new fighter saw the old MC200 Saetta continue in production. Over 1000 were produced almost all of which had been lost in service by the armistice of 1943.


Macchi C.202 Folgore (Italian "thunderbolt")
These fast machines were sleek and deadly. A real piece of Italian style in the air.

Unfortunately for the Regia Aeronautica that was about as far as it went. Still with a woefully insufficient compliment of only two nose-mounted machine guns (that were quite prone to jamming) combined with faulty radios and inefficient oxygen systems meant that their pilots rarely had the support needed to push these elegant fliers to success. Still, they were widely regarded as the best fighters the Italians had and were best not underestimated.


This is the C.202 Folgore flown by Captain Franco Lucchini of 84 Squadriglia in North Affica. Lucchini was an experienced fighter pilot having flown CR.32's over Spain, CR.42's in North Africa, C.200's over Malta and then C.202's again back in Africa. An ace of some 26 victories Lucchini was amongst the most celebrated fighters of the Regia Aeronautica. On 5th July 1943 he was engaged in a massive battle in the skies over Sicily where he was shot down and killed fighting B-17s and Spitfires.

Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero (Italian for sparrowhawk)
The true workhorse of the Regia Aeronautica and a terror for Allied shipping in the Mediterranean the SM79 carved out its place in history as one of the fastest medium bombers and deadliest torpedo bombers of the war.

With its three engined design and notable dorsal hump the SM79 is easily recognisable and was well liked by its pilots and crew who nicknamed it il gobbo maledetto ("damned hunchback").

A source of much national pride for its award winning speed and ability it often flew without escort in the Spanish civil war. Their myth of invulnerability ended when the first Sparviero to be shot down fell to a Gladiator over Malta.


Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia flew this SM79 in 1940 as part of the Italian torpedo bomber campaign in the Mediterranean. His successful attacks on HMS Kent, HMS Glasgow and HMS Illustrious amongst many other hapless Allied ships made him one of the most celebrated pilots of the Regia Aeronautica.

Five times awarded the Silver Medal of Military Valor and also the German Iron Cross second class, Buscaglia was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor after his aircraft was shot down in North Africa in November 1943.
Though he was badly wounded and burned in the crash he survived and was taken prisoner. Buscaglia returned to Italy in July 1944 to fly with the Aeronautica Cobelligerante del Sud, but died attempting to take off in a new American-built Martin Baltimore without an instructor.
The 3rd Wing of the current Aeronautica Militare Italiana was named after him.

Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 Pipistrello (Italian: bat)

Basically a militarised 30's airliner the SM.81 Pipistrello had already proved very capable in multiple roles during the war with Ethiopia and the Spanish Civil War.

 By the onset of the Second World War despite near obsolescence there were still around 300 SM.81's in service performing various second-line duties. Its wide fuselage provided a large capacity for bomb loads on night bombing raids or for transport of goods and troops during daylight. It was one of the most flexible, reliable and important aircraft of the Regia Aeronautica.


CANT Z.1007 Alcione (Kingfisher)
Originally a land-based version of CANT's record breaking trimotor float plane the Z.506 the Alcione had a disappointing start and required a good few updates and improvements before engines, airframe and armament came together into something of a capable modern medium bomber.

 The trimotor design was a common feature of Italian aircraft of World War II, mostly because the Italian aeronautical industry were having a hard time producing an engine that could put out as much power as some contemporary German or British ones. The trimotor design could provide as much power as a german twin engine design but with the added weight of a third engine.

The wooden structure of the Z.1007 would allow the aircraft to float if it was forced to ditch in the sea but it was a nightmare in the extreme climates. Aircraft stationed in North Africa and Russia suffered badly from delamination and cracking which caused extra drag on the otherwise very narrow and streamlined airframe.

That's all of now folks. I have another batch on the go, this time from Heriocs & Ros. Another selection of Italian aviation including more biplanes should be winging your way hopefully soon.
 As always folks, many thanks for visiting the gallery and sharing my enthusiasm for tiny planes.

[theCrowe]

Hi folks. Sorry for the long wait. (I got a bit distracted there writing and drawing) but I finally have my second batch of Regia Aeronautica to show. This time they're all coming from Heroics & Ros whose excellent selection of 1:300 aircraft has provided some real classics to my collection. So thanks to H&R and on with the post.


Fiat CR.32
Italian ace Mario D'Agostini 163 Squadriglia in 1940
The Spanish Civil War was for the Italians (as for the Germans and Russians) a proving ground for the tactics of their Air Forces and their aircraft designers and many of the lessons learned and the aircraft developed in the 30s were carried on into the Second World War. One such lesson learned by the Regia Aeronautica was courtesy of the Fiat CR.32, a robust and highly manoeuvrable biplane that had dominated the skies over Spain.

Indeed so enduring was the reputation of this doughty little biplane that by June of 1940 when Italy declared war on France and Britain various versions of the old Fiat CR.32 still equipped two thirds of Italy's fighter squadrons.



Fiat CR.42 Falco
Italy remained firmly convinced, due to the success of the CR.32 that the bi-plane would remain the unrivalled king of the sky. And so Fiat set about refining and developing a "modern" version producing the Fiat CR.42 in 1939 the last of the great bi-plane fighters.
Although technically outclassed by faster and more heavily armed modern monoplanes the CR.42 was none the less a dangerous adversary. It soon became known for a rugged and brilliantly manoeuvrable aircraft that which while easily outpaced was better avoided than engaged in a protracted dog-fight.


Mario Visinti was the top scoring bi-plane ace of the Second World War with 16 (some say 20) victories. He was known as a meticulous and even scientific fighter and was a recipient of the Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals of Military Valour. His success, charm and gallantry made him a legend following his death in 1941. Having landed safely back at his airfield following a successful mission Mario refuelled and took off in search of his wing-man Luigi (I'm not making this up!) who had been forced down by bad weather. The weather got the better of Mario Visinti who crashed on Mount Bizen.

 As the bleeding edge of aviation technology fast outstripped the already obsolete CR.42 the inevitable call of the Night Fighter beckoned and so the CR.42 found a valuable role in intercepting night bomers. One such unit was the 377th operating out of Sicily.

CR.42 night pilots were often up there in the dark lacking a reliable radio, any kind of radar equipment and as in the case of Capitano Giorgio Graffer guns that were prone to jamming. The hapless Capitano famously resorted to ramming is target (a British A.W.38 Whitley ) before baling out. The Whitley subsequently crashed into the English Channel on the way home making this the first successful night interception by a CR.42.


Breda Ba.65
This old Spanish Civil War ground attack plane was already a bit long in the tooth by the outbreak of the second World War but some 150 were still in service none the less. This was thanks largely to a number of variously unsuccessful attempts by both Breda and Caproni to produce a suitable replacement, all of which ended in failure, some spectacularly so.

The venerable Ba.65 muddled through, an easy target for British fighters in Northeast Africa and by early 1941 they had mostly all been destroyed.


Imam Ro 57
97• Gr. Autonomo Tuffatori Rome-1943
A fine example of the Italian Aeronautics industry of the era the Imam Ro 57 originally designed in 1939 might have been the long range fighter Italy needed at the time, it looked fast and mean and deadly but it would be four years in the making and by 1943 standards was considered too slow, badly under-equipped and too costly to produce for all it offered.

Produced in limited numbers as both a fighter/interceptor and a ground attack dive bomber it saw very little use and remains a largely forgotten and sadly overlooked little gem, because just look at this thing!  (I mean look at <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Imam+Ro+57&client=safari&hl=en-gb&prmd=imvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjB-Lb62MLbAhWJDMAKHSksDHUQ_AUICigB&biw=480&bih=268#imgrc=kZ2PT7mvutEcrM: " target="_new" rel="nofollow">a photo of the real thing</a> as this sculpt doesn't quite do it justice) Ah, if looks could kill...


Piaggio P.108 Bombardiere
In a marked departure from the Regia Aeronautica's policy of 3 engined bombers Piaggio looked to the engineering experience of Giovanni Casiraghi whose 4 engine heavy bomber design owed much to his time in the US. (Its a kinda B-17 lookin' thing)

They were very expensive to produce but the numbers crunched in Piaggio's favour as compared to the SM79 (the Regia Aeronautica's bomber workhorse) for the same cost comparable bomb loads could be delivered by fewer P.108's and therefore fewer crewmen would be required.

The P.108 was a very different kind of aircraft than what the Italian pilots were used to and early test flights of P.109 prototypes were fraught with accidents including one that claimed the life of Musolini's own son Bruno Musolini.

Operationally the P.108B had a poor survivability record on bombing raids and saw limited use over Gibraltar, North Africa and Sicily. Before the armistice when the few remaining P.108B's were sabotaged so as not to fall into German hands. The Transport version P.108T saw more success however in Service with the Luftwaffe evacuating encircled German Troops from Russia.


CANT Z.501 Gabbiano a.k.a Mammaiuto "Mamma help me!"
Once a much celebrated sea plane for its record breaking endurance and distance flying in 1934, the Z.501 by 1940 was a bit of a relic. It was however still quite useful for sea rescue and maritime reconnaissance, and submarine hunting at a pinch and was deployed in some numbers all throughout the war.

Unfortunately for its crews though the old Gabbiano had a reputation for being something of a death trap.
The wartime mass-produced hulls didn't tend to hold together very well in rough seas, the engine nacelle might collapse into the cockpit if you landed too hard, the extra weight of machine gun turrets and bombs impeded the aircrafts flight characteristics considerably and resulted in a rescue plane that was very vulnerable to enemy fighters and more likely to require a rescue than to effect one. 'Mamma Help Me' indeed!



The CANT Z.506 Airone (Italian: Heron) was an award winning tri-engined float-plane used for torpedo bombing, reconnaissance and Air Sea Rescue. It was an exceptionally useful and well respected aircraft that was much more rugged and reliable than the older Cant z.501. By the end of the war many Airone's were in service on both sides and some examples continued in post war service on into 1959.

Although in general the CANT z.506 was quite vulnerable to enemy fighters there was one man who you definitely would want in your top turret. Pietro Bonannini, a turret gunner on Cant Z.506B and Fiat RS.14 floatplanes was credited with 8 victories (4x Spitfire’s, 3x Blenheims and 1x Hurricane) and another 2 probables making him the only non-pilot flying ace of the Regia Aeronautica.


And finally...

My whole collection of Regia Aeronautica aircraft.

Well I've had a blast painting these. What an amazing variety of aircraft and camo patterns there were to choose from. Some of these are now some of my favourites of my collection. I really knew next to nothing about the Italians in the skies of WW2 before starting this, so I hope you've enjoyed discovering the Regia Aeronautica with me.

Next on the bench I'll be looking east toward China and then maybe doing a little investigation into the Winter War, some early Finnish and Soviets on the way there too. Watch this space for those and as ever, thanks for visiting the tiny planes gallery.

[God and Davion]

Great work! I love the details, especially the spots in the Italian aircraft. Very well executed. And very good historic comments, too.  :thumbsup:

[DOC_Agren]

very nice

[avon1985]

Wow! those are some excellent paint jobs! :thumbsup:

[theCrowe]

Thanks guys, I'm always glad to know the Battletech crowd appreciate seeing these. I think it's a scale thing, and maybe the historical/cultural aspects of the Battletech universe that maybe holds a little shared interest. It's shame I don't have more Battletech minis to share. I should get some more hardware for my Smoke Jags!

Sorry for the very long wait folks. I didn't do any painting in July so its been a bit of a summer holiday from tiny aircraft but I've finally pulled another set together ready to share.
So first off here's a little teaser. What do all these mid 30s aircraft have in common?

Martin B-10, Curtiss Goshawk, Dewoitine D.510, Tupolev SB, Ilyushin DB-3,

Well done if you guessed, they all saw service with the Chinese Air Force during the Second Sino-Japanese war immediately prior to and leading into WW2.


Kicking things off its this beautiful little mini from H&R, the American built Curtis Goshawk, exported to China as the Hawk II and later with retractable undercarriage as the Hawk III.

These early 30's biplanes equipped the majority of China's fighter squadrons in 1937 and were hard pressed to meet the challenge of Imperial Japan's much faster and more modern Air Force.

2401 was flown by biplane ace Captain Liu Chui-Kang who was squadron Leader of 24th Pursuit Squadron.In a short three month span from August to October 1937 Kang became biplane ace of seven confirmed victories before his untimely death in a crash landing.

Another American built aircraft equipping the CAF's 30th bomber Squadron in 1937, The Martin B-10 (exported as Model 193WC.)
First flown in 1932 the B-10 had been a great leap forward (no pun intended) in 1930's bomber design. All metal construction, fully cowled engines, enclosed cockpit, internal bomb bay, rotating nose turret and retractable undercarriage. An ultra modern medium bomber that could outperform many contemporary pursuit aircraft the B-10 was very much the shape of things to come.

In May 1938 a plan was proposed to bring the war home to the Japanese people by sending Chinese bombers on a mission over Japan for the first time. The CAF's last two (of 9) remaining Martin 139WC bombers were chosen for this special mission but when over Nagasaki, in lieu of bombs they dropped leaflets imploring the Japanese public to put pressure on their leaders to end their aggression and occupation of Chinese territories. No such pressure resulted and the war continued regardless.

From 1938, 18 Chinese D.510s saw action against the Japanese, including the defense of Chengdu and the Chinese wartime capital Chongqing equipping 17th squadron Chinese pilots and 41st French volunteer squadron.

On the 4th November 1939 Captain Shen Tse-Liu flying this D510 over the Lanchou area managed to destroy a Japanese G3M in a head on assault.

As the D.510s came around to attack from behind defensive fire from the Japanese bomber formation damaged Shen's engine forcing him down. He was injured in the crash but soon flew again.

Other European aircraft to see service with the CAF included both Gloster Gladiator and Fiat CR30 biplanes, a model of He-111 that the Luftwaffe had rejected and a few examples of Italy's most versatile SM81 Pipistrello.


Polikarpov I-15
Following a deal with the Soviets in 1937 the Chinese Airforce started receiving deliveries of much needed Russian aircraft and volunteer pilots. Large numbers of I-15 biplane fighters and marginally more modern I-16 monoplane fighters began pouring onto Chinese airfields. More than 250 Soviet pilots 'volunteered' to fly the 255 I-15s supplied to China. By 1939 a total of 347 Polikarpov biplanes had been delivered to the CAF.

 The I-15 had proved a tough and capable biplane in the skies over Spain but it soon met its match in some of the newer, faster Japanese monoplanes and the air war over China quickly became a dangerously one sided affair.

Polikarpov I-16
Some 250 I-16 Type 10s were supplied to China. The type 10 had four 7.62 mm (0.30 in) ShKAS machine guns, armour behind the pilot, and had a slightly upgraded engine. Further variants and improvements would follow but by 1939 a Soviet study found that the 1-16 had exhausted its performance potential.
Finally in Dec 1940 to Jan 1941 a last batch of 75 improved I-16 type 17 fighters were delivered. But even with their new 20mm Vickers cannons and additional armour they were no match for the Japanese Zero's and Hyabusas.

My Chinese I-16 is that of Luo Yingde who flew with the 24th squadron in 1940. (And look at my dodgy old Soviet I-16 !!! The less said about that the better really.)

Tupolev SB
Hundreds of Russian Bombers were also supplied to China between 1937 and 1941. An initial delivery of 62 Tupolev SB's was made with combat operations by Soviet forces starting in December 1937 with attacks on Japanese ships on the Yangtze River. A further 60 SBs were delivered in early 1938. In February 1938, to celebrate Soviet Army Day, Soviet SBs carried out a long range attack on Japanese airfields in Taiwan, claiming 40 Japanese aircraft destroyed on the ground. However during the Battle of Wuhan losses were heavy, forcing the Chinese SB units to be temporarily withdrawn from combat.

The Soviet Volunteer units operating the SB over China re-equipped with the Ilyushin DB-3 in 1939, allowing their SBs to be transferred to Chinese units and a further 100 SBs were supplied in 1941.

Ilyushin DB-3
In 1939, thirty DB-3s were supplied to the CAF and they also saw heavy action against Japanese targets in the Wuhan region from their bases in Sichuan, Lanzhou and Chengdu. The DB-3 had arrived too late to see service in Spain but this trial run in the CAF proved it was a very capable long range bomber with much potential. It was however a very complex and time consuming airframe to build and maintain.

The DB-3 would go on to be one of the most useful long range bombers in the Soviet arsenal, eventually dropping the first Soviet bombs on Berlin.


At its peak the Soviet Volunteer Group numbered 3,665 personnel 2,000 of which were pilots some of whom had been sent directly from the Spanish Civil War. Soviet squadrons were withdrawn after the non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Japan in 1941.
 and the Chinese turned to the United States, which authorized the creation of the American Volunteer Group the Flying Tigers and their more modern P-40 fighters.


Eventually China's surviving stock of 30's aero-tech would be replaced by further American supplied machines as lend lease kicked in and the USA joined the war in ernest against Imperial Japan.

That's all for now folks. As ever many thanks for visiting the tiny planes gallery.

[theCrowe]

Hi folks, back again (at long last) with another international lineup representing the collective variety of one particular national Air Force.

This time we're looking at Fokker DXXI, Gloster Gladiator, Brewster Buffalo, Fiat G50,  Messerschmitt bf 109G,  Hawker Hurricane, Westland Lysander, Bristol Blenheim, Junkers Ju88. But which country used all of these disparate assortment of both Allied and Axis aircraft?


Well done if you guessed, it's The Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force)

The Winter War (Nov 39-Mar 40)
In November 1939 when the invasion Soviet forces began the most modern fighter the Finns had on hand was the Dutch built Fokker DXXI.

This rugged and capable fighter proved an ideal fit for the Finnish Air Force. As well as being on par with contemporary Soviet aircraft it's strong, fixed undercarriage was particularly well suited for improvised, uneven runways and also conversion to skis for winter use.

As waves of Soviet bombers vectored in over Finnish cities the small contingent of Finnish fighters rose to the challenge often taking on groups of bombers and escorts many times their number.

In January 1940 1st Lt Jorma Sarvanto flying this Fokker DXXI managed a stunning feat of interception shooting down as many as six Soviet DB-3 bombers in only 4 minutes! Sarvanto became the top scoring Finnish ace with a total of 13 victories by the end of the Winter War.


As Finland faced off the Soviet advance help arrived from the Swedish Voluntary Air Force, F 19. Over 250 volunteers and 25 aircraft including 12 Gloster Gladiators answered Finland's call for aid. In two months of aerial combat they acquitted themselves well but lost six planes and five pilots, two of whom were captured and were eventually returned to Sweden.


As the Winter War continued the British Government finally agreed to lend some real support to the embattled Finns. Aircraft already purchased were finally released including 80 Hawker Henley's and a lot of other older machines.

The most modern war planes in Finland's inventory were its 17 Blenheim medium bombers, license built in Finland.

There was however no way that Blenheim production in Finland could keep up with demand and so on the 23rd Feb 1940 twelve British built Blenheims took off from RAF Bicester heading north. They bore Finnish markings and were piloted by RAF volunteers in civilian disguise carrying false passports. (It wouldn't do for Soviet Russia to have British RAF officers as prisoners to bargain with.)

This dangerous and highly clandestine journey took three days flying through Scotland, Norway and Sweden and on to deliver all 12 bombers safely to a frozen airstrip on Lake Juva Finland. The airmen were quietly shuffled back to the British Embassy in Sweden and thence safely back to England.

Many more purchases of aircraft from Britain's inventory were fulfilled including an order of Westland Lysander observation aircraft.

Perhaps most famous as a spy taxi the Lysander's sturdy fixed undercarriage and exceptional short-field performance made it an ideal aircraft for Finnish units operating out of small, improvised airstrips often in snowy frozen conditions.

 They were primarily employed as observation aircraft and  could be used offensively at a pinch although they were quite vulnerable to enemy fighters.

As well as providing finished aircraft to the embattled Finns the RAF agreed to train Finnish Pilots in their operation.

In Feb 1940 12 Finnish pilots arrived in England for a Hurricane crash-course (they probably didn't call it that) before embarking in their new machines on a nail biting flight in terrible weather over the North Sea.



With the signing of the Moscow peace accord hostilities were suspended but by this time Finland's airforce, thanks to a serious amount of international aircraft shopping was considerably larger than before the outbreak of the war.

The Continuation war. (June 41 - Sep 44)
Amongst the myriad other planes incorporated into the patchwork of the Finnish airforce (including French MS406 and American built P-36 Hawks) was the Italian Fiat G50.

Purchased in 1940 to bolster the Winter war efforts a few managed to arrive in time but it wasn't until the offensive operations of 1941 that they had any significant success.
In a cruel twist all 33 machines shipped to Finland were of open cockpit design which was largely unsuitable in such Arctic climates, and the machines themselves when adapted to colder conditions performed quite poorly.


This sorry looking specimen is FA-21 originally flown by 2nd Lt Kokkonen who ran out of fuel and crashed in July 1940. It was repaired and returned to the skies flown by Lt Hamalainen in 42 but overturned on a forced landing.

Again it was repaired and is here seen as flown by 2nd Lt R. Sartiarvi with its green/black Finnish colours fuselage and replacement (original Italian desert camouflage) wings and engine cowling. Black areas were applied in an attempt to match the Finnish pattern but honestly it must've looked rather conspicuous on a snowy air strip. Eventually in April 43 2nd Lt Helin flipped this sucker on landing one last time and FA-21 was finally declared a lost cause. Amazingly all three pilots who crashed this same plane survived.


Brewster Buffalo B-239E
This is the flying beer bottle (the Finns had many more nicknames for these planes) of Capt. Hans Wind whose 39 Buffalo air victories (out of 75) make him the highest scoring Buffalo ace of the war. (Easy when your name is "Wind", right?)

The export version of the US Navy's dumpy old disappointment found something of a niche with the Finns, being better suited to ground based operations over Russia than carrier based operations in the Pacific. It replaced the ageing Fokkers and their various other largely obsolete fighters as Finland's premier modern fighter for the best part of the Continuation War.

One oddity of the Comtinuation War in the air is that with the presence of Hawker Hurricanes already in Finland once lend lease Hurricanes started landing in Russia you then had Hurricanes fighting on both sides on the same front!

No idea if they ever clashed directly. Unlikely as by that stage most Finnish Hurricanes would've been all but clapped out and short on parts. The Soviets hated their own Hurricanes, mostly because they weren't built in Russia.

As Soviet fighter technology developed becoming more and more advanced and foreign machines joined their ranks the Finns' old Brewsters struggled to cope. The FAF turned to their Luftwaffe allies for a replacement in the shape of the Messerschmitt Bf 109G.

The Finns received 159 such aircraft which equipped 4 squadrons from March 1943 and would remain in service with the FAF for over a decade being finally retired in 1954!

For pilots transferring from the old buffalo the difference was palpable. Faster, more aggressive and bang up to date the 109G was a massive upgrade and in the capable hands of experienced pilots like Ilmari Juutilainen it was a deadly hunter.

Ilmari Juutilainen was the highest scoring non-German ace     of the war with 94 1/6 confirmed victories. (127 by his own count)  2 1/6 in a Fokker DXXI, 34 in a Brewster B-239E and 58 in the Bf 109G.

Another German addition to the Finnish flight inventory was the ubiquitous Junkers Ju88.

(You're seeing here one of the first and one of the latest paint jobs of my collection, with just over two years of 6mm aircraft painting experience in between. Nice to see I've made some improvement in that time)

The Finns bought two dozen Ju 88's which joined their old Blenheims on bombing raids on the North-Easter front hitting Soviet air bases near Leningrad and the Aerosan base at Petsnajoki.

Later during the Lapland War (Now against the Germans- September to November 1944) they were used for reconnaissance and for bombing German vehicle columns. After the war they served as trainers for a while but were soon scrapped.


That's all for this time. I had a blast reading up on Finland's war(s) It's a very interesting story, lots of twists and turns. It seems both sides had an idea of how to use Finland to suit their own ends while Finland just used any help they could get and did what they had to do. They would fly literally anything they could get into the air and I might have painted up many other examples of types they used including captured Soviet planes.

Painting-wise there was a lot of variation for a lot of different reasons; time-line, weather conditions, country of origin, availability of parts. The RAF Blenheims flown in would've been in RAF colours with Finnish roundels at the time before they were painted up properly in Finland to match the Finnish-built Blenheims. I often have to make choices about planes to paint up and how I'll do them but I always try to represent a range of typical schemes as well as the odd stand-alone example that tells a good story. It's never quite exhaustive though as there's always more to discover in the crazy history of the war.

Hope you've enjoyed the planes and I haven't waffled on too much. Thanks for visiting the gallery and do tell me what you think. I enjoy talking about planes almost as much as painting them.

[Wolf72]

that was an awesome history lesson!

[theCrowe]

Thanks Wolf72. Glad you got a kick out of it. Are there any Finnish descended planets in the Inner Sphere? If so I want to play them. Mechs begged borrowed and stolen from all directions, held together by spit and cable ties but ultimately impossible to beat down.

[I am Belch II]

Wow, very nice job.

[Hayden.]

Thanks Wolf72. Glad you got a kick out of it. Are there any Finnish descended planets in the Inner Sphere? If so I want to play them. Mechs begged borrowed and stolen from all directions, held together by spit and cable ties but ultimately impossible to beat down.

I looked into this a bit, one of the better leads I found was Yang Virtanen (mechanic from Battletech). His last name is super Finnish, was born in the Bryant system in the Capellan Confederation.  There are a few other "Baltic" references in and around the confederation, such as the planet Tallin in the St. Ives Commonality/Compact (and Virtanen later served in the St. Ives Lancers, but I suspect this is more coincidence than an indication of a shadowy Finnish cabal). The FWLM Also had a corvette called the "Karelia" in the 3050s, apparently named for the border region shared by Finland and Russia.  There's also the Karhu (Finnish for Bear) omnimech manufactured in the Rasalhague dominion, though I suspect this is more due to Clan Ghost Bear's insane insistence on naming every. single. mech. some iteration of "Bear", though as the FRR and Rasalhauge Dominion both had a bit of "Scandinavian" background, it's not totally unrealistic to assume that a few Finns might have settled in Rasalhague space during the first exodus from earth.  Anyway, I ran out of steam, this might be enough to get you started.  (In short: Finns are everywhere, like almost everyone else, and due to this, you could reasonably work in a pseudo Finnish force just about anywhere).

That said, you description of "Mechs begged borrowed and stolen from all directions, held together by spit and cable ties but ultimately impossible to beat down." sounds a lot like two examples in Capellan history: the Confederation during the 4th Succession War and later in the 3030s fighting back the Anduriens, and even more so, St. Ives in the 3060s fighting back the Confederation and utilizing "ProSal" (Provisional Salvage) Battalions, which were literally whatever St. Ives could get its hands on, typically battlefield salvage. Initially these formations were more logistical (I.E. conveying mechs to regular St. Ives forces), but as the war ground on they were also used as provisional combat formations. I couldn't find this mentioned on Sarna, but it is on Pg. 36 of the Capellan Confederation Field manual.

Ok, I'm really gonna stop now.

ED: Also, theCrowe, I'm terribly sorry highjacking your thread, your planes are great and I'm a huge fan of those Finnish aircraft.  I once did a Finnish campaign in the old IL-2 Sturmovik game, and your miniatures vividly reminded me of the experience.

[theCrowe]

No need to apologise Hayden, thanks for the info. A Finnish fluffed Salvage Battalion sounds like a lot of story fun. My vaguely Kentares (in memorial/origin) Merc unit idea hasn't held much interest for me (and sure as hell never held any interest for anyone else!) in a long time so a new notion like this might be just the thing to get me back into the Battletech universe.

Never thought I'd go Capellan though...

[Hayden.]

No need to apologise Hayden, thanks for the info. A Finnish fluffed Salvage Battalion sounds like a lot of story fun. My vaguely Kentares (in memorial/origin) Merc unit idea hasn't held much interest for me (and sure as hell never held any interest for anyone else!) in a long time so a new notion like this might be just the thing to get me back into the Battletech universe.

Never thought I'd go Capellan though...

I find that the longer I've been into BT, the more diverse my tastes have become.  I've gone from being a tepid Fed-Com type (I chalk it up to the era I grew up in), to a hard-core St. Ives fan, and finally, I've taken to point of view that I love all BT's factions.  I mean, some more than others (looking at you, WOB, Scorpions and Hanseatic League). That said, I've come to accept that the compact is just stuck in the confederation.  I can always relive 3030-3063. And St. Ives will always have a better run than the Tikonov Free Republic. (Though if I had my druthers...)

[Lord Cameron]

Are these 1/300 aircraft?

[theCrowe]

Are these 1/300 aircraft?

Yes, everything here is 1/300.

[Lord Cameron]

Yes, everything here is 1/300.

I started collecting 1/432 WWII minis some years ago, but it's tough to find them now....

[theCrowe]

I started collecting 1/432 WWII minis some years ago, but it's tough to find them now....

Yeah, I've never seen anything that scale for sale. Everything's either 1:200, 1:287, 1:300, 1:600. At least as far as I've seen. I chose 1:300 because it had the widest selection to choose from for a pretty cheep price per-miniature. It is pretty darn small though and sometimes I could wish for 1/200 scale just for that little bit more detail.

What do you use them for?

[theCrowe]

Hi folks, long time no planes! Super glad to be back at long last with this batch all ready to show. This time around I'm not looking at a National Air Force or even a specific front. This time around I'm looking at V.I.P.'s in the air!

In a war where for the first time people could be transported through the skies to almost anywhere in the world the various aircraft that made that possible through either choice or necessity make for an interesting study. Well I think so at least.

 NOTE: Some of the planes so used were cutting edge prototypes or specially modified to purpose and wouldn't have had all the turrets and other fixtures of later regular service aircraft. I've chosen not to file these off or dramatically alter window layouts on these miniatures so please forgive such inaccuracies as we go along. So with that said lets look at the planes.

The first V.I.P. I wanted to look at had to be Churchill, who as you can imagine had much cause to travel around the world. I couldn't get miniatures for his earlier flights but I could get one for this.

In August 1942 American pilot Captain Vanderkloot ,the best in the business flew Churchill and his staff in a specially converted Long range B-24 Liberator cargo transporter -AL504 named "Commando". They went first to Cairo to put Monty in charge in North Africa and then on to Moscow to meet with Stalin.

It wasn't exactly a comfortable ride. The bomb bay was sealed shut and the interior fitted with a makeshift cabin of seats and a bed for the main man. The whole thing was painted black (proper stealth technology that) for the overnight flights and any info on the flight plan was strictly top secret.


Churchill's second and last trip on "Commando" was to the 1943 Casablanca Conference. (A little more on what he saw when he got there later)


In May 1943, seeing the need for a permanent (and altogether more suitable, altogether more British) dedicated VIP transport aircraft the air ministry commissioned Avro York C Mark I LV633 for use by King George VI and the Prime Minister. Named "Ascalon" by 24 Squadron's Commanding Officer, LV633 joined the King's Flight, operating from Hendon Middlesex.

In August 1944, with Vanderkroot again at the controls  Ascalon bore the travelling PM in some greater amount of comfort this time (he did turn 70 in this year after all) to Algiers, Naples, Moscow, Cairo, Turkey and the Black Sea, cigar in hand all the way there and back, no doubt.
 
Ascalon also conveyed King George VI on some of his longest Royal flights visiting Tripoli in June 1943 and Naples in July-August 1944.


Douglas VC-54C Skymaster Aka “Sacred Cow” President Roosevelt.

The first purpose-built presidential air transport the forerunner to the modern day "Airforce One" was this Douglas Skymaster, officially the "Flying Whitehouse" but more commonly referred to as "the Sacred Cow", a nod to the high security and special status surrounding the plane.


Presidential luxuries on board included an executive conference room with a large desk and a rectangular bulletproof window.  A private presidential privy and a fold down bed concealed behind the sofa. And even a galley kitchen with an electric fridge! A battery-powered wheelchair lift was installed at the rear to allow the President to board the aircraft more easily.

The Sacred Cow represented the very bleeding edge of modernity in the air. When Churchill first encountered the C-54 of the American delegation in Casablanca he was green with envy. (He was still flying Commando!)

Of course he had to have one too, in the interest of maintaining the dignity and prestige of Britain you understand. In November 1944 he got his wish and for the Yalta conference in Feb 45  both Skymasters were parked up side by side at Saki airport and guarded by the Red Army.

But what about Uncle Joe, I hear you cry.

Well he didn't fly so that's that.

Ok only joking, I'll drop another picture of my Soviet Pe-8 (that ain't no bourgeois party wagon)

 It is painted up as the aircraft that carried Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov and his delegation from Moscow to London and then to Washington, D.C. and back, for negotiations to open a second front against Nazi Germany (19 May–13 June 1942). The flight crossed German-controlled airspace on the return trip without incident.

Stalin evidently didn't mind sending his underlings on dangerous air journeys. Stalin himself preferred to stay on the ground inside 83tons of armoured rail carriage.


Ok, so on to some Axis VIP's.

Ju52 Lufthansa airliner Immelmann D-2600

This is possibly the most Nazi-lookin' plane in my collection, it's Hitler's own personal ride courtesy of Germany's premier airline Deutsche Lufthansa, who in 1933 gave him this classic three engined Junkers Ju52 by the name of Immelmann II (after WW1 ace Max Immelmann)
As Chancellor of Germany Hitler travelled extensively by air and had his own fleet of aircraft based in Berlin many of them Ju52s.


The Ju52, known as 'Tante Ju' (Aunt Ju) or 'Iron Annie' was a mainstay of the Lufwaffe. A rugged and reliable trimotor medium bomber from the Spanish Civil War the old Ju52 remained in service throughout the Second World War as one of the Luftwaffe's most common transport aircraft for both personnel and cargo as well as mine-sweeping, glider towing and paratroop drops, though it was horribly vulnerable to more modern fighters and anti-aircraft fire. (I didn't file the defensive weapons off as I intend to repaint this miniature some day for another project but Immelmann II was a civilian airliner and so wouldn't have had them) (I might add that Chiang Kai-shek's personal transport was also a Ju52 commandeered from Eurasia Airlines)

Hitler's personal pilot was a man named Hans Baur. Baur had been his pilot during his election campaign and continued to be on into the war. He was given a high ranking SS commission and tasked with building and maintaining Hitlers personal air fleet. In 1939 he suggested an upgrade, switching the old Iron Annie for a shinny new four engines Focke-Wulf FW200C Condor, imaginatively named Immelmann III.

It was kited out with an armoured seat for der Fuhrer and his own automatic parachute. (Which Baur said was never armed) It was faster and had a much longer range than his old ride, unsurprising as the Fw 200 was originally designed as a transatlantic airliner.

The Condor was pressed into military service as a maritime patrol aircraft and fitted out with defensive weapons, radios and radar equipment. All the extra weight was a bit much for the slim sleek airliner and they were fitted with a heavier undercarriage to take the load but the overloaded Condors had a bad tendency to break their backs on heavy landings.

German Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop also flew by Condor to Moscow in 1939 to negotiate the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union. That was another civilian marked airliner though (silver and black like the Ju52) and again I intend to re-do this Fw200 as a standard maritime patrol plane, so I didn't file off any weapon turrets that neither Hitler's nor Ribbentrop's rides would have toted.

Mitsubishi G4M 'Betty' Admiral Yamamoto

When U.S. Naval Intelligence intercepted the travel plans of Imperial Japanese Navy Admiral Isokoru Yamamoto the chance to "Get Yamamoto" was too good to miss. He was planning an inspection visit of Japanese bases in the upper Solomon Islands to boost morale but when his plane arrived at Balalae Airfield, on an island near Bougainville a squadron of Army Airforce P-38 Lightning's were ready to pounce.

Having flown a 600 mile approach at wave top level avoiding radar and Japanese controlled airspace the attack had been maticulously planned and executed with exacting navigational skill by the pilots of Squadron 339 who arrived bang on time just as the Admiral's convoy were coming in to land.

Lt. Rex T. Barber peeled off and engaged the first "Betty" taking out an engine and the smoking bomber plunged into the jungle below. 'Operation Vengeance' had beaten astonishing odds to come out a success, Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbour was dead. See, this is why Stalin didn't fly!

Well that's world leaders, royals and politicians and the like for a little bit, but I'm not done yet, lets take a look at some royalty of a different sort, Hollywood royalty!

 B-17E Flying Fortress  "The Duchess" Air gunner Clark Gable

When Hollywood superstar Carole Lombard died in a tragic plane crash following her hugely successful war-bonds drive her husband, Clark Gable was devastated.

To honour her memory Gable enlisted in the airforce graduated OCS receiving a commission as a Second Lieutenant and was immediately given a special assignment by Henry H "Hap" Arnold. Gable would head a film crew, filming in combat with the Eighth Air Force then operating out of England to make a recruitment film about aerial gunners.

Gable's fifth and final combat mission flown out of RAF Polebrooke was aboard "The Duchess" leading the 351st in a raid on the Nantes port area in France in September 1943. Gable manned the nose gun during the raid where despite a lot of damage from enemy fighters and flack all the bombers managed to return to England. Gable and his film crew returned to Hollywood and completed the production of "Combat America" as a tribute to the airforce who by that time had plenty of gunners already.


and Gable wasn't the only Hollywood star to swap the big screen for a big plane.


 B-24D Liberator (Jimmy Stewart) Nine Yanks and a Jerk

Jimmy Stewart, although a big name in the movies was already an accomplished commercial pilot when the war began. His family having a proud military heritage, naturally Stewart's first instinct was to sigh up with the USAAF.

Hap Arnold wanted to keep the movie star stateside as a training instructor to be available for public appearances and recruitment drives but Stewart was keen to avoid that particular dead end and wanted to serve in a real combat role. He eventually got his chance and shipped out to command 445th Bombardment Group in action over Germany.

This B-24 Liberator "Nine Yanks and a Jerk" (if you don't know why that's funny I'll explain when you're old enough) was one of those flown by Commander Stewart leading 703rd BS. He would fly 20 credited combat sorties and many more uncredited as his distinguished career saw him progress from private to colonel in only four years with numerous medals. His airforce service continued long after the Second World War ended retiring as a Brigadier General in 1968.

Now, on to those perhaps more strategically important people.

BOAC Mosquito

When you absolutely positively have to evacuate the world's leading Nuclear-Physicist out of Stockholm there's really only one option. Enter B.O.A.C. whose private airline ran all sorts of commercial and occasionally clandestine flights into Britain out of neutral Sweden.

Niels Bohr was stowed aboard this modified B.O.A.C. Mosquito in an improvised cabin in the bomb bay where a single passenger could lie prone for the duration of the flight over the North Sea.

Bohr was provided with an Oxygen mask but when pilot Gilbert Rae and radio operator James Payne couldn't get a response from him they surmised that Bohr had passed out from lack of Oxygen and so dropped to a lower altitude. When asked about his flight Bohr said he'd slept like a baby. Bohr joined the Manhattan Project and as they say, the rest is history.

Westland Lysander pilot Peter Vaughan-Fowler

That was sneaking the VIP out but what about getting one in? Well, when you've got a special agent who needs to get into enemy occupied France in the dead of night the man you want on the job is the undisputed king of the midnight Spy-Taxi run, Peter Vaughn-Fowler.
The Westland Lysander was originally intended as a STOL (Short Take Off & Landing) capable supply mule for the army but during early operations in France it was found to be far too slow and vulnerable to enemy fighters to operate anywhere near the front lines in that role. It was however the perfect plane for insertion and extraction of special agents behind enemy lines at night, a spy taxi.

Flying at treetop level with a map on his lap and only the moonlit shadows to navigate by Vaughn-Fowler could put his Lysander down on a field that most other pilots would consider not much bigger than a postage stamp.
This kind of risky solo flying mission required needle-in-a-haystack navigation skills, some serious piloting chops and nerves of steel. Not only was a huge proportion of the mission flown over enemy lines but every mission was flying right into the teeth of the potentially lethal world of espionage and resistance movements where the standing order was execution for anyone caught in the act or suspected of spying.


If however your deep extraction just happens to include a deposed dictator in a mountaintop hotel your best bet (along with some fairly shady political dealing) might be this nippy little number. The  Fieseler Fi 156 Storch.

The "daring rescue" of Benito Mussolini was made possible by the extreme STOL characteristics of the Feiseler Storch. With some serious hydraulic suspension the lanky landing gear took on about 350ft of boulder strewn Gran Sasso mountainside which was all it required to set down, collect Il ex-Duce and whisk him away.

Plenty of footage of the raid was shot for posterity, and the Axis newsreels of course. In fact that was about all that was shot, as the whole thing was a done deal before the armed paratroopers even arrived and ordered the Italian guards to surrender. Still, it's one thing to make a shady political deal and quite another to put together the skills, resources and specialist aircraft to pull it off.


Well that's all for now folks. What a mission that was! Took a bit longer than anticipated but I had a blast researching and painting this lot. Hope you all enjoyed them and do chime in with your thoughts, but for now as always, thanks for visiting the gallery.

[I am Belch II]

So very nice job

[theCrowe]

Hi Battletech folks. Long time no planes. Sorry for the long break, I got very distracted with ground based things. (gasp!) Sorry, no mechs. Bounce over to my 6mm WW2 Red Cross round up if you want to see those.
https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/forums/topic/6mm-red-cross-round-up/

Carrying on the theme of Red Cross marked machines though I've got some Air Ambulance and rescue planes for you all this time around.


Not too many, just the five this time around, as I'm still not quite done with my ground based ideas yet. So anyway, on with the aircraft!

He 59- German Seenotdienst Air Sea Rescue service.

Seenotdienst Air Sea Rescue planes like these and many other types were operating in the North Sea and over the channel and many airmen of both sides had been saved from certain drowning by their efforts.


Unfortunately however it turned out they weren't just rescuing downed airmen. They were also noting the location of Allied naval convoys. This was considered an illegal activity while flying under the protection of the Red Cross and Churchill was having none of it. So he ordered they be engaged and shot down as active combatants regardless of their markings (a somewhat controversial order) and despite the fact that Britain did not operate her own Air Sea Rescue at the time.


The Seenotdienst were rolled up into the Luftwaffe and soon dropped their Red Cross and civilian markings but none the less continued to operate in the roll of Air Sea Rescue throughout the war.

Across the world air ambulance services were operated by dedicated units ferrying wounded men back from the front lines.

The Bristol Bombay was an ageing troop transport, turned light bomber, that had served admirably in the Middle East until the availability of Wellingtons allowed the old Bombays to be used in a more suitable role. They went from bombing duties with 216sqd RAF to transport and air ambulance duties with the No.1 Air Ambulance Unit, RAAF in Feb 1943 serving in the Tunisia campaign.


1AAU continued to provide vital support to infantry forces during the invasion of Sicily and on into Italy. As newer and more reliable types came online with the RAF and USAAF the 1AAU with their venerable Bombays were disbanded flying their last air evacuation in November of 1943.

Piper Cub HE-1 US Navy air ambulance evacuation.
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The Piper Cub was a perfect little civilian two seater used across the American military services as a transport and recon platform, designated the L-4 Grasshopper.


It was the US Navy however who commissioned this variant, the HE-1, (later AE-1) a dedicated air ambulance with a hinged upper rear fuselage to allow the loading of a single wounded passenger on a stretcher.


These aircraft were located at small remote Naval Auxiliary Air Stations which were often some distance from major medical facilities. The development and introduction of helicopters for air evacuation made small ambulance planes like these all but obsolete.

Another Air Sea Rescue plane, this time I'm looking to the coast of Spain.

Like many officially neutral nations Spain operated patrols over its airspace and coastlines. In the summer of 1944 twelve Dornier 24T flying boats (Dutch-built machines originally serving with the Luftwaffe) were delivered to Spain on the understanding that they would be used to rescue downed airmen off the Spanish coasts.


Do-24s like these were also used by the Seenotdienst Air Sea Rescue service. According to Dornier's records the Do 24 was credited with the rescue of some 12,000 people over the course of its service, which with the Spanish airforce lasted until 1967.


And last of my air ambulance and rescue set is the Douglas C-47 Dakota.

Not all aircraft carrying wounded had the benefit of Red Cross markings. (Indeed not all those that were so marked received the courtesy that the law required) In the earliest days of the Normandy landings the first airfields secured allowed these transports to land carrying vital ammunition, food and supplies to the allied armies in France but the return leg to England was an air evacuation of the wounded.

As the Dakotas were carrying war supplies to the front they could not be marked with the Red Cross so the return to England though laden with wounded was entirely at their own risk if under the cover of allied fighters.


Well that's all for now. Still working on a couple more 6m ground based bits and bobs (nothing normal I assure you) but I'll be back with more aircraft in the future and as ever you'll see them on here. Thanks for visiting the gallery and do let me know what you think.

A note on Battletech specific Red Cross/ Geneva conventions. I once had a notion of a mercenary outfit called the K7 who delivered vengeance on war criminals and hid their operation behind a front of charitable disaster relief (and had Mechs outfitted for that)

In the Battletech universe has anyone ever given much thought to Mechs used as disaster relief machines? Bringing in supplies, rescuing folks from rubble or flood zones, putting out forest fires. That sort of thing?

[theCrowe]

Hi folks, thanks for visiting the gallery again. This time around I've been looking at anything that floats. That's right folks Float Planes and Flying Boats are the order of the day. And since I've gathered up quite a collection I'm breaking them up starting with all the Allies this time. And the Axis ones will follow next time. So on with the show.


Short Sunderland DD867 2-G, of No. 423 Squadron RCAF.
Always important to cheer on the home team, and what could be better than this Northern Irish local legend. Built in Belfast and based at Castle Archdale, County Fermanagh. The Short Sunderland had to be the one to kick things off this time around.

The good Canadian lads of No. 423 would fly these big four engined patrol boats out of Lough Erne on long-range patrol/reconnaissance and submarine hunting missions over the Atlantic. For such a task it could be equipped equipped with bombs, aerial mines or depth charges and toted up to sixteen defensive machine guns, which earned it the nickname Das Fliegendes Stachelschwein ("The Flying Porcupine"). Very catchy.

Sunderlands flew with many other allied air forces across the world and played an important part in the Mediterranean theatre in the evacuation of Crete and the reconnaissance of the Italian fleet at Taranto.

And of course the Canadians provided more than manpower to the air war.

The Noorduyn Norseman was a Canadian-built bush plane. Designed to be fitted with floats, skis or wheels it was a versatile little utility craft.

The RCAF used them for radio and navigational training as part of the Commonwealth Air Training Programme as well as for general utility and patrol in the remote and arctic conditions the Norseman was designed for. Orders were also furnished for the RAF and the USAAF and the Norseman saw service anywhere that a rugged and dependable bush plane was needed from Alaska to the UK.

It was aboard one such UK based Norseman (though not one equipped with floats) that Major Glenn Miller, director of the famous United States Army Air Forces Band disappeared crossing the English Channel. He was on his way to Paris to prepare for a big Christmas show. It is suspected that an iced up carburettor may have caused the crash. TIGHAR (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery) have taken an interest in the incident and have been investigating the case since January 2019.

And here's both along with the RAF Walrus being the only other commonwealth flying boat in my collection. Nice bit of variety there.

On to the Americans then.

Vought OS2U Kingfisher
The US Navy's own modest little observation floatplane  the Kingfisher could be catapult launched from a battleship or cruiser and used to spot for naval gunnery or to rescue men in the water. It wasn't fast and it wasn't well armed making it easy prey for any opportunistic Japanese fighter that happened upon one. Nevertheless Kingfisher pilots and radio men put it all on the line to get the job done.

One such pilot was Lt. John Burns of the Observation Squadron (VO) 6 from the battleship North Carolina (BB 55) who together with his Radioman Aubrey J. Gill was flying in support of an American air raid on the Japanese port on the Island of Truk, 1st May 1944. Reports of downed airmen in the bay saw them dare a rescue under fire while the attack continued overhead.

As more American airmen splashed down the little Kingfisher taxied around the bay from life raft to life raft eventually collecting up seven stranded men. With the aircraft heavily overloaded and the men carefully balanced along the wings they were struggling to remain afloat never mind any hope of getting airborne.

None the less Burns resolved to taxi the craft out of the bay and into deeper waters where after a pretty hairy five hour wait with the waves beating the little plane apart all nine men were picked up by the American Submarine Tang . With the rescued Zoomies safely below deck the Tang's gunners sank the Kingfisher (they couldn't leave it for the enemy to recover) before the Tang continued her patrol.


Grumman J2F Duck
One of the unsung heroes of the American war effort. Maybe not as modern, fast or glamorous as some of the other planes in the US Armed forces inventory but Grumman's old single engine amphibious bi-plane was the definitive utility plane.

It first flew in the early 30s but by the time The War was on it was a mainstay workhorse of the US Navy, Marine Corps and Coast guard, with dedicated versions produced for each. It could do mapping and Photo reconnaissance,  scouting and observation, anti-submarine patrol and Air Sea Rescue. Ducks transported the wounded and the VIPs alike, towed targets and dropped bombs and depth charges.

As Grumman switched production to other more important projects the old Ducks muddled through in service all throughout the war and beyond all over the world and in as many different roles as could be found. Some remained airborne as late as the mid 50s.



Martin PBM Mariner
An often overlooked hero of the Pacific this big bruiser of a Patrol Bomber became one of the most commonly used flying boats of the US Navy. The Mariner had a much bigger capacity and a longer operational range than the (more glamorous and more celebrated) PBY Catalina which it replaced squadron by squadron as soon as numbers could be built.
f
Trouble was, and it seems obvious looking at this thing, that it was a four-engine sized airframe with only two engines albeit two massive Wright R-2600 radials. Successive versions were upgraded and up-powered time and again but often additional radar and landing gear would offset the improvements leaving them woefully underpowered and accident prone. 

Fully laden and fully fuelled for a 2,000 mile maritime patrol these ungainly whales required a huge length of water to get their hulls into the air. So much so that later versions would require rocket or jet assisted take off.


And here's all the Americans together joined by my PBY Catalina. Another nice selection of very individual designs in use by US forces.


Conwing L-16 Seaduck
The once iconic Conwing L-16 was, by 1938 a bit long in the tooth but some veteran pilots still swore by them and maintained these highly versatile cargo and transport seaplanes despite the appearance of faster and more specialised aircraft on the market.

The Seaduck was owned by a commercial freight company called "Higher for Hire" operating out of Cape Suzette on the coast of Usland. Her veteran pilot Baloo the Bear (call-sign Papa Bear) and navigator, a young former pirate called Kit Cloudkicker operated a particularly hazardous route often at risk of air pirates and raiders. But the trusty old Seaduck was a rugged and capable machine that never let them down.


Never quite sure where to put a French aircraft when it's an Allies/Axis split so seeing as I've got two floating Frenchies I'm throwing one in here and the other in with the Axis later.

The Latécoère 298 was designed for the French Navy for maritime patrol and torpedoing German Submarines. In the early months of the war, the Phoney War they did plenty of patrolling but didn't manage to sink anything.

It wasn't until May 1940 when equipped for dive bombing against the invading armoured columns that the Navy's Laté 298's had much more success. In fact their losses on such missions were fewer than those of French squadrons equipped with other types.

The Laté 298 was one of France's more successful designs. Weather captured by the Luftwaffe, flying under Vichy colours or defecting to the Allies in North Africa thy were a welcome addition to any squadron they equipped.

So that's the Allies new additions. Adding to my old Supermarine Walruss and Consolidated PBY Catalina (still a firm favourite) it's a fairly wide overview of some of the water-based machines in use by the Allies throughout the war.
 

And of course the Seaduck is really from the Disney Saturday morning cartoon Talespin! But you all knew that, right?

[Daryk]

Glad to see you back!  Loved the Kingfisher story...  :thumbsup:

[Wolf72]

the look of the Mariner is very cool, love the main wing folds and the angle of the tail wings.

The (non) down side is that I stop all my internet stuff to read your posts, makes the planes even more special.

You need to make a book of this stuff, mini's with stories to go with them.

[Daryk]

I have to wonder why the Catalinas were more popular after the war... were the Mariners not de-militarized?  ???

[theCrowe]

Thanks for the welcome back. I'm always acutely aware of my lack of Battletech content as my main battletech oponents have all gotten a serious dose of real life (myself included) What I should do is get my kids into it!

Anyway, as regards the Mariner I can only imagine there wasn't much call for a super long range flying boat after the war. Much more commercially viable airliners and cargo planes and improved runways were available and the golden era of the flying boat as a contender for that market was over.

Catalinas on the other hand were that bit smaller and cheaper to run and very capable and so maybe a bit more versatile.

[Daryk]

That makes sense... it was a pretty niche market...

[DOC_Agren]

"Higher for Hire" good company run by Rebecca, Papa Bear one of the best pilot out there not to see him you think it.   :thumbsup:

[theCrowe]

Yes I should've mentioned Rebecca, the brains behind the outfit. I took a lot of WIP pics of the Seaduck. I'll have to write up the process.

[theCrowe]

So here is the WIP of the process of making the Seaduck which I decided to document because it was a bit of a faff and involved a bit more cutting and filing and greenstuffing than I had originally imagined. (Not complaining, I love it really. )

So I started out with a Fairchild C-119 Packet from Scotia Grendel. I got 2 of them so I could use one for the Seaduck and add the other one to my WW2 planes collection. But then there was a problem. The C-119 isn't a Packet at all (that's a C-82) but a post-war era Flying Boxcar! The C-119 also saw some success in Vietnam as a ground support gunship. But obviously I couldn't have that (I could, let's be real here it would've been fine. And I know, I can have a fictional Disney Seaduck in my WW2 planes but not a 1947 version of a late war obscurity?) but I wanted the proper 1945 WW2 era Fairchild C-82 Packet. So I got to work retrofitting the Flying Boxcar back to the earlier model.


The C-82 had the cockpit up high and further back. So that meant a lot of filing and a good bit of greenstuff remodelling on the front end. The nose is a bit on the long side I think but it's close enough.


And then the tail end got a bit of a retrofit too adding back the outboard fins and removing some dorsal reinforcements.


Until here we have it at last. A proper crap-like-it-used-to-be Fairchild C-82 Packet.

The Fairchild C-82 Packet was a late war cargo and troop transport rushed into production in 1945 in anticipation of the airlift requirements for the invasion of Japan. In the end only a handful were built and in service when the surrender of Japan was achieved making them a little surplus to requirements. They were also used for paratroop training and as glider tugs and had various civilian cargo and transport operators.

But as expected with a big airframe rushed into production in wartime conditions the old Packet had plenty of problems including poor forward visibility from the cockpit, underpowered engines which when fully loaded could not maintain a level flight if one engine failed, as well as numerable deficiencies in the air frame all of which was addressed in the C-119 redesign which ultimately produced a much more effective aircraft. Exactly the kind of aircraft we were talking about earlier that would replace the big flying boats for a more efficient bulk cargo transport.

So confusion from SG aside the C-119 was none the less a perfectly suitable airframe to form the basis for my Seaduck.

 So first off I got the saw out and chopped the wings off the engine nacelles and mounted them a little lower down.

I also began a seemingly endless task of filing the front of the fuselage down to something resembling the right shape and size.

Once the wings were back on and the whole lots secured and smoothed out with plenty of greenstuff I got to work on the underside. That required a full flying boat hull modification and more greenstuff on wire armatures for floats under the wings.

Then finally it was a greenstuff job on the top side, all around the cockpit and the wide flat nose with big headlights (really Disney?) and a rope point too.

Then the tail got the same treatment as the C-82 though really it should've had a more rounded tail fin but I was losing the plot by now and just decided enough was enough. It was time to slap a big yellow paint job on it.


So there it is. Pretty happy with the end result on both of these although the Seaduck is maybe a bit bigger than a 1:300 scale Seaduck should be. Doesn't matter though, it's not like I'm about to start modelling a little Don Karnage and the Sky Pirates to match... Unless...

 

[Daryk]

Fantastic work, WOW!  :o  :thumbsup:

[Force of Nature]

Google "B17 Flying Fortress Ye Olde Pub images" to see the actual damage of the plane. Quite the miracle that it was able to fly all the way back to England like that and not just fall apart.

[theCrowe]

Yeah, you're right. Brown was nominated for a medal for his resolve and skill in nursing the thing back home in that condition for the sake of his crew but it was deemed best not to highlight the story as they didn't want Bomber crews getting the wrong idea about enemy fighters. (Seems unlikely)

Another absolutely mangled B-17 that made to back to a friendly runway was Old 666. I'll be covering that one in the future. It's another one you can hardly believe flew home. The B-17 was truely a warrior of a machine.

[theCrowe]

Back once again with my latest collection of 1:300 offerings. This time as promised it's flying boats and floatplanes of the Axis.

I have a few of these in my collection already which you may already have seen.


Here we have the German aircraft Arado 196, Dornier Do 24, Heinkel He 59 and the Italians, CANT Z506 Airone and CANT Z.501 Gabbiano. Details for all those will be back in previous posts.

So of course we're obviously short a good few Japanese ones there so unsurprisingly the vast majority of this new batch of Axis float planes and flying boats are of course Japanese.


So let's get into these. The first of my Japanese seaplanes is the Kawanishi  H6K Type 97 (allied codename"Mavis")

When I first saw a picture of this flying boat I just knew I had to have one and was delighted to find one in the always excellent Scotia Grendel Collectair range.

 A great big high wing flying boat in a similar vein to the German Do 24, but scaled up to a four engine design for maximum Pacific patrol range. A crew of 9 could take this baby out on a 24hr patrol covering over 2500 nautical miles of range. They served all throughout the war as front line bombers, transports and reconnaissance patrol planes.


As allied fighters began to get the better of the old Mavis its front line duties were taken over by a newer and more modern design, the Kawanishi H8K known to the allies as "Emily"

Emily was a big girl, another great four engined flying boat, this time more like the Short Sunderland, and as with the Sunderland enemy fighters had a healthy respect for its defensive capabilities. The Emily is often consider the very best of the big maritime patrol planes of the era.

On 4 March 1942, two Emily flying boats each carrying four 250Kg bombs conducted the longest ever two-plane bombing mission ever flown to date. Departing from the Marshal Islands they flew a round trip of over 7000km in an attempt to conduct reconnaissance over Pear Harbour and disrupt ongoing salvage and clean up operations following the infamous raid of Dec 7th.

They were ultimately unsuccessful in their navigation, their bombs falling well off the mark and causing no casualties. They did however highlight the need for increased defences. A second attempt a week later resulted in one Emily being intercepted and shot down by Brewster Buffaloes near Midway Atoll.

Sticking with Imperial Japan but looking to the smaller end of the spectrum I've got the Nakajima A6M2-N (Navy Type 2 Interceptor/Fighter-Bomber) Allied codename "Rufe".

The concept was something of a rarity in that no other nation opted for a dedicated floatplane fighter/interceptor, but it's hardly surprising given the realities of prosecuting a war in the Pacific.

Based on the Mitsubishi A6M Zero the floatplane version had a large central float with outboard stabilisers under each wing. They were mainly used in a defensive interceptor role protecting remote island bases but also saw action with seaplane carriers in the Indian Ocean acting as fighter-bombers and short reconnaissance support for amphibious landings.

As allied fighter cover increased throughout the Pacific campaign the Rufe, encumbered with the extra drag of its floats just couldn't stand the pace and those that weren't destroyed outright fell back to the defence of the home islands.


This is the Aichi E13A, code named "Jake" the most numerous of Japan's long-range reconnaissance seaplanes.

The Jake was the Imperial Japanese Navy's multi purpose workhorse used for all kinds of transport, sea rescue, scouting ahead of the fleet, general spotting  and occasional combat duties.

They operated off seaplane tenders and battleships as well as island bases. They weren't particularly well armed with only a single defensive machine gun however some carried air-to-surface radar and had a downward pointing 20mm cannon to attack American PT boats. They could also carry bombs or depth charges and so were quite capable of ruining your day of encountered at sea.

Another small Japanese floatplane next. This is the Yokosuka E14Y (allied codename "Glen").

The Glen was designed to be carried aboard an I-15 series submarine. Once within range of they were assembled and catapult launched to be flown over enemy territory on photo reconnaissance. With the photos in the can the little float plane would come down beside the submarine, be winched aboard and stowed away or simply abandoned and sunk with the crew and valuable photos safely on board the submarine.


This "Glen" was flown by Nobuo Fujita who was the only enemy airman to bomb the US mainland. On September 9, 1942 Fujita dropped incendiary bombs over southern Oregon in an attempt to start forest fires. It wasn't a very effective attempt and the local fire brigade dealt with it quickly.

Later in life Fujita was invited to return to the little town of Brookings Oregon where he received a warm welcome. He planted a tree at the site where he had bombed and raised money for a library that now displays his family's 400 year old katana. He was made an honorary citizen of Brookings shortly before his death in 1998.

And the last of my Japanese floatplanes is the Aichi M6A Seiran attack floatplane.

This was an upscaled and altogether more lethal submarine launched concept along the same lines as the Glen, but intended to operate from the much larger I-400 class submarines. Their original mission was to conduct aerial attacks against the United States.

The story of the design and operation of the Seiran tracks the course of the war for the Japanese quite well. Initially designed with a fixed float undercarriage these attack planes would be able to land beside their submarine carriers once their mission was complete to be re-stowed aboard. However as defences mounted around their intended targets it was deemed prudent that the pilots should have the option to jettison the floats if they encountered enemy fighters, their unhampered performance helping their chances of reaching and bombing their target.
In fact, they soon concluded, why launch with floats at all if they would only be a hinderance?  They would of course have to ditch in the sea on their return to the submarine but the pilots could be recovered. The aircraft would be sacrificed for the sake of the mission.

 Soon however the situation became desperate and the pilots noted the modifications now taking place on their machines. Now, not only were the floats detached but the bombs were to be permanently fixed in place. Evidently the top brass estimated their best chance of achieving mission success was by sacrificing both man and machine. In the end however their training was for naught as the Japanese surrender came before the submarine launched aerial attack could go ahead. The Seirans were decommissioned, launched into the sea unassembled, before the three huge I-400 submarines were surrendered to the US Navy.

Next up its a classic of German seaplane design the tri-motor Blohm & Voss Bv 138 Seedrache.

Not content with a cool name like SeaDragon the Germans always known for their comedy wit named it "die fliegende Holzschuh"
(The Flying Cog) because of the shape of the hull.

The Seedrache was Germany's primary maritime reconnaissance and patrol seaplane with 297 built. It was an unconventional design to say the least but as it turned out a very versatile one. It was big enough to carry up to ten passengers, very handy for sea rescue, but that weight capacity could also be used for bombs, depth charges or  for anti-shipping patrols. Or for radar equipment to hunt in conjunction with submarine groups. Some were also fitted with degaussing rings for mine sweeping. (Like this one- that's what the big loop is.)

The man behind the design was evidently quite the unconventional thinker. But of course not everyone appreciated his particular taste in aeronautical design. A British journal by the name of Aeroplane printed this piece of poetic criticism beside a picture of a Bv 138.
Richard Vogt, that original man,

Turns out aeroplanes uglier than
Most any other designer can.
Here is shown on Baltic Sea
A typical Vogt monstrosity—
The One-Three-Eight by B. & V.


I'd have to say I heartily disagree, but haters gonna hate.


And a final entry bring up the rear it's a big French boat in Vichy striped pyjamas.

 The Bréguet 521 Bizerte was a big Tri-motor flying boat developed for the French Navy and initially deployed with five squadrons for all manner of long range maritime reconnaissance and submarine hunting. They sported five defensive machine guns including one in a tail gunner's position and could carry a bomb load of up to 300kg.

It continued in service under Vichy control with a dozen serving in the Mediterranean. They were useful and well designed machines and Luftwaffe also used some to supply Seenotdienst sea rescue units off the French Atlantic coast.

This miniature it has to be said was a bit of a nightmare to build. Its mostly made of wire and glue and in honesty the whole front end was a bit off and took some green stuff modification to bring it into shape. Not that I'm criticising the excellent sculpting and quality of the product, I'm honestly very impressed with the skill and workmanship and the huge range on offer. Some minis just take a bit more work than others and this was certainly one of those.

So that's it for the Axis floaty boaty planes. Here's a big shot of the whole lot all together.

It's been lots of fun taking to the maritime skies with both sides. There have been some excellent planes available at this scale to allow me to explore the subject quite expansively.

I'm going to take a break from 1:300 planes for a while. Got lots more still to do but I'll wait for the enthusiasm to resurface after a bit of something else for a while. Do let me know what you think as always, and thanks for visiting the gallery.

[Daryk]

More excellent work, and fantastic commentary!  Thanks for sharing!  :thumbsup:

[I am Belch II]

So here is the WIP of the process of making the Seaduck which I decided to document because it was a bit of a faff and involved a bit more cutting and filing and greenstuffing than I had originally imagined. (Not complaining, I love it really. )

So I started out with a Fairchild C-119 Packet from Scotia Grendel. I got 2 of them so I could use one for the Seaduck and add the other one to my WW2 planes collection. But then there was a problem. The C-119 isn't a Packet at all (that's a C-82) but a post-war era Flying Boxcar! The C-119 also saw some success in Vietnam as a ground support gunship. But obviously I couldn't have that (I could, let's be real here it would've been fine. And I know, I can have a fictional Disney Seaduck in my WW2 planes but not a 1947 version of a late war obscurity?) but I wanted the proper 1945 WW2 era Fairchild C-82 Packet. So I got to work retrofitting the Flying Boxcar back to the earlier model.


The C-82 had the cockpit up high and further back. So that meant a lot of filing and a good bit of greenstuff remodelling on the front end. The nose is a bit on the long side I think but it's close enough.


And then the tail end got a bit of a retrofit too adding back the outboard fins and removing some dorsal reinforcements.


Until here we have it at last. A proper crap-like-it-used-to-be Fairchild C-82 Packet.

The Fairchild C-82 Packet was a late war cargo and troop transport rushed into production in 1945 in anticipation of the airlift requirements for the invasion of Japan. In the end only a handful were built and in service when the surrender of Japan was achieved making them a little surplus to requirements. They were also used for paratroop training and as glider tugs and had various civilian cargo and transport operators.

But as expected with a big airframe rushed into production in wartime conditions the old Packet had plenty of problems including poor forward visibility from the cockpit, underpowered engines which when fully loaded could not maintain a level flight if one engine failed, as well as numerable deficiencies in the air frame all of which was addressed in the C-119 redesign which ultimately produced a much more effective aircraft. Exactly the kind of aircraft we were talking about earlier that would replace the big flying boats for a more efficient bulk cargo transport.

So confusion from SG aside the C-119 was none the less a perfectly suitable airframe to form the basis for my Seaduck.

 So first off I got the saw out and chopped the wings off the engine nacelles and mounted them a little lower down.

I also began a seemingly endless task of filing the front of the fuselage down to something resembling the right shape and size.

Once the wings were back on and the whole lots secured and smoothed out with plenty of greenstuff I got to work on the underside. That required a full flying boat hull modification and more greenstuff on wire armatures for floats under the wings.

Then finally it was a greenstuff job on the top side, all around the cockpit and the wide flat nose with big headlights (really Disney?) and a rope point too.

Then the tail got the same treatment as the C-82 though really it should've had a more rounded tail fin but I was losing the plot by now and just decided enough was enough. It was time to slap a big yellow paint job on it.


So there it is. Pretty happy with the end result on both of these although the Seaduck is maybe a bit bigger than a 1:300 scale Seaduck should be. Doesn't matter though, it's not like I'm about to start modelling a little Don Karnage and the Sky Pirates to match... Unless...

Holy awesome! I would love to get some of those.

[Shiro15]

Edit: Sorry - I havent seen that this thread shows the miniatures from one person. Incredible how many great minis you created.

I deleted my text and will open a seperate thread.

[jwt708]

Impressive collection!  Wow! I loved seeing all the models with the different paint schemes.