Wednesday, March 20, 2024

P-40E Warhawk, RAAF, Milne Bay battle

The Battle of Milne Bay, has been unfairly forgotten, was decisive in breaking Japanese rule in New Guinea, it was the first Japanese landing in the Pacific War, which was rejected, and all this was achieved, when the Australian forces were still in inferior conditions to the Japanese.


Air superiority was achieved with the not so good P-40E, which had been defeated in the Philippines and Java, but the Australian planes were flown with the lessons learned, by determined pilots who achieved sufficient air superiority, so that the attack planes could fulfill their function.


This model represents an airplane of the 75 Squadron, it is one of my first attempts to make a model, with decoration different from that offered by the manufacturer, it is in 1/144 and is from Lodela, the decals come from my box of remains and They have only been modified to represent the Australian insignia, the letter P is painted.





Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Spitfire 1/32, Revell Lodela

In Mexico, Lodela produced two versions of the Spitfire in 1/32 scale, both were magnificent, in my opinion, the best models of that time, only surpassed by the Airfix Spitfire in 1/32, I know that Revell also produced a Seafire , but I never saw it in our country.

I leave you the boxart of both, I have it on my construction list, I intend to build it as a Spitfire Mk II, the YTL, inspired by the collection of the Necomisa modeling museum


I only have three of them, but the good thing about the Spitfire is that there are all scales, even the rarest ones, like 1/69 and 1/40.






Thursday, December 14, 2023

Spitfire Mk V troop, 249 (Golden Coast) Squadron

One of the most outstanding Hurricane units of the war, was one of the last to train with this type of fighter, in May 1940, during the Battle of Britain, one of its pilots received the Victoria Cross, once the battle was over, it began offensive operations on France with Hurribombers, destined for Malta, participated in the hardest fighting on the Island, in February 1942 he transitioned to Spitfires on the battlefield, won the victory, in November he went on the offensive, on Sicily, in 1943 He was transferred to Italy and then to the Balkans, in September 1945 he transitioned again, to Mustangs, passing his Spitfires to the Yugoslavs.

Model: Spitfire Mk V trop, PM.

Scale: 1/72

Painting: El Viejo Marino (Ye olde Seaman)

Unit: 249 (Golden Coast) Squadron Malta

Code: C

Modelistic notes: Model direct from the box, from the PM brand, it is an excessively simple model, but it is the only Mk V trop that is available, it has the camouflage used in the Battle of Malta, The Old Marine paint, codes and brush insignia.





Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Hurricane 1/144, Revell Lodela

 


Another of Lodela's models in the seventies was the Huirricane in 1/144, belonging to the same H-1000 Series as the previous entry, it shared the same design principles, a yellow box, a magnificent Ikematsu Boxart, the simple instructions and decals for a version of 56 Squadron, code US-G, one of the participants in the Battle of Britain. This is the original box from 1978, with its label of free cement.



Saturday, October 14, 2023

Tiger Moth, The Mummy

This small training plane was produced since the 1930s and is considered one of the best training planes ever, simple to build, simple to fly and very stable, it was purchased by the RAF by the hundreds, used for primary training, It was the first mount for virtually every RAF pilot during World War II.


In the desperate months of the Battle of Britain, with the German invasion looming at any moment, every RAF aircraft was prepared to fight the invasion, and the Tiger Moth was no exception, there were over 300 in schools and prepared its use as a light bomber, to attack the German beachheads if the moment presented itself, the planes were going to be piloted by the teachers and the most advanced students, in what was called Banquet Light, thinking about the idea of ​​going Combat in a slow plane, without defensive weapons and with untrained pilots is chilling. luckily it was never carried out, but that influenced the fact that the RAF Tiger Moths were camouflaged.


Later the Aviation Schools were distributed throughout the Empire, so Tiger Moths can be found all over the world, in some parts like Iraq or Singapore they did see real combat, but in general they led peaceful lives, many of them existing to date. them in civilian hands.


This model is from Airfix Lodela, I painted it with Testors yellow, which is wrong, the RAF Trainer Yellow is more orange, but that didn't matter, in the end I decorated it to represent the Tiger Moth, from the movie of the Mummy (1999) with Rachel Weisz and Brendan Fraser, which is painted in this exact yellow, the decals are from the model, except for the code that is by brush.

Thursday, September 14, 2023

Seafire, Armada de Mexico

 The Spitfire was the best British fighter of the war, its performance was magnificent, fast, agile, well armed, it was every pilot's dream come true, at the same time, the Fleet Air Arm was equipped with the Sea Gladiator biplane and the slow and heavy Roc, it was urgent to have a more modern fighter, but the RAF was not willing to part with a single one of its Spitfires, they gave them in exchange some Hurricanes, which were quickly converted to naval functions, at least until there were enough Spitfires. to be transformed.


Within any large collection of models, I like to include one with fake Mexican insignia, so when I was putting together the Seafires, I included one, with the insignia that a Mexican aircraft would have worn in 1944. 

Model: Seafire Mk III.

Scale: 1/72

Painting: El Viejo Marino (Ye olde Seaman)

Unit: Armada de Mexico

Code: MC01

Modelistic notes:  Necomisa model, (old Lindberg) new cockpit interior of the scratch, thermoformed transparencie, rotating propeller, mold errors, such as ill-proportioned rudder, corrected them with epoxy plasticine, all with a brush, painting El Viejo Marino




P-40E Warhawk, RAAF, Milne Bay battle

The Battle of Milne Bay, has been unfairly forgotten, was decisive in breaking Japanese rule in New Guinea, it was the first Japanese landin...