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Hi, This is one of the Arsenal VG-40 used by the Swedish Volunteers Wing F19 in Finland during the Continuation War. As the Swedish Air Force had great difficulties replacing obsolete aircrafts at the outbreak of the war they turned to various manufacturers around Europe and the US. Only the Americans and Italians were willing to sell ready to assemble aircrafts, but those were already aging models. Therefore in late 1940 the French manufacturer Arsenal came up as an alternative, a proportion actually given by the Germans. The backside of the offer was that only the drawings were available, neither finished aircrafts nor engines or armament was provided in the deal. This postponed the Swedish decision as the Air Force was more interested in the Saab and FFVS developments. On the outbreak of the Continuation War in Finland, once again Swedish volunteer aviators joined the Finnish forces. During the Winter War the F19 wing had fought in the northern part of Finland using Gladiators and Hawker Harts. As the Swedish Air Force had a noticeable shortage of Fighters the VG-40 reappeared as an alternative. The metal and wood construction was relatively cheap to build and the RAF had provided Sweden with a number of Rolls Royce engines from Lancaster bombers that had made emergency landings in Sweden. F19 was the only wing that used the VG-40 and only 23 were ever built. They were all painted in Swedish Air force colors and marking except for the national insignia that was the Finnish one, as Sweden in itself was a neutral country during WWII. That is also the reason why the national insignias, as in the vignette, were painted over at the end of the war, just as the F19 wing did after the Winter War ended, before returning to Sweden. I used Azurs VG-36 and an aftermarket Merlin III and wheels for the build. The decals are a mix of leftovers from other builds. Or at least this is what might have been... The VG-40 never flew and for sure not in Swedish colors Thanks for looking! /Fred
