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Well, I tried to finish some Gustavs last year, but ran out of mojo. A long and detailed story can be found here: I found the box with the Mersus, fondled the plastic, took a good look at that old build thread and then realized the Finnish Independence Day is next Tuesday. How could I better prepare myself for the celebrations, than finishing this trio? Actually, my mojo woke immediately, and I started again where I had stopped a year and a half ago. No, actually I didn't do that. My mojo was lost back then due to bad tins of Humbrol RLM shades 74 and 75, which I began correcting with good old Humbrol Super Enamels. They behave flawlessly! I have also repainted the yellow wing and prop tips, white base colour for the spinners and sanded all the old putty from fuselage seams. Maybe I should add a new pic too? Haha, that dark and small pic doesn't tell you a lot . V-P

These two boxes contain five of Hasegawa's decent-ish to build but shapewise seriously inaccurate, ridiculously undernourished Messerschmitt kits. The front fuselage lacks 2-3 mm in height, and I can't fix it. The world is full of inaccurate kits, though, and nobody has yet created the perfect one, so despite writing what I just did, I'm happy with these anyway I plan to backdate three of these to G-2:s and build two as G-6. The dash twos will be Mersus MT-201, -221 and -241. Boring, right? Well, maybe not. MT-201 was the lowest numbered Messerschmitt in our air force, delivered in May 1943. It was also the highest in scoring, with 35,5 victories by several pilots. One of the original aircraft supplied, it was a bread and butter basic G-2 with RLM 74/74/76 camouflage and 1943 type theater markings and insignia (to be clarified later!). It suffered a takeoff accident 15.7.1944, which ended its war duty but the plane was repaired and written off in 1952! MT-221 was also one of the original aircraft, and the only G-2/trop delivered to Finland, probably by accident. It was damaged in landing accident in June 1943 and repaired by April 1944, when it had received the warpaint of black/green camouflage over RLM 65. It had wheel bulges in its wings. It's luck ran out 25.6.1944 when it went MIA with its pilot for about month, before being found crashed without any visible causes. 8 victories. MT-241 was one of the last replacement G-2:s, delivered in the last day of February 1944. It had the bulged wings and apparently the 1944 type theater markings and insignia (again, I'll get back to this...). Edit: Damaged in combat 2.7.1944, which ended its war; repaired and eventually written off in 1953! 11 victories. I admit there aren't pics of these planes taken together, or in their late June 1944 appearance, so I'll decorate them "according to how they might have, or should have, looked like". I have no idea, what their tactical call numbers were, so I won't apply any! Between 19. and 25.6.1944 these three planes were assigned to 2. flight of Fightersquadron 24, Finnish Air Force (2./Hävittäjälentolaivue 24 or 2./HLeLv 24 for short). According to Lappeenranta airfield log book, there were several sorties where these three planes were flown in the same four plane swarm. They were, literally, brothers in arms. Tbc... V-P

So, another airplane today. It is a fourth publication of my work on a forum. Р- 47D " Razorback" 61st FS/56th/8th AF Flown by Lt.Frank W.Clibbe. HISTORY: Of all the major American Air Force fighters of WWII, only the Republic “Thunderbolt” was powered by an air-cooled radial engine. With external drop tanks a range sufficient to reach Berlin from England was achieved and “Thunderbolts” began escorting American heavy bombers right to the target and back. My Р- 47D " Razorback" was completed in building 31.12.2016 Best regards. Andrii