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I'll be joining this GB with an instalment from my Last Legs Ponies project. For that project I'm modeling American World War II fighters that ended their service lives around the Caribbean. It began with four (Costa Rican, Guatemalan, Dominican, and Haitian) P-51s (hence "ponies"), but has also included a P-38 in Nicaraguan markings and a P-39 based in Curacao. My entry in this GB will be a Colombian P-47D which I will build using the Tamiya 1/72 kit . . . . . . with AM from Quickboost . . . . . . and decals from Aztec. I began the kit some time ago (as documented in the Last Legs Ponies thread), but it's well under 25% complete as this GB begins. Looking forward to this!

I am many things, but one of them is an avid traveler. I especially like visiting new countries (75 to date!), but obviously the pandemic has put a real damper on that. I came up with my big Hawker Hurricanes around the world project as a bit of way to "travel" the world from my basement. That project is roughly halfway done, and time to slowly start something else! Originally, I was going to do another single-type build, but somehow P-51s did not excite me quite as much as Hurricanes do, so I decide to diversify a little. So the "rules" of my project (which, of course, I may break) are to model versions of American World War II fighters that ended their service lives in the air forces of countries bordering the Caribbean: So, my plan at this point is to model: P-51D: Dominican Republic Haiti Guatemala Coast Rica P-38: Honduras (updated plan won't include Honduran P-38, see below) Nicaragua P-47D: Venezuela Colombia Cuba Mexico updated plan to add: P-39 from Curacao (USAAF) P-63 from Honduras FG-1D from El Salvador El Salvador was nearly included, but it does not in fact border the Caribbean Sea, so it was out (El Salvador is now in with a FG-1D!). Panama, Belize, Jamaica, etc. do not seem to have utilized any American WWII fighters, so unless I find out otherwise will not be included. Brazil may get a feature due to a kit bought in error, but we'll see what happens there... (Brazilian P-47 is now being built as part of the Sexy American Singles in South American Service project) I have the decals in the mail (mostly from Aztec, but Airfix [for Dominican] and Blue Rider [for Costa Rica] are contributing as well) and the kits I have purchased so far are the Airfix F-51D (x2); Tamiya F-51D; Airfix Mustang Mk IV; Tamiya P-47D; Revell P-47M; and Academy P-47 (which is the mistake that could end up as Brazil). Actual work on these kits is likely not going to begin particularly soon, but we'll see what happens. All for now...

As part of my "Last Legs Ponies" project I am modelling American World War 2-era fighters that ended their services lives in Caribbean air forces. I will be representing 12 nations total, and here is the fifth, a P-51D Mustang in Fuerza Aérea Guatemalteca markings. The kit is Airfix and the decals are from Aztec. More to follow . . .

Here is another instalment from my "Last Legs Ponies" project--a 1/72 Airfix P-51D wearing Haitian decals from Aztec. OOB except for the ADF antenna, which I robbed from an Academy T-6. I opted to not pursue drop tanks as in the photo below. Here she is: Here she is along with Costa Rica (Airfix P-51D) and Dominican Republic (Tamiya P-51D).

My "Last Legs Ponies" project is modeling American fighters on their last legs in the Caribbean (started with Mustangs, hence the "ponies"), with an entry for each country. For Nicaragua I am modeling a P-38, and she will be my entry for this GB. Kit will be Hobby Boss . . . . . . with decals from Aztec. Excited to get going! My biggest fears are a) getting the nose weight right and b) finding air intakes which for some reason Hobby Boss has failed to include.

I was surprised in counting up how many models I've completed this year that it was 15! Granted, many were actually started in 2021, but still well over one per month is a better rate of completion than I expected. Mostly 2022 was focused on carrying on with my "Hawker Hurricanes around the World" project which I began in 2021 (I built 10 Hurricanes that year!). My Hawker Hurricane additions for 2022 include seven from "phase 2" of my project, which is modeling versions in service with Allied or non-aligned air forces. Kingdom of Yugoslavia (Airfix Mk I) Ireland (Arma Mk I) Republic of Yugoslavia (AZ Mk IV) Turkey (Mistercraft Mk IIc) Netherlands (ML-KNIL) (Arma Mk IIb) India (Smer Mk IIc) Portugal (Arma Mk IIc) I also completed my first Hurricane from "phase 3," those in Axis service. In this case, a captured Japanese version (Arma Mk IIb) which I built as part of the Japanese GB. And then I added a "civilian interlude" Hurricane as part of the Prototypes, Racers, Research, Record breakers, Special schemes megaGB, Hawker's own post-war G-AMAU in the markings it wore for the 1950s King Cup Race. This was a fun one! So those were my nine Hurricanes. I began my "Last Legs Ponies" project early in 2022, modeling American fighters that ended their services lives in Caribbean air forces. So far I have completed two P-51Ds, the first from Costa Rica (Airfix); the second from Dominican Republic (Tamiya); and then I added a Nicaragua Air Force P-38 Lightning (Hobby Boss P-38L) as part of the P-38 GB. Here they are all together. I began my "Minor Gustavs" project in March 2022, in which I am modeling Bf 109Gs (or derivatives) in service with "minor" air forces. I have completed two so far: a Ga-6 in postwar Romanian service (Hobby Boss G-6) and a "Diana" Avia S-199 (KP) in Czech markings. Finally, I joined the unofficial "Photo Reconnaissance Spitfire GB" in December 2022 to complete this Swedish S. 31 (Airfix Spitfire PR XIX), completely OOB and done in just over three weeks (crazy fast by my standards!).

I finished this 1/72 Hobby Boss P-38 Lightning last month as part of the P-38 STGB and really enjoyed the group build and my first experience building a P-38. I have been wanting to share an RFI here. She is also part of my "Last Legs Ponies" project, modeling American World War II fighters that ended their service lives in the air forces of countries bordering the Caribbean (one per country). Originally this started with P-51 Mustangs (hence the "ponies") and two of these join the P-38 in photos below. Nicaragua did fly some P-51s, but I wanted to diversify and so chose the P-38 to represent Nicaragua. These P-38s were apparently originally "Ms" (two-seat night fighters) converted back to "Ls," so the cockpit is an "L" cockpit, for example, but I believe the "M" radar pod fairing (not to mention the glossy all-black camouflage) are left overs from its days as an "M." Here is the only picture I have ever found of the original: Which believe it or not made it onto a postage stamp! https://touchstamps.com/Stamp/Details/521603/plane-type-p-38 I borrowed the radar pod fairing and air intakes (Hobby Boss missed these, somehow) from a Dragon P-38M kit, but did not correct a few other Hobby Boss errors (e.g., I believe there should be a landing light in the left wing). Marking decals are from Aztec and I used many of the stencils from the Dragon P-38M. Here she is with a couple of Caribbean neighbour P-51Ds (Dominican Republic [camo] and Costa Rica [aluminum]): WIP is here if interested:

As the second instalment of my "Last Legs Ponies" project, here is Tamiya's 1/72 P-51D in the markings of Dominican Republic. As with all of the Caribbean Mustangs, the DR's were on their last legs--but they managed to stay "on their legs" for quite awhile, into the 1980s!! Decals on her are from Airfix, but otherwise OOB. Mission Models paints for the top camo and Tamiya XF-19 underneath. And here she is with another Caribbean pony on her last legs, from Costa Rica: Costa Rica's RFI is here: And the Last Legs Ponies WIP here:

This is the first instalment in my "Last Legs Ponies" project--an ex-Texas ANG P-51D pony that was on its last legs in Costa Rican service in 1955. The kit is Airfix, and only modification is the antenna mast, for which I used a needle. The decals are from Blue Rider. Special shout out to @Corsairfoxfouruncle who pointed out and guided me through the "ghost" Texas ANG markings, which made this model particularly interesting for me. Enjoy! Here is the original: