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Showing results for tags 'Mediterranean'.
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Due to the market debut of the new excellent 1/72 Airacobra kit by ArmaHobby my (so far almost unsuccessful) search for photos of the USAAF P-39Q, fighting in the Mediterranean in 1943-44, became even more urgent. There were only a handful of these aircraft - a maximum of 200 or so. And only 3 fighter groups: 81st FG (91st, 92nd and 93rd FS), 332nd FG (99th, 100th, 301st and 302nd FS) and 350th FG (345th, 346th and 347th FS). Perhaps single P-39Qs also went to the 68th RG (16th, 111th, 122nd and 154th TRS). All these units were rearmed with P-47 and P-51 over the course of 1944, and the surviving P-39s were handed over to the Italians and the French. Identified is for sure #44-3028 Quanto Costa (exploited to the bottom by all decal manufacturers), while two other machines from the same 332nd FG are known only from single photos, which makes it impossible to determine the complete set of markings (name on the nose, tactical number on the fuselage). I have been trying to dig it for a couple of years and in the last few days it has been pushed a lot by an excellent photo from @Ed Russell , but it is still a long way from the finish line. So maybe there is some other plane. more complete with markings? Cheers Michael
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Hello All, This was progressing excellently till I removed the canopy masking and found that I'd cracked the canopy.... Grrrr it's only a hobby (repeat 50x) Apologies for the rubbish formatting - still getting used to embedding from flickr. Ian
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I've finished a few long-standing hangar queens this year and built a few from scratch. One or two more to complete before the year is out, but surprisingly productive! First up is my Eduard 1/48 'Weekend Edition' Fokker Dr.I in the celebrated scheme of Leutnant Friedrich Kempf. It's an aeroplane I'd wanted to build for years and this kit is pretty stat-of-the-art so the mistakes were all mine to make! I think really it's just a couple of mis-glues on the rigging wires, which look a bit messy in close-up pics but it all looks nice enough on the shelf. Camo was done with a base coat of Tamiya Buff, then dry brushing Tamiya Olive and finally deepening the scrubbed-in sections with Tamiya Olive Drab. This was the kit that broke my modeller's block and got me back into the painting and gluing business. My other half is overjoyed (!?)
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On July 9th, 1943 Allied transports took off from Tunisia with 144 assault gliders in tow in the opening move of Operation Husky, the invasion Sicily. The assault gliders, 136 Waco CG-4/Hadrians and 8 Horsas, were to deliver 2075 troops of the British 1st Airlanding Brigade in a daring night time assault to secure the Ponte Grande Bridge. The story of the assault can be seen here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ladbroke but the 1st Airlanding Brigade would run afoul of bad weather, friendly fire, poor nighttime navigation and a lack of communication between the gliders and their tugs. Released at the wrong point, 65 of the assault gliders failed to make landfall and ditched in the nighttime sea. The remaining gliders were scattered, and only a dozen gliders hit the landing zone. Of the remaining gliders only 59 more reached Sicily but some missed the LZ by as much as 25 miles. Regardless, the 1st Airlanding Brigade was able to take the bridge (with a force totaling only 87 men) and hold it until they ran out of ammunition. The Italian forces then retook the bridge but they where unable to demolish the bridge because the 1st Airlanding Brigade had removed the demolition charged the Italians had rigged on the bridge. In a small tribute to the brave men of the 1st Airlanding Brigade I will build the 1/72 Revell Waco CG-4/Hadrian in the markings of the craft used in Operation Ladbroke. (Which, oddly, are USAAF markings as the Waco gliders were "loaned" to the British for this operation) The kit it self is an older Revell offering (does anyone know the release date?), very basic interior but some nice "fabric" work covering the wings and fuselage. The first step is to glue in some flat stock along some of the edges of the fuselage halves to avoid the thin butt joints that the kit has. I hope that you will enjoy the build. Greg in OK