Bristol Type 148 COIN, Force Aerienne Zairoise

[atvd1020]

The Bristol 148 was an army co-operation prototype built to the same specification the Lysander was. According to the information in the kit's instructions, it successfully met the specification's requirements but was passed over in favour of the Lysander.

Wanting an excuse to test some of African air force decals from the Zotz sheet before using them for an African L-39, I decided to build the Magna kit as a COIN aircraft, as it would fit in nicely with WWII surplus aircraft used in post-war colonial conflicts.

After doing some research (i.e. reading Wikipedia), I decided that this Bristol 148 would have been an ex-Force Publique, ex-Katangese Air Force aircraft pressed into the FAZ's ranks. The extra armament would have also been WWII surplus, I guess.

The Magna kit required more clean-up and bubble-filling than other kits of theirs I've built in the past, also suffering from an oversize instrument panel. I replaced it with a female copy of a Hurricane panel pressed into Tamiya two-part putty. The Lewis gun was replaced with a Vickers K, the propeller was from the AZ Spitfire VI kit, the cannon from a Hurricane kit and the rockets left-over from a Valom Bristol Buckingam kit. I carved in access panels for the cannon on the starboard wing, as the original 148 only carried guns in the port wing. The decals are from Zotz's Roundels of the World set and the serial numbers from an AML Oscar kit (the Oscar in question was given up in disgust a while ago).

The model was brush painted with Humbrol enamels (83/149/150 for topsides, and a 5:2 mixture of 34 and 25 for the underside). I tried out salt weathering on this plane for the first time, though I think it came out rather crude.

Thanks for looking!

[HOUSTON]

NICE little whiffer

Good job.

Edited April 25, 2013 by HOUSTON