Grumman Ge 23 Delfin, Spanish Civil War 1938, renowated 1978 scratch build in 1/72

[JWM]

Hi,

This is another archive model from my shelves. I did it in 1978 or winter 1979. It is a scratch build or rather perhaps scratch conversion from... Airfix Grumman Duck! which elments I used as base for reshaping. Like in case of Curtiss Hawk III (which was done in the same time back 40 years ago, one after another but I do not remeber now order) I repaired it now as a result of adding riging by EZ.  The model presents machine of Group 28 fighting in 1938 on Republican side in Catalonia.

 

 

 

Comments welcome

regards

J-W

 

Edited September 8, 2018 by JWM

[BIG X]

Hey JW - an unusual subject - in that it is republican - a lovely job sir

[JWM]

17 minutes ago, BIG X said:

Hey JW - an unusual subject - in that it is republican - a lovely job sir

Many thanks sir,

This Grumman was not successful as fighter during SCW despite it was used in relatively large numvers there. In Wikipedia you can find such description of use of this type in SCW:

 

"The Canadian Car & Foundry Co acquired a manufacturing licence for the G-23, an improved FF-1, of which it completed a total of 52, some of which were assembled from US-built components. Thirty-four were acquired by the Spanish Republican Government in 1937 by presenting forged Turkish credentials. This batch was built primarily to bypass the US embargo placed on belligerents during the Spanish Civil War.[3] Referred to as the GE-23 Delfin (en:Dolphin) by the Spanish Republican Air Force, the aircraft fought in the conflict, but were outclassed by opposing fighters and losses were high. Despite this, a victory against a Heinkel He 59B would be the only recorded "kill" by a Grumman biplane fighter.[1] Eleven survived to serve in the Ejército del Aire Español, nicknamed Pedro Rico for its rotundity"

Ref. :

1 - Francillon, Rene J. (1989). Grumman Aircraft since 1929. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0870212468.

3 - Winchester, Jim (2002). Fighters of the 20th Century. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife Publishing. ISBN 1840373881.

Cheers

J-W

 

[Luis Alfonso]

Hi My Friend Jerzy!!!

Congratulations for this wonderful masterpiece you have done!!!

I was reading a book named HABLA UN AVIADOR DE LA REPÚBLICA = " A REPUBLICAN AVIATOR SPEAKS"...written by Juan Lario Sànchez, a Spanish Republican Aviator who reached the Soviet Union after the SCW ended in 1939 via the Concentration Camps set in France, and in his book made numerous mentions to the GRUMMAN DELFÍN or Dolphin aircraft...

 

It's nice to know this bird by your experimented modeler and scratchbuilder hand, as the subject is highly obscure and in most cases ignored. Wonderful work!!! 

Thank you very much for sharing!!!

Cheers, 

 

Luis Alfonso 

[John_W]

Nice build. You can see the family resemblance to the Duck.

[JWM]

16 hours ago, Luis Alfonso said:

I was reading a book named HABLA UN AVIADOR DE LA REPÚBLICA = " A REPUBLICAN AVIATOR SPEAKS"...written by Juan Lario Sànchez, a Spanish Republican Aviator who reached the Soviet Union after the SCW ended in 1939 via the Concentration Camps set in France, and in his book made numerous mentions to the GRUMMAN DELFÍN or Dolphin aircraft...

Hi Luis Alfonso,

This Grumman machine was quite numerous among Republican fighters,  just next after Polikarpov fighters.

The Wiki says:

"The Canadian Car & Foundry Co acquired a manufacturing licence for the G-23, an improved FF-1, of which it completed a total of 52, some of which were assembled from US-built components. Thirty-four were acquired by the Spanish Republican Government in 1937 by presenting forged Turkish credentials. This batch was built primarily to bypass the US embargo placed on belligerents during the Spanish Civil War. Referred to as the GE-23 Delfin (en:Dolphin) by the Spanish Republican Air Force, the aircraft fought in the conflict, but were outclassed by opposing fighters and losses were high. Despite this, a victory against a Heinkel He 59B would be the only recorded "kill" by a Grumman biplane fighter.[1] Eleven survived to serve in the Ejército del Aire Español, nicknamed Pedro Rico for its rotundity." 

So 34 were in Spain, not too much successful, though.  They were used as attack machines.

 

 

Regarding J.L.Sanchez. I was affraid what was his further fate in Soviet Union. Later in forties Stalin got a kind of obsession about the SCW veterans and many of them were sent to Gulag... So I googled and found this description:

http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/spain_lario.htm

So he returned Spain in 1957 after serving in VVS till 1948.

And I found this (in Spanish, but I was able to get some sense out of it)

https://daysonwar.blogspot.com/2014/08/juan-lario-aviador-espanol-en-la-fuerza.html

He passed away in Alcala de Henares in 2000 in age of 82  (BTW - I think I was there, it is east of Madrid, not far from it) 

Best regards

J-W

10 hours ago, John_W said:

Nice build. You can see the family resemblance to the Duck.

Thank you. Indeed, this is from the same time...

Cheers

J-W

 

[Luis Alfonso]

On 12/10/2018 at 1:23 PM, JWM said:

Hi Luis Alfonso,

This Grumman machine was quite numerous among Republican fighters,  just next after Polikarpov fighters.

The Wiki says:

"The Canadian Car & Foundry Co acquired a manufacturing licence for the G-23, an improved FF-1, of which it completed a total of 52, some of which were assembled from US-built components. Thirty-four were acquired by the Spanish Republican Government in 1937 by presenting forged Turkish credentials. This batch was built primarily to bypass the US embargo placed on belligerents during the Spanish Civil War. Referred to as the GE-23 Delfin (en:Dolphin) by the Spanish Republican Air Force, the aircraft fought in the conflict, but were outclassed by opposing fighters and losses were high. Despite this, a victory against a Heinkel He 59B would be the only recorded "kill" by a Grumman biplane fighter.[1] Eleven survived to serve in the Ejército del Aire Español, nicknamed Pedro Rico for its rotundity." 

So 34 were in Spain, not too much successful, though.  They were used as attack machines.

 

 

Regarding J.L.Sanchez. I was affraid what was his further fate in Soviet Union. Later in forties Stalin got a kind of obsession about the SCW veterans and many of them were sent to Gulag... So I googled and found this description:

http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/spain_lario.htm

So he returned Spain in 1957 after serving in VVS till 1948.

And I found this (in Spanish, but I was able to get some sense out of it)

https://daysonwar.blogspot.com/2014/08/juan-lario-aviador-espanol-en-la-fuerza.html

He passed away in Alcala de Henares in 2000 in age of 82  (BTW - I think I was there, it is east of Madrid, not far from it) 

Best regards

J-W

Thank you. Indeed, this is from the same time...

Cheers

J-W

 

Hi My Friend Jerzy!!!

Thank you very much for sharing these links giving more light about Col. Juan Lario Sànchez... BTW I am looking about the Spitfire Mk IX used by him but found nothing, if just in case you know something about it please share your info. And if you can find the book in English for sure is a great reading!!!  

Cheers,

 

Luis Alfonso