1:48 Curtiss P-40B

The year 1941 on five different fronts

The early versions of the Hawk were caught by a war scattered across the whole world, and this sheet shows that fragmentation on five machines. Two markings belong to the US Army Air Forces just before the United States entered the fighting: a B version with the 77th Squadron of the 20th Group from Hamilton Field in California and a C version with the 47th Squadron of the 15th Group from Bellows Field in Hawaii in December 1941.

The Hawaiian choice is the most charged of the five historically, because it was precisely the December days at the bases there that decided the further course of the war in the Pacific. The Soviet Tomahawk IIa of Lieutenant Ridnyi with the 126th Fighter Regiment of the air defense forces, which in the winter of 1941 defended the sky over Moscow, is tied to the same year.

From Kent to the Algerian desert

British colors are represented by a Tomahawk IIb of No. 268 Squadron, which in November 1941 flew from the field airfield at Penshurst in Kent. The last marking jumps two years forward: an F version machine of Sergeant Jean Giscoin with the French group II/5 Lafayette in Algeria in 1943.

The package contains printed markings for a kit in 1:48 scale, not plastic parts. The individual elements are separated from the carrier film only after they are cut, never the whole strip at once. The early versions have a narrower radiator and a different shape of canopy than the late machines, so check before buying a kit which form of the airframe it offers. British Tomahawks moreover tend to have a different placement of the national insignia on the underside of the wing than the American machines, which you will see at once during a dry run.