1:32 H-75 Hawk (Finland)

An American machine in Finnish colors

The Curtiss Hawk 75 came about in the middle of the 1930s as a modern fighter with an all-metal airframe and retractable landing gear. It reached Finnish service by a roundabout route: these were machines originally ordered by France and Norway which after the defeat of 1940 ended up in German stores and from there were sold on. Finnish pilots praised the type for its agility, good field of view and undemanding maintenance in the frost, and they flew it surprisingly long, practically to the end of the war.

A finish that disappeared in the spring

The most interesting thing about these aircraft is the winter treatment. The basic scheme was black-green and olive above with a light blue underside, but from November to April snow lies in the north and a dark machine on a white surface is visible for kilometers. The solution was a white finish applied at the unit itself, often with a lime or glue-size solution thinned so that it could be washed off with water in the spring. It was camouflage for one season; the snow melted, the white was rinsed away and the original scheme waited underneath. That is precisely why period pictures look so varied, with the white scuffed away by boots and by the airflow and with the insignia carefully left clear, so that the machine would stay recognizable.

What the set contains

Twofold covering of the glazing is given, that is from the outside and the inside, and a single insignia mask. It is precisely with the winter treatment that masking the insignia makes sense, because the white paint was applied around it by hand and the boundary tended to be irregular. A sharp circle of marking then forms a welcome contrast to an otherwise smeared surface.