Battle Of Midway models project

[Butelczynski]

Good luck moving Garry. Bigger place?

Thanks Don. This is second Val I ever did. First was one from GPMs first run way back in mid 90s. It didn't look half as good as this. Those elliptical wings are real pain to make even and equal, much more than even Spitfire.

[Rata]

Originally Posted by Butelczynski

Good luck moving Garry. Bigger place?

Thanks mate. Yep, bigger place in a different state: Sydney to Brisbane.

[scissorsandplanes]

good luck moving. hope all the paper marvels don't get squashed.
B

[Rata]

Originally Posted by scissorsandplanes

good luck moving. hope all the paper marvels don't get squashed.
B

Thanks Bruno.
Some did in spite of careful packing. I guess getting good images of them when new are what cameras are for....

[gomidefilho]

Very nice Val Karol!

Garry good move my friend! Bigger and better place is a good part of the process

[scissorsandplanes]

Nice Val, Karol.
I see my early design got some great upgrades.
well done to both redesigner/recolorist and builder.
(and yes, elliptical wings are tricky)
B

[Butelczynski]

Your early models are great. With a bit of cleaning and added undercarriage they work just fine. I still can't stop looking at your HP Hampden and Fairey Battle bombers. I have number of other oldies printed and waiting like Raiden, He+111,Squa etc.
All in good time.

[Rata]

Originally Posted by Butelczynski

Your early models are great. With a bit of cleaning and added undercarriage they work just fine.

100% correct Karol. And a lifetime's worth of yummy modelling subjects for most builders and recolourists before you even got to #1,000 Bruno.

[gomidefilho]

I think that the entire collection of aircraft about the Battle of Midway has to have the prologues, in my historical view there are three: the night attack on metropolitan Japan in 1938 by the Chinese nationalists in the second Sino-Japanese war, the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Doolittle raid (this being one of the direct causes of the Battle of Midway).

















There are some stories from World War II (1939-1945) that have fascinated me since childhood. One of them is the "Raid Dollitlle", also called "20 seconds over Tokyo" and also called "Tokyo Raid". On the 18th april last, the 80th anniversary of this incredible and crazy military operation that was a US response to the attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base in 1941 by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and pushed the US into war once and for all. At that time the United States did not have a bombere plane that had the range to reach metropolitan Japan, and vast portions of the Chinese coast were occupied by the Japanese and the Korean peninsula was part of the Japanese Empire. The operation was aimed at harming Japanese morale. For this, the general staff of the US armed forces decided to take seriously the plan of Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle (who was a prominent aviator before the war) to make land-based twin-engine bombers take off from an aircraft carrier to attack Tokyo, which the Japanese considered impregnable. After many studies it was decided to use the new B-25B Mitchell bomber that were specially modified to be lighter and with more fuel. The plan was to attack Japan by taking off from the USS Hornet as close to the Japanese coast as possible, bombing military and industrial targets, and then flying into northern China and landing on airfields operated by the Nationalist Chinese. 16 planes took off 170 nautical miles earlier as they were spotted by a Japanese sentry ship the Nitto Maru which was sunk by the USS Hornet escort. The epic attack did little damage to the Japanese infrastructure, because only 16 planes were launched that had a meager capacity to carry bombs (around 500 kg each), but the morale of the Japanese was fair to death. The Japanese mistakenly thought that the planes had departed Midway Atoll, which led to Grand Admiral Yamamoto attacking this American base resulting in the first major Japanese defeat in the war and changing the balance of the conflict. Model Scissors and Planes in 1/100 scale, repainted and modified by me representing the plane "Nº 8" that made a forced landing in Vladivostok in the then USSR.









Jimmy Doolitle was an outstanding aviator in the inter-war period, pioneer and record breaker in speed and distance. So the feat of the Doolittle raid, even after nearly a century, is still incredible considering the conditions and risks involved. I leave the level of curiosity I leave one of the racing planes in which he competed in the years before the War the Seversky SEV-2, repainted by our friend Rata.

[Gerry1966]

And I would just like to add here that if any of you would like to build a model of the USS Hornet from the Doolittle raid (ideally 1/400), I can provide you with a set of ALL the B-25s that participated in the raid in this scale. With personal markings, serial numbers, etc. I once prepared them for my Hormet model, which I have not yet (oh what a surprise :-D) built.