THE AIRCRAFT: The
Bell P. 39 was one of the very first modern American monoplane. Bell engineers'
aim was to provide their country with the best, advanced and modern plane
available at that time. A number of things were not all
right and the P.39 was unsuitable for interceptor role, as its performance was
quite disappointing. But this aircraft was subsequently developed into a very good
ground-attack role machine and was widely used both USAAF and USSR-VVS during
the WWII.
A number of surplus
examples (c.a. 170) were delivered to the loyal It. AF that fought alongside the
Allies during the last year of the war. They were used by so-called Italian
Co-Belligerent AF (Regia Aeronautica) with good results.
Click on
images below to see larger images
THE MODEL: This is yet
another of my older models, being built back in 1989. It is the old but
quite good Revell boxing from the '70s era, basic and with very few details.
Interiors are reasonable scratch-built completed, although virtually
invisible.
The colours were
Dark Green H.149 and Slight Grey Humbrol 64. But the green shade I've used is
wrong, being the real planes were painted in Olive Drab: I should have
painted it in Humbrol 155 instead! Please, forgive me, modeller friends!
This
model represents a machine of 9° Gruppo, 4° Stormo "Francesco Baracca"
of the It. Co-Belligerent AF (Balkan A.F.) based at Canne and Termoli, Spring
1945.
Paolo De Sanctis
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