Sea Vampire, Prototype, HMS Ocean

 

One of the Vampire Prototypes was modified to develop a navalized version, with a landing hook of the same style as the Sea Hurricane, with two support points on the fuselage, as well as all the flotation mechanisms and to support the catapult.

 

Being one of the first Vampires, it had a high stabilizer and plywood construction, which required a protective paint, the plane was successfully tested on the aircraft carrier HMS Ocean, the plane was used for different experiments, one very curious, The runway of the aircraft carrier would replace the metal or wooden plates with a rubber cover, in such a way that the plane would land, bouncing and stopping by friction, the plane was reinforced in the belly.

Lodela model, modified, El Viejo Marino painting, all with a brush.

 

F-4E Phantom, IRIAF, H-3 raid

 

One of the most impressive raids of the First Gulf War, between Iraq and Iran, was the one carried out on April 4, 1981, on the Iraqi air base of H-3, located to the north, as far as possible from Iran, and where, in a safe place, the new elements, the planes in training and the reserves of the Iraqi Air Force were concentrated.

In March 1981, Iranian Intelligence learned that new F-1 and Tu-22 heavy bombers were going to arrive at that Base, in addition to a large amount of supplies for the Iraqi Air Force, so a risky operation was planned. The distance in a straight line from the border was more than 1500 kilometers.

The base was beyond the reach of the Iranian planes, they would have to cross all the Iraqi territory and the best defended areas, the planning was excellent and very daring, they would surround the road, in a route of 3500 km, which would require several resupplies in flight, 8 Phantoms would carry out the attack, supplied by 2 KC-135, all, including the tankers, would fly at 100 m, do those maneuvers at that height, would require extraordinary skill.
 
At the same time, several F-5s would carry out diversionary attacks, a C-130 would attract radars and a pair of F-14s would provide protection at high altitude.
 
And they achieved the surprise, the F-4s, arrived suddenly, damaged the runways with bombs, attacked the parked planes with other clusters, making several passes with their cannons, the anti-aircraft defense was slow to react and did not hit even a Phantom; Iraqi casualties were never revealed, but it is believed that there could have been up to 48 aircraft. 

Boeing 707
The attack was so far away that it required aerial refueling, so a KC-135 was used, which had to fly at 100 m, a very dangerous and unthinkable height for a plane of that size. My model is from Necomisa Lindberg, everything. by brush

 

The F-4 used in the raid are not known, so I assembled a generic F-4E from the IRIAF, I planned to correct its numbers when more information was available, but the new break in relations with Iran made it
 to do very difficult.

The model is the old Snap Tite from Monogram, in 1/72, to which I added the cabin, I assembled it on a work trip, everything is by brush, using paint El Viejo Marino.

Ilyushin 2 Sthurmovik 25

The Ilyushin 2 Sthurmovik was the main ground support aircraft of the Soviet Air Force during World War II, it was used as a horizontal bomber, tank destroyer and with its main armament exhausted, it could still make strafing passes, using its secondary armament, with full confidence of being immune to infantry weapons, the most exposed parts of the fuselage were armored, even direct hits from 37mm were powerless to bring it down, earning it the nickname "Flying Tank", the only ways to bring it down were with fighters or by shooting at it. anti-tank ammunition with the 37mm anti-aircraft guns. Their main armament consisted of bombs, rockets or anti-tank guns; It participated in all the military operations of the war, and in its Il 10 version in the Korean War, one of its greatest moments was in Kursk, where it destroyed a large number of German tanks.
.

  MCTNTEb Mstitel

25, Unknown unit

Taken from the book by Francis K. Mason, Illustrated Encyclopedia of Major Aircraft of World War II, Crescent books, New York, 1983, he cites the translation of the fuselage sign as Avenger, I have seen this model somewhere else, so it is Its existence is totally certain, I don't know in what unit, nor can I place it in a certain place, but it existed. Pollys paint, details with The Ancient Mariner, stars of the Airfix model

 

Publica

My love history with Airfix

Airfix has been one of my favorite brands for decades, and that's even though in the 2010s, it was far behind in terms of modeling technology, the mere idea of ​​producing the Zero from the 60s in that decade was quite a challenge.

I learned about the brand back in the seventies, when my grandfather took me on his business trips and in meetings, he would leave me quiet, in a corner of the room, assembling and painting a model, or he would take me to a store, where the models cost 50 pence each, I bought a lot and I would put them together on the flight back to Mexico, those times when you could get on a plane with glue, paints and scissors, I still have a few of those models, and when I see them , I remember my grandfather's great affection and those beautiful years of childhood, and of course, all those models were Airfix.

One of the few models that survived from that era

 In Mexico they were not easily available, here was the kingdom of Lodela, a brand that many of us grew up with, and remember, but which disappeared in the nineties, leaving many modellers nostalgic and in search of other hobbies.

Returning to Airfix, their models generally did not offer a great challenge to assemble them, unless you decided to modify them, scratch them, or my favorite part of the Hobby, paint them, in different versions, one of the advantages of having a store is I could order complete boxes of a single model, and that's how I got 25 Zeros, some were sold, but I actually wanted them for myself, the model was terrible, poorly proportioned, with a huge helmet and no interior, but that was the fun part, making the pieces, thermoforming the helmet, making the rudders out of polystyrene, correcting the cowlings, so that they would better adjust to the different versions, the model in theory represented a Type 21, the one from Pearl Harbor, but I made almost all the variations, of the Type 21 to 62, except for the A6M4, for which there was no data.

An Airfix Zero, heavily modified, to represent a trainer

Airfix changed owners again, and is now updating, its new models are State of the Art and I want to buy a new box of Zeros, from new tooling, to continue completing my collection, which is still very incomplete, I The Zeros of several aircraft carriers and aces are missing, in addition to the rare versions, as soon as this inflationary stage passes, I will do it, to see if Airfix makes different versions of the Zero in the meantime.

Even now, when I open a red box of the new Airfix, I have that feeling of when my grandfather gave me a box, it is such a beautiful memory, that I can repeat as many times as I need, recreate a childhood happiness, many decades later, although to be honest , there are new Airfix models, which from the modeler's point of view, are much better, but I will always love those simple blister models from my childhood.