Portugal obtained its twenty Airacobras in the strangest way: 15 P-400 model aircraft, belonging to the 81st FG and the 350th FG of the USAAF, in transit to North Africa, landed or crashed in Portugal. The aircraft were repaired and put into service, serving for many years.
After negotiations with the United States, the latter agreed to sell the aircraft to the Portuguese, and added some new P-39Ls, but refused any kind of technical assistance; the aircraft served until 1950.
There are several discrepancies regarding the number of Airacobras that arrived in Portugal. Apparently, there were more than served in the OK squadron, as the mixed squadron was called by its pilots. Some Airacobras crashed in Portuguese or Spanish territory. It is thought that at least 24 aircraft may have arrived in Portugal, and three in Spain, about which almost nothing is known.
The P-400s were undoubtedly painted in green and earth tones, as they were aircraft diverted from British orders, with red or yellow spinners. The newer P-39Ls were painted in VO on the upper fuselage and GN on the lower fuselage. However, there are references indicating that the P-400s were painted in a mild camouflage pattern.
MODELISM
This is the old Lodela 1/144 scale model, produced in the early 1980s in the H-1000 series, a peculiar series that was only fully produced in Japan, more or less fully in Mexico, and very irregularly in Germany. It was an extraordinary model for its size, representing a Q model very well.
This was one of my first Airacobra models. I assembled it in the early 1980s. It was the first model I assembled and modified its livery by simply cutting the bars of the American insignia from the decal sheet and painting it with the P-400 scheme. In the 1990s, I repainted it with Pollys paint, as the Testors paint I originally used had become scratched. Finally, I decided to change the livery, and since the Portuguese aircraft were interned P-400s, I decided to take advantage of the fact that it's the same camouflage and painted the Portuguese insignia on it, using new codes, and then applied a coat of varnish.
