Regia Aeronautica (Version)

The toys get airborne in this blogpost with the Regia Aeronautica. My difficulty was I didn't have any Italian warplanes to hand so I had to think laterally to get what I wanted. So I bought a Revell Micro-Wings P-40E Warhawk and tried to turn it into a Macchi 202.Cue much bodging and hacking. first I had to trim off the huge air-scoop thing under the Warhawk's nose. Then fill it with greenstuff and get a more bodged stream-lined shape. Then I had to cover the aft section of the huge cockpit glazing. Again with green stuff and again much bodging. What I was left with after all the surgery looked reasonably like a 202 if you did this with your eyes: -_-

Here are some pictures of the bodge-in-process:

Air-scoop off. Putty in.

Underside. New nose and putty in-fill on landing gear

Gaps in wing roots & tail plane filled with putty

Close up of putty bodging on wings & tailplane

The putty was left to harden in its own time. I then turned my attention to those unsung heroes of all air operations: The Groundcrew. For without them no aircraft would ever fly nor engage in meaningful acts of war. Now, this being a Megablitz unit some creativity is called for. Sadly I have none so this is what I came up with:

I really like this chap. He looks like he knows his stuff and could probably re-arm, re-fuel and generally do an operational turn-round on his aircraft on his own. 

So what of the aircraft itself? Well, if you'll forgive the obvious bodges and remember to look at it with your eye-lids half closed here it is:

And finally the complete Regia Aeronautica unit:

I hope you all had as splendid an Easter as I did and I'll be back with more toy-based nonsense soon!

The Angels Wore Red

I've not been well the last few days. Managed, for months, to dodge all the flu & noro-virus malarkey all my friends have been laid low with but then I catch a cold! Bah!

You can tell I wasn't well while doing these Soviet air regiments. They look scruffy and at least one decal is hanging off the tail of the lend-lease Hurricane. Even the bases look poor to my streaming eye. The toys are all from Zvezda's 1/144 scale range for Art of Tactic. The LaGG-3 was a very poor aircraft despite its attractive lines. I was surprised that the Hurricane was quite noticeably larger than the LaGG and not much smaller than the Il-2. My favourite is, of course, the Sturmovik although even its combat performance was, apparently, propaganda enhanced. No matter, I weep for the toy Germans when they appear over the Megablitz battlefields.

Welcome to my new follower, kitnoob, I hope you enjoy what I do!

Megablitz Continues.........

I love Zvezda's Art of Tactic toys. They're such good value at less than £3 for a crewed 1/72 scale artillery piece or 1/144 scale combat aircraft it's got URRAH! written all over it. So much so that I went a bit mad today and bought this lot:

• 2 x 76mm Infantry Guns
• 1 x 45mm Anti-Tank gun
• 1 x M-16 Quad AA
• 1 x LAGG-3
• 1 x Hurricane Mk1
• 1 x Infantry

The 1st Westmidlandsgorsk Front grows in strength daily at its Birmingrad headquarters! Tremble in your nest of evil, fascist vipers, for vengeance is coming!