As Britain was thrust in to a second world war, her air force was by no means prepared for the coming conflict. Many of its aircraft were older designs, which had been far outstripped by the modern aircraft of Germany and Japan and although a modernisation programme had now been given maximum priority, the 1939 Royal Air Force was very much playing for time. One of the most significant deficiencies facing the RAF was the lack of a heavy fighter in their inventory, at a time when this type of aircraft was seen as being a real tactical necessity. The Luftwaffe and Hermann Goering in particular, were great supporters of the heavy fighter concept and their much vaunted Messerschmitt Bf 110 ‘Destroyer’ was regarded as potentially the most potent weapon in their air arsenal. History will show that this faith was not justified in a combat situation, but you really can see why the whole of Europe thought that this type of aircraft would be difficult to overcome. Possessing the speed and manoeuvrability of a fighter, with the extra range and fire-power of a larger aircraft, the Destroyer would surely take a withering toll of any opposition air force. At this worrying time, the RAF were without such an aircraft.
ENTER THE BEAUFIGHTER
Although the Royal Air Force could boast two of the worlds best fighter aircraft of the day, in the form of the Spitfire and Hurricane, neither of these aircraft were capable of performing the important long-range standing patrols which were essential for spotting and disrupting potential attacks on British territory. The RAF had put faith in the twin engined Westland Whirlwind heavy fighter, but protracted development problems with the advanced Rolls Royce Peregrine engines led to delays and the eventual cancellation of this project, with few aircraft actually entering RAF service. The task of heavy fighter was thrust upon the trusty Bristol Blenheim and even though it was clearly not suitable for this task, it took the roll on with distinction, at a time of our greatest need – this being said, things were now becoming critical.
In a private venture, the Bristol Aviation Company pursued the possibility of producing a heavy fighter from lessons learned and indeed components from their existing Blenheim and Beaufort designs. When the RAF’s need for a heavy fighter was at its most pressing, the Bristol Beaufighter was unveiled as an alternative to the Whirlwind. As production could easily be achieved by taking over the Beaufort lines, the Beaufighter was immediately ordered into production, but did not actually enter service until a full year after hostilities had broken out. The early Mk.I machines were actually rather cumbersome, being heavy and possessing only a modest maximum speed of 335 mph, but they were much needed and the only option available to the beleaguered RAF. By this time, the Messerschmitt Bf 110 Destroyer had proved to be somewhat less fearsome than had been first thought and a multi-role heavy fighter was much more appealing to RAF, with the flexibility to take on a variety of tasks. The new aircraft was faster than its predecessors and certainly packed a serious punch – importantly, the Beaufighter was extremely rugged and reliable, which immediately endeared it to crews in the air and on the ground.
Some of the first Beaufighters to enter RAF service were the machines of No.25 squadron at North Weald and this weeks header image shows an aircraft from this time. The early Beaufighters were thrust against the Luftwaffe’s night blitz and performed extremely well in this night-fighter role, taking quite a toll of German bombers – its stability, fire-power and general serviceability were critical factors in this success. Indeed, the Beaufighter would go on to become one of the most successful Allied aircraft of the war, serving in every theatre of operation and performing particularly well as a night-fighter, coastal/ anti-shipping strike, ground attack and long-range interdictor aircraft and by wars end, just short of 6,000 Beaufighters had been produced. With an extremely distinctive profile, the Beaufighter also has to be one of the most instantly recognisable aircraft of WWII and one which has a distinctly British appearance – certainly one of our finest aircraft of the war.
Without doubt, the Bristol Beaufighter was one of the most requested model toolings amongst die-cast aviation collectors and for such a famous aircraft, it is surprising that it took so long for one to appear on the market. Since it’s introduction in the Hobbymaster 1/72nd scale range, it has undoubtedly been one of the most successful models they have produced and we have seen literally thousands of examples pass through the Flying Tigers hangar doors. The latest release (pictured above) is something a little bit special and features one of the first Beaufighters to enter RAF service. Arriving at RAF North Weald in September 1940, this particular machine was on charge with No.25 Squadron and was immediately pressed into service as a night-fighter against the Luftwaffe’s night onslaught against Britain. This fantastic looking machine is interesting for a number of reasons – firstly, even though it served almost exclusively as a night-fighter, it is wearing this attractive RAF day-fighter scheme of the period, which I have to say looks absolutely superb on the Beaufighter. Secondly, this aircraft has black spinners in the propellers, which were rarely used on service Beaufighters and again provides an attractive curiosity to this particular release. As we have not had an RAF Beaufighter for some time, this model was particularly heavily pre-ordered and with a low production run and relatively few models coming to the UK, we are fast running out of this distinctive and highly collectable release. Our NEW RELEASES section has our remaining models available for sale, where you can also take a closer look at our diorama example and all the other new models to arrive at the Flying Tigers hangar.
The beautiful new Beaufighter was not the only significant model to arrive this week, as the latest Hobbymaster delivery included the usual varied array of die-cast aviation models. At the head of this group is the much delayed 1/48th scale RAF Mustang III, which looks absolutely resplendent in this camouflage scheme and is a fantastic addition to this range. This particular Mustang (FZ190) is in the colours of No.441 ‘Silver Fox’ Squadron, which was a Royal Canadian Air Force unit, operating out of RAF Hunsdon, in Hertfordshire in the last weeks of the Second World War. It features the distinctive Malcolm Hood, which was a field modification for many USAAF Razorback Mustangs, in a bid to increase all-round visibility, but was most probably fitted as standard on this particular aircraft. It is also unusual for another reason – most, if not all of 441 Squadrons Mustangs were fitted with a tail fillet stabilizer, which was to become standard on later mark Mustangs, but FZ190 does not have one! HA8502 is a fine addition to the 1/48th scale Mustang range, but I am afraid that we only have seven free models still available – don’t miss out on this beauty and head straight for our NEW RELEASES section to secure your model.
Other new models from the latest delivery include this handsome early US Marine Corps Vought F4U-1 Corsair in 1/48th scale, which as well as featuring the option to have the wings folded for carrier based operations, also has the rear flaps in the extended position, which can be seen in the picture opposite. Flown by Major Robert Owens, out of Munda Island, in the Solomons, this mighty Corsair of VMF-215 ‘The Fighting Corsairs’ was aircraft number White 76, but following a little paint addition was known as ‘Spirit of 76’. With very few of these models finding their way to the UK, this one will most definitely be a sought after release in the months to come and with a production run of just 700 models worldwide, it could prove extremely difficult to come by once it has sold through.
Bringing the US Marine Corps / US Navy right up to date, the latest 1/72nd scale Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II release adds a welcome splash of colour to this highly advanced aircraft. The disappointment of not seeing this spectacular aircraft making its European display debut at RIAT this year, has not diminished the popularity of the die-cast version of the Lightning II, which continues to sell in good numbers. This latest release presents us with aircraft AF-01, which was the first production aircraft. It flies test and evaluation missions from Edwards Air Force Base and has this rather attractive red lightning flash on the tail, along with the flags of the nations who have expressed an interest in taking the Lightning II, once it is released for squadron service. This is a very famous aeroplane and a great many stunning photographs of AF-01 have been used during the development programme, to keep the interest levels in this project at a very high level. Its fame has resulted in it also being a hit with the die-cast aviation collector and we now only have nine models still available for sale. For more information, or to take a closer look at this latest F-35, either click on this NEW MODELS link, or the Lightning II link above.
The final model in our LATEST RELEASES montage is an absolute WWII classic release. The Douglas A-20 Havoc was an extremely effective medium bomber in the European Theatre, winning many admirers for its rugged and reliable design. This build quality and ease of operation was absolutely essential, particularly in the Pacific Theatre of operations, where aircraft were forced to fly extremely long distances over open ocean. This latest release is something of a USAAF Havoc classic and presents us with a machine that acted as a strike gunship, on long ranging missions, searching for targets of opportunity. With a fearsome array of machine-guns in the nose of the aircraft, this Havoc was capable of decimating and Axis shipping, airfield, or military installation it came across, on one of its long-range patrols. Featuring beautiful nose artwork and an impressive mission marking scoreboard, the ‘Green Hornet’ has been a popular subject for plastic modellers over the years and now the die-cast aviation collector can now add this beastie to their collections – with just 600 models produced worldwide and the vast majority of models heading towards the US, we do not expect to be able to offer this model for very long, so for the last time this week, please use this NEW RELEASES link to go straight to this section of our website to take a closer look at this really impressive new model.
NEW NEWSLETTER FORMAT
Our latest Newsletter will be the third issue to be posted using the new format of a single web page for each issue. Only today, I have received a couple of enquiries regarding the ability to catch a Newsletter if you missed an issue, due to holidays, or not being in a position to access your computer. Thankfully, the new format will fully support this and all previous Newsletters will be available by looking in the NEWS section of our website. This can be found in the black banner at the top of each web page, just underneath our main Flying Tigers banner – it is the button fourth in from the left. As each new Newsletter is a web-post, each one will be displayed in this list and can be identified from the title and number of issue. You will be able to read and print any of the previous Newsletters that we have posted in this new format.
We have also received a number of requests from long standing Newsletter readers, concerned that they can no longer save the Newsletter pdf to file, for their own records. I must admit that I had not foreseen this problem and we have already asked our IT support to look into this matter for us. We trialled a couple of options this week, but neither proved to be satisfactory and one actually conflicted with the website, causing me to loose a little more hair! What is clear is that this is probably going to be expensive to achieve, as specific software applications will be required, so I ask anyone concerned about this to give us a little time to sort this out – as soon as we have the answer, we will make all the new Newsletters available as a pdf for archiving.
VERY SPECIAL OFFER OF THE WEEK
We end this weeks Newsletter with a very special OFFER OF THE WEEK model for our readers. Pictured below, you will see a magnificent Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2 in 1/72nd scale, which is taken from the superb new Corgi tooling of Willy Messerschmitt’s ‘Gustav’ version of this famous Luftwaffe fighter. Flown by famous Luftwaffe ace ‘Hermann Graf’, Yellow 11 was his mount during 1942, when he was flying missions against the Soviet Air Force, from Pitomnik, near Stalingrad. He was flying this aircraft when he scored his 200th victory – the first pilot in the history of warfare to achieve this landmark figure, which perversely made him too valuable to risk in combat, so he was withdrawn from front line duties. He ended the war with 212 aerial victories, making him the 9th highest scoring air ace in history.
This magnificent model is the current Corgi Collector Club Members Exclusive Model (AA27102B) and you usually have to be a member of the club to get hold of one, but for one weekend only, we have a small number available for our Newsletter readers. A 500 run Limited Edition release, we are making this magnificent model available for just £25.00 each, which is an extremely healthy saving on the usual price of these very rare models, which are not usually available on open sale. Remember that these are fully certificated models, which are absolutely mint and only usually available through the Corgi Collector Club – this is a great offer and one we do not expect to be able to repeat. Please do not delay with these beauties, as we will have to strictly allocate these on a first to order basis – head straight for our OFFER OF THE WEEK section and good luck!