Author: Pavel Šenk

I built a classic kit of a classic WWII fighter in the summer – just like David Koktavý, who presented two beautiful Thunderbolts here – in honour of the recently passed away Mr Shunsaku Tamiya. However, instead of the marking from the kit, I chose an interesting night fighter machine of a Czechoslovak pilot…

The British infantry tank Churchill, for me as a modeller, is a great military classic – different versions, different colours, different battlefields. It is also a classic for Airfix, a traditional English manufacturer of model kits – after all, they released the model of this tank in version VII in 1961! In 2018, this kit was reboxed in the “Vintage Classics” red box edition with decals from Cartograf, and that’s how this old classic has come to me.

Introducing you to the P-51 Mustang fighter would be like carrying coal to Newcastle, so I’ll leave it to the experts. The high-back B and C versions of the Mustang (which had previously been somewhat neglected by model makers) were produced in 1943, the C version specifically in Dallas, Texas. As I was once at home thinking about which model to start with – to finish it quickly and easily – a P-51C Mustang box from Academy caught my eye on the shelf. The kit was first launched in 2001 and is relatively simple, but it looked fun to build, so I asked myself, why not give it a chance?

For some, the iconic British World War II fighter is the Spitfire, but for me, it’s the Hawker Hurricane. I almost always think of the movie Battle of Britain when I look at it, and the picture of the victorious night fight of the Hurricane over the Heinkel 111, which comes from Mr. Velc and was printed on the Směr kit box in the eighties of the 20th century. Almost every boy who was making models back then had this particular black cannon-equipped Hurricane in his display case…

The British de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito multipurpose aircraft was built in 1938-1940 and entered service in 1941. It was used as a light bomber, night and day fighter and reconnaissance aircraft. Its mostly wooden construction and high flight speed earned it the nickname “Wooden Wonder”. The Mosquitos FB Mk.VI and T.Mk.III were in the Czechoslovak service between 1945-1953 under designations B-36 (CB-36).

The Lockheed Vega was a single-engine fixed-carriage high-wing monoplane designed and flown in 1927 by the Lockheed Aircraft Company. Thanks to its extraordinary performance in those days, this machine went down in aviation history with many record-breaking flights. Names associated with Vega include Amelia Mary Earhart (the Lady Lindy machine, the first woman’s flight across the Atlantic), Wiley Post (the Winnie Mae machine, the first flight and solo flight around the world), or the polar aviators George Hubert Wilkins and Carl Ben Eielson (the first flight across the Arctic). The yellow-red Shell Oil Company machine was also piloted in the 1930s by the later US General James Harold “Jimmy” Doolittle.

Spirit of St. Louis was the plane that Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic in May 1927. Originally designated Ryan NYP, the high-wing, strut-braced monoplane was designed by Donald Hall of Ryan Airlines based on the Ryan M-2 and was named after the city of St. Louis, because the city participated financially in its construction. For my model, I chose the appearance of the machine from Charles Lindbergh’s promotional tour of the States and Latin America in 1927-1928.