Douglas DB-7 in Belgian Service

Spey_Phantom · May 18, 2008, 10:37:35 AM

this whiff is actually based on a true story

Back History:

seeing as the german buildup of ther armed forces was proceding at a alarming pace, many countries began to see that war was becoming inevadable. Belgium was no exception, the Aeronautique Militaire Belge only operated a large number of training and observation planes, the only fighter force they had were 11 Hurricane Mk.1's, 20 CR.42's and 15 Gloster Gladiator Mk.1's. to rapidly upgrade and modernise its forces to counter the german uprise, the AMB ordered 42 Breguet Br.693, 40 Brewster B339E Buffalo's, 16 Douglas DB-7B Bombers and an unknown number of PZL.37 bombers. however, of all these aircraft only 2 buffalo's made it into france at the moment the germans invaded and overran the country. al the other aircraft were either undeliverable or transfered to the RAF.

the DB-7B was ordered to replace the outdated Fairey Battle Mk.1's that belgium aquired from RAF stocks in 1936, but were rapidly becoming obsolete.

the model:

model is revell A-20 Boston kit that was already mostly assembled but unpainted when i bought it on an airshow 6 years ago (cost me only €0,50) i took it home to repair it, but she never recieved a proper paintjob then a failed grey/green camo with spare RAF roundels.
today, i took the aircraft off the shelf and gave it a decent paintjob, a green/brown camo that was typical for belgian planes in those days. decals are from the spared box.

pictures, note that i have to re-take the last one

sotoolslinger · May 18, 2008, 08:23:56 PM

Cool ,where did the tiger decal come from

Spey_Phantom · May 18, 2008, 11:11:47 PM

Quote from: sotoolslinger on May 18, 2008, 08:23:56 PM
Cool ,where did the tiger decal come from

the tiger decal was custom printed, it was intended for the bottom of a 1/144 F-4E, but it came out to big

NARSES2 · May 19, 2008, 07:30:17 AM

I like that Nils - the proposed US purchases by numerous European countries is a fascinating subject and deserves to be modelled more

sotoolslinger · May 19, 2008, 08:16:09 AM

Man I have got to learn to do that.

ysi_maniac · May 19, 2008, 11:47:07 AM

Like your concept

Brian da Basher · May 19, 2008, 01:11:52 PM

I've said before and I'll say it again, Nils: few things spice up an aircraft better than Belgian markings! They really look great against that camo on that DB-7! Nice work!

Brian da Basher

Patrick H · May 20, 2008, 01:14:24 PM

Nice one Nills, Good story also.

Oh, and since I'm a Tiger fan, Love the Tigerhead also offcours