Sovietised Corgis

[McGreig]

What do you do if you're a Soviet aircraft enthusiast and you're given a large, ready-made Corgi metal model of a USAAF B-17?

Easy - this used to be Corgi's 1/72 "Memphis Belle".  

[McGreig]

And this is a Corgi B-24 (Originally USAAF "Sky Witch")

[Rafael]

If it's a model.....then it is modeling!!!
Nice work sovietizing or deCorghisizing those birds, McGreig!!

Rafa

[Martin H]

looks differnt.

the ruskis did get a B-24 in 1945, it had landed at an airfield under partisan control in Yugoslavia with engine trouble, a few days later a soviet airforce unit moved in, and offered to repair the  B-24. aparrently it "disapeared" not long afterwards. They tried the same trick with a P-38, that the partisans whanted to keep hold of, it ended up in Yugloslav airforce service.

[John Howling Mouse]

Clever mods!  My favorite is that B-24 (but they're both intriguing).

 

[royabulgaf]

I just saw the title and I thought of Queen Elizabeth's little dogs with red stars on them.

Kim M

[Chap]

McGreig, beautiful work! Very plausible.

~Steve

[monkeyhanger]

A model doesn't have to be plastic! There are people on this site that work in card, balsa wood etc.

I like these, especially the painted out original markings (I hope you are supposed to see them!).

Good stuff.

[McGreig]

Pleased that you like them. I was baffled as to what to do with them when I first got them but now find myself contemplating giving a similar treatment to a Coastal Command B-17 or PBY-5.

And yes, you are meant to be able to see the overpainting! On captured, interned and lend-lease aircraft not already in Soviet markings, the Russians tended to paint out as much of the existing markings as necessary, using whatever colour they had available and leave the rest of the finish unchanged.

Although Soviet requests for lend-lease B-17s and B-24s were rejected they managed to acquire twenty three B-17s and thirty B-24s by repairing aircraft that became unserviceable or force landed on Soviet territory (usually after raids against Japan). There are pictures/profiles of five of the B-17s and three of the B-24s in Geust and Petrov's "Red Stars 4" (although not in the schemes I've used).

[ysi_maniac]

Before reading your last post I was thinking they were very plausible.
Good stuff