Bf-109 in Aeronáutica militar Portuguesa

[DogfighterZen]

"When WWII began in 1939, the Portuguese Government immediately declared neutrality, thus maintaining all relations with both the Allies and Axis countries.
The way that Portugal was conducting business was good for the country's financial situation and the climate of instability led the country's dictator, Salazar, to order his armed forces' generals to renew their arsenals, choosing the best equipment available.
As the Germans were in an invincibility streak since the beginning of the war, in the summer of 1940, the Aeronáutica Militar generals decided to start a series of meetings with German officials, including the Minister for Armaments and ammunition, Fritz Todt, and Minister of Aviation, Hermann Goering.
Agreements were made for the modernization of the Portuguese Army's air arm, the Aeronáutica Militar Portuguesa, which would receive modern Messerschimtt and Junkers aircraft.
The first planes to arrive were interceptor fighters as it was the department in which the AMP was the weakest at the time. In early 1941, they received a the first 5 aircraft of what was supposed to be a total of 120 Bf-109 fighters for the AMP. These airplanes would be received by the 1st fighter squadron at OTA Nº2 air base, the most experienced squadron in the country.
2 of these fighters would be lost in the first 3 months of operational use due to take off accidents, in which both pilots were killed. This bad start made for a quite a reputation for the new fighters but as time went by, the Portuguese pilots became aware that it was an extremely effective machine and the reputation lost its power as these fighters were the best that the Portuguese ever had in service up till then.
After the US entered the war in December of 1941, the Portuguese government was heavily pressured by the British to stop all dealings with the Axis powers because it was seen as a treason to the Windsor Treaty which had been in effect for centuries, so when Salazar gave in to the British request for assistance by allowing the RAF and RN to set up bases on the Azores archipelago islands, the German fighters were seen as a compromise for the Portuguese pilots as they could be mistaken for Luftwaffe birds and shot down by allied forces, which were to start crossing Portuguese air space in the near future.
The original German camouflage had been kept on the aircraft, with only the Portuguese markings to differentiate them, but as the tendency was to align with the Allies, the camo was changed to the Green/Brown top with white underside, used by the British on the Spitfire and Hurricane at the time, and later were painted in the Grey/Green top camo to match the allied Spitfire and Hurricane fighters received in late 1942.









Ok, finally had some time to sit and post this... it was finished last week but it's been hard to have the time for backstories and pics.
So, it's another one of the oldies out of the Shelves of Doom... Didn't wanna waste too much time on it as it would never be a good build but still, had fun with this idea, motivated by 2 great whifs, Comrade Harp's Portuguese Mitchell and Axu's Portuguese Fw 190.
Those kinds of scenarios were also in my idea bank for a while, just as some of the alternative history ramifications i've got in mind for the Portuguese armed forces.
I know it's not much but it at least it's sort of finished...

[TheChronicOne]

I, for one, love it!!!  109s are like baseball cards and pokemon!! Gotta collect 'em all..... so when I see something glorious and new like this, I take notice.

It looks damn good!! No matter it came from the shelf of doom... hell, that makes it ever more cool!   

I dig the story... lots of conflicting interests and decisions to be made.. often to the detriment of the pilots and craft!

I see Hitler got the cold shoulder. 

[zenrat]

Nice.

How are you attaching the plane to the Airfix stand?

[AXU]

That's nice mate  I like it 

[ysi_maniac]

 

[NARSES2]

I do like that 

[DogfighterZen]

Glad you like the little bird, guys!

I dig the story... lots of conflicting interests and decisions to be made.. often to the detriment of the pilots and craft!
I see Hitler got the cold shoulder. 

These were real world decisions made back then cause Portugal was dealing with both the Allies and the Axis, we had quite a few German and Italian types in service with the Aeronáutica Militar since the mid 1930s. Dornier, Junkers, Macchi, Caproni, Breda, among a bunch of other makers and countries of origin.
I'm not sure who'd be responsible for it but, i believe it would hardly be down to the real pilots to choose, isn't it like that all the time?
And i'm thankful for the fact that Salazar didn't like the guy, would've probably gotten us in a big mess, too... 

How are you attaching the plane to the Airfix stand?

Well, well... i see you know your stands... That stand was stolen from a model that's older than i am, the F4D Skyray. The high-tech solution of a Patafix blob is what's holding the model on the stand, i just used it to take the pics cause the poor thing wasn't deemed permanently worthy of that stand.