Spooky-style Junkers Ju52

[sandiego89]

Oh- V engines!  Looks promising 

[KiwiZac]

[zenrat]

I like how this is looking.  Given the corrugated skin i'd have been tempted to use the colourbond palate for the paint job.   

Now, about this wrecked Academy Ju87G.  Are the cannons perchance surplus to requirements?  Wanna trade them?

[kitbasher]

Spanish? Used in North Africa in the 50s?

[KiwiZac]

Wrong decade! Otherwise, yes. Dammit, I thought I'd been so crafty!

Now, about this wrecked Academy Ju87G.  Are the cannons perchance surplus to requirements?  Wanna trade them?

Yes they are! If I can find it they're yours. So far, only the spats have surfaced...

[kitbasher]

Wrong decade! Otherwise, yes. Dammit, I thought I'd been so crafty!

Spanish Sahara, anti-Polisario, 1960s-70s??

[NARSES2]

I did the backstory at work yesterday. Excited to see it done!

Hope the guvnor dosen't peruse the site Zac ? 

Really does look good mate, well done 

[zenrat]

Wrong decade! Otherwise, yes. Dammit, I thought I'd been so crafty!

Now, about this wrecked Academy Ju87G.  Are the cannons perchance surplus to requirements?  Wanna trade them?

Yes they are! If I can find it they're yours. So far, only the spats have surfaced...

Thanks KZ.  Bit cheeky to ask, but if you don't you never know.
Reply sent.

[PR19_Kit]

Looks like a corrugated Dove with guns. 

[su27rules]

I like how this is looking, well done.

[KiwiZac]

Spanish Sahara, anti-Polisario, 1960s-70s??

So close!

Hope the guvnor dosen't peruse the site Zac ? 

Britmodeller is blocked at work, but not Whif! 

Looks like a corrugated Dove with guns. 

Yes! Now someone needs to get the Airfix Heron and do a Devongunship!

I'm thinking observation window where that center engine use to be.

Genius! Not this time though.

[KiwiZac]

Done!  

CASA 352M "Miguel"



The concept of a surplus transport being converted to a gunship had been proven by the United States Air Force with its Douglas AC-47 in Vietnam, so the Ejército del Aire began plans to create a similar platform based on their CASA 352.L "Pava" transports – licence-built versions of the Luftwaffe's WW2-era Junkers Ju 52 – for use in their African colonies. Despite official US prohibitions on supplying the EdA with arms and aircraft, several dozen Browning M2 machine guns and a sextet of General Electric M134 podded miniguns were acquired at the request of General Franco.

Two of the latter weapon were mounted on either side of the aircraft's port cabin door, which was removed so that a Bofors 40mm cannon could be fitted – this being installed on rails so that it could be removed through the large cargo door on the other side. Three Brownings were fitted in the fuselage windows firing to port, but fixed with a slight upward and rearward aim so they would not accidentally hit the port engine or wing. For self-defence two Brownings were also mounted in makeshift turrets, one above the cockpit (for the co-pilot) and the other in the rear fuselage (to be used by the Bofors operator).



By late 1968 the first converted example was ready for flight trials, however the weight of the weapons and ammunition proved far too much for the three 775hp radial engines to carry. After months of calculations and experiments, mechanics removed the engines and replaced those on the wings with Rolls-Royce Merlin 500-9s from obsolete CASA 2.111 bombers (licence-built Heinkel He 111s) and placed a streamlined fairing on the now-vacant nose mount. The resulting aircraft had significantly more power and flew for the first time on August 18 1969. The flight trials, followed by live-firing tests, were successful and Franco personally gave the go-ahead to convert two further aircraft as CASA 352.Ms – shortly nicknamed "Miguel" by crews – which entered service later in the year.

In early 1970 the three Miguels were posted to Africa to support operations there, one example being stationed with forces in Ifni and the others going to Spanish Sahara. However the Ifni aircraft would soon join its brethren in advance of the official handover of that region back to Morocco. By June 16 all three aircraft were based at El-Aaiún, Spanish-decreed capital of the territory.



The following day the hitherto-secret liberation movement Harakat Tahrir revealed its existence in a demonstration in El-Aaiún against Spanish rule, attempting to hand over a petition to the Spanish colonial rulers calling for better treatment and Western Sahara's independence. The protest was immediately and bloodily suppressed by the colonial forces.

The decision was made to deploy the Miguels to the airspace of Zemla – barely two minutes' flying time from their base – to provide assistance to ground forces. Each aircraft was fully loaded with fuel and ammunition and the first launched around 1pm. At 1.35pm it began firing sporadically at the crowds below, directed by Police via radio, and at 4.30pm the second aircraft arrived to relieve it. By 7pm this aircraft too returned to base, having expended all its ammunition, and was replaced by the third aircraft.



Because of a blackout being imposed on the town by Spanish authorities the crews aboard the third Miguel requested clearance to return to base shortly after sunset, however this was denied by the unit commander and with the use of flares the attacks continued. Around 10pm the first Miguel launched to replace it, but because of the poor ambient light the two aircraft collided and crashed south of the town and all crew members perished. Upon hearing the news the unit commander ordered the surviving aircraft and its crew to stand down and await further orders to use the aircraft, however these never came.

The massacre and ensuing disturbances has been named the Zemla Intifada (uprising) after the area of El-Aaiún the demonstration was held. The suppression of the Zemla demonstration pushed the Western Saharan anti-colonial movement into embracing armed struggle. The militant nationalist organization Polisario Front was formed three years later.



The final CASA Miguel remained at El-Aaiún's airport, the weapons and ammunition being taken to fit out base defences and the petrol siphoned by unknown persons. When Spain handed over Spanish Sahara to Morocco in 1975 the airport was taken over in a raid by Polisario guerrillas who, upon discovering the derelict Miguel and recognising its significance, destroyed the aircraft with explosives in celebration.

June 17 has been used as a reference day for protests in Western Sahara, including Iluvia de Balas ("Rain of Bullets") in Zemla which was named for the attacks by the Miguels. EdA records of the Miguels – including names of crews involved in the June 17 operation – were "lost" before the country transitioned to a democracy in 1975 and it is not known what happened to the men.



- Italeri 1/72 Junkers Ju 52/3m 'Tante Ju' plus AC-47 miniguns and B-25 Browning 50cals
- Academy 1/48 Hispano Buchon roundels with a lot of Solvaset/sol
- tail cross from various Italeri Ju52 registration letters
- PM Models 1/72 Focke-Wulf Fw187 engine cowls
- Airfix 1/72 DH Mosquito props and spinners, 1/72 Lancaster exhausts, 1/72 Tiger Moth numbers, 1/76 Bofors 40mm
- finished with Tamiya acrylics

[NARSES2]

That really has worked mate, very well done 

[zenrat]

Puff el dragón mágico.

Good build and a rather dark back story.

[Gondor]

Lovely job 

Gondor