Spanish Civil War Whifs

[stevehed]

Hi All,                             
I've run into a bit of a brick wall WW1 wise so I have reverted to between the wars.  The last time this happened I built a SCW Polikarpov R5 from a Pioneer kit. This is my second favourite era and it has great potential for whiffery. This example has an 690hp Hispano Suiza engine that had been salvaged from a twin engine Potez 540. The standard Nieuport 52 was powered by the 500hp version and had been used by both sides in the early stages of the civil war. It was a sequiplane with much smaller winglets below a large upper wing. This wing was supported by large Y struts that were braced against the undercarriage. The French used the similar Nieuport 62. I've used the Heller version of this kit to create the Super Nieuport. There used to be a SCW site that had a host of information and photos. It was Spanish and a decent dictionary was a must but it was incredible. The now defunct link was http://usuarios.multimania.es/mrodval/GC37901.HTM   In the Nieuport 52 section there was reference to an aircraft that was re-engined with an 860hp HS engine from a crashed SB 2 bomber. It was very fast but suffered from longitudinal stability issues and was not proceeded with. So I have substituted a lighter version of the engine, replaced the winglets with a stronger proper wing, used a more modern oleo leg instead of the strut ridden original undercarriage, retained the chin radiator and shortened the interplane struts. I estimated a performance of just over 200mph at 14,000ft. The lower wings came from a Pegasus Handriot HD1. They are far too thick for WW1 but were ideal for this conversion. They accepted two drill drill holes in the butt ends and paper clip wire was inserted to act as spars. The spars went through the wing location slots and the other wing was pushed onto the wires with the butt ends secured to the fuselage with CA gel. This is the main modification. The interplane struts were reduced in length and the oleo legs are remnants from an Airfix Gladiator. Ordinarily an aircraft of this performance would have been rejected for front line service but after the Republic defeat in the north aircraft were needed to watch for Nationalist forces attempting to force the Andorra Gap. This narrow pass would have allowed Franco's forces to cut off the French frontier, the only land access to the Republic. In turn the Nationalists were wary of a Red attempt to turn their own forces in the north and had left a mixed group of Heinkel 51 fighters, Heinkel 70 and Iman 37bis recce aircraft.  By late 1937 these aircraft were regarded as second rate but still capable. The Republicans responded in kind as the Russian I-16 and I-15 aircraft were needed on the more active fronts. A motley collection of aircraft had escaped from the northern Basque region. Most went to the training depots but several Czech Letov 231 fighter aircraft were refurbished and sent to the Andorra escuadrilla. Others were reduced to spares. A Pegasus engine from a wrecked Letov was installed in a Bristol Bulldog to produce a 200 + mph fighter. Combined with the Super Nieuports these aircraft were the fighter flight. They all sported engines that gave best performance at heights over 13,000ft or 4000ms. In the Pyrennes this was a positive advantage and gave the Reds the upper hand against the Heinkels and even the Fait 32 over the mountainous terrain. The reconnaissance element of the Andorra Reds was initially a trio of Polikarpov R5's but a consignment of Czech aircraft had recently docked at Barcelona and these were allocated as replacements as the R5's were needed by the night bomber units.

SCW Nieuport 52bis – Super Nieuport


Before and After




Pegasus Bulldog
                               The Bulldogs are the Airfix kit and have seen better days. Both were patched up with the OOB build getting a sand and green camouflage to represent a former Latvian machine that ended up flying with the Basques. The Pegusus conversion is OOB except for the engine set up which came from the KP Letov 231 kit. I hope to turn the remainder of the kit into a Letov 331. In similar fashion an engine change is the major difference.

The modified aircraft as delivered in natural metal.


Before and after


Seven days later after receiving  Andorra camouflage.




Regards, Steve

[zenrat]

Good work.  Definitely a relatively unwhiffed era.

[NARSES2]

They are neat 

As Zen' says it is an under modeled era. I was only thinking about it this morning, but I was musing on the possibilities of Portugal getting involved ? I was also considering Portugal getting involved in the latter stages of WWII. (They did have troops in the trenches during WWI). Then I realised my current knowledge of Portuguese history is woefully inadequate and I'd need to do a lot more reading up before I could come up with anything.

[stevehed]

Thanks Guys. As said there is great potential here. This site is useful and there are several likely candidates therein.

http://bioold.science.ku.dk/drnash/model/spain/index.html

Regards, Steve

[Charlie_c67]

One area of Whiffing I was thinking of was the declaration of independence of Catalonia in 1937, thus making the declaration of non-intervention by several nations null and void and allowing the transfer of equipment to allow the newly independent nation to defend itself against the Nationalist forces.

[TheChronicOne]

Nice builds there, I like!!!!

[NARSES2]

One area of Whiffing I was thinking of was the declaration of independence of Catalonia in 1937, thus making the declaration of non-intervention by several nations null and void and allowing the transfer of equipment to allow the newly independent nation to defend itself against the Nationalist forces.

Catalonia is certainly interesting in that period. It was virtually independent anyway by then and ended up in a 3 way war with the Nationalists and the Soviet forces who were supporting the main Republican government I'm not really sure how an independent Catalonia would have made the non-intervention policies of the UK and France any less likely however ? Any Catalonian government would have been leftist and quite possibly/probably anarchist and thus earned the ire of the UK in particular and France would probably have followed her lead. There is some strong evidence of the Nationalist forces receiving clandestine and totally unofficial help from Royal Navy higher echelons in Gibraltar particularly with regard to signal traffic intercepts.

However as you say an independent Catalonia could make things interesting, and if your'e going down that path what about the Basque region ? You would need to get around the problem of part of the region being in France, but there are ways to avoid that problem 

I've only really read one dedicated book on Spanish Civil War and that was by Anthony Beever. Written well before he came to prominence. Quite short but made a complex subject very readable. I did however have to make a crib sheet for all the acronyms 

[zenrat]

Googling Spanish Civil War Armour gives some interesting images.

[NARSES2]

Love the top photo in particular 

I'm sure I've seen the bottom one somewhere else. They have an almost alien look about them ? Now I'll have to try and remember where 

[PR19_Kit]

I'm sure I've seen the bottom one somewhere else. They have an almost alien look about them ? Now I'll have to try and remember where 

Looks like the Ku Klux Klan Armoured Division to me...........

[VickersVandal]

Spanish Whifil War? Hell yes!

[zenrat]

It's not too late to vote for the Civil War GB theme.  Unless you've already voted for other stuff that is.

[comrade harps]

Nice capture of the Spanish camos! 

[Old Wombat]

Dalek Mk.I

[nighthunter]

Oh, yay, SCW whiffs! I have drawn a few, and I really should model a few, lol! Wonderful work!