1/72 Icelandic Air Force Ski-Plane Fighter

[Brian da Basher]

Well, after finishing the famous Luxembourg "Werferwerf" (thread Here ) I was left with an engine-less, landing gear-less P-26. What to do? Well, fiddling with cast-offs in my spares box, I soon realized that the nosegrill from a SPAD XIII was a perfect fit! After reading the topic about alternate air forces, the idea hit me. Please allow me to present, in 1/72, the Icelandic Air Force Ski Fighter, otherwise known as the Penguin.

Brian da Basher

1st of 6 piccies:

[K5054NZ]

I like this one thus far!

[Brian da Basher]

As stated before, the nose grill is from a SPAD XIII. The skis were all made from odds and ends out of the spares box. I chopped off the enormous P-26 headrest and used it to make dorsal tail fin. I scratched the engine cyllinder heads from sprue bits and the dual exhaust pipes were scrounged from my canopy-less Stuka. The new headrest was a leftover from the underwing tanks of the Fuji T-1A/Ollie Torpedo Bomber (thread Here) and the new windscreen was donated from a CR-42 Falco. The prop was scratced from a 1/144 P-38 spinner and spare blades. Wing and cowling guns were scratched from spares. Rudder markings and those neat little Icelandic roundels were hand-painted (I did use SEA style Commonwealth roundels to get something approximating a blue circle as a base), and the entire model was brush painted. I hope you enjoy the pics!

Brian da Basher

2nd piccie of 6

[Brian da Basher]

Here's the backstory:

For most of its modern history, Iceland has been a small, quiet nation making their living from fishing, geothermal energy, and the export of ice (exporting the eccentricities of the singer Bjork would come later). This calm way of life would sadly be very rudely interrupted in the early summer of 1928. In May of 1928, the famous Italian airship designer and pilot, Umberto Nobile, and his crew of intrepid airshipmen disappeared while attempting a North Pole flight aboard the semi-rigid (too much wine perhaps?) Italia. Shortly after the airship was overdue, the peace and quiet of this small island nation were shattered by overflights of supply and rescue aircraft from the continent aiding in the search for the lost airship and crew. This, and encroachments into their fishing waters by pushy Norwegians, Greenlanders and Orkney Islanders was the last straw. Clearly something had to be done. It was in the midst of this turmoil that the nascent Icelandic aircraft industry leapt into action. After discovering the wreck of a Breda monoplane prototype headed for the Pole, the Icelanders back-engineered it, and made it more suitable to native conditions. Finding a nice supply of engines from W.W.I Spads cheap and readily available, the ski fighter plane Penguin was born. By injecting lutefisk oil into the cyllinders in flight, the performance of these old Spad engines was much enhanced, and the Penguin was able to secure the peace of this small nordic island nation until they were overwhelmed by the arrival of American P-38s, Bebop, Lucky Strikes and Old Frothingslosh during the early days of W.W. II.

Brian da Basher

3rd piccie of 6

[Brian da Basher]

Here's a shot of the underside. You can see the complex ski landing gear. The main struts were leftover from a 1/144 B-52. The underside color is Polly Scale Clear Doped Linen, but I wish I'd had a light blue for it.

Brian da Basher

4th piccie of 6

[Brian da Basher]

An addendum to the backstory is that during W.W. II, Americans were often confused by the Icelandic air force markings, mistaking them for the Red Cross, and expecting free donuts and cigarettes whenever an Icelandic plane would stop in at a U.S. base. Therefore, the roundels were altered during the war to a blue circle bisected lengthwise by a white-red-white stripe.

Brian da Basher

5th piccie of 6

[Brian da Basher]

I hope you folks have enjoyed the pics as much as I enjoyed building this little whif and sharing it with you. Next on my bench is a radial-engined He-112. Stay tuned!

Brian da Basher

P.S. Thanks for the kind words Zac! Knowing my little whifs are liked by a modeller of your skill and world-wide noteriety adds a bounce in my step!

6th piccie of 6

[philp]

Brian,
Another crazy build. neat.
Sure you don't want any of this other fodder I got?

[Allan]

Brian,

Using the SPAD nose was 100$ gold-plated inspired genius my friend.

Another triumph

Another great build!

Wonderfully silly AH, might I add

Allan in Canbera

[The Rat]

It sure looks the part Basher, great idea!    

[cthulhu77]

 cool little plane...love the skis !

[Mike Wren]

love it!    

[NARSES2]

I like that Brian, but bearing in mind the Brit's arrived in Iceland first when war broke out and Norway fell shouldn't they have been overwhelmed by Fulmar's or something - in the case of the Fulmar, probably underwhelmed I know, but ----  ^_^  

[K5054NZ]

Well Bri, this little bird screams out "I am amazing! Worship my builder!", and that is precisely what I'm doing. I still can't get over the fact that this was once a Peashooter, amazingly brilliantly wow! And those skis!  


Worldwide notoriety? Ha. Skill? Double Ha.

[lancer]

Thaat is a beautiful little plane Brian. Excellent bash too. Bloody well done sir!