The Little World

I have had a number of air friends in the past; The RCAF, the IDF, and the Ruritanian Royal Army Air Force amongst others. They feature largely in my collection, and more examples of aircraft will be added as the years go by. But I have a new friend, and it looks like I’ll be needing a new cabinet…

The new air friend is the Nationalist Chinese Air Force. The air arm of the KMT. General Chiang Kai Shek’s army. Think China in the period between the 20’s and the 50’s. The big battles between China and the Soviet Union, Japan, the warlords, and the communists. China battled everyone then, for real, and at home. A tough call.

The Nationalist Air Force is a wonderful choice for a modeller who favours a common scale like 1:72 or 1:48 as there are so many different kit choices to play with. You are not just restricted to one country’s aviation output, or to one or two lines of successful aircraft. China was not a boring market. They imported aircraft from many different countries and air forces and gathered volunteers where they could.

This meant that to some extent they rather look like a rag-bag…but a fierce one. They imported planes in penny packets, but from so many makers that the modeller can scoop the hobby shop shelves for everything. I went into my local and came out with two biplane fighters with no trouble…and noted a dozen other candidates for inclusion as well.

The internet, of course, supplies the information and the impetus. Wikipedia has made a list of the squadrons and their planes …some 40+ at present count…and the image gathering section has yielded photos of most of the aircraft in actual Chinese livery.

There are variations, as there will be with every military force, but the basic colours of the squadrons revolve around dark green…a rather bluish shade…light grey, and light blue.The roundels are simple to print and the tail flash is blue and white stripes on the rudder. There are few numbers, and those mostly square form in white. It is easy to get a fair corporate image going.

I once queried a young Chinese chap who had been an aero modeller on the mainland as to why the planes were so dark and plain…he thought it was economics. The KMT just didn’t have a lot of money for paint.

This is going to make the construction of an airfield diorama a lot more spectacular. Do they even make Chinese buildings in 1:72 scale?