The Little World

The French paid through the nose for the Curtiss SBC-4 Helldivers. They were compelled to pay in gold bullion hauled to the USA by the aircraft carrier BÉARN, then forced to load them in Nova Scotia after they were towed over the international border, then forced to abandon them in the West Indies when metropolitan France capitulated. I don’t suppose Curtiss gave them back their gold, either.

Just as well these old birds took a Caribbean vacation; they would have been easy prey for Messerschmitts and flak. Not flying them saved 100 French airmen’s lives.

I think the French were given a raw deal all the way. The neutrality act that prevented the planes from being delivered by US shipping took the BÉARN away from hostilities…though that may have saved her from the fate of the Oran fleet. Another 875 French sailors saved. Perhaps the money spent was an investment in all these lives.

Curtiss, in their turn, doesn’t seem to have invested a lot of effort in refurbishing the planes. They swapped machine guns for French types and gave the planes a new paint job. But the sprayers were not following masks, and it shows. My own freehand camouflage pattern is every bit as authentic as the surviving illustrations.

On a model making note, the cabane struts are imperfect but frankly I am surprised that they are there at all. Two broke repeatedly. The landing gear looked rickety but has proved to be perfect. The canopy is a good fit.

The decals that came with the old kit were a puzzle. They looked good on their sheet and floated off quite well – then seemed to snuggle down. But after a few minuted they wrinkled up – and stayed wrinkled even when dry. Serious wrinkles – like when you put on Micro Sol and it goes funny. Except unlike Micro Sol, these wrinkles did not tighten up again…

In the end I used cello tape to strip them off and substituted some Czech ones from the decal vault. They went on a treat and flattened immediately. Go figure…