The Little World

Let us be delicate about this…

In 1945 the Finns were on the winning side of a losing war. Actually several wars. They had fought the Soviet Union on their own behalf, as partners with nazi Germany, and then fought the Germans for their own territory as part of the Allies.

It was a situation – and an awkward one. The Allies told them to change the Finnish Air Force roundel to reflect the change of times. The old blue swastika ( gift of Count von Rosen – founder of a Finnish national socialist bloc and brother-in-law to Hermann Göring ) was out and the new blue and white roundel was in. An Allied Control Commission had stipulated it in 1944.

This Brewster – BW 384 – reflects this order, It was an airframe paid for with sponsorship from the Nokia compnay – a producer of cables and rubber products. They got advertising space on the nose of the plane.

This ” Noka ” is in white on the camouflage base, and as my inkjet printer doesn’t do white, I had to resort to some fancy footwork. I measured the space and arranged to pint the word on a small section of clear decal film in a very light grey.

Then I wrote over the letters using a tiny lettering pen that John France had given me – it’s just plain white paint. After sealing the lot under a clear coat, it could be floated off the backing and laid down in position. Had it been too ugly, it could be just flicked off without scrubbing the paintwork.

Note that the canopy has been painted with masking fluid to leave the frames bare – the result is actually better than my bow-pen efforts. Thank goodness the Hobby Boss moulders made well-defined frames in the clear styrene.

Two more Brewsters to go – an RAF type next time – a defender of Singapore and Malaya, and then a USMC aircraft from Midway Island. I shall wait until either Hobby 2000 or Hasegawa kits turn up on the stash sales.