The Little World

Recently I completed a scale model of a Finnish fighter plane from the period of WW2.

It was a good kit and the camouflage colours went well; two shades of green on the top and a light blue underside. I was able to add the Finnish Air Force insignia on the wings and fuselage as I have my own inkjet printer to make decals.

The insignia are the post-1944 roundels in blue and white. The previous ones were straight swastikas in light blue over a white circle. The explanation given for them was always that they were to personal good-luck symbol of a Swedish Count Eric von Rosen who gifted the Air Force with its first plane in 1918. Nothing to do with nazis or anything…

But Eric was a personal pilot for Herman Göring. And his brother in law. And a founder of Sweden’s own national socialist bloc…all just a coincidence, one supposes.

The Allied Control Commission told the Finns to ditch the swastika in 1944 when the latter turned against their erstwhile partners, the Germans. A circular pattern was substituted that has endured to this day. Oddly enough the official Finnish Air Force crest and heraldry kept the swastika until the turn of the 21st century…retiring it quietly.