The Little World

And another rare bird for my Middle and South American section; a Cuban P-47.

Donated under Pan-American defence treaties, this came to Havana in the 1950’s – part of the FAEC under Batista. So far I cannot find out whether it saw any battle before or during the revolution, but at least is it a clean and colourful ship.

The decals were salvaged from a Turkish PM kit that was made up to a Pakistani Hawker Sea Fury. Now I am lusting for another of these cheap specials as I have found a use for it. There is a wonderfully preserved Sea Fury in Cuba with exceptionally odd camouflage colours.

South America doesn’t figure heavily in the ready-made kits – at least not here in Australia. Yet, they used many familiar airframes and there are colour references for nearly everything. And with so many coups, civil wars, and neighbourly intransigence, there was a chance for everyone to drop something on someone eventually.

My thanks to the WASMex committee for this.