Author Topic: Bell P-39C Airacobra, Aeronautique Militaire Belge 1941  (Read 1504 times)

Offline Spey Phantom

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Bell P-39C Airacobra, Aeronautique Militaire Belge 1941
« on: November 07, 2020, 11:36:34 PM »
Bell P-39C Airacobra, Aeronautique Militaire Belge
3/I/1Ae, Goetshoven Airfield, May 1941


this is another "could heve been", there were negotiations to buy up to 40 P-39C's but the surrender of may 1940 put a halt to those plans.

Back History:

to replace the majority of the largely outdated Faire Fox's and Renard R31 observation aircraft, it was decided to change the role of the Aeronautique Militaire's (Belgian Military Aviation) 1st air regiment from observation to a fighter/ground attack regiment. this is to replace the outdated recconaisance and observation aircraft (that outnumbered the amount of fighters in the AéM) with fighters. due to the urgent need for those aircraft, an initial 15 Bell P-39C Airacobra's, that were earmarked for the RAF but rejected, were transfered from the US to the AéM.

these were built as RAF Airacobra Mk.I's and retained the 20mm nose cannon that was requested by the British. the 15 aircraft arrived in Belgium in October of 1940. plans to aquire an additional 50 fell through as the USAAC wanted to retain them for theyre own forces. although the airacobra was a decent fighter, the lack of visibility didnt make them loved by fighterpilots. but as a ground attack aircraft they proved to be highly effective.

the Belgian Airacobra's did not have the underwing 12.7mm gunpods under the wings, byt had FN/Browning 7.62 machine guns mounted inside the wings. also, since these were RAF destined machines, the 37mm cannon in the nose was replaced by a 20mm one. they continued to serve as rground attack aircraft until the surrender in may 1941.

The Model:

the model is a Revell 1/144 P-39 Airacobra with decals from the sparesbox, DIY serials under the wings and roundels from Fantasy Printshop's 1/72 Belgian roundels.







on the bench:
-various models

on the drawing board:
-various 1/72 TinTin aircraft
-1/72 Eurocopter Tiger (Belgian Army)
-various other 1/72 and 1/144 aircraft

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Bell P-39C Airacobra, Aeronautique Militaire Belge 1941
« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2020, 02:08:40 AM »
 :smiley:
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline ChernayaAkula

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Re: Bell P-39C Airacobra, Aeronautique Militaire Belge 1941
« Reply #2 on: November 11, 2020, 08:09:38 AM »
That's really cool!  :smiley: Belgian roundels look soooo good on Dark Green/Dark Earth-camouflaged aircraft.  :-*
Cheers,
Moritz

"The appropriate response to reality is to go insane!"