Fifth-Annual 1/72 Scale Tribute by Charles P. Kalina

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Fifth-Annual

1/72 Scale Tribute

Czech National Day 2006

(Den Vzniku Samostatného Československého Státu)

by Charles P. Kalina

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Happy Birthday to ARC Members "jbl", "Quagmyre", "Cloud in the Wind", "j-fever" and "Thales"!!!

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Ahoj Kamarádi!

This is my fifth annual scale tribute to the armed forces of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. This year I completed only three models, due to a four-month overseas deployment and various personal and professional commitments. So much for my model-a-month New Year’s Resolution. It's terrible when real life gets in the way of hobbies…

Share and enjoy,

Na Shledanou,

-CPK

C.2 (Arado 96B): Germany built the Ar.96B trainer at the Avia and Letov factories in Prague during the occupation. Avia continued producing it as the Cvinca (trainer) C.2 until 1949, building 394 aircraft. The CVL (Ceskovlovenské Vojenské Létectvo) replaced it with the Yak-11 in 1955. The Air Security Forces (Bezpečnostní Letectva) also flew it in civilian “OK-” registry, as shown here. Slow-moving prop-driven planes were often more effective than jets for security missions, similar to those now performed by police helicopters. (KP-Mastercraft kit, pilot figures from spares)

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B.36 (Mosquito Mk.VI): Czechoslovkia's postwar air force received twenty-five ex-Royal Air Force Mosquitoes. They were assigned to the 24^th Atlanticky (Atlantic) Regiment, named in honor of the Czechoslovak bomber unit (No.311 Squadron) which was part of RAF Coastal Command during the Second World War. Czechoslovakia’s Mosquitoes had the local designation B.36 (Bitevni, “Battle”, the designation for ground-attack aircraft). They were retired by 1950 and replaced by Soviet Ilyushin aircraft. (Airfix kit with Tally-Ho decals.)

Areo L-29 Delfin: The L-29 was developed in the late 1950s and began series production in 1963 as the standard jet trainer for most Warsaw Pact countries. Thirty-five hundred were built, most of them for export to Soviet-bloc countries and third-world allies. NATO gave it the reporting name “MAYA”. This distinctive tiger-stripe aircraft belonged to the 11th Fighter Regiment at Zatec, which was an honorary NATO "Tiger" unit. (KP kit with scratchbuilt cockpit tub, Neomega ejection seats and Miniprint decals. I felt that the Miniprint stripes were too crisp for a sprayed-on paint scheme, so with a friend’s help I scanned, blurred and reprinted them. However reference photos show that its paint job has been retouched over time, so the crisper decals may be accurate for earlier years.)

Additional References:

Squadron, Mosquito in Action Part 2
Zdenek Titz and Richard Ward, Czechoslovakian Air Force 1918-1970 (1971)
Model and decal brochures

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