Air Apaches - B25 Mitchell Strafers - 345 Bomb Group

 One of the distinctive sets of markings were those applied to the 345 Bomb Group, operating in the Pacific.  

These planes represent the Hells Belles squadron - with a bright blue Bat emblazoned on the nose of their B25-J strafers.  

The strafers carried 6 or 8 fixed .50cal MG in the nose, a possible 4 further fixed .50 cal package guns either side of the cockpit and the top turret packed a further 2 .50cal.  They also had bombs in the bomb bay.  Their tactics were to go low, with the element of surprise, hoping to shoot up the Japanese planes whilst they were still on the ground.

The models are 1/600 Tumbling Dice, USAAF markings from Doms Decals, the Bat nose & tail Apache markings a combination of hand painting & suitable letter transfers.  I added a battery of nose guns and side package guns to the Tumbling Dice model.

A lone Bat in close up...

D-Day Dakotas

 A few photos of my D-Day Dakota Fleet.  Fuselage codes CJ - 71st Sdn, & CU 72nd Sdn, both from 434 Troop Carrier Group, 53rd Troop Carrier Wing.  Based at Aldermaston.

The planes are Tumbling Dice 1/600.  The USAAF decals are Doms Decals.  The wing stripes are painted by hand - as were the originals!  The D-Day markings do make the slightly boring OD over light grey a little more eye-catching.

The initial D-Day drops of 82nd & 101st Airborne took place on the night of 5/6 June, so this must be one of the follow up drops on 6 June.

3 planes from each squadron:

After running into the Luftwaffe.....

Napoleonic Bavarians of 1809 have got their own page !

 I have just created a page to showcase my 1809 Bavarians, based for the BBB ruleset. 

Here's a couple of pictures to whet your appetite!

Napoleonic Austrians 1792-98 - Baccus AWL 01 Figures review & conversion - part 2 - PAINTED

I have now painted a few test bases of Austrian troops - (using the American Loyalists AWL01)

Front view:

Rear view.  Sorry about the poor quality photo - I'll do some thing better once they are based!

WJ Rawkins ebook on the Austrians says that they did not powder their hair, but did retain the queue, so I went with that approach.