P40B Flying Tigers (Airfix 1/72)

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the sole modern United States Army Air Force fighter stationed in Hawaii was the Curtiss P-40. An all-metal, 300-mph (if the pilot was lucky) 1934 design that had been modernized by an inline Allison engine jammed in its snout. The P-40 was quickly surpassed by considerably more proficient fighters. But on December 7, 1941, the warplane claimed two distinguishing features: it was the fastest airplane in the world in a dive, and it was accessible.

Damage

By 9 a.m. that day, over 2,400 Americans had been killed. Most of the Navy fleet had been destroyed, and more than half of the 200 Army aircraft on Oahu had been damaged beyond repair. Individual pilots like George Welch raced for any airplane they could locate, rather than an organized operation by air wings stationed in Hawaii. Welch’s efforts in the P-40 that day, in which he shot down four Japanese planes, were portrayed in the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!. This earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Two weeks later, 100 trainees, led by one of the war’s most skilled and divisive commanders, began flying P-40s to defend China from Japan. Claire Chennault’s American Volunteer Groups Flying Tigers annihilated Japanese bombers in seven months, their big-jawed planes flashing shark’s fangs….