Hello Gents. “Redhand Speaks.”
I have always had a soft spot for small air forces on the losing side, especially the Netherlands East Indies Air Force (NEIAF) which was actually a separate Dutch colonial air force, and not a branch of the KNIL back in The Netherlands. Jean Luc kindly gave me an extra hand-cast cowling he made for this Wright Cyclone powered H-75 A-7. If you look in the archives, you will see his build of the “Must Have” rebox with additions for the Hobby Craft mold, which they said had an accurate front cowling. Sadly, no! He was very kind to me as an ex Curtiss-Wright employee because this is one of the few aircraft C-W made that featured both airframe and engine (and propeller) manufactured by them.
Supposedly, Eduard is coming out with a P-36 series, so we may FINALLY see this aircraft with the correct cowling for a Cyclone engine from a mainstream manufacturer. Time will tell. “Must Have” only put out one other kit that I can recall, and it wasn’t a “must-have” for me.
Another reason for my wanting an expert hand to make this P-36/H-75 variant is because I already have a Buffalo in Dutch markings. D’oh, I actually made it decades ago.
In need of a dust-off, but accurate.
Also, while I have not heard of a new CW-21B kit coming out, SURPRISE, there is a CW-21B in 1/48 already.
It’s a resin kit from WSW in Germany and here’s the link for it.
My build of it is here and it’s also a 100% Brian job. (Pardon the bad lighting.)
The thing that makes it different from the WSW kit is that I got the styrene cockpit instrument panel and sidewalls from an old 1/48 Sierra Scale Models vacuform kit of the A/C and detailed them to make a fairly accurate cockpit. Unfortunately, you can’t see much of it because I had to build this with a closed canopy. Ultimately, I didn’t want to risk my one and only canopy at the very end of the build, but the cockpit’s all there folks.
As you can see from H.G.'s pics of the Must Have kit, it’s multi-media with a vengeance and will require an expert touch. He’s the man to build this baby, and we all know what it will resemble in 1/48 when he’s done.
So, I will finally recognize my decades-old dream of having three 1/48 NEIAF fighters in which C-W had a hand, the B-339C with a Wright Cyclone; the CW-21B with a Wright Cyclone engine and Curtiss Aircraft (Columbus Ohio, Division, not Buffalo) airframe, and an H-75 A-7 also with a C-W engine and airframe.
BTW, here’s a good and very interesting website about the air war in the Netherlands East Indies, with a special article on “The short, unhappy ML-KNIL career of the Curtiss 75A ‘Hawk’”
Last but not least, I recently discovered that the Dutch were also equipped with Hurricanes at the very end of the campaign. This really is a thing.
The only known photograph of KNIL Hurricanes on Java, seen here on the road between Tanjong Priok and Kemajoran
See that same website for Dutch Hurricanes – Too Few, Too Late.
The same article says:
So far, the only confirmed aircraft operated by the ML-KNIL were Z5664 and Z5683.
There are decals out there for Z5664, including one in 1/48.
Here’s a suggested profile.
Enough from me! Let’s get back to H.G. and his magic.