1/72 Republic O/a-44 Tornado

[Brian da Basher]

In late 1937, the Republic Aircraft Corp. was approached by a purchasing mission from the Republic of China led by none other than Madame Chiang Kai-shek. The war with Japan had been going very badly and the Chinese were in dire need of every kind of military hardware they could lay their hands on. No need was more pressing at that time than the need for sturdy ground-support, anti-tank aircraft. Madame Chiang was able to win over the board of directors of Republic Aircraft with her seductive charms and very soon they were able to offer up an interim design to meet China's desperate need. The Republic O/A-44 Tornado was developed quickly from work being done on the P-43 Lancer and preliminary design work on the follow-on product, the soon-to-be-famous P-47 Thunderbolt. It was decided that retractable landing gear was an unnecessarily complex "luxury" for a ground-pounder and fixed, spatted landing gear was chosen instead. The O/A designation was a bit of subterfuge created by the U.S. State Dept. in an attempt to fool the Japanese into thinking the new aircraft bound for China were merely observation types not intended as offensive weapons. The new Tornado was very heavily armed, boasting a total of ten .50 caliber machine guns, eight of them in the wings and two of them on the cowling, synchronized to fire through the propellor arc. The O/A-44 could carry a lethal bomb load of 1500 lbs. and was able to boast a top speed of 300 m.ph.

The first squadron of Tornadoes arrived in Shanghai in June, 1938 and were quickly sent into action against Japanese forces beseiging the city. Constant bombing attacks by the new O/A-44s soon broke the Japanese stranglehold, forcing them to retreat after almost all of their armor had been destroyed. The Tornado went on to even more success and by the time of Pearl Harbor, the Chinese with the aid of their new attack aircraft, had managed to win back a large part of their ravaged country.

The example shown here, #69 "Szechuan Duck" of the 71st Attack Wing commanded by Air Mashal Tso of the Republic of China Air Corps engaged in many successful missions against the Japanese while escorted by P-40s of the American Volunteer Group, also known as the Flying Tigers. It is the only one left of this little-known stop-gap aircraft and bridge between the P-43 Lancer and the P-47 Thunderbolt. It is currently on display in the R.o.C. Air Force Museum in Taipei, Taiwan.

1st of 7 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The base kit for this project was some un-named 1/72 scale P-47 included in the wonderful "box of parts" Leigh was generous enough to send me recently. Although Leigh said the box was mostly just odd parts and incomplete kits, I was amazed at how close to complete they really were. This P-47 actually had an extra cowling with it and was only missing a canopy and propellor.

Well, since when am I going to let a lack of a canopy hold me back when I have all this clear blisterpack material?

2nd of 7 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Supertom]

Those spats and the color scheme had me thinking "Spanish Civil War Ju-87A."  Care to show the bottom?

[Brian da Basher]

I had a very nice prop in my spares box left over from the P-51 Hatchet traded me for 52 pilot figures. It seemed a natural fit for the P-47 and gave the plane a very neat, retro-look. I found a drop-tank half that helped fill in the aft gap in the cockpit nicely, and after that, all I needes was to find just the right size of blisterpack material for the windscreen and then engineer the spatted landing gear.

Here's a head-on shot that shows off the bomb load.

3rd of 7 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The spats were made by cutting lengths of sprue to size and then cutting side panels out of sheet plastic and attaching them to the sprue. The back ends were glued together and clamped in place until dry with clothespins. I then glued wheels halves to the bottom. I filled in amy imperfections with putty and then went over it again with correction fluid. Here's a shot of the underside which again shows off all those bombs. Can you ever have enough bombs?

4th of 7 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

I also decided to add a fillet to the tail in an attempt to blur the obvious look of the P-47 a bit. I cut a piece of plastic from a bread bag clip and glued it in place, adding putty to blend it in with the rest of the tail. I also decided this one needed cowl guns like the P-43 Lancer. The guns were scratched from little sprue gates snipped off with a pair of nail clippers. The belly bomb was left-over from the Academy P-40 and the outer wing bombs and racks were from an Airfix Hurricane and the inner wing bombs were left over from the P-51 I got from Hatchet. Here's a side view which shows off the tail fillet, cowl guns and those spats.

Did I mention that I love spats?

5th of 7 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The entire model was brush painted by hand with acrylics. I used Testor's Tan and Model Masters Rust and Euro-Green on the uppers and Testor's Light Gull Gray on the undersides. The prop spinner was painted with polly Scale Gunship Gray and the prop blades, guns and engine were painted with Tamiya Gunmetal. Model Masters Steel was used on the exhaust stubs, inner cowling and intake lip. I painted cockpit interior with Model Masters R.A.F. Sky and the bombs with Testor's Olive Drab. Polly Scale Insignia Yellow was used on the prop tips and Windsor-Newton Mars Black was used on the wheels. I also used Testor's White to paint part of the psuedo-Chinese calligraphy on the tail.

6th of 7 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Most of the decals were left over from my Academy P-40. The numbers were from a RoG Corsair I've since shipped to Lana in Kiwiland and the psuedo-Chinese under the cockpit was taken from a sheet of Manchurian markings and rotated 90 degrees so it looked more "authentic". The character on the tail was swiped from Japanese markings from the Willow Baz sent me and was modified with a few brushstrokes of white to look more "Chinese".  I have absolutely no knowledge of Chinese language or calligraphy and only hope I haven't inadvertantly written something offensive.

If I've indavertantly written something funny, I hope you enjoy the joke and will translate it for me.

I've got to thank Leigh for his incredible generosity in sending me this kit. It was a great fun build prior to tackling my more complex Secret Santa GB project.

Last of 7 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Sentinel Chicken]

Very nice! I particularly like the Martin-Bakerish appearance of the spats and camo that reminds me of the old prewar US exercise schemes.

[SPINNERS]

Cool!

I've got loads of Thunderbolts in the stash and I'm tempted to do a two-seater with the front cockpit further forward for cg and 'view over the nose' reasons.

[Maverick]

Hey Brian,

what do u get when a drunk Ju-87A and a P-47 get busy....?

I now know!

Brilliant work.  (careful on not too much backslapping)

Mav

[Geoff_B]

Now some how that sort of seems right, like the P-47 derived form an pre-war air racer. The Chinese marking sort of reinfore the concept rather well.

Nice idea well executed amd certainly one that get the old double take when seen.

Cheers

Geoff

[Rafael]

Very, very ingenuous. Now I know what to do when one of my models loses a canopy. Blisterpack is the way to go. I like the way you managed to build that cockpit, and that fillet. Very imaginative.    

The solid camo attracts me. even more when I'm one of those shaky hands guys who paint with a paintbrush in one hand, a crucifix in the other, and aprayer in my lips.      

The lettering reads: EAT AT CHIANG'S.

WOW!!!
Rafa

[retro_seventies]

Works for me Bri!

if a P-26 spent some time in the gym, he would aspire to look like this total beefcake!

[Chap]

Great work Brian! A lovely model and a great backstory to go with it. B)

~Steve