FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza, Fuerza Aerea Argentina, 1948

Dizzyfugu · December 20, 2014, 06:30:45 AM

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", aircraft 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", aircraft 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Some background:
Concerning its air force, Argentina had been a very progressive country and one of the first movers on the South American continent. The Air Force's history begins with the establishment of the Army Aviation Service's Escuela de Aviación Militar (Military Aviation School) on 10 August 1912. By the 1940s there were several air units in the Army and the Navy; the first step towards an independent force came on 11 February 1944 with the establishment of the Aeronautical Command, which would go on to become the Argentine Air Force on 4 January 1945, an independent force on par with the Army and the Navy.

>1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", aircraft 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", aircraft 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

One of Argentina's fighter mainstays was Curtiss' export model of the Hawk 75H. Basically it had a lower rated Wright Cyclone engine and a non-retractable streamlined main undercarriage. It also lacked the characteristic extra cockpit side windows of the P-36 models. With its non-retractable undercarriage it was also somewhat lighter and easier to maintain than the P-36.

This simplified Hawk 75H model had a larger range than its more powerful 'sisterships', but it's maximum speed was some 50 km/h less than that of the standard P-36. Except for the Model 75H, other export versions with a non-retractable undercarriage were designated as Hawk 75M, N. O and Q.

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", aircraft 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", aircraft 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Argentina bought 29 Hawk 75O's, intended for rough-field operations and ease of maintenance. An additional 20 were licence-built by Fábrica Argentina de Aviones (F.M.A.) in Argentina in 1940. Also, the Curtiss Hawk 75H demonstrator NR1277 (c/n 12328) was eventually sold to Argentina. Standard armament was one 11.35 mm and three 7.65 mm Madsen light machine guns, plus provision for up to 10 bombs of 30 pounds each on underwing pylons.

By 1942 it was already clear that the Hawk was not a sufficient contender, so Fábrica Argentina de Aviones was requested to develop an indigenous fighter with superior performance to the Hawk.

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", aircraft 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", aircraft 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The result was the I.Ae.26 'Aguja' – a compact fighter aircraft of conventional construction, with an all-metal construction (except for fabric-covered rudders), a retractable landing gear, fully closed cockpit and powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830-G "Twin Wasp" radial engine, which was built in license, e. g. for the I.Ae.24 'Calquin' light bomber which was under development in parallel. Overall, the Aguja resembled much the Australian CAC 'Boomerang', even though the aircraft were not related at all.

The Aguja made faster progress, though, and the first prototype took into the air on 1st of September 1944 – revealing several flaws like poor directional stability and a landing gear cover design that would flutter and vibrate at certain speeds.

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", aircraft 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", aircraft 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

It took until April 1945 and two more prototypes to rectify the problems – by the time the Aguja was already outdated, but the Fuerza Aerea Argentina nevertheless ordered 50 aircraft in order to replace the totally obsolete Hawk 75O fleet, which still was Argentina's fighter backbone.
Service aircraft received an armament of four fixed 0.5" (12.7mm) machine guns in the wings, as well as underwing hardpoints to carry bundles of light bombs or two bombs of up to 500 lb (227 kg) caliber.

The Aguja was not the quickest aircraft, but it was easy to handle and operate, and it proved to be very agile at low altitude, so that the type was primarily assigned to ground attack duties. The true interceptor role was issued to 30 Fiat G.55As, that were bought from Italy in 1947, together with 15 G.55B trainers – but a year or so later Argentina returned about half of the aircraft to Fiat. Hence, the Agujas had to fill this gap.

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", aircraft 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", aircraft 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Several I.Ae.26s even saw "hot action" and took part of a series of air-to-ground attack missions during the 1955 'Revolución Libertadora'.

The vintage Hawks still soldiered on, though - the last Argentinean Hawks remained in active service until November 1954, but some were kept airworthy until the early sixties, when all piston-engined aircraft, including the Aguja, were replaced by jet fighters, e .g. the Gloster Meteor.

General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 27 ft 11 1/2 in (8.53 m)
Wingspan: 31 ft 8 1/2 in (9.68 m)
Height: 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m)
Wing area: 188 ft² (17.5 m²)
Empty weight: 5,373 lb (2,437 kg)
Loaded weight: 7,699 lb (3,492 kg)

Powerplant:
1 × Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp radial engine, 1.200 hp (895 kW)

Performance:
Maximum speed: 305 mph (265 knots, 491 km/h) at 15,500 ft (4,730 m)
Range: 930 mi (810 nm, 1,500 km)
Service ceiling: 29,000 ft (8,800 m)
Rate of climb: 2,940 ft/min (14.9 m/s)
Wing loading: 34.2 lb/ft² (167.1 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.16 hp/lb (256 W/kg)

Armament:
4× 0.5 in (12.7 mm) Browning machine guns,
plus a total ordnance of up to 500 lb under the outer wings

The kit and its assembly
This whif is the result of a totally wrong idea and execution... actually, the Aguya was supposed to become a Japanese IJN fighter, based on an Italeri La-5FN!
But the more I worked on the conversion, the less Japanese it looked, and once all aerodynamic surfaces were modified and the it still looked rather Russian or even American, I decided to drop the IJN idea... and at that point all interior surfaces had already been painted in Aodake Iro! :-/

I tinkered a bit around with the cowling, shortening it, but that did not help. So I looked for a fundamentally new 'Plan B' and eventually settled on Argentina as land of origin/conception – and switched the engine to a Twin Wasp from a Matchbox Privateer maritime patrol bomber.

Other ingredients include:
• Propeller, probably from a Fw 190, mated with a spinner from "somewhere else"
• Stabilizers from a Hobby Boss P-39, reduced span
• (Clipped) Tail fin from a Huma Me 309 to match with a...
• Tail rudder from a Heller P-51D
• Main wheels from a Revell Fiat G.50

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 ,Aguja', aircraft C-25 of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 ,Aguja', aircraft C-25 of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The Italeri La-5FN's wing tips were clipped, too, so that all wing surfaces ended up with a square shape – it changes the overall look of the Lavochkin considerably?! But it's certainly NOT Japanese...

For the rather narrow and oval Twin Wasp instead of the round Shvetsov ASh-82FN the fuselage flanks had to be levelled and the original exhaust slits were faired over. A new exhaust with a flame damper (from a vintage Airfix Bristol Blenheim, maybe 30 years old!) was added under the fuselage.

The neat cockpit was taken OOB, I just added a box behind the seat and a new sight, the pilot was only used for the beauty pics (and the canopy had to be cut into pieces to allow an open position).

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", aircraft 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", aircraft 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Painting and markings
Well, instead of an IJN aircraft something from Argentina... I used the typical I.Ae.24 bomber livery as design benchmark, since I wanted a camouflaged aircraft – these were finished with all-green upper sides (rather a bright, green tone, not a dull olive drab) and light blue undersides, with a wavy waterline. Not really fancy, but I wanted to keep the concept up.

Basic tones are Humbrol 117 (FS 34102) and 65, both were shaded with various tones for some contrast and weathering – the major body sculpting had sucked up a lot of the La-5's rather delicate raised panel and detail lines.

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 ,Aguja', aircraft C-25 of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 ,Aguja', aircraft C-25 of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Decals were puzzled together from various sources. The Argentinian insignia actually belong to a Mirage III (Carpena sheet), the squadron badges are Polish pre-WWII decoration and the codes were made with single decal letters from TL Modellbau and Xtradecal.

1:72 FMA I.Ae.26 "Aguja", aircraft 'C-25' of Grupo 1 de Caza del Comando Aereo de Defensa, Fuerza Aerea Argentina; El Plumerillo AFB, Mendoza/Argentina, 1948 (Whif/Kitbashing) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Well, a whif which resulted from a total conceptual crash during the WiP. Still, it's exotic and plausible, since Argentina developed several interesting and progressive aircraft in the 40ies and 50ies, so the Aguja is, in the end, and effective tribute.

DogfighterZen · December 20, 2014, 07:37:20 AM

Looks good, real good!! Great job on the weathering!

PR19_Kit · December 20, 2014, 09:27:12 AM

I'd have never guessed a Privateer engine, but looking at the over-under oil coolers you can that it is of course. I also thought there was some IAR80 in there, but so much for THAT ides.

Cracking job there, it's Whiffgeneering at its most pure.

sandiego89 · December 20, 2014, 02:36:30 PM

Great save! The cowling and forward fuselage could have passed as Japanese, but perhaps not much else. She looks good!

Weaver · December 20, 2014, 03:56:21 PM

Yeah, that's highly credible - good recovery!

Tophe · December 20, 2014, 11:49:56 PM

Great mix!

zenrat · December 21, 2014, 12:00:43 AM

Nice.

Dizzyfugu · December 21, 2014, 01:33:57 AM

Quote from: sandiego89 on December 20, 2014, 02:36:30 PM
Great save! The cowling and forward fuselage could have passed as Japanese, but perhaps not much else. She looks good!

Thank you, gentlemen. Second that - in fact, after I had the Twin Wasp in place and the thing was all green, it suddenly has a Japanese touch again... I was tempted, but in the end that engine would never have made sense for IJA or IJN, and even though the Aguja looks a bit simple I am happy with this recovery version.

NARSES2 · December 21, 2014, 02:34:52 AM

That definitely looks the business