Wednesday 8 January 2014

Butchers in North Africa


An FW 190 A4 as flown by Adolf Dickfeld


I have to say that I am feeling particularly, to use an Australian expression and without the merest sniff of irony, 'Crook'. I cannot even blame it on the recent cricket debacle! I have a splitting head, a chesty cough and a sore throat with all the associated 'head-full-of-cotton-wool' feverishness. And I still have to go to work....:-(

On the plus side though, I took delivery of four Axis and Allies Bandits High 15mm scale FW190 fighters in a rather fetching Luftwaffe desert colour scheme - identical to that in the picture above sans the tail markings (not PC apparently....). Despite having an aerial mountain of unpainted aircraft I was really pleased to get these for a number of reasons. Firstly, the FW190 is a very good aircraft and in all the aerial wargames I have played it is, quite rightly, a formidable opponent. Secondly, it just looks menacing, in the same way a Tiger tank does.

With the model in the same paint scheme as the picture above (minus the markings already noted) I figured that some research was in order and I was delighted to find out that the FW190 served very effectively in North Africa - both as a fighter and as a fighter-bomber. The aircraft was deployed from November 42 to May 43 and was in action against American, British and French aircraft over Tunisia.

A result of this research has made a decision for me in that I am going to paint all of my German fighters in a tropical desert scheme - Bf109 Es through to G and also the redoubtable FW 190.

When I get a chance that is....;-)

2 comments:

Robert (Bob) Cordery said...

David,

Hope you feel better soon ... although the new aircraft sound as if they have raised your spirits somewhat.

All the best,

Bob

David Crook said...

Hi Bob,

I thought I had swerved the dreaded lurgy for the season but sadly it was not to be. I can cope with it once the 'head-full-of-cotton-wool' phase has passed and we are getting to the weekend - with nothing planned as well which is an immense relief!

Very pleased with the aircraft and the collection is fairly close to completion based on the currently available models.

All the best,

DC