March 2019 Warbirds Release (1 Viewer)

[Gunn Miniatures]

WOW225; The Hawker Sea Fury was a British fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by Hawker Aircraft. It was the last propeller-driven fighter to serve with the Royal Navy, and one of the fastest production single reciprocating engine aircraft ever built. Developed during the Second World War, the Sea Fury entered service two years after the war ended. It proved to be a popular aircraft with a number of overseas militaries, and was used during the Korean War in the early 1950s, as well as against the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba.


The Sea Fury's development was formally initiated in 1943 in response to a wartime requirement of the RAF, thus the aircraft was initially named Fury. As the Second World War drew to a close, the RAF cancelled their order for the aircraft; however, the Royal Navy saw the type as a suitable carrier aircraft to replace a range of increasingly obsolete or poorly suited aircraft being operated by the Fleet Air Arm. Development of the Sea Fury proceeded, and the type began entering operational service in 1947.

The Sea Fury has many design similarities to Hawker's preceding Tempest fighter, having originated from a requirement for a "Light Tempest Fighter"; both the Sea Fury's wings and fuselage originate from the Tempest but were significantly modified. Production Sea Furies were fitted with the powerful Bristol Centaurus aircraft, the definitive Sea Fury FB 11 was a fighter-bomber, the design having been found suitable for this mission as well.

The Sea Fury attracted international orders as both a carrier and land-based aircraft; it was operated by countries including Australia, Burma, Canada, Cuba, Egypt, West Germany, Iraq, and Pakistan. The type acquitted itself well in the Korean War, fighting effectively even against the MiG-15 jet fighter as the story below shows.
In 1952, the first Chinese MiG-15 jet fighters appeared in Korea. On 8 August 1952, Lieutenant Peter "Hoagy" Carmichael, of 802 Squadron, flying Sea Fury WJ232 from HMS Ocean, shot a MiG-15 down, making him one of only a few pilots of a propeller-driven aircraft to shoot down a jet aircaft. The engagement occurred when a formation of Sea Furies and Fireflies was engaged by eight MiG-15s, during which one Firefly was badly damaged while the Sea Furies escaped unharmed. Some sources claim that this is the only successful engagement by a British pilot in a British aircraft during the Korean War, although a few sources claim a second MiG was downed or damaged in the same action. In addition, the recollections of Sub-Lieutenant Brian "Schmoo" Ellis, who flew on this operation, differ from the official version of events.
Our model represents the model flown by Lt Carmichael during that very famous encounter with the MIG-15.

We have five 1/30 scale models available priced at $499 plus $100 shipping. Figures shown are for scale illustration purposes only.













That's all for this month for our aircraft, we sincerely hope you enjoy the pictures and would love to hear from you if any of these magnificent models appeal to you. They are all now on our website www.tomgunn.co.uk and can be paid for upfront or over an extended monthly period. All Gunn Club members qualify for a 10% discount on the website listed price, joining is free so well worth registering.

Best wishes The Gunn Team

 

[Gunn Miniatures]

Heinkel UHU
WOW234; The Heinkel He 219 Uhu was a two seater night fighter that served with the Luftwaffe during the latter stages of WW2, it first flew in November 1942 and entered service in 1943. A relatively sophisticated design, the He 219 possessed a variety of innovations, including Lichenstein SN-2 advanced VHF-band intercept radar, which was also used on the Me 110 and Junkers Ju88 night fighters. It was also the first operational military aircraft to be equipped with ejection seats and the first operational German World War II-era aircraft with tricycle landing gear.
Had the Uhu been available in quantity, it might have had a significant effect on the bombing offensive of the RAF; however, only 294 of all models were built by the end of the war and these saw only limited service
The He 219 was the only piston engine night fighter capable of facing the British Mosquito on equal terms, given its speed, manoeuvrability and firepower, but it never played a significant role in the war because German industry failed to make it available in sufficient numbers. We have 10 x 1/32 scale Uhu available at present and they are priced at $899 plus $150 postage. Model dimensions are approximately 50cm long and 60cm wingspan excluding radar which is detachable.

 

[Gunn Miniatures]

CR.42 Falco
WOW220; The Fiat CR.42 Falco was a single-seat sesquiplane fighter developed and produced by Italian aircraft manufacturer Fiat Aviazione. It served primarily in Italy's Regia Aeronautica both before and during the Second World War.

The CR.42 was an evolutionary design of Fiat’s earlier CR.32 fighter, featuring a more powerful supercharged Fiat A.74R1C.38 air-cooled radial engine and aerodynamic improvements to its relatively clean exterior surfaces. The aircraft proved to be relatively agile in flight, a factor that had been attributed to its very low wing loading and a sometimes decisive tactical advantage. RAF Intelligence praised its exceptional maneuverability, further noting that "the plane was immensely strong", though it was technically outclassed by faster, more heavily armed monoplanes. While primarily used as a fighter, various other roles were adopted for some variants of the type, such as the CR.42N dedicated night fighter model, the CR.42AS ground attack aircraft, and the CR.42B Biposto twin-seat trainer aircraft.
The Fiat Falco was an extremely manoeuvrable biplane that could quite easily evade a faster mono wing aircraft depending on the pilots skill. However it was hampered by a lack of heavy armament and lacked a radio.
Fiat Falco's served in the Mediterranean, East Africa, Malta and also against the UK during the Battle of Britain. Our Falco CR.42 is one from 18° Gruppo, 56° Stormo that crash landed near Lowestoft, Suffolk on 11 November 1940. The pilot successfully evaded three British aircraft, but was forced down by a malfunction in the aircraft engine. Like a lot of our Italian aircraft this one comes in a very exotic colour scheme which took many hours for our painters to perfect.
We have a limited edition of five 1/30 scale models available at $499 plus $100 postage for customers in America and Australia. For UK and Europe please contact us for a more bespoke postage quote.

 

[Gunn Miniatures]

Phonix Fighter
WOW213: The Phonix D1/11/111 were a series of Austro Hungarian fighters used by the country to great effect during WW1. Our fighter is one flown by Feldwebel Alexander Sándor) Kasza who was born in 1896 in the Hungarian town of Tacskosuthfalva, today’s Stara Moravica in Vojvodina, which is part of northern Serbia. He was called up to join the 86th Infantry Regiment in 1915, but in September of that year he transferred to the air force and completed his pilot training in Germany. Kasza was considered a very good pilot and he served for some time as an instructor at Wiener Neustadt.
However, in August 1917 he was posted to the Italian Front at Haidenschaftban with Fliegerkompanie (Flik) 55J. He scored his first victory on November 15, when he shot down an Italian Savoia-Pomilio. Another two followed before the end of 1917 and in 1918 Kasza became the wing-man of Austro-Hungarian ace Joseph Kiss, until Kiss was shot down by Lieutenant Gerald Birks of No. 66 Squadron on May 24 1918. Kasza survived the war with six victories, but was killed with his family during the Soviet bombardment of Budapest in 1945.

This limited edition hand carved Mahogany 1/30 scale model is priced at $399 plus $100 postage and comes with free figure GW076 or similar, we have 4 samples left available here in stock.

 

[Gunn Miniatures]

Dear all welcome to our March Aircraft newsletter featuring some exciting new products. All our hand carved Mahogany aircraft take in the region of 60 hours to manufacture plus many hours of drying time. Some of the aircraft you see in our newsletters can take 3 years from start of project to completion! For this reason we only make small numbers of each model and every aircraft is a unique piece. For those of you who wish to spread your budget, please note we do accept stage payments where you can spread the cost over several months. If you require further details of any of the aircraft in todays newsletter please email us on welcome@gunnclub.co.uk.