Curtiss H-75 'Foreign Pilots' (2in1)
Curtiss H-75 'Foreign Pilots' (2in1)
Two injection-moulded kits are supplied in this box and each kit contains 30 parts and four clear parts (the cockpit canopy, rear windows and a landing light). A comprehensive decal sheet is included.
Colour schemes included in the kit:
1) Curtiss-Hawk H-75A-2, No.125 (U025), White 8, 1st Escadrille, GC I/5, French Air Force (Armae de laAir), Saint-Dizier airfield, France, June 1940
2) Curtiss-Hawk H-75A-2, No.183 (U083), Red & White Chequera, SNCAC Factory Protection Flight (Patrouille DAT), French Air Force (Armae de laAir), Bourges airfield, France, May 1940
Curtiss-Hawk H-75A-2, No.183 (U083), Red & White Chequera, Vichy French Air Force (Armae de laAir de Vichy), Oran-La-Sania airfield, Algeria, North Africa, summer 1940
3) Curtiss-Hawk H-75A-2, CU-580 (ex-French No.167), Yellow 0, 1/LeLv 32 (Fighter Sq.), Finnish Air Force (Ilmavoimat), Nurmoila airfield, Finland, autumn 1943
4) Curtiss-Hawk H-75A-1, Jagdfliegerschule 1 (JFS 1) Fighter Training School, Luftwaffe, Werneuchen airfield, Germany, spring 1941
| Ref. No.: | MKM144067 |
Curtiss H-75 'Foreign Pilots' (2in1)
Curtiss H-75 Foreign Pilotsa (2in1 = 2 kits in 1 box) (French AF, Vichy French AF, Finnish AF, Luftwaffe)
The Curtiss-Hawk H-75 was the export version of the American P-36 Hawk (Curtiss Model 75) fighter of the mid-1930s. The French took delivery of some 330 aircraft, designated the H-75A-1, A-2 and A-3, with the first planes entering service in the spring of 1939. They were modified for French Air Force usage and fitted with different equipment and armament.
The H-75 was a single-seat, all-metal low-wing monoplane with fabric-covered control surfaces. It had a retractable undercarriage with the main landing gear rotated 90a to fold flat into the wing. Powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp two-row radial engine, it was fitted with Curtiss Electric propeller. The H-75as armament consisted of two machine guns in the nose, and another one (all H-75A-1s and 40 early H-75A-2s) or two guns in each wing (H-75A-3). A small bomb carrier was also mounted under each outer part of the wing.
The Curtiss-Hawk H-75 was used most extensively by the French Armae de laAir during the Battle of France and continued in service with the Vichy French after the Armistice.
A number of ex-French aircraft were seized by Germans, some of them were used by the Luftwaffe for pilot training and eventually many sold to Finland, which extensively used them against Soviet forces.
