Algerian MiG-15bis

This is the new version of the Airfix 1/72 MiG-15, one of the first Hornby Airfix kits to be released. Much has been written about the somewhat deep and wide panel lines, but it is still a joy to build. In 1962 Algeria received five MiG-15UTI trainers as a gift from Egypt following the Algerian independence from France. The Algerian air force subsequently operated 20 MiG-15bis fighters.

U-1, a U-Boot typ IIA built in 1935

German submarine U-1 was the first submarine built for the Kriegsmarine. She was a type IIA U-boot, and she was built at the Deutsche Werke shipyards in Kiel, being laid down on February 11, 1935 and completed on June 29, 1935. Her crews were initially trained in the Netherlands.

Her pre-war service was unremarkable, and she did gain a reputation as a poor ship. Her rapid construction, combined with the inadequacy of the technology which was used to create her, made her uncomfortable, leaky and slow. When war came, there were already plans to shelve her and her immediate sisters of the Type II class for use as training boats only.

Owing to a shortage of available units she sailed on March 29, 1940 against British shipping operating off Norway, close to the limit of her effective operating range. She failed to find a target, but was sent out again on April 4 in preparation for Operation Weserübung (the invasion of Norway and Denmark).

U-1 sent a brief radio signal on 6 April, giving her position before she disappeared. The cause of her loss is unknown, but she was scheduled to sail through a minefield laid unbeknownst to the Germans by the British submarine Narwhal that same day. U-1 may have also been sunk by the British submarine Porpoise, which reported launching a torpedo at an unidentified enemy submarine subsequently thought to be U-3 on April 16 following the invasion. She was the first of over 1,000 U-boats to serve during the Battle of the Atlantic and one of over 700 to be lost at sea (Wikipedia)

The kit is the 1/400 Mirage kit, and it is detailed with the Mirage photo-etch. A simple and pleasant build that will conveniently fit in even a studio-sized apartment.

U-826

The U-826 was ordered on June 8, 1942, laid down on August 6, 1943, and launched in Danzig on March 9, 1944. It was commissioned on May 11, 1944, and commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Olaf Lübcke. The U-boat was part of the 8. Flottile, a training unit, between May 11, 1944, and December 31 that same year, after which it was attached to the 11. Flottille as a front boat. U-826 conducted one four-day training criose between Kiel and Horten before sailing on its one and only war patrol that lasted for 64 days between March 9 and May 11, 1945, when the U-826 surrendered to the Royal Navy. Lübcke did not sink any ships, but he and his crew survived the war. It seems reasonable to assume that the Schnorkel may have helped them. The kit is the Mirage Type VII with snorkel, and the Mirage photo-etch was added to the kit.

 Oberleutnant zur See Olaf Lübcke

Polikarpov I-16

The ubiquitous Polikarpov I-16 was usually seen in green livery, but some were painted in AEh-9 light gray with black AEh-11 cowlings during the pre-war period. The spinners were usually painted white, although there were cases of spinners being painted black as well. A scratch-built camera has been added to the underside of the starboard wing, and such fast reconnaissance versions of the I-16 type 10, 18, 24 and 28 were used during the early phases of the war on the Eastern Front. Such aircraft did retain their armament of four ShKAS 7.62mm machine guns, and the latter types may have retained their cannon armament.

The kit is the Hasegawa I-16 type 18, which is an easy build. The figures, decals and oil drum is from the spares box, and since this is supposed to be a reconnaissance aircraft assigned to a higher headquarters, it is mounted on a concrete tarmac instead of a grass airstrip.