gen. Joseph John Kruzel's P-40E

This time the article will not be long or colorful with fictionalized stories. As for the history of the fights, I do not intend to compete with the knowledge of Tom Cleaver (I hope @tcinla write some more informations) 🙂 I just wanted to add that our hero Joseph John Kruzel joined the 49th US Army Pursuit Group straight from the Philippines, from where he evacuated from Mindanao. Unfortunately I do not know how he got to Australia, but Tom Cleaver wrote that he got from Luzon to Mindanao using an old P-35A with his colleague Lt. Thomas J.J. Christian in the hold. Anyway, in Australia John Kruezel became the commander of the Green Dragons Flight, 9 squadron called "Flying Knights." His wingman was lt. George Preddy, who later became a fighter ace from operations in Europe, where he flew the P-51 B and D. John Kruezel had one aerial victory shooting down the A6M2 Zero and 175 hours of Combat Missions. Later in Europe, flying P-51s in the 361st Fighter Group, he shot down four enemy aircraft, becoming a Fighter Ace. He was decorated with many medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Silver Star. After the war, he achieved the rank of major general, holding many important positions in aviation. Kruezel died in 1995. A few words about the model. The Special Hobby set is an extremely advanced model that has many parts, also for versions of the model other than my E version. The rich cockpit, the possibility of an open cabin are undeniable advantages of the set. It was very fun to assemble the model, although the very rich cockpit needed special attention when assembling the fuselage (and a few gray hairs). Likewise, the glycol cooler, which seemed a bit too big and you had to sweat a bit to stuff it in the lower part of the front of the fuselage. The model has an interesting solution, where the cockpit floor is, as in the original, the upper part of the wings and the fuselage halves are placed over it. The fit of the fuselage to the wings was decent. I used a small amount of liquid putty. Much more putty went to fit the fuselage halves to each other. A moderately efficient solution is to install the lower position lamp from the center of the wings, before gluing them together. Noteworthy are the very nicely fitting parts of the main landing gear, as well as the exceptionally well-calibrated tail wheel. The model was painted with Mr Color OD / NG paints. I really like this combination of colors, complemented by the distinctive tone of Interior Green. I used a simple preshadeing by applying a gray primer with a areograph on selected elements, painted with a black primer. The surfaces were polished with Tamiya paste. From the parts outside the set, I used only Eduard photo-etched belts, Eduard Masks, a dedicated CMK wheel set with a tread, and a set of sight and front sight from the remaining PE parts. The Ammo Mig for radio link. Weathering Wash Modeler's World and Tamiya Weathering Master Set were supplemented. Also set of DK-Decals from Czech Rep. I hope you will like the photos. I made them today when the sun came out for a moment on that cloudy Sunday.

https://www.americanairmuseum.com/person/134490

Lieutenant Fox will be back with a new model coming soon! 🙂

PS. For me to forget. In the construction thread, the issue of red dots in the markings of the plane became a controversial issue. Apparently, they shouldn't be like Tom Cleaver wrote. By the time I found out, the decals were ready - and as suggested by the DK-Decals manufacturer, red dots were applied, I left it unchanged.

15 additional images. Click to enlarge.