This is Fox One: Outstadning!

Finally the sun came out over the Gilbert Islands. After a tropical hurricane and heavy rains, the weather improved and flights resumed. After a short briefing, where the group commander known under the nickname "The Old Guy" presents the mission objective: Date 26 January 1944. Maleolap Atoll. cover for long-range bombers B-25. It's Something New, because mostly everyone flew to sweep with suspended bombs. But no ... Mechnaics only attach drop-off fuel tanks and load half-inch Brownings in the wings ... Low altitude flight, about 10,000 feet in three expansions in a staggered formation, to protect each other ... Predicted enemy inactivity in the air. .. At the airfield, you can still see the chaos of a tropical hurricane, a platoon of sappers tidying up fallen palm trees and torn tropics of field tents. After a while, Allison's engines play at high speed and the entire formation is in the air within four minutes. The flight over the ocean seems boring ... But as the bombers drop their payload into enemy positions, someone from the top cover squadron shouts: Zero, 11 o'clock! The lowest flying squadron quickly dodges, making a converging half-barrel maneuver, but the zeros at full throttle fly towards the bombers. their emerald-green hulls blend with the color of the ocean after a while. Didn't they see the cover? Impossible! thinks Lieutenant Lis, setting the throttle to full throttle while shouting into the microphone: Fox One to Red Pant's one! We attack from the sun ... I repeat! don't get into dogfight! The squadron instantly hits the barrel to starboard and with the advantage of speed and altitude collapses on a loose formation of a dozen zeros, shelling the boomer formation ... Anti-aircraft artillery also fired, as if awakened from post-hurricane lethargy, leaving dark clouds from missile explosions in the crystal blue sky ...
This is Lieutenant Lis ... Everyone takes one and we splash into the clouds ...
The speedometer needle vibrates at 350 mph ...
Green points grow ...
They don't really see us! He said to himself, unlocking his machine guns and sliding his goggles down over his eyes, staring at the sight where the silhouette of the Japanese fighter rose ... The index finger slips on the trigger of the rifles, waiting for an opportunity ... Zero ran through a long series of bomber formation, without visible result and was placed gently on the port in a slight turn.
The good forty jumped and the speed dropped somewhere by thirty miles ... the burst could have lasted maybe three or four seconds, you could see the trailing bullets in a gentle arc chase the enemy plane and suddenly zero turned into a roaring fireball rolling across the sky. Mother, how simple it is ... thought Lieutenant, Lis watching the falling debris of the enemy fighter ... He picked up the nose of the machine and began to rise towards the blinding sun so as not to be surprised by some Japanese marauders. But there was silence all around ... The zeros disappeared in the clouds as if by a magic wand as suddenly as they appeared. He was so excited that he forgot to give orders to his formation ... Finally, the winger woke him from lethargy:
This is Red Pants One! I have one!
Fox One I have one too! Fever shouted back feverishly. Only now did he look for the bombshells. They were complete, one could see a puff of smoke from one, but it stayed in formation. Successive flights came in one by one. Four zeros at sea, own losses of one damaged bomber ...
Oustanding! Let You case of beer for that! It was said the smug Fox ...
We're going home ...
If tents could be called home on a thousand miles distant coral island lost in the Pacific ... The real home was so far away that no one even thought of it ...
https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/P-40/15FG.html
A few words about the plane. The P-40 N, belonging to the 15FG of 45 FG, was stationed on the Gilbert Islands. The unit was mainly used to attack ground targets, but on January 26, 1944 it encountered a hostile formation of zero fighters attacking the bombers they were supporting. Lieutenant Dwight R Bob Butler, flying on the P-40N-5 42-105109 machine, shot down one enemy fighter.
It was really fun build! I think P-40 Kit from Special Hobby is the best on the market. I used a little putty (only Liquid Mr Dissolved Putty). Kit gives a lot of options, and many details. I used also aftermarket wheels and seatbelts. Wheels in the kit are very common, nad if you like to spednd extra money for extra parts, set of CMK wheels are for you 🙂 I used Mr Color C44 Tan and C314 Sky Bule Paint, and finished it by two coats of X-22, and one of X-35. Radio wire was from Ammo Mig 0,03 elastic line.
It was a very informative build, and with one Special Hobby model behind me and a total of two P-40s on my account, it was really fun to build, avoiding mistakes. Even the canopy fitted in this version quite decently. The only thing I regret is that there was no P-40 wing bomb set on the market ... Maybe someday they will come up with something 🙂
Lieutenant Lis will return with another chilling model 🙂 PS. Today, for the first time in many days, the weather was nice, but the sharp sun, almost like in the Pacific, made the pictures look special. Hope you like them 🙂

PS. My friend Ryan from Canada said that in Air Ride in 27 January 1944 252 Ku on Maloelap lost three pilots: WO Yoshiaki Hatakeyama, PO1c Shiro Tsukahara, andPO1c Toshio Komiya.
So my story was made up, and it almost fitted into the historical truth 🙂
He suggested that the probable ones could fly the early A6M5 model with tail codes of 52-101, 52-102, 52-103 and 52-104, which was stationed on the atoll in the number of 4 machines. Also 22 A6M2 and 31 A6M3 mod.22, but only about 50% was ready to use rest under repair.

16 additional images. Click to enlarge.