**** DONE: Kittyhawk Mk III James F. "Eddie" Edwards RCAF - Aircraft of the Aces GB.

[Crimea_River]

Username: Crimea River
First name: Andy
Category: Judge – Non competing
Scale: 1/48
Manufacturer: Hasegawa
Model Type: Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk Mk III
Aftermarket addons: Eduard Belts, and cockpit detail set
Decals: Iffy - May need to make them

For this build, I will attempt to depict Kitthawk Mk III coded HS-B s/n FR350 flown by James F. "Eddie" (as he was known at the time) Edwards while he was with 260 Squadron in the Western Desert Air Force. FR350 was Eddie's personal mount for many of his kills with 260 Squadron. Shown below are some pics of HS-B as they appear in "Kittyhawks Over the Sands - The Canadians and RCAF Americans" by Lavigne and Edwards, which is an excellent account of the air campaign in the desert.




HS-B is in the foreground in the next 2 pics:



The kit I'll use (if and when it arrives!) will be the Hasegawa kit shown below. Decals will be an issue as I have not seen any for this scheme that are still available. I've resigned myself to the likelihood of making my own or painting them.



From Wiki:



Flight Sergeant Edwards was posted to 94 Squadron RAF of 223 Wing in January 1942 flying the P-40 "Kittyhawk". On March 23, he flew his first operational trip, during which he shot down his first enemy aircraft, a Bf-109. In May, he was posted to 260 Squadron, and saw intensive action for the rest of 1942. By September, he had 6 "kills" and was commissioned. A Distinguished Flying Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross were awarded by the start of 1943, by which time Edwards was a Flight Commander. His tour finished in May 1943, total claims made being 13 (some say 14+1 shared ?) aircraft shot down and several ground kills. One of Edward's victims during the North African campaign was famous Luftwaffe experten Otto Schulz (51 victories), who was shot down by the Canadian ace on June 17, 1942.

In November 1943, he was posted to No. 417 Squadron RCAF, then No. 92 Squadron RAF, flying the Supermarine Spitfire VIII; while serving on the Italian front with 92 Squadron, he added 3 FW-190 and a Bf 109 to his score, all shot down over the Anzio beachhead, three of them on a single day. At the beginning of March 1944, he was posted to the UK, flying operations over Europe with 274 Squadron, a fighter unit equipped, at the end of Edward's tour, with the Hawker Tempest.

After leave in Canada, Edwards returned to the Western Front, flying Spitfire XVI's as 127 RCAF Wing CO in 1945. On May 3, he shared in the destruction of a Ju-88, just a few days before VE. He finished the war with a total of 373 operational sorties, during which no enemy pilot ever succeeded in shooting him down.

According to Shores and Williams's Aces High, his final wartime score was 15 + 3 shared destroyed, with 9 more destroyed on the ground. Brown and Lavigne's Canadian Wing Commander credits him with 19 victories, 2 shared, 6.5 probable, 17 damaged and 12 destroyed on the ground. During an interview, Edwards himself specified that he had 19 confirmed victories during the war. (The transcript of this interview can be found on the site of Veterans Affairs Canada.) Many who flew with him have said that he only reported those "kills" he was certain of and that his real number of aerial victories was probably much higher than officially reported. 18 of Edwards' 19 victories, according to Brown and Lavigne, were enemy fighters (14 Bf-109s, 3 FW-190s and one Macchi 202).

[After the war,] Edwards stayed in the RCAF until after amalgamtion and retired from the Canadian Forces in 1972 as a Lt Col. In that time, he flew Vampires, Sabres and CF-100s both in Canada and overseas. Edwards was a key player in the post war air force as his experience and leadership was used to train new pilots.

In 1983 he and Michel Lavigne published a book about his wartime experiences entitled Kittyhawk pilot: Wing commander J.F. (Stocky) Edwards.

To commemorate his achievements, Vintage Wings of Canada has decorated their P-40N in the markings flown by "Stocky" in Africa. On September 19, 2009, Vintage Wings took him for a flight over Ottawa in this P-40 giving him a chance to fly it as well.

Also in 2009, Edwards was honoured as one of the 100 most influential Canadians in aviation and had his name included with the others on the 2009 CF-18 Centennial of Flight demonstration Hornet.

From Lavigne, a page showing Eddie's most productive period in which he downed 6 aircraft between March 29 and April 22, 1943.



Here's a pic of "Stocky" in the Vintage Wings of Canada P-40N painted up in the scheme of his Mk III Kittyhawk HS-B. Apparently he took it into the air - age 88!

[imalko]

Great choice and background info Andy.

[Vic Balshaw]

Top choice Andy and good background info.

[Wayne Little]

good stuff Andy! look forward to it!

[rochie]

nice one Andy, want to do a desert P-40 at some point !

[Wurger]

[N4521U]

Good one. Anxious to see it underway!

[Airframes]

Nice choice and good info Andy. Your chance to make a 'dusty' model !

[Crimea_River]

Thanks everyone. Karl, like you, I wanted to do a desert themed model for some time and decided this was my chance. I might have preferred one from the 112 "Sharks" Squadron as Eddie's plane is quite bland. However, I wanted to have an RCAF subject (to counter all the Aussie's that will no doubt proliferate this build!) and I think there was only one Canadian ace with 112, (F/L Robert R. Smith) but he did not have a personal aircraft as far as I could tell.

Terry, yes, I will want to dust this one up and will be looking for some tips on that. Also will need to research cockpit colours a bit. In the second pic in my post, I noted the much lighter shade behind the rear glazing on HS-B vs -V and -X on either side of it. I'll be looking at other builds by Glenn, Peter, and Wayne for some tips.

By the way, I changed the after market add on description as I remembered afterwards that I ordered the Eduard colour cockpit set along with the kit - Duh!

[pbfoot]

found these a while ago on the vintage wings site before they changed format there is another RCAF P40 guy who got at leasst 1 Italian,German, and Japanese
‪Stocky Edwards Visiting Vintage Wings (Part 2 of 2)‬‏ - YouTube
‪Stocky Edwards Visiting Vintage Wings (Part 1 of 2)‬‏ - YouTube

[vikingBerserker]

Excellent Andy!

[Crimea_River]

Thanks for the links Neil. Fascinating to hear him speak with such clarity of mind. I believe that was in 2009 when he was 88 and that he's still living now, age 90, in Comox, BC.

[T Bolt]

Cool pick Andy!
I'm not up on the Kittyhawk numeral designations like I know the P-40 models, but even though both the picture and the kit are called out as Kittyhawk IIIs, the plane in the picture is equal to an early model short fuselage P-40K, and the kit is the equal to a P-40M.
The kit could be converted with some surgery. The main difference is that the P-40K has the shorter fuselage and a tail that was slightly larger in cord with a fillet. The only other visible difference is that the kit will have a vent on either side of the nose just behind the spinner that needs to be filled in.

[Wildcat]

A fine choice Andy! P-40's rock

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Andy.

Glenn, I specifically chose that kit because it's supposed to come with the filleted tail despite the box art. This fooled me once already and I hope "I won't get fooled again..."