Just rolled this one off the production line. Its Tamiya’s excellent 1/48 Dewoitine D.520 kit. This is the first modern Tamiya I’ve built since coming back into the hobby, and I can see what all the hype is about. Engineering was excellent all around. The only filler I used was at the rear of the lower wing/fuselage joint, and just a touch on the top of the cowling. The decals were something of a disappointment. Some laid down really well with setting solution, others less so. I seem to have this problem often, though, so its probably just me.
I modeled this kit after D.520 No. 277 of French ace Pierre Le Gloan. Brief history lesson from Wilkipedia and several D.520 references: Le Gloan was credited with shooting down 4 German and 7 Italian aircraft before the armistice. At the time of the armistice, his squadron was transfered to North Africa where his Dewoitine recieved the long white horizontal stripe, the initial markings of the Vichy air forces. Later, the squadron was transfered to Lebanon to “guard French interests” and in a twist of fate, battled the British forces there. Le Gloan ended up being credited with 7 victories against the British, thus making him an ace for both sides! Prior to the Lebanon deployment, all the squadrons Dewoitines were painted with a yellow tail and spinner, which is the variation I chose to model here. There is a series of interesting color photos shot by a German officer during the units stopover in Greece while on its way to Lebanon. No. 277 can barely be made out in one of the photos at the end of a line of yellow tailed D.520s. It was in Lebanon that Le Gloan and No. 277 were shot down by British Gladiators, of all things. He crash landed safely, but I couldn’t find out if No. 277 was salvaged or not. After moving back to North Africa, Le Gloans squadron finally came back to the side of good and right and switched back to the Allies, where they were reequiped with P-39s to replace their tired D.520s (hardly a move up!). Le Gloan was killed though, like several other famous aces, by his own airplane. His P-39s engine quit, and his aircraft exploded while attempting to belly land. He either couldn’t drop the belly tank or forgot to and it cost him his life.
Sorry for rambling, but the history behind the aircraft is one of the reasons I enjoy this hobby so much. Comments are always welcome.
