José Silva from Portugal enjoys building Allied aircraft as flown by the Luftwaffe. Here is what he has to say about his most recent model

"This scale model represents North American P-51 B (T9+HK) made from an AIRFIX 1/72, straight from the box! The paint used were Humbrol Enamels, the wings junction with the fuselage need some putty. The decals were from various sources.

Here is a brief piece of background history.

In Germany, every American fighters were assigned to 2.Staffel of Versuchsverband oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe also known as Beute-Zirkus Rosarious. (Rosarious flying circus) after the commander of the 2.Staffel, Ted Rosarious.

The unit had three staffeln:

• 1.Staffel was involved in long range reconnaissance missions.

• 2.Staffel operated captured allied fighter in training roles.

• 3.Staffel carried out experimental and test flights with captured material.

The role of this unit (2.Staffel) was to "educate" units of the western front: The training programs both theoretical and practice, would begin with introduction to the aircraft armament, performance and weak spots of each type. And then would continue with "mock-up" combats, with experienced instructors in the commands of the allied captured aircraft, giving information and explaining during these "mock-up" combats on how to do a successful attack on these aircraft.

The N.A. P-51B T9+HK was used to train Hungarian Fighter Pilots at Neuruppin on how to use their FW190's to take advantage against a P-51. They made journeys to several units providing training on site.

While at the those bases, the most experienced pilots were given the opportunity of flying these Mustangs. To keep these two P-51B sand four P-51Ds in flying conditions, it was maintained a storage depot at Paris-Nanterre for every salvaged parts from wrecked Mustangs downed in the occupied Europe and as need they were sent to Germany to the 2.Staffel "Zirkus".

José has also sent along another of his models. This time it is the PM models of the Sukhoi Su-21 Flagon (1/72)