Bell P39 Airacobra Aleksandr Ivanovitch Pokryshkin, 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, GFAR, 1943

The Bell P-39 Airacobra was manufactured by the United States between 1940 and 1944 and proved to be one of the most successful fixed ?wing plane produced by Bell Aircraft. It was the principal American fighter aircraft in services when the US entered WWII and by the time it ceased production, just over 9.500 had been rolled out. Its other prime user was the Soviet Air Force in which they scored the highest number of individual kills attributed to any US fighter type. The Soviets used the Airacobra primarily for air-to-air combat against a variety of German aircraft. Their successful group aerial fighting tactics based on comparatively low speed, low altitude combat suited the Bell fighter with its sturdy construction, reliable radio gear and adequate fire power. The Soviet Air Force had particular success during the Battle of Kuban in Southern Russia in 1943, where they relied on the P-39 more than even the P-40 or Spitfires. Our model is based on the aircraft as flown by a Russian fighter ace Captain Aleksandr Ivanovitch Pokryshkin, who was the Commander of the 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (GFAR). In his P-39, he claimed 20 victories in that campaign. A top Soviet ace and highly decorated in WWII, he survived the war and died in 1985. Painted with a dark green upper body with two black walkways on either side of the cockpit and grey underside, our 1:72 scale P-39 carries the Soviet Air Force markings on the upper and lower wings and along the fuselage. Even the vast number of ?kills' are printed in red on the port side in front of the cockpit, while the aircraft numbering appears on both the fuselage and the tail fin in white and yellow respectively. Propeller blades and gun barrels are black, propeller tips yellow, propeller spinner and tail fin red and a finishing touch to the model sees a ?rusty' brown exhaust.