Enter The Dragon! Chinese Air Force of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War

 

 

 

       Badly outnumbered, poorly supplied, and frequently forced to respond to Japanese actions rather than being able to take the initiative the Nationalist Chinese Air Force put up a dogged resistance throughout the Second Sino-Japanese War.  The Chinese did not have an indigenous aircraft industry to speak of and were forced to buy foreign designs to try to keep up with Japanese aircraft developments. A production facility was set up at Hangzhou Air Base which assembled Curtiss fighters built under license along with a few other foreign designs. Attrition during the first year of the war left the Chinese with a depleted air force that was dangerously weak. The Soviet union stepped in beginning in August 1937 sending hundreds of aircraft and dozens of "volunteers". This Soviet contingent represented the main strength of the Chinese air force until the Spring of 1941 when the U.S. included China in the Land-Lease program. After Pearl Harbor the flood-gates of supply were opened but the U.S. often sent the "second-string" aircraft to the Chinese. There is a good overview of the aerial  conflict on Wikipedia.  

       My collection of Chinese fighters reflects the chaotic situation that the Chinese found themselves in at the beginning of the war. It will continue to expand as I obtain more models (I already have some Russian models in the pipeline) .

 

 

Fiat CR-32, nimble and rugged it was well-liked by its pilots

 but was difficult to maintain and fuel

 

the Chinese got between 16 and 24 of these

 

Gloster Gladiator, the Chinese obtained 36 of these rugged aircraft 

and rearmed them with Browning 30cal m.g.s

 

 

 

I have already posted about the P-26 and Curtiss Hawk II  

both of these kits are from the Revell series from the 1960s but are nicely detailed and a dream to build

 

all that remains are a dozen different types of bombers and recon aircraft

 and a whole bunch of Russian stuff

 

 

imagine the quartermaster's nightmare that this force would be!

 

a "brother-from-another-mother" snuck into the group photo;

the P-35 was a bit of a dog but we never sent them to China

 

the Veeday kit is a pretty rough model but the excellent decals saved the look

 

I have a few more to build, at one point this was our main front-line fighter!

 

 

The Russian force will include I-15s, I-53s and I-16s and maybe an R-5 and a TB-3. But with this latest group I can start on the Sino-Japanese conflict that preceded the Nomonhan Incident.