Bell P-400 Airacobra "The Resurrection" 67th FS, Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, summer 1942

The Bell Model 14, briefly named Caribou, was an export variant of the P-39 developed for teh RAF. It was equipped with a V-1710-E4 (1,150 hp/858 kW) engine, 1 × 20 mm (.79 in) Hispano-Suiza cannon with 60 rounds & 2 × Browning 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns were mounted nose and 4 x Browning 0.303 in (7.7 mm) machine guns in the wings. The United States requisitioned 200 of the aircraft being manufactured for the UK, adopting them as P-400s (named for the advertised top speed of 400 mph (644 km/h)).

When the US entered the war, she was pretty desperate for fighters. So the cargo ship Athenia, bound for Russia with a load of crated up P-400’s was diverted to Guadalcanal. The mechanics and pilots of the 67th FS received an unwelcome surprise on receipt of these, for when they started unpacking the crates, they found the little Bell aircraft instead of the P-40 Warhawks they had trained in and worked on in the States, and no instructions on how to put them together. But put them together they did, under wretched conditions. They didn’t know if they would fly, each one was a puzzle, each one had character. Some had radios, none had oxygen equipment, but they did fly and they were used as best they could be. Since spare parts were hard to come by, the mechanics scrounged and salvaged every part they could from wrecked airframes.

From the book “Lightning Strike” by Donald A. Davis, “Since there were so few P-400’s in service, every cannibalized part could keep another plane flying. The favorite P-400 on the island was a battered craft that had skidded to a halt one day after landing on its belly because its wheels collapsed. It came to a rest with a wing crumpled and the propeller bent, making it an open source for spare parts. However, the need for flyable aircraft was so great that mechanics nursed it back to health. One wing was U.S. Army olive green and the other was British camouflage. Instruments were plugged into gapping holes in the cockpit panel. The three-bladed propeller contained two blades from one wrecked plane and one blade form another; it was balanced by pouring lead in until it spun almost correctly. The aircraft took on a strange personality all its own and would outlast every other plane in the squadron. It was proudly christened The Resurrection.”

"The Resurrection" caught my attention, but with no other information but a mention in a book, and the interpretation by a plastic model builder, I had my work cut out for me, so general research began.



The planes carried factory-applied camouflage to British standards with RAF insignia, although research provided evidence that the planes were not finished in RAF colors but by US paint equivalents. The US star insignia were superimposed over RAF roundels without any visible remnants of the latter. The fuselage insignia application were apparently done while the plane was jacks with the gear retracted causing the stars be parallel to the ground rather than to the level of flight, creating a noticeable crocked appearance. RAF Fin Flashes were painted over with some darker color, most likely Olive Drab. The basic camouflage was painted using rubber masks and had semi-hard edges, but the patch seemed to be applied with a brush causing its edges to be hard.

So armed with this research and photos of several planes operated by the 67th FS at Guadalcanal I feel that I have put together a skin worthy of representing the hard work, dedication and determination of the ground crews to keep the planes flying against all odd. As such I would like to dedicate this skin to those that have worked so diligently in difficult circumstances to keep the planes in the air against all odds.

You can download this skin and many more at Hawkeye's Hangar