Pearl Harbor Defenders
Victors & Vanquished

PREVIEW

fundekals, 1/48 & 1/32 scales

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Pearl Harbor Defenders - Victors & Vanquished

Decal Preview

Happy New Year 2022 to one and all! With the recent release of the positively gorgeous new Great Wall Hobby 1/32 Curtiss P-40B/C/Hawk 81A kit, we decided to take another look at the markings carried by the P-40Bs flown by 2nd Lt’s Ken Taylor and George Welch of the 47th Pursuit Squadron, 15th Pursuit Group, on the morning of 7 December 1941.

Taylor and Welch were two of the very few USAAF pilots (the USAAC became the USAAF on 20 June 1941) who were able to get airborne on that fateful morning. Flying from Haleiwa Fighter Strip on the north shore of Oahu, the pair accounted for no less than 4 confirmed kills of Aichi D3A Val dive bombers (plus two probables), a Val damaged, and one Zero confirmed, all while flying a pair of P-40Bs that had been delivered to the squadron earlier in the year. The story of their all-night poker party in Honolulu has been retold numerous times, but it’s worth noting that both men were still in their mess dress uniforms when they raced (literally - at speeds of up to 100 mph on the winding two-lane road) from Honolulu to Haleiwa. When they took off, their aircraft were armed only with .30 cal ammunition for their wing guns. No one had thought to bring any .50 cal ammunition up to Haleiwa! Having run out of ammunition and fuel, the pair landed back at their regular base at Wheeler Field in central Oahu, where they were refueled and rearmed, this time with both .30 and .50 cal ammunition.

As usual, our research on this “simple” project turned into a much bigger thing than we’d imagined. Suffice to say, with the kind and generous assistance of several highly knowledgeable folks, we’re now pretty confident that at long, long last we know how Taylor’s and Welch’s aircraft appeared that December morning 80 years ago!

Additionally, and somewhat unusually for us, since we discovered the identity and probable appearance of Welch’s A6M2 kill, we decided to include markings for it as well. It was flown by Warrant Officer Ippei Goto with the 2nd Carrier Division off the Kaga. Welch bagged his Zero just off Barbers Point on the southwest shore of Oahu. All of Taylor’s and Welch’s kills were aircraft participating in the second wave of the Japanese attack.

The decals are printing now, and we’ll post more when we have them back from Cartograf. We’re doing both 1/32 for the new Great Wall Hobby kit, and in 1/48 for your favorite P-40 in that scale (we recommend Airfix). The A6M2 is available in 1/32 from Tamiya and as of last month, from Eduard in 1/48, both of which are highly recommended.

Thanks to fundekals for the information and images.

Text and Images Copyright © 2021 by Fundekals
Page Created 3 January, 2022
Last updated 3 January, 2022

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