Douglas Dauntless SBD 3/5

I bought an Airfix red box dauntless last year thinking I would get a new mold kit. When I built this for a French Group build on another site, I found out it was the same old 1960's molding with tons of flash, poor fit and all the warts from the old Airfix kit (my cockpit framing was not visible so I used the painting guide to tape the cockpit). The only saving grace was the new decals were superb. They even included bomb stripes. I post shaded with my airbrush to break up the simple camouflage.

After the allies broke out of Normandy and moved west to Germany, the French were left with the responsibility of driving the rest of the Germans out of France. Among the French Air Force units supporting the French army was Armee de l'Air d'Liberation Groupe de Chasse-Bombardement 1/18 "Vendee," equipped with 16 A-24Bs. The group provided effective close air support to the Maquis in the plateau region of southwestern France, and undertook bombing missions against the Germans at Bordeaux. My aircraft represents a plane from that unit.