1/72 Revell MiG-3

Cantacuzino´s MiG-3

The fighter Prince

by Tigre del Aire

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The Captain Prince Constantin "Bazu" Cantacuzino was born into an aristocratic Rumanian family in 1905.  He was a player of hockey, a playboy, a motorcycle rider, rallye and civil pilot before entering to the Royal  Rumanian Air Force.  He went on  to master  acrobatics with the so called squadron Dracii Rosii "Red Dragoons", where his fearlessness and valor at the moment of doing acrobatics was proved with every new exhibition.
In 1941, when Rumania began to fight alongside of Germany and incorporates Captain Cantacuzino into 53 Squadron to fly a Hurricane Mk.1, shot down 3 Russian aircraft and he was demobilized.  He came back to combat in 1943 to the 7th Fighter Group to fly the Me-109G  as commander of the 58 Squadron. During this time he shot down 25 Russian aircraft and a North American bomber that was taking part in the bombing of Ploesti.
In 1944 he was assigned to the territorial defense, he already had 36 victories, he shot down two P-51's, two P-38's and was named commander of 9th Fighter Group.
When Rumania declared the war on Germany, Cantacuzino shot down 3 Heinkel 111's and assigned to him the mission to transport the Colonel Gunn III, returned to his base in a P-51 before the impossibility of refuelling again his Me-109G.
At the end of the war he was just turning 40 yearsold and had completed 608 combat missions of which 28 were night, 210 air combat, 56 confirmed victories and 13 "probable" being the biggest ace of the  Rumanian air force and the sixth pilot of the list of all 22 belligerent countries.

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This model is the Revell kit in 1/72 scale and represents the MiG-3 that was captured by the Rumanians and which was flown by Cantacuzino Captain in the paper of "aggressor" of the Luftwaffe.
 
The decals are from another kit, the cockpit has some elements of detail such as the map pcoket, harness for the pilots seat, flares and some instrument panels, the transparent piece of the cockpit were closed, but I opened them up to allow a better view of the cockpit detail.
 

 
In order to accompany it this Me-109 with its pilot, just before leaving to fly a training mission.  The figures are of Heller and they are not included in kits of the airplanes.  It is a very good model, easy to build and a level of normal detail that it allows to be modified, I recommend it highly.
 
I am veery grateful to Julian Oller for the biography of Cantacuzino Captain and his  photographs on the webpage http://www.funaereacv.es/Biografias/Recuperando%20la%20memoria%20%20El%20Pr%C3%ADncipe%20Cantacuzeno.pdf

Tigre del Aire

Saludos desde Colombia, la tierra de Juan Valdez!

Greetings from Colombia, the land of Juan Valdez!

Colombia es Pasión!

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Photos and text © by Tigre del Aire