After
the German occupation of Norway in 1940, many young men deflected from the
country to continue fighting against the Nazis. In November 1940 the Norwegian
Air Forces Training Base was established at Island Airport in Toronto, Canada,
to train flying personel and ground crew. Most of these would serve with the
Norwegian squadrons in the RAF, but many would also go to regular RAF units. A
variety of aircraft types were acquired, many of which had been ordered by the
Norwegian Army and Naval Air Arms before the occupation. Fairchild M-62 Cornells
were used for elementary training before the students went off to Canadian
flying schools for advanced training. Back at Little Norway the Curtiss H-75A-8
Hawks and Douglas 8A-5s were used by Army pilots while their Navy counterparts
were flying Stinson SR9C Reliants and Northrop N-3PBs for their final education.
Other types that were used a couple of Interstate S-1A Cadets and a single Waco
SRE. In 1943 the base moved from Island Airport to Muskoka, 150km north of
Toronto.
Fairchild
M-62 Cornell
Several types of the Cornell were used at Little Norway, and although not
strictly correct the open cockpit variants are generally referred to as
PT-19, the USAAF designation. The model is made from the MPM 1/72 scale
kit of the PT-19A. Decals for Norwegian aircraft are included in the kit
and are accurate although the painting instructions are not. |
Click
on images below to see larger images |
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Fairchild
M-62 Cornell
Cornell No. 145 was built as an open cockpit PT-19A and was later modified
with a closed cockpit. Thus it is generally referred to as a PT-26. The
Special Hobby PT-26 kit is basically the same as the MPM PT-19A, with an
extra vacuformed canopy. The canopy is moulded in a rather thick plastic,
which makes it difficult to cut it out correctly. This kit also has decals
for a Norwegian aircraft, but the decals are inaccurate, as well as the
painting instructions. I thus made my own decals for this model. Note the
difference in blue and yellow paint on the two Cornell aircraft. |
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Curtiss
H-75A-8 Hawk
This model was made from the Azur kit of the H-75A-4 / Mohawk IV. Azur is
one of the brands in the MPM range, and holds the same quality. The
transparencies are vacuformed, but in a thinner plastic than for the
PT-26. The rear side windows were a bit tricky to cut out correctly
though. The “football” antennae is not included and was taken from
another kit. Decals were self made.
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Douglas
8A-5
This model was made from the
MPM Douglas 8A-3N kit, with the Wright Cyclone engine and cowling taken
from the Hasegawa Dauntless kit. Again, the decals were self made. |
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Northrop
N-3PB
The Northrop N-3PB was
designed to Norwegian specifications and the 24 aircraft built were all
used by the Norwegian Naval Air Arm and the Royal Norwegian Air Force
(although most of them under RAF command). The model was built mostly out
of the box with a home made beaching gear added. The kit’s decals are
for two aircraft of No. 330 (Norwegian) Sqn., RAF, based at Iceland. To
finish the model in markings from Little Norway I painted the markings. |
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Nils
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