In 1947 Philips a Dutch technology company organized the first Eindhoven - Darwin Intercontinental Air Race to launch & promote their brand new state of the art airplane radio receiver & transmitter "R Unit #378".
An amazing number of 47 teams took part in this 2 week intercontinental air race event. Race-modified World War 2 planes like the De Havilland Mosquito, Heinkel He 219 Uhu, Northrop P-61 Black Widow, Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter and many more types took part in this unique post war air race spectacle.
Flight captain Marcel "Model Monkey" du Long & radio operator and navigator Flight lieutenant Eric "Vogeltje" Vogel manned Red 15 Mosquito - 138 L06 - a heavily modified De Havilland Mosquito type B.MkIV. After an almost two week endurance flight from Welschap airfield Eindhoven the Netherlands they safely landed their red bird at the Darwin airstrip Australia. Unfortunately they finished second since Hauptgefreiter Steff Baumer & Bordfunker Friedrich von Weissensee just finished 43 minutes earlier in their modified Heinkel He 219 R7 Uhu and grabbed the Grand Trophy.
The De Havilland Mosquito B.MkIV/PR.MkIV and Russian 1.5ton Cargo Truck Model 1941 are both excellent 1/48 scale Tamiya kits. Except from two Mosquito resin seats from Quickboost both kits were build straight from the box.
To achieve a vibrant racing red I applied a silver primer which was pinwashed & postshaded afterwards. A Tamiya X-7 gloss red was sprayed in thin layers to finish the job. The big white numbers are excellent 1/32 decals from Techmod.
© 1947 - 2017 by Marcel du Long