Second hand, Shot down once, in great condition (don't look a gift horse in the mouth) - SB2s for my Finns in Blood Red Skies

I've just finished (should that be Finnish-ed?) my latest BRS Squadron. Tupolev SB2s for Blood Red Skies.

Finland were one of the surprises of WW2. They became involved due to self defence, ended up on the Axis side for a while - "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" etc, and then switched sides when it was clear which way the wind was blowing. All in all they did what was needed to survive. This does mean they have a very interesting choice of aircraft, starting with what we would broadly say was a mix of "Allied" types, then switching to "Axis" (German) types as events dictated.

I've got a Squadron of (sigh) Brewster Buffalos as my Finnish fighters, and I wanted something suitable to use in scenarios to match them. The obvious choice was the Bristol Blenheim, but doing some scrabbling around in my "spares" box I found I had a trio of mismatched Soviet Tupelov SB2 models, so I thought, why not?

How Finland got to be flying SB2s is an interesting yarn in itself. When the Soviet Union attacked Finland in 1940 the Finns put up some rather stern opposition, shooting down quite a few attacking SB2s. They recovered as many as they could that had crashed and in a remarkable and resourceful effort managed to build five flyable planes from the collected wreckage. They eventually lost the Winter War, but when the Germans attacked Russia in 1941 these five were now ready for service in what became round 2 - the Continuation War. As the Germans overrun many Soviet airfields they captured several SB2s on the ground in various states of repair, and sold sixteen of them to their new allies the Finns. These were amalgamated into No 6 Bomber Squadron which served through to the end of hostilities flying maritime patrol and attack duties. They lost seven planes to accidents and breakdowns, but none to enemy action, which I suspect says quite a lot about the problems of flying patchwork cut and shunt aircraft. 

So I had three SB2 models. Two from Armaments in Miniature - nice resin cast models, and one plastic kit from Zvesda. The Zvezda model is a different version to the AIM models, with newer engines, but given the nature of No 6 Squadron aircraft I think this is not only appropriate but desirable. I further messed about with the Zvezda kit by adding a dorsal turret, an addition to some of the later Soviet SB2s and was shown in some photos of the Finnish operated ones. The turret was donated by a member of the Blood Red Skies Ready Room on Facebook - it was so long ago that I cant remember who, but Cheers! It originated on another Zvezda kit - their Li2 transport, and just sits in the gap where the dorsal window glazing would normally be on the Zvezda kit. It looks a bit awkward but actually is spot on as you can see in the pic. 

As an aside this is one of the most useful Zvesda Art of Tactic kits out there for BRS players as the Li2 was basically a C47 Dakota as used by the USA and Britain (but with a turret!) and can also be used as a Japanese LD2 transport plane. All you need do is remove the turret, which takes seconds. And by pure chance the same turret was used on the SB2s.

Paint was pretty basic. I didn't bother with panel lining because the Zvezda kit has very little surface detail and would be a PITA to try and get it to match the AIM ones. Decals are from the ever reliable Miscellaneous Miniatures. 

And all put to bed in their bespoke foam from Just Lasered