Curtiss P-36 Hawk 1/72 Scale Models

American P-36A - This is a model of a land-based U.S. Army fighter that flew against the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941. During this battle, P-36As were credited with shooting down two Japanese Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" fighter planes. The P-36 was developed in response to the U.S. Army Air Corps' competition to replace the Boeing P-26. Although it lost the 1936 competition to the Seversky P-35, the Army encouraged Curtiss to continue the plane's development and an improved version won the 1937 competition and the Army subsequently ordered 210 planes. It entered U.S. service in 1938, but it was being phased out when the U.S. entered WWII. It was succeeded by the Curtiss P-40.

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French Hawk 75A-3 - This is a model of a fighter that flew against the German invasion of France in 1940. The Model 75 was the export version of the P-36 and it was a commercial success for Curtiss as about 750 of the approximately 1,000 total Hawks built were export Model 75s. Numerous variants of the Model 75 were produced, including "simplified" versions with fixed landing gear, and some were license built in other countries, but France acquired more Model 75 Hawks than any other country. The French ordered their first 100 Model 75s in May, 1938, and they began entering service in the spring of 1939. By the time the French surrendered to the Germans in June, 1940, they had received about 290 Hawks. After the surrender, some Hawks were captured by the Germans, and most of these were later sold to Finland, while the French Hawks in unoccupied France and the French colonies were incorporated into the Vichy French air force. Some French pilots escaped with their Hawks to Britain. Although the British had never ordered any Hawks, the RAF absorbed these former French Hawks, and took delivery of some Hawks the French had previously ordered but hadn't received before their surrender. The British called them Mohawks and deemed them unsuitable for duty in Western Europe and gave some to the South African Air Force in Africa, while others were sent to fight the Japanese in Burma.

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