SH48222 L-4 Cub ‘European Cubs in Post-War Service’ in 1/48 - scheme, boxart

Our readers keep asking if there is also some other versions in the pipe line to add to our 1/48 L-4 Grasshopper kits family. Well we have heard you and we are going to unveil our plans a bit now  - with the box top art of the upcoming 1/48 SH48222 L-4 Cub ‘European Cubs in Post-War Service’ model. The schemes are still being worked on though, not completed yet. The model should be released sometimes very late this year.

sheme A

L-4J Grasshopper, OK-YFJ, c/n. 12830, ex-USAAF 44-80534, owned by J.Zítka, Rtyně v Podkrkonoší, Czechoslovakia, 1947. Delivered on 22 August 1946, its original operator was Emil Dynybyl, owner of the Říčany distillery, aviation enthusiast. He was also an avid Esperantist and so the aeroplane bore on its nose the Verda Stelo advertisement, which translated from Esperanto means The Green Star. After the 1948 communist coup, Zítka’s distillery as well as his weawing shop were nationalised (meaning stolen). The aircraft was then owned by the East Bohemian Aeroclub in Pardubice where it remained in service until November 1951 when the proposal for its cancellation was submitted. Oficially, it was deleted from the register only in 1957.

scheme B

L-4H Grasshopper, HB-OUD, c/n. 11854, ex-USAAF 44-79558, private owner in Bern, Switzerland, 2004. Several colour details of HB-OUD have changed over the years of its flying career. The exhausts and air intake beneath the engine differ from the factory standard.

scheme C

L-4H Grasshopper, G-AIIH, c/n. 11945, ex-USAAF 44-79649, private owner, Great Britain, 1993. The  registration letters size and shape, drawings in front of the cockpit and some other colour details changed ever the years. The machine was flown in Britain from 1946 until at least 2006.

scheme D

L-4H Grasshopper, SP-AML, ex-USAAF 44-79884, Warsaw Aero Club, Poland, 1949.