Lowell Houpt, Terre Haute, Indiana
Recalling a lesser-known aspect of the famous Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in 1942, Lowell writes: “I wanted to do something different. Utilizing Accurate Miniatures’ 1/48 B-25 kit, I decided to model Plane 8 piloted by Edward J. “Ski” York (neé Cichowski). Running low on fuel, he decided to disregard a Doolittle order not to land in the Soviet Union. The plane landed at a military airport about 25 miles north of Vladivostok. York and his crew were interned in the Soviet Union for more than a year, escaping to Persia (now Iran) in 1943.” Lowell brush-painted the plane and used figures from Tamiya’s 1/48 scale World War II Russian infantry and tank crew set. The field is faux bear fur shaved with an electric razor. Lowell says, “The crews of the Doolittle Raid are true heroes — men we can all look up to and admire for what they were willing to do more than 70 years ago.”