Steve's 1/72 'D-Day Fighters'

[Tim Marlow]

Looks good Steve, and a great back story as usual.

[Steven000]

Great result Steve, looking forward to the next build

[Neil Merryweather]

Looks good Steve, and a great back story as usual.

What he said!

[yak face]

Beautiful build steve , i know the G is one of Airfixs earlier new offerings and not as detailed as their later E but it looks fantastic . Great info too , cheers tony

[adt70hk]

A great finish Steve. And as always a nice bit of history to add some context.

Looking forward to the next plane.

ATB.

Andrew

[stona]

Glad you like it!

The Fw 190 is just underway - and this one has a bit of a cockpit. It's not much, but compared to the last one, it's positively opulent and actually has some detail worth painting.

[adt70hk]

Glad you like it!

The Fw 190 is just underway - and this one has a bit of a cockpit. It's not much, but compared to the last one, it's positively opulent and actually has some detail worth painting.

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Will be interested to see what you do with this! As you may recall I have two on the go

[vizenz]

Steve, your 109 is incredibly well painted!
And if I see it correctly, you completed the whole project in 3 days! Wow!

[Steve Ski]

Sweet builds, Steve!

[stona]

And if I see it correctly, you completed the whole project in 3 days! Wow!

Glad you like it! Yes, I think that's right, just three days. This was a very simple kit to build with few parts and no internal detail at all. I think I built it in a day and spent the next two painting and otherwise finishing it. The MRP paints dry very fast, literally in minutes and even the enamel Colourcoat (for the RLM 76) dries in four or five hours, bearing in mind I didn't have to mask anything (except the yellow) when spraying the camouflage.

[stona]

Well, that's interesting!

The Fw 190 is supposed to be Josef Priller's 'Black 13'. This aircraft had the outboard cannon removed. This was commonly done because the weight at a distance from the centreline caused inertia when rolling (because you've got to get that extra mass rotating), reducing one of the Fw 190s great advantages in combat, its rapid rate of roll. In the instructions are shown the parts to make Priller's aircraft, flat panels in place of the underwing cannon bulges and shell ejection ports, and blanking plates for the leading edges - all on Sprue E.

There is no Sprue E in my kit.

Clearly, this is an option you would get if you bought the kit on its own, but for whatever reason, not in this D-Day collection.

My options are to find markings for a four wing cannon Fw 190 or build the kit with the 'wrong' four wing cannon. I don't have a lot of spare 1/72 decals because I rarely build in this scale, so Priller will be getting two extra cannon for his 190

I'm completely fine with this as I'm just making these for a bit of fun. If I was attempting an accurate representation of Priller's machine I might not be so relaxed about it.

[stona]

TWO DOWN - THREE TO GO:

The Fw 190 is now comlplete, and that is the last of the Germans, so the RLM paints are back in the draws.

This is the ircraft flown by Oberstleutnant Josef Priller. He must be one of the best known of all the Luftwaffe 'experten', so there is a lot of information available about him for those interested, so just a few pertinent facts.

He was the Geschwader Kommodore of JG 26 at the time of the invasion, and one of Nazi Germany’s most successful officers. An Oberstleutnant is equivalent to a Wing Commander in the RAF. A Geschwader Kommodore was the officer commanding an entire Luftwaffe Geschwader. The three Gruppen and various other associated elements of JG 26 would total about 150 aircraft, though it is unlikely that this many were operational on June 6. He finally left JG 26 to become Inspekteur der Jagdflieger West on 28 January 1945 and remained in this staff position until the end of the war.

Priller was credited with exactly 100 victories, all of them in the West, and including 10 four engine bombers. Unlike some, his claims can be well matched to Allied losses. He flew 307 combat sorties and was never shot down. Those who have watched ‘The Longest Day’ will be aware that Priller and his wingman, Feldwebel Heinz Wodarczyk, made a strafing attack on Sword beach. Priller, who passed away in 1961, was one of the German consultants on the film. This mission was one of just 70 sorties flown by the single engine fighters of Luftflotte 3 on D-Day. The Allies flew a total, all types, of more than 14,000.

Anyway, here’s the model of Fw 190 A-8, werknummer 170346, ‘Black 13’, as it would have been on D-Day, give or take a couple of extra cannons.






If there is one thing that should be corrected on this kit it is the length of the main undercarriage legs. They seem far too long, as if uncompressed by the weight of the aircraft, and make the thing look gangly on its wheels. Obviously, I didn't do that, but if I built the kit again I would.

Next up the P-51, representing the Americans

[minitnkr]

Excellent finishes and great background info.

[Jim R]

Another excellent result. Great photos and an interesting background story. Bring on the Yank.

[Steven000]

You're going like a train, well done :thumb2: