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

[scottie3158]

Another great build bring on the mustang.

[Guest]

TWO DOWN - THREE TO GO

Hang on, I thought you said the group build was too short to fit these in?

[adt70hk]

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.


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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 :smiling3:

Yet again Steve, great work. Brilliant paint job. If mine turn out half that well I'll be very pleased.

[stona]

If mine turn out half that well I'll be very pleased.

I found it a nice kit overall, but it was definitely more of a fiddle to put together than the 109. Getting the nosee right took a bit of doing, and it features that old classic, a join betwen two bits of thin plastic without much support. Also, moulding things like a pitot tube into the front of the wing is asking for them to get knocked off - and it was. I replaced the pitot with a piece of brass wire.

Still, a nice kit, but it definitely sits too high on that undercarriage. If I built another one, I would cut a few millimetres out of the oleo part of the legs, or maybe replace that part with a shorter section, and close up the scissor a bit to shorten the leg. You'd probably need to adjust the undercarriage doors too, but it wouldn't be a difficult 'fix'.

[A_J_Rimmer]

A nice bit of work on the FW-190 Steve, that came out well.

[stona]

I've had a look at the P-51 kit and thought it might be worth raising an interesting point. Most of the P-51's upper wing and a substantial area of the lower wing had all the panel joins puttied, smoothed and then this area was painted. Most of the wings' surfaces were finished with an aluminium dope and were not left in 'natural metal' like today's warbirds. Obviously, removable panels coudn't be sealed in this way, nor could the undercarriage doors.

I was wondering whether it was really worth replicating this, at this scale and obliterating all of Airfix's beautiful recessed panel detail. In the end I decided that I'd do it anyway, not that I'm sure it will really show on the finished model.



I've a busy few days coming up, so I'm not expecting to get this one done in quite the timeframe of the two Luftwaffe aircraft!

[vizenz]

Your Focke Wulf is another Masterpiece Steve! If a model is well painted and weathered, no one will notice small mistakes (whether they are errors in construction or historical accuracy) - and you will have to look for a while before someone notices the excess guns!

Your models show the kind of painting or style of painting that I saw in so many magazines 25 years ago that I always wanted to copy and never achieved. Amazing to see how you can do it in a day or two each!

[stona]

I've made some progress on the P-51. It's pretty much built and went together very well. At the moment it has a first coat of primer, though I will probably rub this down with some very fine paper and apply another coat, since most of this will be finished in Alclad, which is very unforgiving of any surface flaws. You really need to polish the surface, for which I go down to 2400 grit followed by a piece of denim.



This model is also the first so far to have a decent cockpit. It would encourage someone building it more seriously than I am to really make something of it, whereas I just painted some black bits - errr - black, and called it done.

That's it for a few days as I'm working over the weekend and possibly a couple of days next week.

[stona]

I've managed to get some painting done, the invasion stripes and other tactical markings and, of course the blue nose. What a can 'o' worms that blue colour is! In the end I just went with one I had, it's actually a post-war British roundel blue which can't be right, but it does for me.



The stripes on this aircraft were quite neatly applied, probably neater than mine, though they were not perfect. Again, these will do. It's a minor detail compared to the lack of the fin fillet on the real aircraft! Airfix have got the wrong model for these markings, but never mind.



Next update will be whenever I get this one, number three, finished.

[minitnkr]

Great job. Fillet was retrofitted to Cs, Ds, eventually, and even some Bs/Cs. I don't remember why the strake was added.

[stona]

Lateral stability was lost as power increased. It became an issue when the switch from the Allison V-1710 to the Merlin V-1650 increased the power due to the Merlin's very much superior supercharger design and increased power at altitude, so from the P-51B forward. The dorsal fin extension or fillet was developed to counter this because it did not interfere with production and could be retrofitted, whereas a larger vertical stabiliser would have been an impractical retro-fit.
Modifications introduced during a production run were a major cause of delay and delivery shortfalls. If you look at the Spitfire, it got larger and larger fins rather than strakes/fillets as it got more power, but they were design modifications introduced for specific Marks or batches.

[stona]

Three Down -Two to go.

I'm calling this one done, though I noticed when I took the photos that I'd forgotten a couple of drops of paint for the navigation lights.

So, this is in the markings of George Preddy's P-51, as it would have appeared on and about D-Day. You can see Preddy's aircraft a couple of posts above, and my first photograph is an attempt tp replicate that, despite the obvious differences between the two aircraft. Preddy was the top P-51 ace of WW2, credited with 26.83 victories, and the eighth on the list of all US aces. Preddy was killed on Christmas Day 1944, a cictim of so called 'friendly fire'. Lest we forget.







Just the two British fighters to go!

[Neil Merryweather]

Fabulous!

[Jim R]

That's a superb result.

[stona]

This 1/72 malarkey might not be good for me old eyes, but you can build an entire airshow line-up and put it on a base a foot square!

So far: