Flak Zielgerat 76, the V-1 Flying "Buzz Bomb"

[Guest]

Flak Zielgerat 76 was the Luftwaffe designation for the flying bomb that became the "Vengeance Weapon 1" or V-1, aka the "buzz bomb" that first targeted London in 1944. The model is done in hand-turned FPS (fir, pine or spruce, construction-grade scrap wood) for the fuselage, yellow poplar for the Fiesler pulse-jet, and basswood for winglets, etc.

Here are the bare pieces, winglets and stabilizers not yet profiled:



To attach the winglets, etc, 1/16" pin-holes were drilled using the lathe:



Here is the fuselage with brass-tube alignment pins inserted:



Straight sticks were used to align the parts during glue-up:

[Guest]

Here's the engine with rudder and pylon glued on:



Here's the completed assembly, with nose-cones and tail-antenna added (and slate-gray acrylic used to prime and cover the wood):



The model was given an overall base-coat of white, then sky-blue on the rudder and underside:



The top-side will be a shade of forest-green, but I need to learn how to mask the lower color:



Here's a photo of the V-1 showing the color-scheme that I'm trying to match:



I can't guarantee the exactness of the color-tones as I have to mix them myself, so I just do as close as I can get. Hints on how to get the top-coat with the "fuzzy" margin will be appreciated!

Regards, John

[Guest]

Beautiful work John!!

A nice and original choice.

Cheers

[Guest]

BTW, this project came about because most of my projects turn out to be too lengthy, months or years to complete, and I have been feeling desperate for something that could be completed in a reasonable amount of time. I've been thinking about the V-1 ever since I picked up a copy of "The Wizard War | British Scientific Intelligence 1939-1945," first published in Great Britain under the title Most Secret War, by the late R.V. Jones, ex- Chair in Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh. Jones came to be considered Churchill's "right-hand man" when it came to sorting out what the rest of the scientist were telling him, and Jones lays out the entire story of the V-1 and the campaign against it.

Regards, John

[mossiepilot]

That is a magnificent bit of wood working/building John, and as for the "fuzzy" edge have you seen the technique where thin rolls of blue tac are used to raise the edge of masking tape and give a soft paint edge. I'm sure there is a thread on here that describes it better than I can.

Tony.

[Guest]

Well, I was impatient, and just got out the Badger 100LF and went at it; it would be nice if I had a steadier hand! But, not too bad for my first "real" paint job. A little touch up here, a little touch up there ... so here it is, though I still have to make the little "propeller" for the odometer:



One little problem that needs attending to ... the top color came out too light, I'll have to redo that! It's difficult to mix colors by the artificial light in the "Paint Booth" ( the bath!). Taking it out into the sunlight, it's really noticeable.

Regards, John

[flyjoe180]

Stunning work from wood John.

[Guest]

Nice work John your usual higher than high standard. Brings back memories.

You may be interested. As 6 year old I lived just outside London near to an industrial area Hawkers Siebe Gorman (submarine escape) KLG plugs, Marconi etc. Saw a number of these brutes & they were scary more from the noise which was a very angry growel. Night was the worst they went over with this red exaust the motor then stopped & a seconds later there was a boom as it hit soemthing.

One day I was priveledged to see one destroyed by a probably a Tempest.

They were actually generally know as "Doodle bugs" rather than Buzz Bombs.

Laurie

[papa 695]

Great work John it looks just like the real thing

[Guest]

Nice work John your usual higher than high standard. Brings back memories.You may be interested. As 6 year old I lived just outside London near to an industrial area Hawkers Siebe Gorman (submarine escape) KLG plugs, Marconi etc. Saw a number of these brutes & they were scary more from the noise which was a very angry growel. Night was the worst they went over with this red exaust the motor then stopped & a seconds later there was a boom as it hit soemthing.

One day I was priveledged to see one destroyed by a probably a Tempest.

They were actually generally know as "Doodle bugs" rather than Buzz Bombs.

Laurie

I believe I came across the "doodle bug" name somewhere in Dr. Jones book; I think the "buzz bomb" name might have been an American one, but not sure about that. The red exaust I just found out about a few minutes ago; the engines run red hot, and that explains the red exaust. They were originally intended to power dive at the end of the run, but the dive interrupted the fuel flow, stopping the engine, thus the silence before they fell to earth.

"The Official History, The Defense of the United Kingdom, states that, in all, 8,617 bombs were launched from the sites in France, of which 2,340 reached the London Civil Defence Region. These caused casualties of approximately 5,500 killed and 16,000 seriously injured." --- Jones

Aside from shooting at them with AA, aircraft had two ways to destroy a flying bomb; one was to shoot at it, which would cause it to explode and one would have to fly through the resulting "flak," or if the plane was fast enough, the pilot could put his wing tip under the tip of the bomb winglet, and give it a "tip." They were unstable enough to flip over which would send them to earth. Of course, defense could not stop all the bombs.

There is some concern that today's terrorists might exploit this kind of weapon; it appears that these simple, basic "cruise missiles" are cheap and not too difficult to build.

Regards, John

[Guest]

Also, the engine should be known as the Argus pulsejet; Fiesler was the manufacturer for the engines. At least, the Fiesler works appear in Jones book. Apparently the design is by one Schmidt. Here is a page on the engine:

http://aardvark.co.nz/pjet/argusv1.shtml

[Guest]

A lot of deaths were averted by intelligence services. An number of German Spies turned to Spying for Britain (choice was that or the hangman).

They fed information to Germany about the landing accuracy of V1 bombs. They stated that bombs fell in an area (which they did not) & the Germans adjusted the flight & aim say further North & the V1's landed in open field areas. Proff Jones was in on this but even though I have read his book about 4 or 5 times I can not rember the details.

Laurie

[eddiesolo]

Top work, really liked how this went together, wonderful woodworking skill.

Si

[flyjoe180]

Regarding the 'tipping' technique used by fighter interceptors. This was a method used to change the missile's trajectory by upsetting its on board gyros. Shooting at the missile meant having to avoid the subsequent explosion and debris. Touching the missile was obviously also very dangerous, akin to trying to gently collide with another aircraft. Tipping was actually best achieved by flying alongside the missile and getting into a position where the wingtip of the interceptor could be placed within around six inches from the lower surface of the V-1's main wing. This disturbed the missile's airflow and caused it to alter course suddenly, upsetting the gyros and sending it into an uncontrollable dive.

An account from New Zealander Jack Stafford who flew Tempests with 486 (NZ) Squadron which took part in V1 interceptions: http://www.microsoft.com/games/combatfs3/stafford4.aspx

[Guest]

That's very interesting, so subtle, to disturb the airflow, the only other accounts I've seen did not mention this little detail. Britain had excellent intelligence on the 'V' weapons; the V-1 trials were followed on British radar, and as Laurie said, there were spies, etc, and misinformation techniques. Some of the bombs were fitted with radio transmitters to show where they actually fell, but "Wachtel's organization, commenting on the discrepancies, stated that the agents were particularly reliable, and therefore their information was to be accepted, and that there must be something wrong with the radio D/F method." There was a lot of bombing on the launch sites (when they could be discovered), and a couple of major caves (previously used to grow mushrooms) that had been pressed into service as magazines were bombed to collapse them (the Tallboy bomb came in handy here), thus cutting down on the number of available missiles, and the rate of fire, which eased the defense a bit.