Me 262 - Secret Treaties: Westphalia April 1945

zenrat · November 06, 2014, 02:07:24 AM

Blue Öyster Cult's1974 LP Secret Treaties features pencil sketches (drawn I suspect from photgraphs) on both the front and back covers of an Me 262 bearing in place of the usual balkenkreuz the hook/cross logo used by the band (based on the astronomical symbol for Saturn). These pictures have always intrigued me. Indeed, they were one of the reasons Secret Treaties was the first BÖC LP I purchased rather than making a cassette recording of a friends copy (remember the days when home taping was going to kill music? Who knew the real culprits would be record companies and reality TV?).

The last track on side 1 is titled Me 262 and is written from the point of view of Captain von Ondine, a Luftwaffe pilot assigned (personally, by both Goering and Hitler) to take on Allied bombers over Westphalia in April 1945. The lyrics historical accuracy are rather muddled referring both to Englishmen and Fortresses as his target and seemingly to confuse R4M rockets with the four nose mounted MK 108 cannons.

Goering's on the phone to Freiburg
Says "Willie's done quite a job"
Hitler's on the phone from Berlin
Says "I'm gonna make you a star"

My Captain Von Ondine, here's your next patrol
A flight of English bombers across the canal
After twelve, they'll all be here
I think you know the job

They hung there dependent from the sky
Like some heavy metal fruit
These bombers, ripened, ready to tilt
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die

In a G-load disaster from the rate of climb
Sometimes I'd faint and be lost to our side
But there's no reward for failure, but death
So watch me in the mirrors, keep me on the glide path

Get me through these radars, no I cannot fail
When my great silver slugs are eager to feed
I can't fail, no not now
When twenty five bombers wait ripe

They hung there dependent from the sky
Like some heavy metal fruit
These bombers, ripened, ready to tilt
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die

Me-262 prince of turbojet, Junker's Jumo 004
Blasts from clustered R4M quartets in my snout
And see these English planes go burn
Now will you be my witness how red were the skies
When the fortresses flew, for the very last time
It was dark over Westphalia, in April of '45

They hung there dependent from the sky
Like some heavy metal fruit
These bombers, ripened, ready to tilt
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die

Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Junkers Jumo 004 (repeat many times)
Bombers at 12 o'clock high

I had always intended building a model of the album cover aircraft but was put off in my first modelling period by a lack of decals. My hands were never steady enough to paint the markings and experiments with fine line pens and round stickers were a failure due to the thickness of the stickers.
However, with the advent of print your own decal paper and micro$oft powerpoint that hurdle was leapt.
Planning to display the finished model sitting on the LP I determined that 1/48 would be an ideal scale and so I snapped up a Monogram kit at the 2013 Melbourne Model Expo Swamp & Smell. In hindsight a spot of research might have been a good idea as I would then have looked for a Tamiya kit on which the parts might have fitted properly.
Being unable to build anything from the box without a lot of mental anguish I decided to give Capt Von Ondine a bit more firepower in the form of a 75mm rotary rocket gun. This weapon, developed by the Luftwaffe in the closing stages of the war, was designed to give fighters a heavy hitting yet relatively fast firing gun without the problem of recoil or the risk of a spent case jamming the ejection mechanism. Rate of fire was 150 rounds per minute with a magazine capacity of 160 rounds (it's a modified 1/144 Gundam Gatling Cannon with a scratchbuilt magazine and the nose and gun access hatch modified accordingly).
The paint job is caramel chocolate chip. I chose this because I liked the idea of it and wanted to have another go at a 6 colour chocolate chip camo scheme after some the colours I used on my 1/72 Dartstang were too close in shade. The colours are dark earth, middle stone, mahogany, light sand, black & white and are a combination of Gunze Sangyo Mr Color and Vallejo Modelcolor acrylics. Underside is IJN lower surfaces grey.

Me 262 Secret treaties 003 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Me 262 Secret treaties 008 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Me 262 Secret treaties 006 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Me 262 Secret treaties 004 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Me 262 Secret treaties 010 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Me 262 Secret treaties 009 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr