1/72 Fokker N.VII "Mitternacht Jäger"

[Brian da Basher]

In the spring of 1917, Willi Messerschmitt, a young engineer working for Anthony Fokker, was suffering from insomnia. The kindly Herr Fokker decided Willi needed lighter duties and tasked him with developing a night fighter, something for which no specification had been issued by Idflieg and should've been a very low-stress assignment, allowing Willi to once again get a good night's sleep.

Unfortunately, events overtook Willi Messerschmitt and the rest of Germany. In the spring of 1918, Crown Prince Wilhelm refused to pull back his army at the Battle of Belleau Wood, leading to a massacre on an enormous scale. Once the news of the defeat reached Germany, the citizens revolted and forced the Kaiser and his family to flee for their lives. A new German Republic was proclaimed, and the Western Front had been stabilized by General Ludendorff who was soon named Reichs General-President or leader of both the German government and military. This stiffened the resolve of the Germans and soon the Western Front stagnated.

Something had to be done and the Royal Air Force began daylight strategic bombing of Germany. The R.A.F. suffered crippling losses at the hands of the Fokker D.VII and was soon forced to switch to night bombing. Initially the Germans used D.VIIs hastily re-painted for night ops but a better answer had to be found and fast.

continued...

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The D.VIIs were only mildly effective at blunting the R.A.F. night bombing offensive. Idflieg was panicking for a solution, espeically after one severe raid on the night of November 11th 1918 obliterated the Tiergarten in Berlin. Willi Messerschmitt had taken the D.VIIs basic airframe and added a new prototype Junkers Hunu (Who Knew?) V-12 inline engine and added a radio so the aircraft could be directed to the bombers by ground controllers aided by sound detectors. The new night fighter was armed with two 7.9 m.m. Spandau machine guns synchronized to fire through the propellor arc and a 20 m.m. Maxim auto-cannon which fired through the propellor hub. The new aircraft also featured the most streamlined, spatted landing gear seen yet in the Great War. Willi Messerschmitt's new design, called the N.VII, easily passed flight trials and was rushed into production. In the absence of any other real news from the stagnant Western Front, the German press reported heroic stories of the "Mitternacht Jägers" (Midnight Hunters) and their courageous pilots. One of them, Staffelkapitain Ernst Udet was able to down a total of 45 British night bombers. Eventually after receiving guarantees that Reichs General-President Ludendorff would call elections after the end of the war, a peace treaty was signed at Köln on Valentine's Day, 1920. Staffelkapitain Udet was enventually elected to a seat in the Reichstag and another veteran, an Austrian Corporal named Adolf Hitler, was inspired to try politics. Hitler lost the election for dog catcher in his hometown of Lintz and no further record of him exists. However, Willi Messerschmitt's fist production N.VII "Mitternacht Jäger" No. 220 can still be seen on display at the Museum of Great War Aircraft Annex in Bonn, during evening hours, across the street from an all-night diner.

Brian da Basher

[Chap]

Looks great Brian! Just love the paint scheme.

~Steve

[Brian da Basher]

The basis for this project was the wonderful and inexpensive Revell of Germany 1/72 Fokker D.VII. After building a "Steampunked" Matrix 1-09 for the 1 Week GB, I had a nose left over from a HobbyBoss 109. As fate would have it, the 109 nose was a perfect fit on the D.VII fuse. I added Merlin exhausts from my spares box for a little twist of irony and fashioned a headrest fairing from the HobbyBoss 109's drop tank and added a windscreen and a pair of Aeroclub spats as well as an additional air intake on the belly. The entire model was brush-painted by hand with custom-mixed acrylics. I even ended out hand-painting over the balkenkreutz decals as the white and black were too stark for a night fighter. Most of thsee pictures are larger than the actual model which took me five days to build. I hope looking at it and reading the backstory will cure any of my fellow whiffers suffering from insomnia.

Brian da Basher

[Ed S]

Amazing.  It seems that you turn out one of these beauties every week.  Another fine WHIFF.



Ed

[Sisko]

Great stuff as always Brian!!!

You really have the talent for those bi-planes!

[Maverick]

Brilliant Brian,

Looks disturbingly plausible as always!!

Regards,

Mav

[sotoolslinger]

Jeebus , what a frightening aircraft to suddenly encounter at night. A 20 MM  through the spinner

[ysi_maniac]

Just another wonder.
This makes me desire to build a whiff biplane

[kitnut617]

Another BdB classic    I just get a kick out of your backstories too   

[jcf]

Jeebus , what a frightening aircraft to suddenly encounter at night. A 20 MM  through the spinner

The French SPAD 12 had a 37mm cannon that fired through the hub, 12 rounds were carried.

The Germans did have an automatic 20mm cannon in service towards the end of the war, the magazine fed Becker.



They also had another under development... a Rheinmetall built weapon designed by artillery designer Heinrich Ehrhardt based on Schmeisser patents. The same basic design was used on the Dreyse MG13, the cannon being a scaled up version of the MG. The weapon was recoil-operated, air-cooled and magazine fed.
The gun was put into production a few years later by Waffenfabrik Solothurn A.G. in Switzerland as the Solothurn 20mm. Solothurn had previously been purchased by Rheinmetall.

A good link for early air cannon info:
http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/cannon_pioneers.htm

Jon

[HOG]

HI Bri`

Very nicly done and convincing. With that black n blue underside, definately a bit of a bruiser. 
cheers
Gary

[John Howling Mouse]

Yessir, I do believe you have nailed it yet again: perfect score, Brian!  As soon as the window opened with the first image, I thought to myself, "That is exactly it!"     

[BlackOps]

  Awesome camo, and great mods!    You've got one of the coolest collection around Brian!

[McGreig]

Shouldn't work, but somehow it looks just right  How do you do it?  
Great colour scheme too