"Red 3" - Heavy Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine & X4M missiles

[Dizzyfugu]

A big one, literally. Actually, this model had originally been intended as a submission for a contest, but it never got that far because it was a bit off-topic. Nevertheless, it got to the hardware stage and is a personal interpretation of a WWII Focke Wulf design whioch never received an official RLM project number:


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) - firing a X-4 missile by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

How it came to be:
When I started this It had been a long time since I built a "real" airplane kit, and this one is a one-of-a-kind. After a bleak phase with lots of reading about German WWII airplane projects I found a spark to fire up a project I kept in the back of my mind for a long time: building one of these semi-fictional WWII airplanes from scratch. These astonishing designs were on the drawing boards at their time and rarely made it beyond that. Only a few reached prototype status at the end of the war, but today these partly weird designs are the basis of today's Luft '46 model kit genre: What-if airplanes, based on sketches, construction plans and pure speculation, in the case the war would have gone on.

Some historic background on this plane:
This plane is a Focke-Wulf study from 1941 for a heavy fighter. It was developes shortly after the Fw 190 introduction and surely influenced by the twin-boom Fw 189 reconnaissance aircraft, which became very popular due to its high agility, stable flight characteristics and toughness against enemy fire. The small "Flitzer" turbine engine fighter will surely also have had some impact, since it was on Focke Wulf's drawing boards in 1943, too.

This beast here would have been a much larger airplane, though: a heavy, high performance fighter built around the potent BMW 803 engine: a 28 cylinder, liquid-cooled radial engine in the 4.000 hp output range - comparable to the P&W-R-4360 Wasp Major engine (the so-called "corncob") which actually found its way into the Vought F2G Corsair but "just" put out 3.000 hp.
For reference, this Focke Wulf design was quite comparable to the US American XP-54, both in design and performance, and this here is a sketch of its initial design:


Linked from luft46.com

The Focke Wulf fighter never received an official designation, and saw some mutation in the course of 1943. Even though the basic layout as a twin-boom, single pusher engine airplane with a tricycle landing gear was retained, the radiator placements, wing and tail shape changed.
From the original 1941 annular radiator design (a ring opening around the central fuselage) the arrangement was modified in April 1943 to a single drum radiator in the nose and, alternatively, twin drum radiators in the front ends of the tailbooms. The latter design is the layout I chose for my model, or better: where I ended up (see below).



1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) - firing a X-4 missile against B-24 bombers by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Valuable sources:

• Walter Schick, Ingolf Meyer: Luftwaffe Secret Projects, Fighters 1939-1945, Hinckley, 2005 (this is an English translation of the original German edition, Stuttgart, 1994, but with many colored illustrations added).
• Sundin, Claes; Bergstroem, Christer: Deutsche Jaqgdflugzeuge 1939-1945 in Farbprofilen, Bonn, 1999.

The construction:
A documented WIP with more details can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dizzyfugu/sets/72157625143565864/with/5074770563/

Anyway, this Focke Wulf design never left the drawing board, and this model here is just an interpretation of the vague design sketches I found in literature. It is also limited by the use of various existing kits as a kitbashing basis. My idea was to build a what-if version of the airplane if it had entered service, which would allow some deviations from the blueprints and also leave some room for a semi-realistic Luftwaffe livery.


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) - Detail by dizzyfugu, on Flickr



What went into this model:
Grumman Panther (1:72, Matchbox/Revell):
- Main body,
- Parts of the outer wings
- Cockpit interior
- Canopy

Lockheed P-38E Lightning (1:72; Airfix):
- Tailbooms
- Horizontal fin
- Cockpit parts
- Landing gear
- Propeller spinners

Messerschmidt Me 262 A-2a (1:72, Hobby Master):
- Outer wings
- Wheels

Dornier Do 217N (1:72, Italeri):
- Engine cowling (rear central fuselage)
- Propellers

Other smaller donations:
- Kamow Ka-25 (1:72, Airfix): Vertical fins
- Chance Vought XF5U-1 (1:72, Hasegawa): Propeller spinners
- Chance Vought F4U (1:72, Matchbox): Engine block
- Messerschmidt Me-110 (1:72, Matchbox): Pilot figure
...and a lot of small stuff of unknown origin!


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Laying the foundations
The basic choice for donation kits was quickly done: the central body would come from the Grumman F9F-4 Panther kit from Matchbox (currently released by Revell). Its overall proportions match well with the Focke Wulf design's central body and its size well, and the kit's construction with folded wings and a separate tail fin allowed easy modification for the pusher engine layout.


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) - Work in progress #2 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Originally, I wanted to use the Panther's jet intakes as radiator openings for a fictional (and more elegant) design alternative to the "official" radiator solutions, but I had to skip this idea (see below). The slender tailbooms come from a vintage Airfix P-38H kit and are much more slender than the Focke Wulf designs. Furthermore, the original Focke Wulf main landing gear looks as if it would retract inwards - which collided with my intial radiator ideas! Due to the pusher propeller, a much longer landing gear than the Panther's wpould be necessary, and this would have needed much bigger compartments. Enlarging them appeared too complex, and there's be actually no space with my inital wing root radiator idea. Therefore, I decided to retract the main wheels into the twin booms, and the P-38 pieces were just perfect for my ideas (and at hand). They'd undergo major modifications, though.


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The twin booms were to be mounted onto the Panther's inner wings, and from there the rest of the model design would come when the parts were needed or available, since matching proportions for a balanced look is an important aspect when you build from scratch - a lesson I learned through varioius mecha bashings and modifications. I had some plans though: for the outer wings, for instance, I considered straight wings from a Fw 190 or parts from a Do 335 "Arrow", since these are slightly swept and would match the original drawings quite well.


The body parts get assembled
Work started straightforward with the tailbooms: they needed total cleaning, so that the P-38 look would disappear as much as possible: intercooolers and turbochargers had to go, and the engines were to "disappear", too. The Airfix kit is pretty old and clumsy, but offers massive material to work with. Another positive aspect is that the main landing gear compartments are complete parts, including the doors and all the inside. A neat arrangement which would later allow a switch between extended and retracted wheels!

The Panther's fuselage was cut open at the rear end to hold the BMW 803 engine, which requiered a new cowling. This came from a Dornier Do 217 with BMW 801 engines from Italeri, the BMW 803 dummy inside comes from a Matchbox F4U kit. The diameters of both segments were pretty equal and were easily merged with putty.


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) - Work in progress #8 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The Panther's front end was taken as it is, including the cockpit. The latter is actually very detailed for a Matchbox kit, with side consoles, a dashboard with instruments and even steering stick is included. I just fitted a better seat and a WWII pilot figure, which received an oxygen mask and its head was turned left for a more vivid look.

Since the front wheel had to be much longer than the Panther pieces I decided to use the P-38 front landing gear. Consequently, I enlarged its compartment (towards the nose, with a transplanted interior) and moved the Panther's nose guns from their original low position upwards.  The kit's nose was filled with lots of lead in order to ensure a good weight on the front wheel for free standing on its tricycle undercarriage.


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The BMW 803's contraprops had to be built from scratch. The basis were two leftover three-bladed rotors from the aforementioned Do 217 Italeri kit (they had just the correct diameter!) for the static display version, and two transparent plastic discs of the same diameter in  order to mimic running propellers for photo shooting purposes in flight.
The spinners were a nightmare, though. They come from a wrecked 1:72 Hasegawa kit of a Chance Vought XF5U-1 (The "Flying Pancake"). Cut into three pieces, the three-bladed props were implanted into the spinner segments and a metal axis inserted, so that the propellers can be moved and interchanged. A plastic tube inside of the engine dummy is the respective adapter and offers a stable hold.


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) - Work in progress #5 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Trouble! ...and even more trouble!

As rough work progressed, some fundamental problems became obvious:

a) the P-38 booms were too long at their front, and their diameter was much too large. Cutting the front ends off did not help much, since I would have had to create new front covers/noses from putty and their bulky shape would look very unsinspired - way off of the Focke Wulf design! Hence, I finally decided to switch my personal design plan from the wing root intake arrangement to the authetic twin drum radiator layout from April 1943.
The Panther's air intakes would be totally closed, leaving pretty "fat" wing roots of high thickness. But since armament was supposed to be loacted in both the nose and wing roots of this machine (see below), this offered a good chance to cover the mess up a little.
Finding something to act as drum radiators was another problem that followed suit! At first I thought I'd become happy with two leftover engines from a Matchbox PB4-Y2 Privateer in 1:72 scale. These are/were actually Twin Wasp radial engines, but their diameter, the grates inside and their cooling flaps made them suited for my kit. They fitted well, but it just did not look right (see some of the WIP pics).

Heavy-hearted I skipped this approach and also built the drums radiators from scratch. I finally found some good parts in model railraod equipment: in a HO Modulars set from Cornerstone with various roof detils for industrial buildings, I found two nice "tubs" (parts for motorized vents) which were merged with lots of putty and sanding onto the clipped tail booms. The radiator arrangement inside was made up from parts from a 1:72 scale Panzer IV(!) and from the Airfix P-38 spinners. The cooling flaps are very thin Plasticard. Comparing this solution with the original plane sketches, the result looks convicing and more "realistic" than originally planned! Whew...


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) - Work in progress #12 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) - Work in progress #13 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

b) The wing root/twin boom area was another source of headaches, since I had to merge parts that were never supposed to meet, in places even less intended for construction. But a mini drill with a diamond cutter and epoxy putty are wonderful things!
Spacers between the Panther hull and the booms had to be made, closing a 5mm gap on each side because the propeller needed this much space between the booms. Parts of the leftover Panther kit's outer wings were the basis, and the original P-38's horizonmtal fin could be used, too. Sound simple, but almost the complete area had to be remodeled with putty.


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) - firing a X-4 missile by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


The big picture becomes clear(er)
Now that the main part of the body was finished, the final missing pieces could be added and first details defined.

For the outer wings, I finally settled on parts from a Me 262 from Hobby Boss. These have the advantage that they are massive pieces (not two halves, as usual) and that the Me 262's engine nacelles could easily be left away. As a result, I had two thin, slightly swept wings which could easily be cut into the right length for my project. Fixing them to the P-38 tail booms was another story, though!
The original Focke Wulf design uses simpler and thicker wings, which look very similar to the Do 335. But I justify my choice with the advancements in aerodynamics since the 1943 revision of the original plane's design and the effective introduction of the Me 262 into production and service. Using these parts or a similar design for high speeds in another airplane appears plausible in order to get this machine into the air quickly, and the slender Me 262 wings blend well with the angles of the inner wings from the Panther.

The vertical fins also puzzled me for some time. The round P-38 fins had definitively to go, but the different Focke Wulf design sketches did not show a definitive vertical fin shape or arrangement. Since I wanted an old-fashioned, not jet-like look, I went for parts from the scrap box again. And, believe it or not, the model's retro-looking vertical fins actually come from a helicopter: from an antique 1:72 scale Kamow Ka-25 "Hokum" from Airfix!


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) - Top view by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The main landing gear was taken from the P-38, but the wheels come from the scrap box. I am not sure where these come from - they could come from a Douglas Skyknight from Matchbox. Since the Airfix kit's contruction offers the main landing gear to be inserted as complete units, I also used the covers for the retracted gear for the photo shootings, for some pictures in flight.


Armament:
Being a heavy daylight fighter, I stuck to the original 1941 design armament: four fixed 20mm MG 151/20 in the nose, plus "provision for  two larger calibre cannons", plus two or four machine guns installed in the wing-roots. The firepower would have been massive!

For my model I adopted the four 20mm guns in the upper nose and added four 30mm MK 103 cannons in the wing roots. Since these offered now lots of space, this arrangement would make the thick wing and the blended bodywork plausible, without looking exagerrated.
The nose guns are just thin polystyrol sticks, the larger calibre guns are syringe needles cut to length with the beloved diamond cutter.


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) - Detail by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

But beyond the guns, I also wanted to add some of the experimental air-to-air weapons that were under development against allied bomber forces in 1945. Among those was the world's probably first guided AAM, the Kramer X-4: a relatively small, wire-guided missile with a range of just 3 miles and a contact detonator.

Tests with this innovative weapon were conducted in the late war months, and the X-4 was suppoesed to be carried by e. g. Me 262 fighters. The targeting procedure would easily overstress a single pilot's capabilities, though, esp. in the heat of a bomber formation attack at high speeds. Therefore, field tests were rather performed by multi-seated planes like the Ju 88, and the X-4 did not enter serious service.


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) - Work in progress #3 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

But this missile would have been a plausible weapon for this Focke Wulf design, and so two X-4s found their way with starting racks under my model's wings.
Each missile consists of nine parts and had to be built from scratch. The body is a streamlined, modern 250 lbs. Mk 81 bomb, the wings were cut from thin polystyrol. The wire spools on the wing tips are actually parts from a HO scale fence(!), the acoustic detonator nose are leftover tool handles from a 1:35 scale tank kit.


Livery and markings:
Being a semi-fictional design that never left the drawing board, I tried to implement a "typical" late war Luftwaffe livery. Benchmarks were Me 262 fighter paint schemes, as well as late Fw 190D-9 and Ta-152 machines. Since the plane itself was already centre of attraction, the paint job should be rather subtle, yet authentic.


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) - Work in progress #17 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) - Work in progress #19 by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

All interior areas (cockpit, engine, landing gear) were painted in RLM 02. For the outside I ended up with a basic livery in RLM 74/75/76, using colors from Testor's Military Models and Figures range, 2071, 2084, 2085, 2086.
The upper splinter scheme with faded/mottled fuselage sides (which includes RLM 02 in order to create a soft color transition from the dark upper sides into the light RLM 76 underneath, a common practice in field conditions) was derived from a Me 262 profile. This machine also contributed the dark green (RLM 82) color fields on the nose and other fuselage parts. These would not have been standard livery, I think, rather improvised in the field. But this subtle detail prevents the plane from being all grey-in-grey.


1:72 Luft '46 - "Red 3" Focke Wulf Fighter with BMW 803 engine (kitbashing/scratch-built) - Detail by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The markings come from various decal sheets and were a kind of challenge. I intended to mark this machine as being part of an Erprobungskommando (test unit), or EKdo or EK, for short. But these squadrons would not have special designations, though. Prototypes woud carry a "V"-number (for Versuch/test), but I wanted a machine already in service. So I made up a semi-fictional squadron marking as a part of the late Reich defense.

Typical markings are the colored band at the rear fuselage, its color and scheme being associated with certain Jagdgeschwader (JG) wings, dedicated to interception tasks. The red tail band(s) denote this machine as being part of JG 1, which comprised several Staffeln/groups and squadrons with individual emblems. The JG 1's red tail band would not have been used in the late war years in real life, but, hey, it LOOKS good, and we're finally doing fictional things here! As a side note, JG 1 was the only wing (to be exact: 1./JG 1 and later, in April 1945 III./JG 1) to use the He 162 Salamender jet fighter, so JG 1 appears to be a general plausible choice for this fictional Focke Wulf fighter.
The red wave symbol should, AFAIK, mark the 2nd group of that wing, but it could also be a symbol for the pilot's rank - that's quite obscure and had not been handled consistently. For squadron markings I setlled on 6./JG 1 - the red wyvern was this group's squadron emblem.

Decals come from aftermarkets sheet from TL-Modellbau (superb quality) and others i e. from a MiG-25 from Hasegawa (the red bort number) or the leftover decal sheet of the Hobby Boss Me 262 (mostly stencellings and warning signs).

After application of the decals on the semi-matte paint, everything was sealed under matte varnish.

The X-4 missiles were painted in a color livery I found for a museum X-4. Other test missiles were painted in black and white, checkered. Not sure if the field use missiles would have looked that bright, but for a test unit, the blank fuselage and the hi-vis, orange fins look just right and make a nice contrast to the dull rest of the machine.


Finally...
Lots of work, but the result looks better and more harmonious than I expected. O.K., the Panther's fuselage and cockpit deviate from the Focke Wulf sketches - but the plane I built would have had entered service 3 years after its redesign to the drum radiator design, and details like the bubble canopy or more modern weaponry would have certainly been incorporated.
The finish is not as good as a kit "out of the box", but considering the massive putty work, this machine looks quite good

And, after all, it is a fictional design!

[Caveman]

Amazing vision on that one and a great write up cheers dizzy!

[comrade harps]

Looks the goods. 

[The Wooksta!]

According to one of the books, there was one variant of the Fw design with annular radiators so that's not too far a stretch.

Kits of the original design did come out. Toad Resins did one, with white metal parts but there was an earlier kit in resin from a little know German outfit called G Modell*.  I've got the remains of one somewhere.


*They did a few other things.  An Me p.1110 (the one with the annular intake), an Me P.1112 and a Bv 144 airliner.  There may have been more but those were the only ones I've seen and the last one is one of my Holy Grails.  Some also came out in vacform - I had the two Messerschmitts.

[NARSES2]

Superb build and write up 

[Old Wombat]

Until I read the bit about the "annular radiators" I was a tad confused by the fronts of the booms but, now, I understand!

Then I looked up the BMW 803 engine & discovered it was a liquid cooled radial & everything made sense!

Awesome!

[Dizzyfugu]

Thank you all! Yes, the BMW 803 was a pretty weird engine. Not only that it was a water-cooled radial engine, it actually was an in-row design: six four-cylinder rows in a star pattern, not as "asymmetricals" (and more compact) than a normal multi-row radial engine. Background for this was the modular design of the BMW 803 - it could easily have been "lengthened" for even more output... Focke Wulf's designers just built the aircraft around this massive power block, and the radiator designs were ... strange. The one with the drum cooler in the aircraft's nose looks even more weird than my final version.

[Tophe]

Wonderful mix! Congratulations!

[dumaniac]

very nice build and story

[The Wooksta!]

I know it started as a developed Fw project but something about the finished article just screams Arado at me.  Possibly the tail fins and the overall look is very E.340.  I can't see any Kurt Tank/Fw design elements in it.

Sounds daft?  Look at Hawker aircraft, there are recognisable elements in each design which say it's the work of Sidney Camm.  Ditto Bristol, Blohm und Voss, etc.

[tc2324]

Hope you don`t mind Dizzy but I thought I`d play around with your pictures on this great build and here`s the results. 

[Dizzyfugu]

Nice! 

[Dizzyfugu]

I know it started as a developed Fw project but something about the finished article just screams Arado at me.  Possibly the tail fins and the overall look is very E.340.  I can't see any Kurt Tank/Fw design elements in it.

Sounds daft?  Look at Hawker aircraft, there are recognisable elements in each design which say it's the work of Sidney Camm.  Ditto Bristol, Blohm und Voss, etc.

Does it really matter? If you take a look at the original 1st generation sketch of this machine (the one from luft46.com), it hardly cries Focke Wulf at all. Totally agree that the overall lines rather look like an Arado or even Heinkel design, though, but I tried to take stock material and stay true to that sketch, even when it might be 4-5 years virtual time gap between the original design and what I whiffed from it.

[Army of One]

Spanking build.....love it.....love the colours n markings....H

[albeback]

Niiiiice!!!!!

Just out of curiosity, did I see what appeared to be a bang seat of some kind in the cockpit?  I reckon you'd need one to avoid being sliced & diced in the event of a bail out!