Horten IX / Go 229 night fighter whif +++ New (and just) pics of a vintage kit

Dizzyfugu · October 16, 2013, 12:35:07 AM

With the He 100 G-2 finished I was just in a Luft '46 mood, and realized that I had a kit in store which lacked some good pics. So, here we go, as an encore. This is a real early whif of mine, probably from the mid 90ies before I caught the mecha/anime virus. Somehow it survived!

It's the excellent Dragon kit of the mysterious, experimental German WWII jet fighter. The kit had also been released in Germany by Revell, at half of the Dragon kit's price tag and with fictional day fighter markings, and this is the kit I actually built/converted. The kit is really great, one of the most delicate polystyrol/injection mold kits I have seen so far - and being semi-fictional, it is seductive to create a Luft'46 service version from it.

This is what became from it - with propably 20 years of dust on top of it...

1:72 Horten Ho IX/Gotha Go 229 A-2 Night Fighter; "3 Red" of V./NJG 1; Venlo, Netherlands; May 1946 (Whif/Dragon kit conversion) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 Horten Ho IX/Gotha Go 229 A-2 Night Fighter; "3 Red" of V./NJG 1; Venlo, Netherlands; May 1946 (Whif/Dragon kit conversion) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

As per usual, all pics done "as you see it", no composing. But a massive use of artistic picture filters on the BW and Sepia colors - the two latter ones were actually done with a film software instead of a still picture editor! Creative abuse of means and material, just like building model kits...

dumaniac · October 16, 2013, 03:39:05 AM

the first pic with camo over the urban area looks great - nice going

The Wooksta! · October 16, 2013, 03:44:57 AM

Revell's Ho 229 was always their own tooling.

Army of One · October 16, 2013, 03:58:35 AM

Some great pics there......how was the kit mounted for the photo....? This going back to the discussion re photo help...

Dizzyfugu · October 16, 2013, 04:33:59 AM

Quote from: Army of One on October 16, 2013, 03:58:35 AM
Some great pics there......how was the kit mounted for the photo....? This going back to the discussion re photo help...

This one was built with the landing gear up, so a display was added. It's a 2mm soft iron wire that sticks in a styrene tube and on a heavy base. The tube sits pretty far aft, under the fuselage in a 45° angle. In the pics, it has been edited away - an easy task thanks to its thinness

Army of One · October 16, 2013, 04:53:38 AM

Many thanks for the reply.......helpful as always....

Dizzyfugu · October 16, 2013, 05:44:43 AM

Check the photography thread, another picture of the Go 229 has been added there as well as more examples of non-edited, hidden displays and model holders.

Army of One · October 16, 2013, 06:07:39 AM

Cheers.....!!

sturmvogel · October 16, 2013, 06:28:57 AM

Since the Ho229 would have seen service mid to late 1945, wouldn't the FuG 240 'Berlin' radar be more appropriate?

Dizzyfugu · October 16, 2013, 06:36:22 AM

Yes. I spared the story here - it would be an interim solution. As a single-seater it would not be a good night fighter from the start, so my (late) justification is that this was a stopgap, converted from day fighters until the double-seater with a more up-to-date radar would be ready. But even then the antenna installation would not be correct - at the time of making the idea was more important than realism...

Army of One · October 16, 2013, 07:23:07 AM

I like all the pics but a fave is the 8th one down, the pilot looking into the lens....love it....

Dizzyfugu · October 16, 2013, 08:21:40 AM

Quote from: Army of One on October 16, 2013, 07:23:07 AM
I like all the pics but a fave is the 8th one down, the pilot looking into the lens....love it....

Yeah, it just turned out this way - before I did not notice that I had the head of the figure turned this way and even painted a face. I was very amazed (and pleased) when I checked the pics on the PC. One of those "larger than life" moments... But, on the other side, ist shows how much impact such small things can have. With the grainy look the shot looks very dramatic.

Army of One · October 16, 2013, 09:05:31 AM

It's great.....I once made an Me262 and a P80 which was in spurious markings on a stand...they meant to be on a head on pass at each other both canted over....... I had cut both pilots heads so it looked like they were eyeballing each other......

Tophe · October 16, 2013, 05:43:41 PM

Beautiful pictures of a great model, thanks.

NARSES2 · October 18, 2013, 03:17:01 AM

Terrific stuff