Revell 1/72 Flitzer

[Old Wombat]

Honestly? I'm not a Flitzer fan. 

I am, however, a MichelC fan, & will be watching avidly!

[su27rules]

Great work so far !!

[MichelC]

Thank you all! Flitzer fan or no Flitzer fan, you're all welcome and I always appreciate your comments!  

@Martixone, do you know why it was called 'Flitzer?'

@Old Wombat, thanks for the kind words!

M

[Army of One]

I am a Flitzer fan.......what will you be making the ZELL laucher out of......?  Decided about RATO's yet.......?

[matrixone]

Michel,
From what I remember from reading about the development of the Flitzer the word ''Flitzer'' means the same thing as 'madcap'...which makes me wonder if the Germans thought the design was crazy or crazy good. At any rate this Luft'46 design could have been developed into a usable warplane if given some time to do so which the Germans were short on time in 1945.


Matrixone

[MichelC]

I am a Flitzer fan.......what will you be making the ZELL laucher out of......?  Decided about RATO's yet.......?

The launcher will be this:





It's basically the base of an 88 Flak gun with a rail structure to shoot the a/c or missile from. The latter comes as piece of photoetch which seems much too flimsy and 2-dimentional so I'll have to replace it with a scratched structure made of styrene rods or better yet piano chord or the like.

For the RATOs I have 2 choices. One is the Schmidding 109-553 from the Enzian kit but then I won't have them if I ever decide to build the Enzian.  Unless I cast some resin copies? I've never done that but it might be an opportunity to learn.

The other choice is use the boosters left from the second Katsuodori kit (the Meng box comes with two complete kits inside). These can quite easily be converted into Schmidding 109-533 boosters, like those used on the Natter. Or something resembling them.

The deciding factor will be, once the airframe is assembled it has to be determined where the boosters fit best. The short fuse and booms don't lend themselves very well to have 4 boosters attached so that might be tricky.

M

[MichelC]

Michel,
From what I remember from reading about the development of the Flitzer the word ''Flitzer'' means the same thing as 'madcap'...which makes me wonder if the Germans thought the design was crazy or crazy good. At any rate this Luft'46 design could have been developed into a usable warplane if given some time to do so which the Germans were short on time in 1945.


Matrixone

The 'madcap' translation can be found in several Luft 46 references, even Dan Johnson's site, but it's actually a misconception. 'Flitzer' simply means something that goes fast like 'whizzer' or 'dasher.' Which was actually a joke. This is what Dan Sharp has to say in Luftwaffe, Secret Jets of The Third Reich:

"The design's non-rocket assisted maximum speed at any altitude was 515 mph -- making it one of the slowest jet fighters projects of the era and hardly a 'whizzer'."

My model is a rocket-assisted Flitzer, though, so it may well earn it's nickname after all!

If you want to know more about the term Flitzer you can also Google it and check the pics that come up.

What?

No, you shouldn't because Flizer has some other meanings in German that aren't to be discussed in polite society?



Ah, yesssss... that's true... may be embarrassing...

Please, er... don't google it, OK?

Noooooooo... Pleaaaaze, don't...google...it....



M

[Old Wombat]

For those who are confused, it seems to, also, be the German term for "streaker", as in "get yer clothes orf an' run around like an idiot (esp. on sports fields, etc.)".




(N.b: I'm not polite society. )

[NARSES2]

 

[Dizzyfugu]

"Flitzer" is a more or less colloquial term for sprinter or dasher, I think the latter would be a good English translation. 'Madcap' is a poor translation, IMHO, and does not really catch the spirit of the German name. It's pretty appropriate for a small sports car.

As a side note, today the term Flitzer also denotes this...

[MichelC]

Gee! I tol'you not to google it!



Dizzyfugu, you German?

M

[matrixone]

Michel,
Depending on which book you look at certain details of the Luft'46 designs (like the names of them) can vary widely. I can't remember which book I read that said 'Flitzer' meant the same thing as madcap.


Matrixone

[Old Wombat]

Yeah, I read the same thing but where I read it also pointed out the other, more common, interpretations of the word.

[Dizzyfugu]

Gee! I tol'you not to google it!



Dizzyfugu, you German?

M

Si.

[zenrat]

Gee! I tol'you not to google it!



Dizzyfugu, you German?

M

Si.

That's him in the photo...