Chris's alternative Luftwaffe

[Captain Canada]

Thanks for the numbers Chris ! Love the way those colours look together. That will be perfect for my D.520.

[RAFF-35]

Wow, never noticed the resemblance to the pucara before

[NARSES2]

Transfers are on. Hope to get her matted down tomorrow, she's doing my head in at the moment, so glossy 

[NARSES2]

Could have sworn I'd posted finished pics etc ?   edit - I did, opened a new thread  Anyway for completeness I'll put them here as well and go and have 40 winks as I'm obviously in need of an afternoon nap 

Anyway here they are

Designed as a competitor for the Messerschmitt Bf 110 the Fw 187 Falke suffered from the twin problems of a) being designed as a single seater when the Luftwaffe had wanted a twin seater and b) Focke -Wulf not having the political contacts of Messerschmitt. Never the less the company was sufficiently confident enough in the basic soundness of its design that it persisted with it and to placate the Luftwaffe hierarchy added a second seater. Although looking at his situation I have no idea what he did other than keep the pilot company. His view out was extremely restricted and with the 20mm canon magazines in front of his knees handling the radio must have been awkward to say the least. The Luftwaffe was still not keen however and when bribery failed they resorted to good old fashioned blackmail. Needs to say the details of this are far too sordid for a family site such as this but they did involve a senior Luftwaffe policy maker and one of Focke-Wulf's employees.

Thus with a small contract under their belts Focke-Wulf proceeded to produce a small number of A series machines for test purposes and this model represents one of those machines flying with 1./ZG 52 based in Northern France in July 1940. The Falke was as successful as any other German aircraft in the Battle of Britain and indeed was much liked by its pilots, no records survive of the second seater's opinions however !

Those pilots who flew both the 187 and the 110 in the main preferred the 187 and after the Battle and the inevitable inquests Focke-Wulf were given permission to farther develop the design. With the C model the aircraft returned to its original single seat configuration and at long last the Luftwaffe had a decent heavy fighter. The C model proved relatively successful in both the Russian and Mediterranean theatres but by 1944 and the advent of the D series most had returned to northern Europe and home defense. They took a heavy toll of the initial USAAF bomber raids but increasingly heavier armament installations and the provision of long range fighter escorts for the bomber streams meant that they suffered heavier losses as time went on, however with no replacement in site they soldiered on until the bitter end and were still capable of inflicting damage if the conditions were right.

As for the Me 110 ? After the Battle of Britain it remained in service with the Zestroyer Gruppe but as it was replaced by the Falke it was withdrawn to Homeland defense units. It was here it found its true niche with the addition of radar as a night fighter and it too was forced to soldier on to the end of the war as the Luftwaffe's procurement policies let it down again.

I've detailed the build above so won't go over that again other than to say that this was possibly the best short run kit I've ever built. There is a problem with the canopy fit as it protrudes very slightly over the forward "ledge" but that is me. Not sure exactly what happened but I think the pressure from the clamp used was not perpendicular. Paints were Xtracrylic with Humbrol, GW and Vallejo for the details. Transfers came from a Me 110 sheet by Techmod giving 3 Me 110 C's from 1939/1940.

I enjoyed this so much I have plans for a second which will be a single seater and possibly even a third which would use the engines from an old Italeri Me 410 that I have in the stash.

[NARSES2]

Given the real world Wildcat is moving along at a rate of knots now the next 2 GB builds have moved to the bench 

[NARSES2]

Right here's my next build, the B&V Ha 137 "Stuka"

Parts have had their wash and all lined up ready to go. This is how they came out of the box - excellent 

[JasonW]

Have the radial engine Ha-137 variant from Planet Models. Now I'm curious to see how that kit compares. I would think the kits are pretty close save for the fuselage halves. Will be watching this build closely.

Great job on the Fw-187, looks great.

[NARSES2]

I've built the Planet kit and it's very nice. The parts breakdown is a bit simpler than on this one. I also have the Olimp radial engine V2 in the stash.

The Olimp kits as a whole have a little more finesse than Planet. Don't get me wrong I really like Planet kits but Olimp are at the top end of the resin spectrum 

[Captain Canada]

Nice work Chris. She really came out nice. Of course I screwed up my own plan and completely forgot the colours I had wanted to use after looking at this. Oh well, live, forget, and learn. 

The next build sure looks interesting !

[The Wooksta!]

I've a really old CMK one somewhere, with wing and fuselage as a one piece cast.  Beautiful!

[NARSES2]

I've a really old CMK one somewhere, with wing and fuselage as a one piece cast.  Beautiful!

Must admit that era of CMK's of production are fantastic kits. I've a few in the stash, so quick to build

[NARSES2]

Ok so here's where we are with the 137



And I've started the He 100. Just cleaned up the major pieces and some initial assembly

[Captain Canada]

Nice work Chris ! She's looking good all together and the fit looks amazing.

[NARSES2]

Nice work Chris ! She's looking good all together and the fit looks amazing.

It is. The use of filler on the fuselage is totally my fault 

[NARSES2]

Small amount of progress, more details in my blog.

Here's the Ha 137 drying out awaiting priming. Those winglets were fun 



The He 100's innards and then all closed up after the first p.s.r. session