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Messerschmitt P.1101 ‘Nightfighter’ (48010) 1:48 RS Models As the war turned against Germany in 1943-4, the German Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM), or Ministry of Aviation in English, issued a specification for an Emergency Fighter Programme, which was to become the Volksjäger, or People’s Fighter programme, based upon the desire for the resulting aircraft to be easily piloted by a novice so that members of the public could be drafted in to fly them after only a short period of training. They had high hopes of darkening the sky with these aircraft and destroying the Allied bomber streams, although this was clearly over-optimistic, especially given the parlous state of German industry at the time, and the poor availability of advanced metals to make the engines that were to power them. Messerschmitt’s Dr. Woldemar Voigt created a basic design for the programme under the name P.1101 only a few days after the requirement was issued, which implies that work had already been underway on a similar project in anticipation. It was to be powered by the Heinkel HeS.001 engine, which was an advanced engine that was still under development, and would remain so for the rest of the war, partly due to the lack of metals that could stand up to the heat generated. The design progressed through various incarnations, considering alternate power sources, changing the variable geometry compound-swept wing to those of the Me.262’s outer panel, and considering then rejecting a V-tail, but keeping the extended fuselage and mounting a standard swept tail design instead. By the time the contest was decided, the Focke-Wulf Ta.183 design was selected, but the P.1101 was retained as a back-up on reduced funding, in part because considerable design work had already been carried out, and many of the problems encountered had been resolved. Its simplified, more practical form carried a single pair of Mk.108 30mm cannons in the sides of the cockpit in cramped compartments near the main gear, retaining the initial tricycle landing gear design with the nose gear in the front of the pointed nose where the intake trunking was sited. As the intended Heinkel engine was still non-operational at the time, a working Jumo 004B unit was installed for test flights. The Front was approaching the test site at Oberammergau, and on 29th April 1945, the American infantry that over-ran the base were surprised to find the partly-finished prototype tipped up onto its tail with missing panels and partly completed wings. Several photos were taken of soldiers and other service people posing next to the aircraft, which have provided some interesting references to researchers post-war. The airframe was eventually shipped to the US, where a look-alike was completed as the Bell X-5, taking the ground-adjustable wing-sweep and making it so that it could be adjusted on the fly, quite literally by the pilot. Bell had intended to create a low-cost fighter for NATO forces base on the design, but the unpleasant spin characteristics of the airframe led to cancellation of the project, which with hindsight would probably have ended the P.1101’s career with the Nazis too. The Kit This is a brand-new tooling from RS Models of this innovative design that almost flew during WWII, but has been consigned to the Luft’46 category, even though it continued development under the auspices of Bell after the war. Most Luft’46 or paper-projects are tooled in 1:72, which is a blow for 1:48 builders such as myself, but RS Models have made my year by tooling this in 1:48. The kit arrives in a modestly sized top-opening box with a dramatic painting of the Night Fighter on the front with its whisker-like antennae bristling from its nose, and there are another two boxing options available if you prefer, one of the captured prototype with a couple of alternative in-service decal options, and another boxing with in-service decal options and rockets under the wings. We have the Night Fighter variant to review, and that suits me just fine, as I have a thing about Night Fighters for no reason that I can explain. RS Models produce kits that are somewhere between mainstream and medium-run, so although detail is relatively good, there will be some ejector-pin marks to deal with, and areas that the detailers may wish to improve upon. That said, the exterior detail is excellent, with fine recessed panel lines, a good cockpit on which to base your efforts, plus a choice of additional fuel tanks, a pair of well-detailed Ruhrstahl X-4 air-to-air missiles, and a set of radar antennae whiskers. Inside the glossy top-opening box are two large sprues of grey styrene, a small sprue of clear parts, a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, decal sheet, and combined instruction booklet and painting guide, printed in colour on glossy paper. Construction begins predictably with the cockpit, adding side consoles and a rear bulkhead to the floor, then installing the seat, rudder pedals on a cross-bar, and the control column atop a conical base. The instrument panel and electrical panel are applied to the starboard fuselage half, but first the intake trunking is made from the nose cone, with two-part trunk installed in the rear, and a blanking plate preventing a see-through look. The trunk has a couple of raised ejector-pin marks inside that you may wish to remove, or you could paint the interior your blackest black and ignore them. The intake is inserted into the front of the starboard fuselage half along with the nose gear bay, which also has an ejector-pin in the centre that will be seen, so choose your preferred method of cutting it back and smoothing it out before gluing it into the fuselage. The main gear bays also have ejector-pin marks in the centre, so while you have the tools out, you might as well deal with those too, which shouldn’t take long. Each bay is shown having the gear legs installed, with separate oleo-scissor links, and two retraction jacks that fit into recesses in the bays, adding a two-part wheel to the axle at the bottom of the leg. I’ll be trying to leave the gear legs off until after painting when I build this, as I’m a clumsy modeller. The cockpit is added to the starboard fuselage, as is the main gear bay, creating the exhaust from three parts, including a blanking plate that would have benefitted from a rear engine face engraved inside. A deflector plate fixes to the margin between the intake and rear fuselage, closing it up by joining the port side and its gear bay. The bay doors can be fitted to the top of the bay cut-out, but they’re better left off until after main painting. The wings are each made from two halves, and slot into the fuselage sides on tabs, taking care to align them correctly with zero dihedral. There is a choice of two tail styles, either fitting a flat-topped fin with T-tail on top, and sanding and filling the elevator root fairings on the sides of the fuselage, or fitting a traditional fin and slotting separate elevators into the root fairings mentioned earlier. I think I’m going to need two of these now! The canopy is provided as a single part, so if you’re very brave, you might consider cutting it, or just leave it as one part, fixing it in place with some non-fogging glue. There are two external fuel tanks that are built from halves, adding a short pylon and two sway-braces between them, and a pair of X-4 missiles in halves that have two fins moulded-in, and two more fitted into slots on the perpendicular sides, adding a tail cone at the rear, and the pylon between two fins. The fuel tanks are shown located on the inner wing, with the missiles on the outer position, although the instructions show them perpendicular to the trailing edges of the wing, which would have horrible aerodynamic qualities. Rotate them inboard a little match the line of flight for a more realistic appearance. The nose gear leg has its wheel moulded-in, and two retraction jacks added to the rear, plus a side-opening door and another to the front that is captive to the strut. With the model almost compete and main painting too for the sake of the delicate parts, the four radar antenna can be installed on the nose, each one made from a pair of H-whiskers on an L-shaped mount that are etched as one part, thickened at the base by another L-shaped layer, and with a strengthening web at the base that is folded over around the support, as shown in the scrap diagram. Only the webs will need bending along the pre-etched lines, so they will be easy for even the novice to build, as long as you are careful with alignment in three dimensions, so check it from multiple angles before the glue fully cures. Markings There are three decal options for this speculative Night fighter, as it didn’t see service during WWII in Nazi or Allied hands. From the box you can build one of the following: NJG.1, Luftwaffe, 1946 NJG.3, Luftwaffe, 1946 Captured Airframe under test in Great Britain, 1946 The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that the carrier film on their decals can be coaxed away from the printed part of the decal after they have been applied, effectively rendering them carrier film free, making the completed decals much thinner and more realistic, and obviating the need to apply successive coats of clear varnish to hide the edges of the carrier film. It’s a great step further in realism from my point of view, and saves a good quantity of precious modelling time into the bargain. Conclusion Luft’46 can be a polarising sub-genre, getting some modellers unreasonably angry for no apparent reason, but it also appeals to many for the technical merit of these prototypes and paper projects that could have made a difference to the outcome of the war if they had been created sooner, or in greater numbers. Thankfully they didn’t, but they’re still an interesting concept, and RS Models have done a good job of bringing this aircraft that almost was to 1:48 scale. Thanks guys! Can we have some more now please? Highly recommended. Nightfighter (48010) Day Fighter (48009) Captured Prototype (48011) Review sample courtesy of

Hello everyone! Here is one of the three kits I finished in the very last days of last year! It's a Focke-Wulf Fw 190F-16/R16. The F-16 was a planned but unbuilt final variant of the F family. Over a year ago, when I decided to start a run of Fw 190s which has been going on and off since then, I spotted this variant in the Valiant Wings Airframe & Miniature No.7 book on the radial engine versions of the Fw 190 and what sparked this project was having a four-bladed propeller on an F-model. Seeing this project was feasible for me, taking into account the other modifications to make, I bought what I needed and only in October did I finally get on with it. I decided to use an Airfix Fw 190A-8 kit as the base since it was considered decent (despite some negative aspects) and, above all, cheap. I almost regretted it when I struggled with the poor fit around the nose area! Anyhow, I managed to pull through and had fun making the modifications and some improvements. This build dragged on for over two months because I kept taking on completely different builds simultaneously, something I will not do again... The Fw 190F-16 variant has three major differences to the A-8/F-8: 1 - The four-bladed propeller. This I made using spare wider blades from Eduard kits. The remaining parts were from the Airfix kit. I modified the spinner to have four perpendicular openings for the blades. 2 - A Ta 152 tail. I used an AML resin tail set for the Fw 190D. The forward section of this part had to be cut off as it was the fuselage extension for the D. I had to open up a bay for the tailwheel. 3 - Extensions in the wing root. I used scrap plastic and CA glue sanded to shape to make these. This version had the late-type blown canopy which was in the Airfix kit but the related headrest wasn't so I used a spare one from an Eduard kit. The blister for the underside loop antenna was removed and an aerial further back was made from stretched sprue as was the radio wire above. The outer panels of the wing undersides were sanded smooth and the outer guns cropped as they were not used by the F family. The book depicted an R14 subvariant with a standard torpedo. I decided to use a pair of Airwaves white-metal BT400s which I have long had in my stash, thus making this an R16 subvariant. I made the underwing FuG 101 radio altimeter antennae from sprue. One of the Airfix kit's negative points is the main undercarriage. I shortened the legs in the oleos 1.5mm and did the same to the doors. The main wheels were replaced with spare ones from an Eduard Fw 190A-5 kit I built earlier this year. The scheme, completely fictitious of course, was an attempt to make one for low-level attacks over water. I have made some other "what-if" naval attack aircraft kits but using greys so this time I went for a late-war green. I felt a wavy pattern would be better than squiggles and had the insignia in minimal (outlined) versions to aid in the camouflage. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. Some of the decals were from the kit, the rest being from spares or generic sheets. Despite some troubles, this was a fun project and I'm very pleased with the result and really glad I made it. For some reason, it looks mean and heavy with the four-bladed propeller. Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome Miguel

My main build for this Blitz is the Revell Me P1099, only issued once in this version, all the way back in 1996: Parts all still on their sprues: As I mentioned in the chat thread, this aircraft was only ever intended to be a two-seater, but this version is a single-seat with a big empty gap in the back. I’d originally intended to 3d print some better seats and some detail for the rear of the cockpit, but I found a pair of Quickboost resin Bf-109 seats and some leftover PE from my F-5 build in the spares box, which is probably good enough for the rear of the cockpit as I doubt much will be seen back there once the canopy is on: All I’m actually going to print now is a wedge-shaped block to sit between the seats for a bit of support. As I’m building two kits (have a look at my Mustang thread for the 2nd), I’ll take advantage of the rule allowing us to take the main bits off the sprues in advance, ready to get cracking on Saturday. James

Lots of us have an interest in all those madcap creations that the Germans were working on at the end of WW2, so how about a GB dedicated to them? As far as I see it, the rules on eligibility should be pretty straightforward: Any aircraft under active development that didn’t achieve operational status before May 1945, or that would have achieved it in late 1944 onwards for cancelled projects. Bring on your Amerika Bombers, emergency fighters, way-out-there ideas etc. If you need some inspiration, it’s a pretty safe bet to say anything on http://www.luft46.com/ will be eligible. I’m also willing to accept proposed variants as well, so an Ar-234 P or D model would be eligible, but the B & C models that saw active service wouldn’t. If in doubt, ask! James 1 (Host) @81-er 2 (Co-Host) @JOCKNEY 3. @Corsairfoxfouruncle 4. @Marklo 5. @Evil_Toast_RSA 6. @Mottlemaster 7. @trickyrich 8. @Mike 9. @Alan P 10. @Adam Poultney 11. @TimJ 12. @Hockeyboy76 13. @Christer A 14. @trickyrich 15. @Silenoz 16. @Dermo245 17. @Arniec 18. @48-Alone-Is-Great 19. @Ralph 20. @Thom216 21 @Mig Eater 22. @jackroadkill 23. @SafetyDad 24. @Retired Bob 25???

This is my latest finished model, the Revell kit of the Arado Ar E 555 in 1/72. The kit is a lot of fun to build and very well detailed. I designed the paintjob myself with the idea that this would be a night bomber, hence the black underside and the RLM 74/RLM 75/RLM 76 splinter pattern. Modifications made were: Modified the front undercarriage strut and made it so it could be added later on in the build Added some detailing in the undercarriage bays 3D printed seatbelts Replaced all the gun barrels and the pitot with brass tube Modified the top turret so it could be painted separately and added later Added weighted effect to the wheels using heat Added wire brake lines Modified the exhausts so they could be painted separately to the main engine pack and added later Strut to support the open hatch made from brass wire Home made decals incorporating my initials into the aircraft code on the fins The WIP is here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235108808-172-revell-arado-are555-finished/ Photos: And a couple of the cockpit before it was closed up: James ***** Postscript 18/05/2023 After having won it’s class at one of our monthly meetings, this was on the table for my club’s finals night last night, to be judged by some chaps from a nearby club. It won the 1/72 aircraft class, making it my first medal-winning model. A bit of a surprise as there was some tough competition, but I’m over the moon regardless James

With one Luft ’46 project out of the way, I fancied digging another one out of my extensive pile of them on Tuesday night. My chosen victim was this: Not a massive amount on the sprues, but nicely moulded. The clear parts are also nice & clear, but I may give them a dip before they make it onto the model even so: Decals aren’t looking bad considering they’re 25 years old: I managed to get a lot of parts off the sprues quite quickly. And even glued the halves of the wing sections (all three of them!) together: And a load of parts mounted ready for painintg: And the rudder pedals glued on. I’ve actually installed these upside down to the instructions, because they just looked wrong the “correct” way up: As that was the end of Tuesday’s work, I’m going to break the post here and do another for yesterday’s work. James

Hello guys! Here are some photos of my most recent model, the Hobbycraft Ar 234. The kit is not as refined as the Hasegawa one, but it looks alright.

As alluded to in @Thom216's thread, after the nightmare I had the last session on the Hercules, I pulled this out of the stash last Monday as something I could work on and (hopefully) finish fairly quickly, as everything else was waiting on paint. Now that the painting backlog is dealt with, I’m dropping the first 3 instalments of this in one go… Something a little different, after the frustrations of the Hercules. I like the “odd” subjects and Luft ’46 stuff (the engineer in me loves the madcap technological leaps they were trying to make), so this is right up my street. I also have a bit of a thing for this particular aeroplane, I *ahem* may have three of them in the stash *cough*. I’ve got two of the original 1998 boxings, as well as one of the 2012 reissue. This is the most recently acquired of them, bought from a US seller on a well-known auction site at the end of March. I went for this one as unlike the other two this one wasn’t boxed, and also unlike the other two, this one doesn’t seem too badly affected by the visible ejector marks on the exterior of the parts which seem to be a feature of this kit. Sprue shots: There’s some really nice detail on the parts: Clear parts are generally very good, just a bit of flash and a couple of areas that might benefit from some Micromesh: Finally, a lovely set of decals. Printed in Italy, so possible Cartograph? I first found this place by stumbling on Nigel Heath’s Dalek thread, and his thread on building this kit is what made me aware of it. I’ll therefore be using his WIP thread here as a reference for any pitfalls and ideas for extra detailing. I don’t think I’ll produce as good a result as Nigel, but I’ll certainly be trying! Enough waffle, on to the build! The cockpit tub, pilot/bombardier’s seat backs, and the gunner’s seat were all removed from their sprues: The moulded-in belts need to go, and the main seat bases need some filler to deal with the sink marks. I’ve got some Kitsworld 3d printed seatbelts to try out for this: The worst of the belts on the backrests were removed with a knife, no need to be absolutely perfect as the 3d belts are wider than the moulded ones: Being forewarned about the nose gear being inserted very early in the build, I followed Nigel’s example and modified mine so it can be installed after painting: I’ll also be following Nigel’s lead and replacing the braces with rod, but I’ll have to order some as I don’t have anything suitable. I did a bit on the nose wheel well, adding some ribs (more to be added next session), as well as a couple of fillets of plasticard to close off the back of the original nose gear mounting points ready for filler: Deciding on the exact colour scheme for this one has been a hard choice. It was always going to be one I’ve designed myself, but the (dis)advantage of being a CAD-monkey for the day job is that I have the ability to create far too many options for myself (and the indecision over the scheme and the number of kits I own may be related…). I finally decided on a night bomber scheme, with a 3-colour splinter top surface: Unfortunately the jpg compression seems to have hosed the fidelity, I can assure you it’s nowhere near that fuzzy when printed on paper and that the glazing is very well defined! I knocked up the basic outline by tracing over an image in CAD, then tried out hundreds of colour/camo combinations. I’ve also got different schemes to try for the other two, as well as another I’d really like to build, so I may have to hunt out a 4th kit one day. Until next time James Session 2 of work on this commenced with finishing off the ribbing in the nose wheel well. Blu Tack was invaluable during this as it allowed me to stabilise the part exactly where I wanted it while I added the ribs. Nothing was measured, I eyeballed in where it looked “right” down one side, then aligned the other to it: I still need to finish trimming and sanding the ends flush with the kit part, but I’m leaving that for the next session as I really want to ensure they’re firmly stuck down. I also put the first round of filler in to hide the side mounting locations from the nose leg but figured that wasn’t worth a photo. I removed all of the bombs from the sprues, cleaned them up a touch, then assembled the main bodies. I’ll deal with the seams once the glue’s fully dry there and then add the respective tails for them after that: Speaking of sprues, I’ve already dispatched two of them. It’s not often you can dispense with 2/3rds of the sprues by removing only half a dozen parts! The one that’s left has all of the smaller/fiddly parts on it, so that requires some careful handling. I removed the components from the engine pack, but only photographed one of the exhausts. I was hoping there was a way I could paint the exhausts before assembly and add them after everything else was painted, but sadly there just isn’t a way of doing that with the way the engine pack is designed. Difficult masking in my future then. The reason I photographed the exhaust was to show these awkward gates: Clean-up on these is tricky with the proximity of the detailing, but 10-15 minutes with my micro chisel left me with something reasonable looking. I also drilled out the nozzle: I drilled out the nozzles on the rest but left the clean-up to another night when it wasn’t so late. I’m planning to paint the aluminium on the insides of the intakes prior to assembling the engine pack in the hopes that it makes it less tricky to mask that. Once they’re painted and masked, I’ll assemble the engines. The last bit I turned my attention to was the top gun turret. Nigel modified the turret on his build to allow him to add the guns to it after painting, which seems like a good plan. I’m taking a slightly different approach as my plan is to trim the retaining ring from the bottom of the turret so the whole thing can be removed/refitted at will, not just the guns as Nigel did. I removed the bits from the sprue to test my theory before I make irreversible mods and it looks feasible. Unfortunately, when I went to remove the guns, this happened: That happened as I clipped the first attachment point, as seen still attached in the photo. No idea what caused the gun to shear off, however I had been planning on replacing the barrels with tube anyway. I just hadn’t planned on replacing the section that joins the pivot as well! Out came the drill and I cut a length of 1.0mm tube for the outer and 0.8mm tube for the inner barrel. It looks off with the spacing in this picture, but I centred the hole on the mark left by the snapped off barrel: A bit more work later, and I had a matching pair: The barrels aren’t quite parallel with each other, but I have a plan to straighten them with some 0.5mm rod pushed down them to prevent kinking. I just wasn’t going to attempt that at 1:30am. Until next time James

Back with another one (coming thick and fast, hah). I've had this kit for at least two or three years. I initially built it all up, painted interior, and ran out of a specific paint colour for a single part in the cockpit. Ended up forgetting to do that for probably a year, leaving it with a loose, masked off canopy in place. It wasn't until I got an He-162 kit in the same scale and started pondering a combined 'what if' diorama that I restarted work on it. Unfortunately, that plan didn't come to fruition due to space concerns, and after I painted up, decaled and weathered the kit, I placed it in a shoebox for safety. Now that I've freed shelf space, I finally pushed to complete it on a new, smaller idea, still within that 'what if' concept and using my own scheme and markings set up (some of which were from the He-162 kit spares). This is the second completed on hold kit/diorama after my Corsair one, found here: And that's a wrap. Thanks for looking as always Gaz

The is a place setter for more pictures etc. to follow. Classic Luft 46 subject, legendary Unicraft quality of parts and fit. I'll post a picture of the parts later on I just need a stiff drink to steady my nerves first 🥃 Good luck everyone. cheers Pat

Here is another Luft 46 project I built back in 2014. It's a Blohm und Voss P.209.02 forward swept wing fighter project by Anigrand Craftswork in 1:144 and in resin. I added some belts in the cockpit, thinned the undercarriage bay doors as much as possible and split them according to references as opposed to what Anigrand seemed to propose. The kit was fully painted and varnished by brush. Thanks for looking Miguel

Here is my 1:144 scale Anigrand Craftswork resin Blohm & Voss P.215 which I built back in 2014. This was an unbuilt German WWII nightfighter project. I added details to the cockpit as this was meant to be a three-seater and the kit only came with two. Apart from scratchbuilding a third seat, I added belts, headrests, a stick for the pilot and some boxes in the rear section. I also thinned the undercarriage doors and added gun barrels from metal rod. The kit was fully painted with brush and only the Vallejo Satin varnish was airbrushed. This scheme came about as a way of fixing a scheme I wasn't happy with but since it's Luft'46, I can just about get away with it! Thanks for looking Miguel

Here is my Jach 1:144 Messerschmitt P.1101N which I built back in 2010. Jach offers a two-kit box covering two possible variants (A and N) of this unbuilt German WWII project. The "N" is a proposed nightfighter variant. I scratchbuilt a cockpit since there was none. The aerials came as etched metal parts. The kit was fully painted with brush except for the final matt varnish which was airbrushed. Thank you for looking Miguel

I started building 1/72 German WW2 jet & rocket models years ago and when I started building kits a few years back I got a Revell Messerschmitt P1099B kit. I saw some Luft 46 sketches of the P1099 built with just the upper rear facing guns and since the kit came with a rounded nose option I built it that way. I went on to start a Horton Go 229 kit as that aircraft always fascinated me. About half way through I started building 1/48 Cold War jets and the Go 229 got shifted to the shelf of doom. About 5 or more years ago I guess. Then recently @The Spadgent started his multi build project and I thought the Go 229 needed to be finished. So here they both are. Not the greatest builds, thing I would do differently now, but I like them, hope you do too.

Here are the other two of four Jach 1:144 Lippisch P.20s I built in 2018. As mentioned with the previous two, apart from scratchbuilding a cockpit and wing probe, I built them OOB. This was a proposed jet-engined development of the Me 163 Komet. Jach suggests the N1 version has an earlier radar type with nose antlers and the N2 has a dish-type radar. The aerials were etched metal parts. Both versions have hardpoints and I decided to use different loads, with a pair of drop tanks for the N1 and an assymetric load of a tank and an X-4 missile for the N2. They were fully painted and varnished by brush. First: Lippisch P.20N1 "Red 4", NJG2, Luftwaffe, 1946 (fictitious). Second: Lippisch P.20N2 "White6", NJG5, Luftwaffe, 1946 (fictitious). Thank you for looking. Miguel

Here are a pair of Messerschmitt P.1101s in 1:144 scale I built in 2010, one of Jach and the other of FE Resin. Since the Jach kit came with two different variants in the box marked as "A" and "N" (nightfighter), these are both"A" variants. First. Jach kit in fictitious JG3 markings. This was a plastic kit. I scratchbuilt a cockpit since there was none. The kit was fully painted with brush except for the final matt varnish which was airbrushed. I based the scheme on that used by several Me 262s of JV44. Second. FE Resin kit in fictitious JG7 markings. This was a resin kit. I only added a headrest to the cockpit. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. Thanks for looking Miguel

Here are two of four Jach 1:144 Lippisch P.20s I built in 2018. These were simple kits which, apart from scratchbuilding a cockpit and wing probe, I built OOB. This was a proposed jet-engined development of the Me 163 Komet. Jach suggests the B version has hardpoints for drop tanks or X-4 missiles whereas the A is clean so I did it this way. Both were fully painted and varnished by brush. Lippisch P.20A. Yellow 3, JG53, Luftwaffe, 1946 (fictitious). Lippisch P.20B. "<", Stab/JG27, Luftwaffe, 1946 (fictitious). Thanks for looking! Miguel

Here is a Focke-Wulf Triebflugel I built back in 2012. It is a Takara 1:144 gashapon pre-painted partially-assembled kit which I took apart, had the paint and markings sanded down and re-painted and re-assembled. The kit was a nightfighter variant hence the thimble nose for the radar. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush and decals came from various sources. It represents "Black 3", of an ISS (industry point defence) unit, Luftwaffe, Germany (fictitious of course). All comments welcome and thanks for looking Miguel

Here is my Special Hobby 1:72 Blohm & Voss P.212.03 "Strahljäger" which I built back in 2005. It represents a fictitious "Blue 14", JG54, Luftwaffe, in a winter scheme on the eastern front. This was a German WWII jet fighter project which was never built. The unusual wing design was proposed in several Blohm & Voss projects from a piston-engined fighter to a final twin jet-engined heavy fighter (I've built one and will post it eventually). Like all older Special Hobby kits, it wasn't an easy build. I recall adding details to the cockpit. It was mostly painted and varnished with airbrush with decals coming from the kit and elsewhere. The scheme was inspired by illustrations I had seen in a book. Thanks for looking and all comments are, as always, welcome. Miguel

1/72 Revell He 177 Greif, KG40 - Nuclear Torpedo Bomber - Luft '46 He 177, GP+RH, Kampfgeschwader 40 - Fliegerführer Atlantik (Flyer Command Atlantic) Imagine, if you will, that Germany, during the dying days of World War II, was the first to discover the atomic bomb. With the threat of submarine deployed nuclear suicide strikes off the coast of American cities, the War in Europe was brought to a swift and terrifying stalemate. This allowed Germany to rebuild and re-arm itself. Here we have the Heinkel He 177 long range nuclear capable maritime patrol bomber. Advanced lightweight alloys were used in the construction, improving aerodynamics and range. A bold red tail signified this as a nuclear weapons platform able to deliver the newly developed nuclear torpedo (2 carried). This advanced weaponry could destroy an aircraft carrier and most of it's Battle Group with a single strike. 2 x modified and highly advanced Henschel Hs-293 were carried for BVR reconnaissance and to guide the aircraft to potential targets. The dawning of a new age was amongst us..... Cheers all, Stay safe. Phil

Hello everyone! Here is my Anigrand Craftswork 1:144 Horten Ho XIIIb finished in fictitious JG5 markings. I built this one back in 2013. The kit was built OOB and I only thinned the undercarriage doors as much as I could. Painting and varnishing was all done with brush and decals came from various sources since the kit's insignias were wrong for late-war fighters. Thanks for looking Miguel

Hello everyone! Here is my latest kit, completed this past weekend. It's AZ Model's 1:72 Messerschmitt P.1106T - the navalized carrier variant. I thought the concept so crazy and absurd that I couldn't resist getting it! I believe it's a first in Luft46 kits since I don't recall anyone releasing carrier-borne aircraft in this field. The instructions that came with the kit were for the B variants (the other two boxings), I'm not sure if by mistake or that's how they come with this kit. I had to refer to the boxart for the variant-specific parts (arrestor hook, underwing fuel tanks and gun pods. The build wasn't easy. The parts were a bit crude and with flash and needed plenty of cleaning up, reminding me of earlier Special Hobby and MPM kits. I built it mostly OOB only adding belts from Tamiya tape and replacing the wing pitot tube with one made from stretched sprue. I opened up the holes at the tip of the gunpod barrels. To get it to sit on its legs, I packed weight inside the engine and in the nose area above it. I made a forward u/c bay bulkhead to hold/hide the lead weights. I managed to get a reasonably good join of the wings to the fuselage but the other joins needed plenty of filling and sanding. The canopy was a poor fit and I only managed to get it in place after plenty of trimming and at the third attempt when I resorted to CA gel to hold it in place. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. I didn't like the options proposed by AZ Model so I made my own scheme. I used the decals from option 3 plus the anchors of option 2, all placed as I saw fit. The decals behaved well and reacted to Micro Set and Sol. Despite the difficult build, I enjoyed it and am glad I decided to build this "flying fish"! Thank you for looking and all comments are welcome as always Miguel

Here is my PM Model 1:72 Horten Ho 229B which I finished in a fictional nightfighter scheme back in 1999. This was a very basic kit and I recall scratchbuilding part of the cockpit. The main scheme was painted and varnished with airbrush and some decals came from the spares box. As always, thanks for looking and all comments are welcome. Miguel

Here is my Anigrand Craftswork 1:144 Arado E.555/1 bomber project which I built in 2008. The fictitious markings are for an aircraft of 4./KG26, Luftwaffe, in the MTO. Some of the thicker parts like doors and guns were thinned, some guns being replaced by metal wire. The kit was fully painted with brush with only the varnish being airbrushed. The codes and emblem decals came from a Minicraft He 111H kit. Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome Miguel

Heinkel He 111H-24 AEW "Blue A", the first of the H-24 series, Erprobungskommando Bremen, Luftwaffe, Germany (fictitious). Once the go-ahead was given for project Obertasse with the FuG 244 Berlin N-4 (later Bremen) rotating dish radar, it was proposed to use surplus He 111H aircraft as proof-of-concept machines due to the then unavailability of Ar 234s (the type chosen for the project) due to their need as bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Three He 111s were converted to the new H-24 sub-type with all weapons removed, the Bremen radar in a rotating dish on a pylon on top of the fuselage, and several other detection and communications systems installed, the most noticeable being the thimble nose attached to the forward turret. All windows were covered and the top radio mast moved back. The aircraft were flown by Erprobungskommando (operational test detachment) Bremen. At first they flew only at night under He 219 fighter cover and although several problems were encountered, these were solved in over a month and the concept proved a success. Seven more conversions were made before the concept was finally applied to Ar 234s and other aircraft. Only one was shot down and two were destroyed on the ground. The survivors were later used for tests. (This history is, of course, fictitious. Project Obertasse was real though, but it was never built). Once I learnt of the Obertasse project in the third book of the "Luftwaffe Secret Projects" I always had the idea of making an Ar 234 in this configuration but without a readily available 1:144 kit I haven't yet been able to. The idea for this He 111 "what-if?" came when I fouled up the clear parts for a previous Minicraft 1/144th kit. I could restore clarity to the two main parts but not to the nose turret. It hit me that the He 111, having been designed also as a transport plane, would also be an ideal AEW platform, and like this recover what could have been a lost kit. Thus, I made up a non-exitant final sub-type. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. Decals came from spares. Thanks for looking and, as always, all comments are welcome. Miguel