Blohm & Boss BV P-194

[81-er]

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

[81-er]

Yesterday’s work kicked off with getting primer on various bits, and then some top coats after it had dried. RLM 02 for the tail wheel well and interior of the front of the cowling:

 

 

More RLM 02 on the rear of the engine housing and the middle ring between the two banks (which I later realised should have been aluminium, so was repainted to suit). Alclad aluminium on the engine parts:

 

 

And some RLM 66 on the cockpit:

 

 

From looking at other builds, I knew the kit seat wasn’t great looking, as well as being ergonomically suspect as the base is longer than the back:

 

 

I bought a Quickboost resign Bf109 seat, which looked much better:

 

 

A bit of work to slim down the sides, and it fitted beautifully:

 

 

I’m going to get a few more as I can see them being useful for future Luft ’46 builds.

 

A bit of detail painting later (the best I’ve ever managed to paint a seat) and I slotted it into place. Literally. I slid it in for a dry fit, but with the paint build up the fit is so tight it’s not coming out again and isn’t glued at all. Just as well it was a perfect fit!

 

 

 

For scale:

 

 

The rest of the cockpit also got some details picked out, and the whole lot had a wash of Citadel Nuln Oil (I really like that stuff):

 

 

I reckon the cockpit will be glued up next session.

Other things achieved yesterday (though not necessarily in chronological order) were detail painting and a wash on the tail wheel:

 

 

Followed by a modification to the retention features for that to enable me to add it after painting:

 

 

Which let me close up the main fuselage:

 

 

The engine nose was given a coat of RLM 66 and then it all got a wash of Nuln Oil when that was dry. Not much point getting too detailed with this as it’s too poor to display with the cowling open, and almost nothing will be visible once it’s closed up:

 

 

That was then hidden inside the cowlings, like so:

 

 

 

I need to do some filling & sanding on the gaps there. The post sticking out of it is actually the peg the propeller mounts on, which I forgot to install before I glued the engine halves together. I’ve got around this by cutting the disk from the internal end off, and then gluing it in from the outside. I’ll trim to length when the prop goes on.

 

I painted the exhausts with Alclad exhaust manifold after drilling the ends out a little. A bit of a wash and then this area will be done as well, again another that will be virtually invisible once the mode is assembled:

 

 

That’s where things sit for now. Shouldn’t take too many more sessions to see this in paint. It’s proving to be a far faster build than I expected!

 

James

[AdrianMF]

Looks great! I have misgivings about the whole philosophy of Luft46 modelling, but I’m always interested in individual builds as WHIFs, just as long as you don’t tell me it would have won the war if it hadn’t rained that Tuesday

 

Regards,

Adrian

[81-er]

Thanks Adrian. I don't even remotely subscribe to the idea that these machines would have won the war for the Nazi's (or any of their ideology for that matter). What I do like about these machines is the crazy ideas their designers had, and the often unique and bizarre solutions that were proposed for “problems”. That very much appeals to the engineer in me. Plus, when you’re modelling something that didn’t make it off the drawing board, no one can tell you your paint job is wrong 😉. The downside to that (and that I’m a CAD user in my day job) is that you can come up with several designs or colour variations of camouflage that you can’t decide between, therefore you’re “forced” to buy enough kits to build them all. Which is how I’ve come to own four kits for this machine, and another three Ar 555’s to go with my recently completed one… 🤣

 

My Luft 46 GB proposal blatantly isn't going to get enough interes to make it into the Bunfight this year, so I'm thinking of relaunching it next year as a more inclusive "never made it's" to (hopefully) capture a wider audience.

 

James

[AdrianMF]

Fair enough! I've built a number of German WWI aircraft recently and even back then they seem to have had more interesting schemes than the British PC10 over linen.

 

Maybe "Project Cancelled" as a GB title? After the book of the same name. Plenty of UK projects from the 1950s and 60s in that category too.

 

I have to confess I have a fair number of the "Secret Projects" books (including the German ones) lurking on my shelves...

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Marklo]

Nice build.

 

I do agree I’m a bit conflicted on the luft ‘46 thing, I love the crazy technology and advanced ideas, but I am deeply concerned by the organisation they represent, one of the reasons that when I model German types I almost always go for alternative camo schemes without swastikas.
 

In an oddly roundabout way if German aviation development hadn’t been so diverse and spread out they might have actually produced some new types in a timely manner and sufficient quantity to influence the outcome of the war.

 

The other aspect of the luft 46 mythos is that the designs were actually effective. Now I know that some of the designs might have been mission specific e.g. point intercepters, but look at Russian, American and British aircraft from the lar forties and fifties and you can see what German technology was lifted and what wasn’t. There are no Russian me 262s or American junkers 287s yes the vampire, Sabres and Mig 15/17 do resemble German concepts there isn’t a lot more that does.

 

And my last comment is in the accuracy of the designs, a lot of the more widely known designs were ‘discovered’in the sixties or more recently, so we may never know which ones are real and which fictitious.

I’ll put my soapbox away now.

 

WRT to the GB proposal, what about planes that never flew (there’s a television series) that would encompass a lot of the luft 46 thing but broaden out the GB considerably. Actually I think that’s exactly what Adrian just said  

 

 

Edited September 23, 2022 by Marklo

[81-er]

@AdrianMF, I really like that idea for the name, thank you.

 

@Marklo, you may well be right about the "spread too thin" organisation of the German aircraft industry at the time. Probably just as well for the rest of us, mind you! I also agree on the accuracy of many of these Luft 46 designs, but I can't help liking some of them enough to not care about the accuracy.

 

I can well understand your choice to find a scheme without a swastika on it as well. I did put them on the Ar 555 because at the time it felt it made the model more "authentic", however I've become less comfortable with that decision since then. There are a number of schemes I'd like to build on other models that also come with some overshadowing of it potentially being a dubious choice ethically (Rhodesian, Israeli, and even UK to an extent depending on the timeframe and area of operation), but even so that particular symbol carries with it far more negative connotations that probably any other symbol in history. I'm going to leave them on the Ar 555 (especially since they're now under so many layers of varnish & weathering), but I think I'm highly unlikely to put them on any other model. There's far more of a case to justify them on a model of an actually operation aircraft from that time period, but with the Luft 46 stuff being in a fantasy world anyway, I reckon there's far more justification there for not putting them on as we can claim that Hitler was deposed and the new leadership rebranded.

 

James

[Marklo]

Put it this way if you think too hard about the hobby most of what we build is designed for the express purpose of killing people, on that  basis the swastika argument is moot, provided we’re not glorifying one of the most oppressive and evil political regimes in history.  You could also make the same argument for Stalinist Russia.
 

I’d also add as I have Jewish ancestry I’m not at risk of hmm becoming a neo fascist.
 

Hopefully those last comments haven’t strayed too close to political comment.

 

Personally I’ll build what interests me and the ideology behind the machine isn’t too relevant. I do like to either build an accurate/historically accurate model or be aware it’s a what if.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 26, 2022 by Marklo

[The Spadgent]

I love the look of this. I have the B&V  BV-141 in 1/48. Such an unusual looking family.

Great job with the office and the new seat looks brilliant. Lovely to meet you today, Telford is definitely on my list of things to do in November from now on. 
 

I’ll tag along with this build of I may.

 

All the best.

Johnny.

[81-er]

Pull up a pew, Johnny  Lovely to meet you yesterday as well. I managed to resist buying another of these as I found one for only £15 there, but I currently have four (including this one). Although I did cave on a 5th Ar 555 as it was only £20, rather than the £50-£60 on evilbay. I need to track down the 1/48 BV-141 after the move, I foolish thought there wasn't a rush as there were plenty new in the shops, and now they're all sold out 🤦‍♂️ Oh well, auction sites it is

 

I'm hoping to get a bit more progress on this before the move, I have closed up the cockpit though, and I'm dealing with the seams

 

James

[81-er]

Just a small update for now, as my move is out of the way and the bench finally set up. The Meteors are my main builds right now, but this is there on the sidelines. I’m working on the seams for now, not perfect yet, but coming along:

 

 

 

I’ve also been putting some thought into the paint scheme. I’ve shelved the original idea (for now, though I have another three of these in the stash and it’ll get used for one of those) and come up with something a little different. Still a splinter scheme, but with a twist. I’m hoping to get this into paint in the next couple of weeks.

 

James

[AdrianMF]

I like the infinite cutting board in the photos!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[81-er]

Oh, if only. It is A1 sized though, as my previous A3 board looked somewhat lost on my new workspace:

 

 

That's still a WIP, I'm going to add some wall units above for storage and somewhere to attach some lights (and my dad handily has a couple of spare wall units in his shed). I also need to sort out the righthand end to make some space for the spray booth, as  well as having plans to make the tool storage at the back a bit more user friendly/space efficient. It's better than any workspace I've had though, so I can't really complain.

 

James