A
fierce air battle raged over
Holland
and the
north of
Germany
on
the 28th of
July 1943
, when the
American 8th air force had launched its first major bombing assault on the Third
Reich. The targets were the Fieseler factories in
Kassel
, and the
AGO Flugzeug Werke factories in Oschersleben. German fighters were scrambled from
all over
Holland
and
northern
Germany
to
intercept the largest American air assault up to that date. Uffz.
Bernard Kunze was one of the German pilots who took part in the battle of that
day. Kunze’s unit, the 1/JG1, was intercepting the formation of bombers
coming back from Oschersleben, when Kunze and his wingman noticed a lone, crippled
B17 trying to make its way back to
England
. The
straggling bomber was in a very dangerous situation: it had already
been damaged and it lacked protection from the formation, making it extremely
vulnerable. To Kunze and his wingman it must have seemed like an easy prey, and
they immediately turned and engaged the bomber. Kunze manoeuvred his
aircraft to get the bomber in his sights so he could give it the final blow. But
the moment Kunze was in position and fired his guns, the American
gunners suddenly fired back at him. The bomber’s defensive fire badly damaged
Kunze's aircraft and the next moment, the German fighter was plummeting to
earth. Kunze managed to get the aircraft out of its steep dive, but he had
little or no control anymore and he was still losing altitude. To his shock he
found that the aircraft was heading straight for the public open-air swimming
pool in Drachten (
Holland
), and there
was nothing he could do to avoid it. It was a warm, summer day and the swimming
pool was very crowded. The aircraft flew over the pool at very low altitude and
hit a woman standing on the edge of the pool with its wingtip. She was thrown
into the water but she was unhurt. Kunze’s flight finally ended at the other
end of the pool, where the plane came to a halt. All the people ran out into the
street in their swimwear, while Kunze walked over to the garage across the
street and called the nearby airbase of
Leeuwarden
to get a
car to pick him up.
I
came across this story in part one of "Sporen aan de Hemel"
("Traces in the Skies") by Ab A. Jansen. It is a three-volume work
about the air battle between the
US
and
nazi-Germany over
Holland
during the
second world war. Although it is slightly dated and at sometimes a little
confusing, it is an invaluable account and probably the most complete record of
the air war, and it is very helpful in historic research.
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I
wanted to build "Weisse 12", and I wanted to build it big, so I chose
the Revell Germany re-issue of the old Hasegawa 1/32 FW190 kit. There are some
big disadvantages to using the Revell version rather than the original. The
biggest problem is that it is issued as the FW190 F variant. It means that it
has a larger blown-up canopy which is useless if you’re trying to build an A
model. Fortunately I managed to trade my F model canopy for an A model with
someone. It has to be said that the front part of the new canopy is a lot better
than the original Hasegawa part, and if you’re building a F model Revell
provides an interesting set of underwing stores. Of course, if I were to do the
project again, I would use the new Hasegawa FW190 A8 kit.
When
I got started, the only reference of "Weisse 12" I had were two
blurry black and white pictures in Ab A. Jansen's book, and it was difficult to tell
what type of FW190 it exactly was. It was clear to me that it was either
an A6 or A7: The airspeed head was next to the outboard MG 151 22mm cannon.
However, a German soldier posing for the picture blocked the view of the cowl,
so I couldn't tell whether it had the flat A6 cowl covering the MG17 machine
guns, or the A7 cowl with the two bulges covering the much larger MG 131 machine
guns. Since in my opinion the A7 with the two bulges does look more attractive, and
since I had no proof of "Weisse 12" not being
an A7, I decided that "Weisse 12" was
an A7. My plan was to use the MG 131 guns from the Verlinden FW190 D9
detail set for my FW190 A7. I also planned to use some parts from the D9
cockpit as well to spice up the rather sparse interior provided with the kit.
However, after having bought the detail set, a relative of mine showed me a
book with another picture of “Weisse 12”, which clearly showed that the
aircraft was most definitely an A6 and not an A7. This meant that I could only
use the cockpit parts of the D9 detail set. But soon after this, Verlinden
released a detail set for the FW190 A, making my D9 detail set pretty useless.
The A set also provided the wrong machine guns, but it did provide a more
accurate cockpit, as well as a neat engine update, both of which the
old kit can really use.
I
used a lot of new techniques on this model. Apart from the first use of an
aftermarket detail set, I also had my first attempts at rescribing panel lines.
Another new technique was the masking and painting of the number 12 on the
fuselage. I had to make do with the standard Luftwaffe font even though my
references showed that “Weisse 12” had a more square font style. I first
painted the required surfaces white, and they were then masked off. I then
sprayed the surfaces black for the outline. I peeled off the first mask and very
carefully placed a slightly larger print out of the mask over the area. I then
painted the model with Tamiya acrylics. I started with the RLM 76 underside, and
then the upper surfaces that I painted RLM 74 and RLM 75.
For
the checkerboard nose I first calculated how many rows there had to be, and I
then I masked and painted one row at a time. It was rather time consuming but
the end result was satisfactory. The last surface that was painted was the
yellow underside of the nose. Somehow the project ran out of steam by this point
and the model lay collecting dust on a shelf for over a year, but then I picked
it up and started working on it again. I covered the aircraft entirely with a
nice shiny layer of acrylic clear to make sure the decals settle nicely. I used
many of the kits decals, but the fuselage crosses came from a spare source.
Unfortunately, the white of the crosses was less opaque than the white of the
12, so I had to mask off and paint the fuselage crosses as well. Apparently,
this minor setback was reason enough for me to put the model aside again for
another year, and it wasn’t until a friend of my brother’s went into an
office supply store to get something and I went in with him that I bothered to
buy some post-it so I could finish the job. It then took less than a week to
finish it. I did the final assembly of the canopy, antennae, propeller, and
landing gear. I replaced the kit cannon barrels with aluminium rod. The pictures
of the crashed “Weisse 12” show quite a lot scratches, dents and smoke and
oil stains on the aircraft, but I took into consideration that the aircraft had
just been shot down, so I kept the weathering on my model to a minimum. I
drybrushed some silver and aluminium around the engine and high traffic areas,
and I used some pastel chalk around the exhausts and guns.
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My
FW190 project started 3 years ago and I’m glad that I can finally say that it
is finished, and that the model actually looks as good as I had hoped that it
would. I owe a lot to Wayne Bowman; I browsed through the gallery of
aircraftresourcecenter.com to get inspiration for my model and I came
across
Wayne
's 1/32
FW190 A7 that looks absolutely awesome, and he provided me with lots of details
about how he built his aircraft, and he has been a great support throughout the
project.
I’ve
started work on the 1/32 Revell Messerschmitt Bf 110 nightfighter, and given my
rate of progress on the FW190, I suspect that it will be ready somewhere in
August 2054.
Elger
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