thibaultron

there is a glossary in the back of the book that lists all the planes that KG 200 used.......it's a very extensive list!  so far,  I've read about 30 pages into it....it covers the end of the Great war,  Hitler's rise to power,  and the early formation of the KG.   the Dornier Do 17 and the Heinkel He 111 were first produced as airliners.......as the Luftwaffe grew and expanded under Goring,  their rolls changed.  the roll of the KG 200 was primarily for reconnaissance......but their roll got a lot bigger later on.   the call lettering still has me confused.........it received the DL-XC call letters early on,  but I read that when the plane was sent to 1/KG 200 in Sept of '43,  the call letters were changed to A3-E3.   I have yet to see any pictures of the plane with these markings.  the plane was used in a number of secret missions...what became of it can be read here:
Wulfe Hound
 
I've ripped the plastic bag.......sizing it up at the moment.    scale is an odd character.......I measured the wingspan of the Revell B 25 @ 1:48..........it has a 17 inch wingspan.  so does this model @ 1:72 !     the plastic is in my opinion,  a very deep olive drab.  I'm thinking a primer is in order.  thinking about the faded look,  I'm not sure if dry brushing or simply mixing the paint,  would be a good way to do it.   


the belly turret is going to be tough.......it has rises around the hole,  which would need to be cut out.  sanding is really not an option here.......don't want to ruin the rivet detail.

It was common for almost all the countries in the war to try to salvage or capture enemy planes, tanks, etc. in WWII.  Part of the "know your enemy" thinking of all sides.

thanks Craig....as I look more into the book,  I noticed that a couple other planes from the 303 BG fell prey.  I should mention that I got the copy from Amazon...paid $20.00 for it.  it's already proving to be worth it's weight.  it does make me wonder if this was a common wartime practice by other nations?  glad to have you look'in in  
 

Looking forward to the model AND the history. Great subject material.

as mentioned,  this particular kit was produced in 1989.   it's still a rather simple kit for Revell,  but some of the fine points of the model,  is done much better that Lindberg did.   these pictures are a bit blurry,  but they are good enough for you to see the differences.  the decal sheet is still a bit vague,  but they are a better match to the actual plane that was to be modeled.  I will be ordering the Wulfe Hound decals...they are made by Kits-World in 1:72 scale.  I can also get them in 1:48 scale,  but 1:72 is good enough for this project  

though I'll only have to do the top ball turret,  they assembly is a lot more logical.  nothing is suspended of needs to be cemented to visible parts of the turret.  didn't check to see if they are movable.

there are bomb bay doors.......but I may show them closed.   nothing exciting.......just two bombs shown in some sort of rack.  if I don't show them,  I will remove the bombs and used them for the other model.

there is glass for the tail gunner position.........glad to see that   

here is a better picture of the bomb rack.  I think it might be fun to make a stand for her too.......I'll need to drill a hole and add a button for the pin.

the engines and nacelles are the same as the Lindberg kit.   in the more recent Memphis Belle kit {2011},  the engines are separate and are comprised of multiple parts.   even the turbo chargers are a separate part..........there is a lot of detail.   

should be a fun build........time to tear open the bag!  

hello Lou.........I will say this........for anyone who like to do German planes,  this book is a must have!  it even has some color pictures.........it doesn't have them all,  but it covers quite a few.   they also housed quite an array of captured planes.  B 25's....B 24's.......Spitfires......even a couple Lockheed Lightnings:  a P 38G,  and a brand new {at the time} F 5E.  the pilot of that aircraft was court martial-ed and served a long prison sentence.  makes you wonder what went on there?!?!?   through the war,  the Germans had around twenty B 17's,  as well as several B 24's.........the book gives a pretty good outline concerning KG 200.  it corrects what I've read in a couple of ways as well.......all of the Lt. Flickinger crew were captured,  and that the nose art wasn't on the starboard side,  but on the port side instead.   here is what the nose art looked like:

I hope you can read the text......it's true......the text "wulfe Hound" was spelt incorrectly in some of the articles I read.  they broke the nose glass to get at the Norden bomb sight.........unknown why Flickinger didn't destroy it.

of course......it could be possible for the art to be on both sides.........I've never seen it though.  it does save me though...the Germans did remove it.   note the striping on the prop blades.......something that the Germans didn't do on their own aircraft.

vulnerable parts of the B 17 was marked out and shown to fighter pilots,  so they would have a head's up on where to strike.  the wing tanks were highlighted,  causing manufacturers of later models to move them further outboard.   something I didn't know,  but located just aft of the top gunner bubble on both sides of the bulge atop the fuselage,  there are compartments for rafts,  in the event that a water landing was made.

paint is going to be fun to do for this one........a lot of fading has occurred.   99% of the early model B 17's were painted olive drab with gray under belly.  it wasn't until later model emerged,  that they stopped painting them,  leaving them in their natural aluminum.  some were painted in the field,  or simply dolled up..........some even got camo,  leaving no real bad way to paint a B 17   

one thing I forgot to mention about this bird......when it crash landed,  the under belly turret was in the down position.   it was never repaired and likely removed.  I will need to patch over the hole somehow.  it's likely that some of the damaged interior wasn't repaired or replaced,  unless it was important.  some of the captured B'17's were never used and were cannibalized for parts.   for this reason,  and the simplicity of the kit at the time,  doing interior embellishments is not in the cards.  I'll do what I need to,  but I want to focus on the exterior.  as you said........not too many planes have been modeled relating to this subject matter.

I must admit, there is a part of me that cringes at the idea of iron cross marking on a B-17 but there is no question that it will be a unique study and model. Certainly right up your alley Denis. I will be following your build with rabid attention as always. I am certain it will not be disappointing.

through all the info I've dug up on this plane so far,  it's been touted as the first B 17 to have been captured and flown by the Germans.   I read about a few others,  but this one caught my eye first........so 'tag'.......your it    one article I read stated that the Germans named the ship,  but further digging revealed that she was listed in the USAAF 360BS 303BG "Hells Angels" squadron,  as 41-24585,   and so named.   one photo sticks out and shows that the Germans were not impressed with the nose art........a hound with a broken German fighter in it's mouth......the text "Wulfe Hound" scrawled above the image.

it can be seen on the starboard nose,  the scrunge of paint that blotted it out.   the Wulfe Hound was a B 17F-27-BO Bomber,  flown by Lt. Paul Flickering and crew.  on Dec 1942, while on a mission to bomb the rail yard in Rouen / sotteville, France {German occupied},  the squadron of 12 { 8 aborted the mission earlier due to difficulties}, were attacked by German aircraft.  One went down.............the Wulf Hound soon left formation with five fighters on her tail,  subsequently losing them in the cloud cover.  damaged and not being able to make it back,  Flickering set her down gear up,  in a hay field near Melun,  France.  no one was killed.........after trashing the radio and equipment,  they headed of into the woods.  Flickering and the Bombardier were captured....two others were caught by the Gestapo,  and the rest,  along with the crew from the earlier downed plane {they met up somewhere} made it to freedom.

from what I read,  it was moved to Leeuwarden AFB by the Germans and repaired to be airworthy....German markings and call letters were added.  they studied for a time, checking for weakness and vulnerabilities,  and then flown to Lars AFB,  where she was reviewed by higher ups,  along with other planes they had captured.  she then went to Rechlen AFB in 1943,   and put into service with the Luftwaffe,  KG 200.........a top secret squadron.........."the Spook Squadron" it was nicknamed.  they did change the call letters to A3 E3,  but I have seen no pictures of her with them shown.   for Christmas,  I got the perfect kit to build her with........this is a Revell kit {the Miami Clipper} that was produced back in 1989.

the kit is in 1:72 scale....plenty big enough for the project.  I don't plan on going too crazy with the interior,  although Revell did right by a few things that the Lindberg kit lacked.   I was going to buy another to do it,  if Christmas didn't pan out.   during the initial idea to do the plane,  another more recent offering of the Revell kit {the Memphis Belle} appeared at my door.   it being a 1:72 scale kit as well,  in looking it over,  I felt that the kit was too good for the project.........it's even better than the kit that I'm using!  again,  I really want to thank the person who sent it to me..........not to worry.......it will get it's turn  
    the nose art is a huge thorn in the side.......of all the articles and pictures,  I have seen and read,  the only glimpse of the nose art I saw,  was a small portion of the lower half of the hound.  the worst part is that none of the decal sheets I seen so far,  include it either.   it's not a super big deal,  since I found that it had been removed,   but it would have looked good on a stand or plaque.  one suggestion for study and it is referred to in a few of the articles,  is a book about the KG 200.........like the one I have in front of me right now   

gotta be honest.......I peeked.........it IS in here!  gotta run and go shopping,  but when I get back,.. I still have a bit more to add about the kit and such.  so it begins again......I haven't even ripped the plastic bag for the parts yet.....this kit was sealed when I got it  I'll be back  

Just a side note to mention that one of our sponsors, Chesapeake Light Craft, offers a couple of full-size dory kits much like the model you are building.

yours has better wing roots than my Revell kit.........I measured it and it has about a 17 inch wingspan.  it still builds into a large model    I fancy the larger kits too.   I see you like to use stretched sprue for conduit........nice bit of detail!

Popeye,
 
No decals on this kit as the original prop from the movie did not have any. 
 
For more exterior "contrast", the AZTEC set provides some masks that add "camouflage like" patterns to the vessel. I am not a big fan of these and like the Stanley Kubrick's purist lines of the Discovery. I will paint some panels as in the movie, but will stop there. No weathering either, as there is no air, and very little dust to attach to this kind of machine in Space.
 
Yves

does this include decals?   if not....have you looked at decals for Star Trek,  or Star wars models........perhaps something along these lines could give it more exterior detailing.

Ah, I hadn't thought about that. Excellent thoughts!
 
Thanks - simple but smart!
 
That is what I did! (Well, at JoAnn's instead of Walmart.) I now have yards and yards to play with (I over-shot on the amount but I don't get to that part of the world often.) I'll soon post some of my successes and failures!

I basically followed the directions in the kit and I don’t think they came out that bad from a normal viewing distance. I traced the pattern on the material in pencil, painted it with polyurethane and cut it out.  One thing IMO that would make this simple method better would have been to trace the pattern on both sides of the sheet (which I sadly did not). You can get cheap white cotton fabric from Walmart for a few dollars and have plenty to experiment with.

People's opinions on sails vary a great deal, but I have never been a big fan of sewn sails (though I'm using them on my current project simply because they were available, and I didn't feel like making them scratch). The issue is two-fold in that 1.) sewn stitches on models are always way over-scale (this is due to the small size of real-life stitches), and 2.) the stitching on sails is never actually visible at what's known as "scale viewing distance". Think of it this way: when your 1:32 scale model is viewed from 12 inches away, that's like viewing the real deal at 32 feet -- you can't see real stitches from that distance. At 1/32nd scale, one foot of real deal is represented by 3/8 of an inch on the model; even if the real-life stitches are an inch long (ridiculously large), that still works out to trying to cram twelve scale stitches into only 3/8" of sail hem. That's why when I do choose to make sails, I glue the hems instead of sew them.
 
Just one modeler's opinion!

I was hesitating working on the sails; unsure how to proceed. I didn't want to waste or wreck the small piece of cloth that came with the kit. It occured to me to buy some more fabric, experiment and fail a few times until I am more comfy. I now have access to a sewing machine, although I may not use it. While hemming and hawing regarding the sails, I finished fixing up a old tool chest. I had fixed the broken drawers and cleaned and shellacked the drawer fronts. And relined the drawers. 

I had a little plastic tool box that was overflowing and this is much nicer.

enjoy your break, im about to take one as well, to allow myself more time to do more boat building   

Oh! THAT'S why my models all skew to the port. Thanks ever so! Still, my point was that .008" may not be noticed and buying pre-cut 1/32" is a lot easier that buying a thickness sander.
Tom

Thanks very much for the kind comment but I have to clarify that the variation in thickness I was referring to was meant for the sheets as the thickness of your sheet becomes the width of your plank after ripping. I acquired some ebony sheets a few years ago and ripped them to do the wale on my current build Unity. I put in three planking rows before I realized that the sheets varied in thickness from about 3.6mm to 2.5 mm. It was an "Oh crap" moment for me. The thickness of the sheet becomes the width of the plank so in spots I was now up to 3 mm off and nothing was uniform. It took a lot of extra work to even everything up as the wale was only 7 rows wide. Since then I have gotten some red heart from a different supplier which had variation but less severe. I realized this before hand and was actually able to use it to my advantage. It is just something you have to be aware of.

Ahem !!!!!! 1mm is 0.0394".  1/32" is 0.0312". 
 
Dave 

1mm = .47 inches; 1/32" = .45 inches. If you're not too fussy, you can buy 1/32" stock pre-cut. Cherry is a good choice for a darker hull, or Chuck P. sells 1/32" Alaskan Yellow Cedar for a lighter hull.
Tom

The type of wood can make all the difference.  Walnut is not a good choice as it is so grainy and thin pieces tend to crack and split with ease.   Take a look at the "Wood Discussion" section here at MSW and you will get an idea of what woods are being commonly used with success.   Some are reasonably price, some are dear.    As to thickness variations if you are ripping your own, Barkeater has a great point.  A thickness sander is a great way to get even thickness but that is an investment that you may not want to make at this point.  Even if they are varying in thickness, once in place on the hull, you will be sanding anyway and this should take out any variations in thickness.  
Allan
 

As noted above, pre-cut wood strips 1mm or even .5 mm thick are available from multiple sources. Also ripping planks on a mini table saw to 1mm or less is not a problem with several types of wood including but not limited to walnut which is commonly used in planking.  Good luck in your build. If you decide to rip planks from wood sheets make sure that the pieces you get have a uniform thickness. I have seen variation in thickness which can be a problem if you don't notice it and allow for the variation.

Some of the Russian ship model "Masters" use boxwood and ebony veneer for their 1:48 models. But they use ply interior construction so have a very broad surface for plank adhesion.

My thoughts exactly...