1/48 Me 410A-1/U-2 Dietrich Puttfarken - Me/FW Group Build

[Airframes]

Rather nice old boy !

 

[Crimea_River]

Much obliged old chap! and others!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Have to agree with all and as is usual, your creating a masterpiece Andy.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Vic. Regrets that won't have it done in time but I definitely don't want to rush this one to the finish. Hope it won't take as long as Wayne's MTO Ju88 though!

 

[Gerry]

Sorry to hear you'll miss the deadline, but it's looking too good to compromise by rushing it. Look forward to following the rest of the build.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Gerry. Into that boring phase now - sanding and scribing.

 

[Maximowitz]

Boring maybe - but this one is going to turn out a beauty - it just has to sit right. It is difficult to explain, but having seen one up close and personal, this aircraft has a presence to it - the way it sits menacingly like a preying mantis.

 

[Gnomey]

Coming along nicely!

 

[T Bolt]

Looking great Andy! Take your time with the sanding.

 

[Crimea_River]

Here is a progression of shots showing the modifications done so far to correct the oval shaped supercharger air intakes. The offending part was sawed away from the wing and a 4.8mm hole was reamed into the opening. Next, a length of 4.8mm Evergreen round tube was inserted, glued, and left to cure. Next, I set about filing and sanding the kit plastic to feather it into the tube. The final pic shows the port intake today with a rough application of putty that will be sanded down and polished. Pics once that's done and a coat of primer is applied.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Well worth the effort and nicely done Andy.

 

[Wayne Little]

Agreed, does look good!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks chaps.

 

[javlin]

Looking good Andy.

 

[rochie]

nice work Andy, good to see you working on this again

 

[woody]

Nicely done Andy.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks everyone. I mentioned earlier that I've changed my thoughts on the final scheme again. Good thing we kept the title "Provisional scheme" but I've now decided to go back to Paul's suggestion to do Dietrich Puttfarken's 410 of 5/KG 51 as it may have appeared on the night of his loss on April 22/23, 1944. There's been a lot of interesting discussion on this subject in this forum and others and Paul's been very kind in sending me some background info on a similar plane in which Lt Wolfgang Wenning and his B/F were shot down a few days before. The thing is, no matter what the ultimate scheme is that I will present, it will at best be the summation of various expert opinions, sometimes conflicting as there are no known pictures of this plane, nor any in this unit as far as I'm able to surmize. So, on that note, here are the minimum features that I have decided to go with based on best availble info, unless someone can prove these to be false:

- Overall camo will be standard 74/75/76 oversprayed with black on the undersides and up the sides
- Variant will be Me 410 A-1/U2 with twin MG 151's in the weapons bay
- Flame arrestors over exhausts
- FuG 101 radar altimeter antennae under starboard wing, no other radar.
- aircraft code 9K+MN with small 9K, large M in red, outlined in white, and large N in black
- W. Nr. 420314 will be overpainted in black (solves one decal problem!)

Having said that, here are the things I have not settled on as yet, subject to the best advice I can get:

- Spinner colours and pattern
- presence of KG 51 Edelweiss or II Gruppe shield

If anyone can provide an educated basis for the latter two points, I'd appreciate that.

 

[Airframes]

Good work on that intake Andy.

 

[Maximowitz]

No Edelweiss badge - it is not mentioned once in all the crash reports of KG 51 aircraft in their intruder capacity. Drop tanks too I think. I seem to recall Wenning had a couple of 300l tanks - I might be wrong, I'm sure I've got more info on this somewhere.

I'll dig up Mike Harrison's email addy for you - he might have more info.

 

[Crimea_River]

I forgot the drop tanks - thanks for reminding me Paul. I'm going to post this over at TOCH as well where Mike might chime in.