Wayne, Paul, Erich and Wojtek; I really must thank you all for the efforts in helping me choose a subject for my D9! Thank you very much indeed.
However, I have decided to keep it simple (he said hopefully!!), and do this one 'Out of the Box', something fairly rare for me.
After much deliberation, I've decided to use the kit decals for 'Black 12', the D9 with the earlier canopy, flown by Leutnant Teo Nibel of 10/JG54, as it would have appeared in December, 1944.
I've just re-read part of Caldwell's book on JG26, in an effort to brush-up my knowledge of this period, and re-discovered some interesting background about this aircraft.
The 10th Staffel of JG54 were under the command of JG26 for 'Unternehemen Bodenplatte', with the entire compliment of III/JG54, 20 FW190D's, arriving at the airstrip where Maj. Karl Borris's I/JG26 were based, at 16:00 hrs on December 31 1944. Teo Nibel was to lead the second Schwarm on 'Bodenplatte', but had trouble starting the engine of his Dora. As a result, he was the last to take off, and trailed the formation towards their target, the airfield at Grimbergen. After catching up with his Schwarm, Nibel led them in their assigned task of silencing the flak. At Grimbergen, the flak defences were in the form of Bren guns of the R.A.F. Regiment, and Lt. Nibel and his Schwarm carried out three attacks, under intense fire from the gunners on the ground. When pulling up after the final pass, the engine of Nibel's Dora stopped, and he suspected he had been hit by flak. At an altitude of only 100 metres, and losing height quickly, bailing out wasn't an option, and Lt. Nibel was able to make a perfect belly-landing in a freshly ploughed field.
The allies now had their first, virtually intact FW190D, which, of course, underwent close examination by the R.A.F.
However, 'Black 12' had not been downed by the intense Bren gun fire, but by a bird strike! A partridge struck the machine, punching a hole 'several inches in diameter' in the aircraft's radiator!
To quote Donald Caldwell " One British air intelligence report archly attributed the fighter's loss to a Free Belgian partridge."
After declassification of this report, over the years, the story has become somewhat 'twisted' and, after being translated into German, was used as source material by some German historians. When it was translated back into English, the partridge somehow became a Belgian Resistance member, who had shot down the Dora with a rifle!
With this interesting background info, I couldn't really resist modelling this machine!
All I need to do now, is sort out the colours. The instruction sheet gives mixes for Tamiya acrylics, but I'll be using Humbrol enamels. Not a major problem, as I can work out most of the quoted colour refs, but, one I'm not all that familiar with is what I suspect is the late-war 'brown' tone, which is given as a mix of 1 part Tamiya XF51 (Khaki drab) and 2 parts XF64 (Red Brown). This is shown as the darker colour of the upper wing and tailplane splinter pattern, the other colour being the lighter green (RLM?). The entire top-decking and spine of the fuselage is also shown to be this lighter green colour. If this is correct, and I presume it is, given the info that would have been gleaned from the Intelligence reports, then it will make a change from all the greys normally associated with Luftwaffe fighters.
I think I know how to achieve a close match, using Dark Earth and Red Brown (Wein Rot, Panzer cammo colour), but any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.
I hope to make a start on this just as soon as this stupid cold bug clears up, and my hands start working again!
I'll post some pics when the build starts.
Thanks again for all your help chaps!
Terry.