GB-43 1/48 Bf-110 G-2 - Aces' Aircraft of all Eras

[nsmekanik]

Username: nsmekaink
First name: Tim
Category: Intermediate
Scale: 1/48
Manufacturer: Eduard
Model: Bf 110 G-2
Aftermarket : Owl Decals 1:48 Bf 110 F/G J Kociok 10(N)/ZG 1
Etch Seatbelts

This kit has been started, if this is a problem I can replace those parts from a Bf-110 F kit that I have ordered when it arrives.

 

[nsmekanik]

Josef Kociok (26 April 1918 – 26 September 1943) was a German Luftwaffe fighter ace during World War II and a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. which was awarded for extreme battlefield bravery or military leadership. Kociok was credited with 33 confirmed aerial victories in more than 200 combat missions. He was killed after a collision in the dark, when he bailed out and his parachute did not open.

Josef Kociok began his military career in the fall of 1940 to be designated to serve in 7./ZG 76 (7th Staffel of Zerstörergeschwader 76), headquartered in Norway. On 24 April 1941, he was transferred to 4./SKG 210 - later redesignated 4./ZG 1. This unit was soon engaged in the invasion of the USSR, where he obtained his first aerial victory on 30 June 1941, when he shot down a Tupolev SB bomber. In this squad, Kociok executed attack missions against airfields, vehicles, trains, tanks, field artillery positions and antiaircraft artillery, and infantry attacks against the Soviets. For his performance in these missions, Kociok was awarded the Ehrenpokal der Luftwaffe on 1 June 1942 and the German Cross in Gold on 2 December 1942. In February 1943, integrated into 10.(Nachtjagd)/ZG 1, Kociok already accumulated 12 aerial victories, 15 aircraft destroyed on the ground, four tanks, four cannons, 141 freight cars, 80 different vehicles, 4 locomotives, two bridges and an anti-aircraft battery. In the night, he obtained several victories multiple, especially three Russian bombers killed on the night of 9/10 May 1943, followed by four others on 15/16 May 1943. When he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 31 July 1943, he had achieved 15 wins in the night. However, on the night of 26/27 September 1943, after downing a DB-3 bomber in a fight over the location Kerch, (Crimea), his Bf 110 G-2 broke down (according to some sources, when he collided with a crashing Russian DB-3), forcing the crew to jump. But Kociok's parachute did not open, although his radio operator Feldwebel, Alexander Wegerhoff, survived. When he died in combat, Josef Kociok had executed a total of 200 combat missions during which he earned 33 victories (all on the Eastern Front), of which 21 were at night. After he shot down four Polikarpov Po-2s of the famed 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, nicknamed the "Night Witches", Nachthexen, by the Germans on the night of 31 July 1943, it resulted in the first time that regiment was grounded. Because of this, he was nicknamed Witch Hunter, or Hexenjäger. Posthumously, he was promoted to Leutnant.

An excerpt From "Night Witches", by Fergus Mason

On May 9 he shot down three U-2s from another regiment. Then on the night of May 15/16 he encountered the Night Witches. The 46th were out in force that night, to harry the Germans as they fell back on the Taman Peninsula. The deputy regimental commander, former airline pilot Senior Lieutenant Serafina Amosova, was leading a squadron in an attack on one target when the Germans tried to replicate the "Flak circus" tactic that had caused so many problems at Stalingrad. It was less successful this time; in retreat they found it harder to set up the elaborate traps, and the bombers were running at the target one after another. The guns weren't well enough sited to catch them and the tracers were flying harmlessly wild. Then Amosova saw a trail of sparks race up into the sky and burst in a green flare. Instantly the guns stopped firing. Two miles away and 1,000 feet above, Josef Kociok was orbiting the target zone in a wide circle. Looking out the side window of his Bf 110G-2 he searched for the tiny shapes of the Soviet bombers in the glow of the swinging searchlights. It was a confusing image, with bomb explosions and curving streams of tracer shells confusing his eyes. Still he watched patiently, until he saw what he was looking for: a line of moving specks, four of them a few hundred meters apart, all heading directly for the target. He opened the throttles and banked, swinging the big fighter round until he was directly ahead of the bombers, then chopped the power and pushed the stick forward. The Bf 110 tipped into a shallow dive. He lowered the flaps to keep the speed down as far as he dared – the Destroyer had a higher stalling speed than even the Bf 109 – and thumbed the transmit button on his radio. He gave the bearing of the incoming bombers then finished with, "Attacking now." Seconds later the green flare popped open and the guns fell silent. He was clear to make his attack run. Weaving around in the decoy role off to one side of the defenses, Amosova saw the searchlights swing away from her towards the inbound group. It was hard to hold the Kukuruzniks in the beams but enough light was being thrown in their direction that they were suddenly clearly visible. There was no flak though, so they kept going, boring in on their target. The first of them was within yards of the drop point now, already starting to climb to avoid the blast of its own bombs. Then, to her horror, it seemed to stagger in the air as small explosions erupted all over the forward fuselage. Instantly it caught fire and spun out of control as the roar of powerful engines suddenly swelled out of the darkness. The Bf 110 was now hugging the ground, not much higher than the Soviet biplanes flew. As the first bomber blazed up like a candle Kociok pulled back on the stick to leapfrog the falling wreck, then dropped the nose again. The onrushing shape of the second Polikarpov swam into the glowing bars of his sight. His thumb stabbed down on the button, white flames erupted from the nose and the floor vibrated under his feet as the cannons thundered. The second U-2 was snatched aside by the stream of shells and bullets; it, too, erupted into flames and fell towards the steppe. Kociok was already lining up his guns on his next victim. Amosova could only watch in horror as the Messerschmitt skimmed along the line of bombers, blasting them one after another and sending all four crashing down in flames. Around her the other crews were already scattering and heading for home. There was no choice. A one-second burst from a Bf 110's guns threw out over four pounds of metal and explosives, all travelling at more than twice the speed of sound. It was enough firepower to shatter a U-2 in an instant, and this pilot had the skill to pick off his targets with a single, lethal blast. If they tried to attack again they would be wiped out. Amosova forced her own plane a little lower, practically hiding behind hedges all the way back to the airfield. When Major Bershanskaya heard about the massacre she instantly grounded the regiment for the night; a third of a squadron had been destroyed in a minute, and she wasn't willing to risk it happening again. Amosova, Popova and the others walked back to their billet in an old school building and sat, weeping, looking at a row of eight empty camp beds.

 

[rochie]

Nice choice of subject.

 

[Airframes]

Yep, good choice, and as it looks like it's only just been started, it's acceptable as an entry.
Be aware that the Eduard Bf110 kits, although nicely produced, are perhaps somewhat over-engineered in parts, and can prove tricky / frustrating / PITA to assemble and achieve a good fit in some areas, although fairly easily overcome.

 

[nsmekanik]

Thank you Gentlemen, much appreciated. I'd read Night Witches awhile ago, and was pleasantly surprised when I came across the decals for his plane while browsing the OWL website, I never thought there would be anything out there (as usual) so I'm quit pleased Petr picked this one as a subject. I've always had it in the back of my mind to do up a Night Witches Po-2 so this one has got me a bit more motivated to look into that.

Thanks Terry, I shall move forward then, I do have a 110 C about half finished, yes it is a finicky kit but I'm happy Eduard saw fit to put it out for all it's quirks.

 

[Wurger]

 

[nsmekanik]

So in response to Bills (N4521U) compliant about pic sizes I tried to see what I can do and so far all I can come up with is these 2 and bigger, using a Cannon PowerShot SX160 IS. Any advice and suggestions on how to reach a happy medium would be greatly appreciated.

When I started building this thing I decided to be different, after all, instructions are only suggestions, however on the next one I will follow the suggestion as this way the floor doesn't like to mate with the sides as well, not a major issue though. I decided to carry on with what I started and finish painting up the side walls and ammunition bins. Since I began this before I was able to get my hands on some Gunze I'm using Lifecolor RLM 02 and Vallejo RLM 66, next up is a clear coat and some weathering.

View attachment 550122


One of the disadvantages of the "Eduard way" is that there are parts which are designed for using Photo etch which end up being featureless with out that wonderful enhancement, and the Scotch in me is to cheap to buy it if I think I can get away with out it

......still it's a pita being cheap sometimes....

The engines remind me of a typical short run experience, I decided it would be easier to get a better finish and to paint the radiators if I install the insert after I clean up the main halves, not the best fitting parts but doable

 

[Wurger]

Your large pics here are of 1600 pixels in the width what is "accepted" by the forum system. There shouldn't be any troble with uploading and scrolling of pages. No mater if you attach them as the full size images these large pics are always resized down ( adjusted ) by the forum soft to 920 pixels in the width. But in fact these are still the large files though You may attach them as the thumbnail what should improve the displaying and page scrolling . These are displayed as small size pics. By direct clcking on them, the forum pic browser is opened and the soft can adjust the pic size automatically to a screen of any computer. Here is your pic posted above as the full shot and here as the thumbnail. Can you see the difference? Just click on the image.

 

[Crimea_River]

Here's a simple thing to do, assuming your computer has MS Paint - pretty much standard software for all PC's. Open your picture in Paint. Select "Resize", select "Pixels" and type in 800 then save the pic. Bim Bam Bum - done.

 

[nsmekanik]

Thanks Guys, much appreciated.
I did the paint thing, only I set it to 960

so if Bill is having a look see let me know how it looks, if not, no worries.

 

[Wurger]

It looks OK. the 960 pix is fine for the system.

 

[Wayne Little]

Nice work, glad to have you on board.

 

[fubar57]

Good start.

 

[nsmekanik]

Thank you Gentlemen,
Just a minor update, finally got the webbing done on the Bordfunker's seat, maybe not perfect, but as I consider models a form of "impressionist artwork", I think it'll leave a reasonably good impression of what is supposed to be there.

A bit more done on the nacelle's, I look at these kits as high quality short run kits rather then a so so Mainstream product, sort of sets a level of expectation that avoids disappointment which should lead to a good result. Case in point, one nacelle halves is a bit shy on material. Over all though the nacelle fit to wing is pretty decent and much better then the 110C/D/E kits.

 

[le_steph40]

Nice start and nice choice

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Good thing they fixed the nacelle fit. Lots of putty on my C.

 

[nsmekanik]

Whenever someone says they only build 1/48 because 1/72 is to fiddly I often think to myself 'so there's parts you leave out then........'

To be fair though, I do get the point.....

A family photo, I really should get on these. The 1/72 kits are real gems in my mind, it's to bad that the 1/48 ones were not engineered in the same way

The perils of setting things aside, forgetting what one had planned, then thinkin one had screwed up when, in hind sight, one hadn't, hence an extra set of wings with more holes in them.......

Andy, following some tips I added some shims to force the back of the nacelles up, still had to add a shim at the back of the nacelle as the gap was a bit large but it significantly reduced the amount of filler required.

 

[fubar57]

Good stuff. I wish I had done my multi-engines in 1:72. I have no idea where they will go if/when I get around to building them

 

[Wurger]