Tamiya FW-190 A-8/R8

[Crimea_River]

Sorry about that. I was moving these to albums. Here they are, all restored:

 

[Lucky13]

Now we're talking! Great looking crate mate!

 

[HoHun]

Hi Crimea,

>Here they are, all restored:

Way to go - I love the great details like the mud sticking to the tyres!

The name "Rauhbautz" got me hitting the books as I thought the medieval sound of it was intriguing. To my surprise, it's indicated as "young word, 20th century" in Kluge's etymological dictionary. So much for intuition

I think it might have spun off "Rauhbein" ('rough leg'), an older military slang term for infantry soldiers wearing rough leather gaiters.

The direct translation of "Rauhbautz" in my opinion would be "Ruffian", which seems to have a more or less incidental etymological relationship with the German word: Online Etymology Dictionary

Hm, this probably only proves that some German names confuse even the Germans

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

 

[Gnomey]

Yeah the small details are very nice, good work.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks for the kind words everyone and sorry for the hide and seek game.

HoHun, the intended translation for Rauhbautz II is indeed "ruffian" or "tough guy" as you indicate.

Erich, thanks for the photo. I've seen this one and several others in my reference "Aircraft of the Luftwaffe Fighter Aces" by Bernd Barbas which also has the below profile in the Appendix indicating the word "Rauhbautz II" to be in yellow. Tough to read with the resize but it's in the last sentence.

 

[Erich]

I have both volumes of Bernd's books also been chatting with him over the years as well by letter. you might be interested to know that the artist Richard G. co authored the two volumes on JG 300 with friend J.Y. Lorant. I've corresponded with both over the years as well, take if from me the lettering is in red not yellow-gold and is mentioned as such in the text of the second volume with several pics of Klaus and his red 1. Incidently the undercowling is not red either, much time has passed and with more recent photos the understanding of the markings has been explained much better for red 1 and other colourful JG 300 crates.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Erich. I bow to your wisdom!

I'm leaving this the way it is for now and have moved on to my P-51 project in the Start to Finish Builds.

Maybe you can help me with this question that has me stumped. Many US fighters based out of Europe used the British made 108 US gallon paper drop tanks instead of the metal 75 gallon teardrop ones. Do you know if these were used by the 15th AF out of Italy in summer 1944? Google search and elsewhere on this website has come up dry so far. Maybe you can answer or point me to another source?

 

[Airframes]

Far as I've seen to date, 15th AF didn't normally have the 108 gal paper, or metal drop tanks. All pics of their P51's that I've seen show the 75 gal tear drop tanks.

 

[Erich]

Terry is probably right, most pics I have of 15th AF Mustangs do not even show any drop tanks associated but we know they carried them into the fray

 

[lesofprimus]

So what color was the undercowling painted Erich???

RLM76???

 

[Erich]

you are correct Bud ! ww2 pics sometimes can really present un-natural color-tones.

Rauhbautz translates into : "Tough Guy" or bad boy/Rascal but that is usually "Lausbub" which is what my Oma and mother used to hang on me ...... as a kid; funny some things you never forget.

and sadly because of mis-interpretation of many pics...........ah hmmmmmmmmmm the spinner prop is actually the standard white on the black. The profile from Barbas was taken as literal fact for many many years, still an excellent profile but colors are incorrect

 

[Crimea_River]

Guys, thanks for the info on the paper drop tanks in the 15th. I suspected as much - didn't see any photos that would indicate these were used in Italy. The closest I came with this one, showing a 52nd FG Mustang from the 15th. There's another one in the background with what looks like the paper tanks but no way to tell where or when this photo was taken. It might be a Swiss internee.

Here's another 15th AF mustang with the 75 gal tanks:

 

[Screaming Eagle]

Great work!