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During 1940 and 1941, the Republic
P-47 was in development. Rumors of its heavy armament and incredible
performance tempted many foreign powers to try and get their hands on the
top-secret plans. The Nazi government mounted an effort through their master
spy and American Embassy Air Attache, Col. Franz Von Krammp. Col. Von Krammp
was able to get a copy of the plans for the P-47 which were quickly sent to
Germany. Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering immediately ordered the Messerschmitt
works to drop everything and produce a copy of the P-47 in large numbers.
Fortunately for the Free World, the Nazis got it all wrong. The Americans had
managed to mix plans for the Grenville Bros.' Gee-Bee racer in with the detail
work on the P-47 that Nazi agents had stolen. By 1942, the Luftwaffe found its
fighter squadrons armed with the new aircraft, the Messerschmitt BF (Big Fat)
113. This aircraft (like Goering) was horribly overweight, and while very
heavily armed with eight .50 caliber guns, it was terribly unmanoeverable and
a virtual deathtrap in combat for those who flew it. Reichsmarschall Goering
refused to see the error of his decision and even greater numbers of BF-113
were produced in 1943. This aircraft was universally hated by its pilots and
earned the name "Totenkampf" or "Death Struggle". The
example pictured here was flown by Uffz. Heinrich Verschlunken who defected in
disgust and landed his BF (Big Fat)-113 on a British coastal airfield in early
1944. Only one example exists today, in pieces housed in an old shed near the
remains of the Messerschmitt works.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The kit is a 1/48
scale Testor's Gee Bee racer. While comparing it to an old build of a 1/72
Lindberg P-47 Thunderbolt, the idea hit me. The Testor's Co. in their wisdom
have all the decal placements for the Gee Bee etched into the kit so you can't
go wrong should you actually want to build it to look like the picture on the
box. A bottle of correction fluid "liberated" from the office came to
the rescue and I was able to fill in the offending etched markings. The markings
on the wings were raised oddly enough and I was able to sand them off with no
trouble. The only other modifications I made to this kit were adding retracted
landing gear and swapping out the prop with a 4 bladed one, all parts from
spares. I added the wing guns and a rudimentary cockpit which for some reason I
decided to paint black. The kit was painted by hand using mostly Testor's
Acrylics. The undersides were painted in Light Gull Gray and the splinter camo
on the uppers was painted in Dark Gull and Dark Ghost Gray. I used Tamiya
Aluminum on the prop and Tamiya Gunmetal on the engine and guns. The tires and
cockpit were painted with Windsor-Newton Artist Acrylics Mars Black. The decals
were all from my collection of spares.
Brian
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