Leaderboard

I've been wanting to build this aircraft for a very long time and have had two in my stash. I really wished I wouldn't have gotten rid of my Dragon Me-262A-1a Nachtjager version but this Tamiya A-1 kit was a good kit to build. I had set out to build Franz Stigler's plane from JV-44 late in the war. I read Adam Makos' book , A Higher Call several years ago and he was one of the main people that the story centered around. Long story short....he was going to shoot down a severely shot up B-17 and decided to lead them out of Germany instead. Afterwards he was assigned to JV-44 (pretty much Germany's last remaining fully operational air defense unit which was made up of the very best remaining fighter pilots) where he flew this aircraft. If you haven't read this book I won't give anything away but I'll just say that is a very powerful read. The kit is one that has been around for a while from Tamiya: There are a couple of schemes that could've been his bird but this is the one here that I went with as it just looks so dang cool.... I used Vallejo acrylics to replicate the paint and went with Eagle Cals for 95% of the markings and Peddinghaus for the #3 numerals on the side. Note.....never use the Peddinhaus offerings. Other than the #3 the stencils and other markings were just way out of scale. I had some trouble with the windscreen ended up removing it, sanding the fuselage and windscreen joints to get a better fit but that was about the only problem I had out of this awesome kit. Anyhow....after 6+ months...here is the completed build: