FW-290 Nachtjager!

I spent the weekend building my Fake Wulf. Let me tell you, if you think it looks good in pictures wait till you see one in person. This is a sweet kit.

I decided to do a takeoff of a late war night fighter scheme. It is Light Ghost Gray overall with random pattern Gunship Gray on the top surfaces only.

Not totally faithful in color or markings to German night fighter units but I think it looks pretty good.



FW-290 Nachtjager belonging to the Gruppe II Kommander of an unknown Geschwader. Berlin, December 1945.

This is the first time I've used my airbrush in a decade or so. My skills have suffered for sure.

I botched one of the control surface decals but I can touch that up with a sharpie.

The flat clear coat has been applied after this was taken and it wrinkled some of the larger decals. Hopefully many applications of Micro Set will lay them back down.

*girlish scream* I LOVE it!!! That is some real cool *poop*! Let me know if you need more decals!

Wow, what do you mean that your skills suffered? That looks great!

Thanks for the compliments! I really enjoyed this build. I admit I was apprehensive at first but it really was pretty easy. Involved but easy.

Scott, I'm glad you like it. Originally I was thinking of doing a North Afika scheme but this hit me like a brick so I had to do it. I may take you up on the decal offer but first I'm going to try and find some actual night scheme insignia and unit markings.

jj94, Thanks for the compliment. It doesn't look bad but there are some light spots in the dark gray that I would have preffered not to be there. I'm my worst critic LOL

Yep, looks real good Rat, nothing wrong with that. I just opened mine this afternoon as a matter of fact. Got the pod completed, hopefully I can start the glider tomorrow. Those instructions are fool proof. Scott, the quality of this kit sets a new standard.

Looks great Rat!!! I thought about painting mine some flourescent color when I get it, but after seeing all these cool wwII camo paint themes, I think that would be blasphemy!

Originally posted by Rob Fisher
Looks great Rat!!! I thought about painting mine some flourescent color when I get it, but after seeing all these cool wwII camo paint themes, I think that would be blasphemy!

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I thinking about the flourescent camo pattern like the deer hunters use. I think the combination of a great flying glider and a good camo paint scheme = repeat sales for Scott!!

Great Job Rat!!!

....okay, THIS is my favorite scheme so far!!!!....good job!!!....I may have to BUY one after all!!!

Originally posted by Rob Fisher
Looks great Rat!!! I thought about painting mine some flourescent color when I get it, but after seeing all these cool wwII camo paint themes, I think that would be blasphemy!

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You could always back date to WWI. That would open up all kinds of wild colors. Or even do a captured aircraft. If I remember correctly captured Allied aircraft had a yellow band painted around the wings and fuselage with the crosses painted on the band itself. Then again how about a Finnish version, or any of a number of little known German allies. The possibilites are endless.

Actually, I'm hoping the gold canopy is enough to help me find it.

Man, now I'm getting the urge to do another one in a different scheme. LOL

excellent work!

terry dean
nar 16158

Wonderful build! Just one thing - you got the markings wrong. By december 1945, you would have to use red stars...

Originally posted by Balltip
Wonderful build! Just one thing - you got the markings wrong. By december 1945, you would have to use red stars...

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Thanks Balltip.

I figured that if they had the ability to build these in enough numbers to include night fighters this late in the war that the war would have easily gone into 1946 and not been anywhere near ending in May as it did.

Thats a sweet kit, nice job!

INCREDIBLE looking model, Rat!

Originally posted by Rat
You could always back date to WWI. That would open up all kinds of wild colors.

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Have you seen the multi-colored hexagonal camo pattern, that made the aircraft appear "speckled"? Now THAT would be a challenge.

(Borrowed from InternetModeler.com)

Thanks for the thumbs up everyone. I really appreciate feedback of anykind. Of course good feedback is better.

foose, The pod was the hard part. It's all down hill after that.

Dave, That WWI scheme is called lozenge and is exactly what I was thinking when I wrote that. It's hard enough to paint that you used to be able to by it in decal form. I think it was only used on horizontal surfaces. That would leave the body open for anything.

Thanks again everyone!

An outstanding job there Rat!
Great looking effort. hope mine and it's little brother come out anywhere near as good

Great looking FW there Rat!

I am sure yours will turn out the usual Micro spectacular! A micro scale Fake Wulf! Gotta love it! Can't wait to see it! Post plans when you get it done?

Originally posted by Rat
Dave, That WWI scheme is called lozenge and is exactly what I was thinking when I wrote that. It's hard enough to paint that you used to be able to by it in decal form.

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Ooh, I have some lozenge decals in 1/72 scale.

There were a couple different colors. Mostly green and brown for the upper surfaces and mostly blues for the lower surfaces.

It's a repeating pattern so once it's drawn it's just a matter of copying and pasting until you get the a big enough piece.

Looks like another project. As if I don't have enough.

BTW, Rat.... I really like your night fighter version.

EDIT: I don't know what I was thinking. I went back and looked at the decals and the upper surface was mostly greens and blues with some white. If I remember, there were at least a couple differnt patterns of colors. There were 4 color and 5 color patterns. I'm sure that if I look later, I can find examples of different patterns.

Very nice rocket !

SS

I hate you Jim... After I built the last Fake-Wulf (#10 I think) I vowed I would not do another for a long time... Now, after this thread, I want to do another one in a similar paint scheme! Actually, hate is wrong seeing as I really hoped that people would do just what you did and use their imagination. I just wish you hadn't done it so well! I can't wait for the flight report!!!

Originally posted by Rat
This is the first time I've used my airbrush in a decade or so. My skills have suffered for sure.

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Whatever
Your paint job is excellent!

Originally posted by rokitflite
I hate you Jim...

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LOL

I didn’t get a lift off shot because I had a stubborn motor. After swapping a new igniter for the old one (which looked perfectly good) it still wouldn’t light. So I played around with my controller a bit and whoosh! What an awesome flight. It boosted straight up @ 400 feet then arced over and went horizontal. Seperation happened without incident and the glider flew off in a very wide arc. It was fantastic! One thing to note though, try not to fly it without at least two sets of eyes. Trying to track both pieces wasn’t fun. Unfortunately the glider landed on the hard packed road and snapped off the wing tip. Nothing a little CA won’t fix though. (Of course I didn’t have any with me.) The chute stripped two lines but survived with no other damage.




You can read my whole launch report here.

Glad you had a succesful launch. Sorry to hear about the damage, but it seems minor!

What engine did you use?

I'm definitely going to take your advice and have spotters when I launch mine. I have this fear that it's going to sail straight in one direction for a half mile instead of gently circling the launch field.

And it can't be said enough, your paint job is original and awesome.

Thanks for the compliment cm!

I flew her on a C6-3. I have a really bad habit of going for the gusto and skipping the "first flight" motors. Full speed ahead and **** the torpedos!

After seeing that flight I might be a bit worried about using a B motor. I know it's been done and it works fine but, from what I saw today I would think a B might have a really low flight profile. Then again I wouldn't have had to walked so far would I?

When I wrote wide arc I meant really wide. It was almost straight. I had a good 200 yard walk to get the glider. Now that i think about it she may have just turned downwind.

As an aside I did not have to trim her at all. No clay or aileron tab needed. I had very light winds at the time too.



P.S. - Scott, you really need to think about upscaling this baby!

Outstanding job on the Fake Wulf.

Rest assured... I have walked OVER 200 yards on a B6-2 flight... A B motor will do the job just fine!

Scott, I'm pretty well stocked on B6-4's ATM. Will they work ok for this? Or, am I flirting with disaster by using a 4 second delay?