My first love (hobby-wise) is model planes, particularly those of World War Two. Some of the most colorful subjects of the war were German aircraft with their beautiful unit heraldry and great variety of camouflage. Here are some from my vast collection, featuring Germany's two primary fighters of the war.


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Messerschmitt Me-262A-2a.
The new Tamiya 1/48 kit with Kettenkraftkrad


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Focke-Wulf FW-190D-9 of Jagdverband 44's airfield defense squadron. JV44 flew the Me-262 jet fighter in combat, but the jets were slow and vulnerable taking off, so they kept a flight of FW-190s in the air to cover the takeoffs. They painted their bellies red with white stripes so their own flak gunners could identify them.
DML's 1/48 Dora kit built stock with kit decals.

This model is featured on Die Schwalbe, a fantastic website of Me-262 information and resources, in their "Tactics" section.



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Focke-Wulf FW-190S Two-Seat Trainer.
A Falcon conversion kit on the old Arii FW-190A kit. Rather than use the whole vacuformed fuselage (which lacked detail), I trimmed off the rear decking and added the second cockpit and beef-up panels to the kit fuselage. War Eagle decals.


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Henschel Hs 129
A rather huge reconaissance and utility plane.
The Airfix 1/72 scale kit done in winter camoflouge.


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Junkers Ju-87G Stuka
The tank-busting variant of the famous dive-bomber, as used on the Russian front by pilot Hans Rudel.
The old Monogram 1/48 scale kit with Superscale decals.


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Messerschmitt Bf-109E-3
In the markings of Hauptman Dr. Erich Mix, Stab I./JG53 "Pik As", Wiesbaden-Erbenheim, November, 1939.
The Hasegawa 1/48 kit, using Aeromaster decals. This was an unusual camouflage overspraying a light gray on the 71 dark green/02 green-gray splinter scheme.


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Messerschmitt Bf-109F-2/Z Trop
In the markings of ace Hans-Joachim Marseille, JG 27, North Africa.
The old Airfix kit modified with a War Eagle conversion kit and decals.


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Messerschmitt Bf-109G-2
flown by Maj. Hannes Trautloft, Kdr of JagdGeschwader 54, Russian front, summer 1942.
The Hasegawa 1/48 scale 109G-2 kit built out of the box (unmodifed) with kit decals. A perfect example of unusual 3-color camo, bold markings and a colorful unit emblem.



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Messerschmitt Bf-109G-10 of the German-allied 2nd Craotian Jagdstaffel, Northern Italy, April 1945.
A conversion using the Monogram 109G-10 fuselage combined with the wings from the old Fujimi 109G/K kit, along with a lot of other scratch-built details - the cockpit in this is completely scratch built, and is to this day the most detailed scratch built cockpit I've ever done. The kit is also the most extensive conversion I've ever attempted. Just to keep me humble, the final coat of dullcoat blotched, keeping it from being contest material.
Of course, after I finished this conversion someone came out with a kit in the configuration I'd wanted. I'm trying to collect every variant of 109 that there's a kit for.


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Messerschmitt Me-109K-4, the last production variant of the 109, incorporating all the series upgrades; The Db605 engine, retractable tail wheel with long strut, wheel covers, and tall wooden tail.
The Revell/Monogram 1/48 kit's German release with additional parts to make the "K". Resin tires and Aeromaster decals.


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Messerschmitt Me-410B, Messerschmitt's beautiful Zerstorer (bomber destroyer).
The Revell/Monogram Pro Modeler kit built out of the box. This is very possibly the single best-produced plastic model plane I've ever seen.

More models:
Model page 1, some German planes of World War Two.
Model page 2, some German planes that might have been.
Model page 3, some planes that ain't German.
Model page 4, some sci fi models.

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