“No idea, Joe. Tell em it’s some kind of Wonderbug Machine.”
April 1945: the US Army's Shermans are overrunning airfields faster than the AAF can shoot them up. As some GIs poke their Garands into the backs of Luftwaffe scientists and groundcrew and shuffle them off the base, other Americans take a look inside the hangars. A few of the boys stumble upon a particularly interesting prize...
The title was going to be something fancy like "The Husk of the Dragonfly," but since this scene involves Americans that's too fancy.
After the long gestation period of the Babs project, I needed something simple and reference-less. The Wunderwaffe fits that bill perfectly. This is the Amusing Hobby 1/48 Focke-Wulf Triebflügel, or the "Triebflügeljäger" as the paper project was called. Designed to be a ramjet VTOL, it only reached a model phase and was going through wind tunnel tests before the war ended. Thankful from those who were meant to fly it, I'm sure, as no ejection seat around could clear the giant rotors of death.
The model was modified to show a hurried prototype: I left a lot of bits off, including the nonsensical wheel covers. The backdrop is some sheet-printed cutout set from a group called Noy's. It was evidentially not meant for the likes of the Triebflügel, as the model was too tall. The actors are hired from the 1/48 Tamiya GIs at rest set, and the scaffolding is scratchbuilt. I lost a whole Saturday to the scaffolding, as I sat down one morning and finished in time to go to bed.
My one regret is the lighting. This was also my first attempt at Bare Metal Foil, and I paneled some of the skinning with it for variation. It was fun and I enjoyed doing it, as long as it isn't the whole damn model. The light I have reflected off the metal, and it made for a poor photo session.
The next task? Avoid spending money on rare Fonderie Miniatures kits.
Thanks for looking.
Very nice diorama, Kyle.
Wonder what was going through their minds when they opened the door of that hangar.
Excellent model, Kyle and great diorama!
Excellent BMF results, too.
What a design of a "plane"!
Very nice work. The scaffold makes a nice colour-dot in this superb diorama, but certainly the germans wouldn't have painted a scaffold in late wartimes due to the lack of material.
I sourced the inspiration for the scaffolding from the 1/35 MiniArt Triebflugel, which showed a red color. Which now that I look at, it is a Japanese Triebflugel what-if scheme and probably a Japanese what-if scaffolding.
Whoops.
Impressive and nice looking work. This machine surely would have been a giant blender to chop up pilots !
The European comic book. « Wunderwaffen « has them going into action alongside other unusual designs by Germany that never flew.
Mythological stuff.
They could have had the whole nose section blow off, and an auto-rotor stop, or blow those off too. Put me in charge of the pilot escape phase.
Great imaginative model. Cool GI's too.
I'm sure in a squeaky clean lab-tape environment they could have a shiny scaffold.
Man, that's super-cool!
The infantry? The Tamiya 1/48 US Infantry At Rest set
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
Nice project! I too have "lost" an entire day to modeling on occasion - not such a bad "loss!"
I really like the "at rest" figures. Those are the only types I've assembled and painted in 1/35 so far, the ones throwing grenades and firing bazookas are still on their sprues because they always remind me of those little plastic Army Guys that came in a bag. Or maybe I just don't like war, wouldn't want my little fellas to hurt each other, no sir not on my shelves.
Anyway, this some really cool work. That Saturday was time well spent, you'll be reminded of it forever, can't say that for many other Saturdays can we.
This is a real victory for imagination! A really good diorama - it tells its story perfectly.
"Liked" (a lot!)
🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
Nicely handled concept Kyle. This project is a altogether show of what can positively
result once one let the imagination flow.
Nice work.
An imitative build! Looks great.