David that has to be one of the best album covers ever !

The He-111 is sinister looking as is the Ju-87.

Up until I saw this posting I thought Iron Maiden had it wrapped up with Eddie flying a Spitfire !

I'm definitely looking forward to the next installment ...as the model is looking fantastic.

Paul, that's a great photo of the group in front of the real deal ...

Well done gents, and I hope you enjoyed your Road crew brew ...

And here's the back sleeve showing they actually wrote a song called 'ME 262'

If anyone is wondering, the song is complete tosh. However, it does cite B17's in the lyrics, so at least there's a connection to the build thread.

Surely a song that references 'Jumo 004' engines has to be insane/obsessive/drug induced (or all three) in origin. Anyway, here's the lyric for Blue Oyster Cult's 1974 classic, 'ME 262'. Happy reading and God rest your soul if you make it to the end...

Göring's on the phone from Freiburg
Says "Willie's done quite a job"
Hitler's on the phone from Berlin
Says "I'm gonna make you a star"

My Captain Von Ondine is your next patrol
A flight of English bombers across the canal
After twelve they'll all be here
I think you know the job

They hung there dependent from the sky
Like some heavy metal fruit
These bombers are ripe and ready to tilt
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die

In a G-load disaster from the rate of climb
Sometimes I'd faint and be lost to our side
But there's no reward for failure - but death
So watch me in mirrors keep in the glidepath

Get me through these radars, no, I cannot fail
While my great silver slugs are eager to feed
I can't fail, no, not now
When twenty five bombers wait ripe

They hung there dependant from the sky
Like some heavy metal fruit
These bombers are ripe and ready to tilt
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die

ME-262 prince of turbojet
Junkers Jumo 004
Blasts from clustered R4M quartets in my snout
And see these English planes go burn

Well, you be my witness, how red were the skies
When the fortresses flew for the very last time
It was dark over Westphalia
In April of '45

They hung there dependant from the sky
Like some heavy metal fruit
These bombers are ripe and ready to tilt
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Junkers Jumo 004 bombers at 12 o'clock high

Now this is very cool !

I knew that Bruce Dickinson flew the jet airliner, but didn't know about his other flying exploits... so thanks Paul for sharing these wonderful photos with us...

"Don't Fear the Reaper" is my favorite song that B.O.C. performed... next up would be "Godzilla".

However with today's technology, I would fear the Reaper... "Here but now they're gone" is one of the lines in the song, and how true this is in todays world.

A push of a button remotely from many thousands of miles away and "it's all over"... sort of like the "Unknown Soldier" by the Doors with Jim Morrison.

As far as knowing about the Me-262 song, here's something else new that I learned today...
After reading the lyrics, it makes one think...

Thanks David for posting the Album covers, front and back... definitely cool...

Now what about
"Led Zeppelin" ?

Their first album had the Hindenburg on it ...

Greg, you can't have steak every night, sometimes rabbit has to do. Or so the wife tells me. Back on the game trail, this evening I swapped over from the Fort to Franz's Gustav. The Eduard kit is a lovely little build and although progress seems a little slow, I think over the weekend the project will take a huge leap.

Stuck in the wheel wells and closed up the wings.

Greg, I'm going to shamelessly rip off your patented 'in flight' stands for this build. If you have any tips please feel free to post any advice.

Just a quick post to give a little more background on Franz Stigler.

Below is the Gustav he was flying in the 'Higher Call' incident

And this is Franz' s ME 262 (white 3) which was his main aircraft while flying as a pilot in Galland's experten unit JV44

Below is the 109 Franz flew while part of the JG 27 group in North Africa.

I'm not sure if I've ever seen a collection of builds based on one pilot before, but it's a nice thought for a future project. In fact, some time ago at a model show I saw this unique way of displaying model aircraft...

I am now thinking this'd be a great way of displaying the evolution of a specific pilot through the different aircraft and marks they flew. This would be particularly cool for the pilots who continued flying after the war into the jet age. Certainly more bang for your buck being able to stretch one model into two different aircraft with perhaps minimal modification and a different camo design. I sense my next project. Possibly 'Bubi' Hartmann as I've been wanting to build a F 86 Sabre for some time.

An interview with Herr Stigler;

http://109lair.hobbyvista.com/articles/pilots/stigler/stigler.htm

This is a photo of Franz taken with Charlie Brown in 2008. Beautiful story.

1 additional image. Click to enlarge.

Taking on Dolfo would be a hell of a project, Paul, and would be amazing capturing the early gliders right through to the Gloster Meteors (Argentina) and beyond. I understand he was flying actively well into his 70's so research and choosing what to showcase would be a task.

The more I think of this the more excited I get. First stop will be looking at different aces and their extended careers and correlating that with a list of my 'bucket list' builds.

Of course, this'll all be after the other 300 odd projects I've been excited about...I'd say life is too short but if we lived forever I'm not sure we'd get much fun from this hobby. Or anything for that matter. Rabbit Trail alert, Greg!

Paul, there's several interesting twists and turns that provide context to this story. In JG 27 Stigler was under the command of Gustav Rodel, who told him, "You are fighter pilots first, last, always. If I ever hear of any of you shooting at someone in a parachute, I'll shoot you myself." Stigler says that when her saw the crew of 'Ye Olde Pub' it was this memory that came to him "it was as if they were in parachutes - I could not shoot them down".

Stigler stopped counting his 'kills' later in the war, and stopped having victory marks painted on his rudder, mainly because of the practice he'd seen of other officers openly lying about their exploits to gather medals in JG 27. However, he took pride in his flying and shooting down aircraft.

I think there is something of a complex interplay of pride, guilt, atonement, and regret in this story. In particular, I can see how Franz Stigler echoes a lot of German aces (be they fliers or tankers, or sailors) where they gloried in battles of a war they did not believe in.