Looking good David, keep it going.

The Gustav is looking very nice David - your interior colours look spot on - just how you'd imagine the inside of an aircraft in battle.

Let me divert you away from it again for a bit, because I have just had a 30 second google of WW2 music and I can report back from Wikipedia as a fully fledged expert...

The officially sanctioned music of the Reich was Beethoven, Bruckner, and Wagner - preferably conducted by Herbert von Karajan and sung by Hans Hotter. Here he is post-war unleashing some Wagner (I lasted about 2 minutes of the 14 - without being too much of a 'philistine' this made me want to listen to Me262 by BOC again...)

The most popular song in WW2 among all troops was of course Lili Marlene (much more palatable) but still not everyone's cup of Earl Grey. The post-war version is actually very emotional - she is clearly very touched singing it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR-nGIJAaw4

Interestingly Lili Marlene was a poem written by a German-Jewish soldier during WW1. Lili Marlene was released in numerous languages and adopted by the Allies in Africa - where it was also an Africa Korps favourite. More evidence that the actual soldiers were tragically bonded more by their similarities than their differences.

In 1938 the Nazis passed a racist law banning Jazz - unless for scientific research purposes (I know there is legitimate 'Jazz research' but that is hideous). However, bizarrely the propaganda machine of Goebbels put out a mocking jazz band 'Charlie and his Orchestra' - which was played to The United Kingdom and The United States - the following comes with the health warning that it is Nazi propaganda - so listen for historical interest if you choose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLkhRMBOtzk

The Brits had their share of 'rousing tunes' - which were of emotional and social importance:
'We'll meet again'
'There'll Always be an England'
'White Cliffs of Dover'

Vera Lynn, and Flanagan and Allen led the way - more 'Blitz Spirit' than out-and-out quality in my view.

But as is being shown on iModeler at the moment the winners were the Americans! My mother and father played these every Sunday lunch-time - even when I was a youngster some 30 years after the war: Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, The Andrews Sisters, Duke Ellington, Harry James, Jimmy Dorsey and course Glenn Miller. I never appreciated them then - do we ever enjoy our parents music as much as they do? In comparison and looking looking back they are the sound that represents that time.

However, there has to be an exception to the rule - and HJM was that in most ways - his love of Jazz went against the edicts of his Nazi masters. So in order to redress the balance a little here is Hans Joachim Marseille's favourite, 'Rumba Azul' from the 30's by Lecuona Cuban Boys, which was played from morning to night on the day he died. I reckon you could build a 109 to this stuff!

Well, here's today's work so far. Never got around to Glenn and the Fortress, had to settle for Wagner and the Gustav (thanks to @yellow10). Little spit and polish and she'll be good for some primer. May get more done this evening, and I'm not at work tomorrow (is there a better feeling than waking on a Monday and having no school) so should get some more detailing done on the '17.

Morne, I love your scratch building so I really appreciate the compliment. I'm hoping that tomorrow's B-17 detailing meets with your approval; I'm currently building an 'Elsan' toilet.

Scratch building is a very rewarding aspect of our hobby. Sure is cheaper than resin or Photo etch goodies and has the added benefit of being your own creation. The Elsan toilet is a nice touch and add even more realism to your B 17. Well done!

Thanks, Michel, good to have you 'back'.

I'm not planning to 'super-detail' either airplane so I'm not going 'all out' here; in terms of the B-17 I just want enough interest looking through the holed fuselage to create an illusion. I guess, as we all do. There'll be empty sections that will be buttoned up and hidden. Mostly I'm really just looking forward to painting both 'planes.

First time for me making a loo, too, funnily enough...

Cheers, Louis, appreciate the photos and comments. One of these days I'd like to go 'full bore' on a super-detail, but for now I'm building the skill base and working at techniques that feel a bit clumsy at the moment. For example, I made a couple of bulkheads last night but scrapped them, thinking, "would Morne settle for this?" - I think not so long ago I'd have definitely 'settled'.

Anyway, off out for breakfast and then to the bench!

David, I think this is actually a very difficult decision to make. Your recent breath-taking dio depicted death but not gore (albeit by a fraction of a second). My last build had some graves, and I thought long and hard about their inclusion. Some modellers, respectfully, won't put swastikas on their builds. And we have recently seen the powerful moment when a torpedo strikes, so expertly modelled. These considerations and the depiction of many other 'moments' in soldiers' lives will have been wrestled with in modellers' minds. But the explicit inclusion of a body and blood is different again. I remember seeing some powerful dio's with the last rites being read, bodies under tarpaulins and on stretchers, and figures modelled at the moment the fatal shot hit.

For me your inclusion of the rear gunner is an intrinsic part of the story. The absolute disarray of the crew was central to Stigler's decision to be their unlikely escort. I think there was a description of the rear guns being hung with icicles formed in blood and some members of the crew huddled together resigned to their fate. Whatever conclusions people may draw I'd say it is a brave thing to include the lost airman, and that you have done it well, and clearly with respect and careful consideration.

This WIP thread has been compulsive viewing from the start!