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Luft '46 Colours Pt. 8 - Night fighters & Zerstörers

Thanks for the welcome Rowan! After looking at this very cool Luft'46 stuff on this site I HAD to join, not many other sites have much or any Luft'46 subject matter. The model in my pic is an Amtech Ta 183, I photographed it last December on a photography base I made last spring. The Ta 183 in the background is a smaller PM 1/72 scale kit, while the hanger is scratchbuilt as well as the backdrop which is airbrushed poster paper. Right now I am building the Verlinden kits of Luftwaffe start carts and a 1/48 scale Kettenkraftrad (for towing some of my jets) and these should help my airfield pics look more realistic. When my current group of models are finished I will post more pics of my airfield. Matrixone

Hi Les, welcome to Armorama A wonderful Ta 183 and a great set of pics. My Ta 183 is coming on, but I really need to sort out a scheme for it. I have decided that I will do the wheel bays in natural metal and I do like the idea of extreme splinter camo. I like the SAAB camo but I'm not ever likely to do anything like it on WW II aircraft. What do you think? Mal

Mal, Thanks for the welcome and the comment on my pics! Not sure what you mean about the SAAB camouflage, I think you mean the multi-color hard edged splinter camouflage seen on the jet fighters in Sweden in the 60's and 70's. I think it would have been unlikely for the Ta 183 to have a very uniform camouflage pattern at the start of its production, the camouflage colors and pattern would very likely been almost the same as the very late war Fw 190A, D, and Ta 152 series of a/c. The best way to decide on a paint scheme for your Ta 183 would be to look at photos of Luftwaffe Fw 190's and Bf 109's that were photographed right after the war ended, some of the JaPo and Kagero books have excellent pictures of damaged a/c in scrap yards that show a number of different camouflage patterns and markings that were in use in the last weeks of the war. I use these kind of a/c graveyard pictures to get ideas for finishing my Luft'46 models. My Ta 183 models are painted in such a way as to depict parts of their airframe being built by sub-contractors at different locations and then being brought together and assembled at a main a/c assembly center. Thats why the tail section camouflage looks very different than the fuselage color. The tail is painted in a RLM 76 variation with RLM 81 mottling, the fuselage is NMF with a thin coat of RLM 82 on the top only, the wings have a wavy splinter pattern of RLM 70 and RLM 75, with RLM 76 undersurfaces. I chose the 70/75 colors after looking at pictures of the NASM Fw 190F-8. When you get your Ta 183 finished I hope you can post some pics of it, the Ta 183 is my favorite Luft'46 a/c. HTH Matrixone

it is excellent again as always . I think this must be a published book or something like that. congrats Peter

Les, Of course you are absolutely correct. However, if I am going to do one of these it aint going to be like anything else I have. I like seeing and doing Luftwaffe camoflage, I have an FW 190D-9 in progress, but as these things never actually flew, no one will ever know what they were painted like. So mine will be depicted as if the war had continued and the luftwaffe were, once again, gaining the upper hand. It will be a late 1946 early 1947 scheme and will be very unlikely but fun to do. That is my only reason for doing it, as I have far to many models to build. I have just dipped my toe in the dark side because of Peters wonderful series, which came about because I, foolishly :-) asked a queastion about Luft46 camo. I will, as always be posting my Ta 183 here, when finished. Mal

Sorry I'm late....just finished the next Luft 46 colours feature... Welcome Les...great little Huck you have there. In the next part...Fighters, I've done 4 Ta 183's. Great to have another Luft 46 fan on board. Cheers Peter :-)

Mal, Your Ta 183 would look great in the camouflage patterns and colors of some of the post war West German jets like the F-86 and F-104. Just an idea I had for doing a late 1940's Luft'46 model. This is part of the fun of building these Luft'46 models, no one can say you have used the wrong RLM colors or camouflage patterns. What I like to do is make my Luft'46 models blend in with my late war ''real'' a/c models by painting and marking them in colors like those used near the end of WWII. I am also building a Fw 190 but mine is the Hasesgawa 1/32 scale A-8 being built as an A-9. In another week my other in-progress models will be done, they are the Tamiya Do 335B, Monogram Me 262, and Revell Lippisch P 13a. The Do 335B is painted and marked as an operational Luft'45 a/c, the Me 262 is painted and marked as a JV 44 ''what-if'' a/c and will have X-4 air to air rockets. I plan to post some pics of the new models in the aircraft forum next week. Peter, Thank you for the welcome! I am very much looking forward to your next feature, this is great stuff and I agree with Graywolf, this series should be in book form. There are 4 Amtech Ta 183's and 3 PM Ta 183's in my kit stash and your Luft'46 series will no doubt provide the inspiration for me to get to work on some of them. Les

Peter's Luft '46 Colours series are well worth cycling through again. Thus, here's a bump.

I just noticed that the original URL doesn't work. (It was made back before Aeroscale had its own domain.) This is the URL that works today: Luft '46 Colours Pt. 8 - Night fighters & Zerstörers

Cheers Fred I've updated the link. All the best Rowan