Looks good so far, Yalym. Looking forward to see the shark mouth 109.

Four weeks to go. . .

....and a little more progress....

...fiddeled on the tail fin...

Masked and placed the windbreaker, placed a little rod to simulate the raido compartment lid's mill(I think)

Handbuilt the neck armor.

And t looks like this now. Almost ready for paint. I am planning to paint it tonight. We'll see... Be well...

sorry guys but i must leave the project at the half way........newborn baby needs too much time.Thanx for understanding....see you at need for speed campaign

Family comes first! No worries.

No problem, nektarios. Congratulations on the little new family extension

Congradulations Nektarios, I wish a loooong and healthy life to the newcommer

Greetings all here is one from Jeff Porter (Ritterbach)
My Entry of....When I Flew With........ Jasta 30

He was born in a small town near Hannover. His father was in the local Polizist there and the boy was always in trouble. His name was Niklas Rittersbach. He was persuaded to enlist in the armee after a torrid affair with the daughter of the Bürgermeister. He was commissioned in 1914 and sent to the western front where he was wounded in the shoulder and spent time in hospital. He was placed next to another recovering chap named Stefan Löwenson. Stefan talked night and day about engines, mechanics, and women. He told Niklas that if he got into flying school he would get the attention of all the young lasses, which very much interested young Niklas. Stefan was a little older and had been around. He told young Niklas to stay away from a woman named Frau Blücher (horse whinny), as she was linked with a kook named Viktor Frankenstone. Niklas bribed an Oberleutnant and was transferred to aviation school where he learned to fly aeroplanes. Niklas became a quick study in a short time. He became known as a hot shot pilot, because of his flying skill. He was assigned to Jasta 1 and arrived there on Nov 17 1916. He was given an Albatros D.II. and got his first victory on Dec 5 1916. He went on to achieve 5 more kills with Jasta 1. He was one of a few to be awarded the Iron Cross 2nd and 1st class simultaneously for his bravery in holding off 4 Camels while a wounded comrade made his way back across lines.

His flying skill caught the attention of Commander Bruno Loerzer and he was asked to join Jasta 26, where he officially arrived on July 17 1917. Niklas wasted no time making his mark, scoring an impressive 8 kills in 14 days, bringing his total to 13. However, his stint with Jasta 26 was short-lived. Niklas was at odds with Hermann Göring, a fellow Jasta 26 pilot. He felt Göring was a selfish, backstabbing coward who would go to any lengths to achieve rank. Because of this friction, the commander transferred Niklas to Jasta 30. This is where he would attain his greatest success. He arrived at Phalempin in Oct 1917. He was assigned the Pfalz D.IIIa shown here. In his first outing, he was jumped by 3 S.E 5’s of 40 Squadron. He managed to down one before he was wounded and barely made it back to the aerodrome. He spent 3 months in hospital, and when he returned to action he showed little rust, as he downed 2 planes that day. Rittersbach would eventually achieve 15 victories in this Pfalz.






On Feb 8 1918, Rittersbach shot down French ace Pepé le Pew. Le Pew’s black and white painted Nieuport 17 always smelled of limburger, and when it went down in flames, reports of a foul smell came from 10 miles. Rittersbach was awarded the Pour le Mérite on June 5 1918. When the armistice came on November 11 1918, Niklas had achieved a total of 35 air victories.

Niklas Rittersbach survived the war, and moved to Switzerland with his wife and children. He died peacefully in his sleep on July 25 1983 at the age of 91.

Two days left. Tic tick tick. . . its almost time to close the book on this one. Anyone have a build to add?

Stephen,

I'll have mine ready tomorrow..............if i don't drop it again.

Mark

One very beautiful Pflaz D.IIIa

Guitarlute came through in Flying Colours!

After a long and hard fought (losing) battle to make my own decals (running colors, soft or blurred edges) I had to free hand the ones I wanted to make for the aircraft so that makes two projects for next year...how to make my own photo-etch and how to make my own decals. I shall overcome. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy my entry.


Here's my build for the "When I flew with...." Campaign


Tim Macene was born in the mountains of West Virginia in March of 1898. He grew up in a musical family and showed great talent on the stringed instruments of his rural hometown. He was also an excellent marksman gaining experience while hunting in the local mountains. At the outbreak of the war, he and several friends enlisted in the US Navy and were later shipped overseas for duty. While stationed in France, he became fascinated with aircraft and the newly formed air services and trained to be a pilot. While in France, he was also introduced to the vihuela, a small stringed instrument that had been popular in that country before the guitar had been conceived. He was stationed with the US Navy at Dunkirk to patrol and counter the German threat coming from Ostend and Zeebrugge and flew a Hanriot HD.2. Being very active in the local music scene while off duty, Macene adorned his aircraft with a vihuela and musical symbols. Macene was known to fly off on his own to pursue and harass his opponents well into their own airspace and at the end of the war was credited with 3 air victories. Macene stayed in France after the war and became a well known music publisher and historian. He died while on a trip in Italy researching ancient music in 1955.

Here are the standings so far. 11/30/08

Bigrip74
CaptainA - DONE
Clanky44
DaGreatQueeg
grayghost666
guitarlute101 - DONE
JackFlash - DONE
jam2727
jaypee - DONE
JollyRoger
Rittersbach - DONE
SGTJKJ - DONE
spongya

Campaign Debriefing
So the Campaign comes to an end. I would like to thank everyone who participated and especially those who finished the course. I have no regrets with this one. Sometimes life intervenes and we can't get the job finished in the time alotted. No worries there will be others in the future. My thanks to Jim & Chuck for carving out a bit of Aeroscale to assist in our GB.

As the sunlight glints off my wings I am headed back to the Early Aviation Hangar. Drop by sometime. The coffee's always hot.

JackFlash outbound at angels 3 with frost on my wings and the motor at 16000 rpm. Oil pressure good. Happy Holidays!

Oh well , yes again, one day late. I better buy a digicam to myself, can't go on photographing my models at work! Anyways I finished the build but posted late, if it s accepted , gret, if not? it was fun!
Hauptmann Karl-Heinz İsmet Ritter was born in 1923 as the only son of Heinrich Ritter, a German diplomat and his wife Nebahat Canan Ritter who met when Heinrich was working in the German embasy inTurkey. Most of his childhood was in Argentine due to is fathers duties there. In late 1935 they returned to Germany and Karl recieved his kater education there. In 1937 he joined the youth glider school. He was not the stediest of fliers, actualy he was second last of his class. in 1942 he joined Luftwaffe and volunteered for fighter pilot. He was posted to JG 52 on Eastern Front and downed 4 planes. The ones he was riding. Even backed up Erich Hartmann once who reported "This guy is utterly unable to fly a fightercraft, please do take him to samowhere safe for his and everyone else's sake!" . He was sent to other duties as recon pilot, courier and cargo pilot but he persistantly tired to get back to fighter squadrons eventhough his score was -5 at the time. Then in Summer 1943 he was accepted to NJG 1 and did minor flights at night. In september 1943 he accidently shot down a Mosquito Night Fighter on a raid over Bremen. Folowing night he took down a Lancaster. Two days later 3 more. He bacame an ace all of a sudden. Seeing the sudden glory of Karl his commandrs posted him to JG300. There he flew more night missions on his Bf.19 G-10(which is modeled here). Later on he learned how to keep his airplane up in the air, and shoot down the enemy's planes even further. Became a nasty Lancaster hunter and his Geschwader mates started to call him Lankesser or Der Türk. At theend of the war his score made up to 32 including 4 Mosquito and one Black Widow(he is no sure, could be P-38 too, it is dark you know) Night Fighters. After the war he surrendered to Canadians. Didn't recieve any penalty and went to Switzerland for a few years. Opened a Chocolate shop and got rich...at least richer then before:} In his late life he went to Turkey and settled down in a Aegean fisher village. Followed his father's habbits and married a Turkish girl and started writing aviation novels.
Excuse my horrible noveling:P Here is Karl-Heinz's Bf.109 G-10, Black Shark when he was operating in JG300 in late Early 44.

Oh God! Stephan! I swear I didn't read your story before typing mine! Switzerlad just came to my mind!!! Nail biting Platz by the way. I looked at the pics for 20 miutes without blinking:}

No worries it is a fine build of a bf 109, though The Pfalz belonged to Ritterbach (FJeff Porter) I just planted it here for him. He read about this in the otherforum and forgot to post here as well. So I just helped him out.

By the way when did bf 109 become ME 109?

Thanks Stephan. Actualy I have no idea about the Messerschmitt coding. I think 109 never did, or maybe did in late G and K times. It may be an Allied nameing because I've never seen it in a German source but I am not an expert; just a fan:} I don't even know what the Bf stands for. Maybe our Deutch friends give us a tourch on it.

Terri,

Thanks for the kind words. Lots of decaling, but I love the new lozenge offerings from Microsculpt.

cheers
Jeff

Thanks for a good campaign, Stephen. Nice ribbon.

See you all in the next campaign..........

Hi there Stephen, I found this today on wikipedia:
Bf 109 was the official Reichsluftfahrtministerium (German Aviation Ministry, RLM) designation, since the design was submitted by the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke company, and was used exclusively in all official German documents dealing with this aircraft family. The company was renamed Messerschmitt AG after July 1938[5] when Erhard Milch finally allowed Willy Messerschmitt to acquire the company; from that date forward, all Messerschmitt aircraft were to carry the "Me" designation except those already assigned a Bf prefix. Wartime documents from Messerschmitt AG, RLM, and others continued to use both designations,[6] sometimes even on the same page, but there were several RLM orders to deny acceptance of documents carrying the Me prefix for the Bf 109. Me 109 is known to have been the name used in print by Luftwaffe propaganda publications as well as by the Messerschmitt company itself after July 1938, and Luftwaffe personnel, who pronounced it may hundert-neun. The Me 109 ("emm ee one-oh-nine") designation was usually used in the English-speaking world. However, in both wartime and contemporary literature, both the "Bf" and "Me" as well as "ME" prefixes are used.[7] All extant airframes are described as "Bf 109" on identification plates, including the final K-4 models.[