ANTEATER with Fangs - DML 1/72 Do335B-2

Having finally built my old 'stash queen' 1/72 DML Do335 Pfeil in its heavily-armed B-2 'Zerstörer' release...I was looking for a livery a bit more interesting than the dull prototype markings included with the kit.

Opting for a 'what if' operational scheme---and quite shamelessly wanting to add some eye-catching 'Defense of the Reich' fuselage bands---I selected JG 6 as the 'natural' choice. Having been formed from remnants of perhaps the best-known of the earlier-war Zerstörergruppen---ZG26---it seemed the perfect unit choice to carry on the mixed-attack mission suitable to the 'destroyer' variant of Dornier's tandem-engined 'Ameisenbär' (Anteater). (The fictive 'back story' would be that JG 6 was somehow able to re-equip with the type, after having virtually their entire service-strength of Fw190s wiped out in the pyrrhic 'Operation Bodenplatte' in January 1945.)

Camouflage is the attractive 82/75/76 variant reported from numerous late-war Bf109s, Fw190s and Me262s, mixed from Tamiya acrylics. The distinctive Reichsverteidigung fuselage bands were masked with tape and sprayed with the AB. 5th Staffel markings for 'Black 3' were cobbled together from assorted sheets and spares...with the 'carry-over' JG6/ZG26 unit shields being contributed from Airfix's very nice Bf110E kit sheet.

The broad yellow warning-stripe on the lower fin is speculative, but well-reasoned: as one of the few aircraft in the Luftwaffe inventory with a tail that sat high enough to (accidentally) drive a ground-vehicle under---and the only one with a prop there---it seemed logical that, if the type had entered regular squadron service, some such marking might have been adopted to warn overworked and always-preoccupied ground crew against the very real dangers of colliding with both.

An interesting project...with a lethal-looking result. Hope you enjoy the shots.