Hunting After Dark, 2011-2012 Night Fighter Group Build

Awesome work so far Trey, your coming along pretty fast, always nice to find out the history behind the plane and pilot, i still need to research a some markings for my night bird

Nathan

Nice start so far Trey.

Andrew

Happy new year everybody! This is my first ever group build so go easy on me.I got a little done on the Bf110 office this, eduard kit has lots of pe goodies. I'm doing it up as Hptm.Wilhel Johnen from 7./NJG6

    Wilhelm “Wim” Johnen was born on 9 October 1921 at Homberg in Niederrhein. In June 1941, Johnen was posted to NJG 1. Leutnant Johnen was assigned to 3./NJG 1. He gained his first victory on the night of 26/27 March 1942, when he shot down a RAF Wellington twin-engine bomber. He then attacked a RAF Stirling four-engine bomber but his Bf 110 D-3 (W.Nr. 4224) “G9+FL” was hit by return fire from the bomber’s gunners killing his crewman and wounding Johnen in the left leg. Johnen managed to bale out of the burning aircraft. He was to spend a considerable time in hospital for treatment to his burns and wounded leg. He returned to combat duty in July 1942. On 1 October, 3./NJG 1 was redesignated 1./NJG 5. In December, 1./NJG 5 was redesignated 5./NJG 5. Johnen recorded seven victories during 1943. In January 1944, he added a further seven victories, including three RAF Lancaster four-engine bombers on the night of 27/28 January to record his 13th through 15th victories. He downed a further three Lancasters on the night of 15/16 February (16-18). On 3 March 1944, Johnen was appointed Staffelkapitän of 6./NJG 5. On the night of 27/28 April, Johnen shot down a RAF Lancaster four-engine bomber. He and his crew then made contact with another over Lake Constance heading west for Switzerland. Johnen attacked the Lancaster but his Bf 110 G-4 (W.Nr. 740 055) “C9+EN” received hits in the encounter setting the port engine alight. Coned by Swiss searchlights and with a dead engine Johnen was obliged to land at the Swiss airfield at Zürich-Dubendorf. Johnen and his crew were interned only to be repatriated some days later amid much political manoeuvering. Johnen was appointed Staffelkapitän of 8./NJG 6 on 10 May 1944 based in Hungary. In a little over two months, Johnen added 11 victories to his tally, including four Russian Mitchell twin-engine bombers. Oberleutnant Johnen was awarded the Ritterkreuz on 23 July for 33 victories. In autumn 1944, Johnen was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of III./NJG 6. He led the unit until the end of the war. Post-war, Johnen attended university and gained an Engineering degree. In 1952 he worked with Professor Willi Messerschmitt before taking up construction engineering, successfully running his own business. Johnen died on 7 February 2002 at Überlingen.
    “Wim” Johnen was credited with 34 victories in over 200 missions. All his victories were recorded at night. Included in his victory total are 24 four-engine bombers.
 

Victories : 34
Awards : Ehrenpokal (20 March 1943)
                Deutsches Kreuz in Gold (23 July 1944)
                Ritterkreuz (29 October 1944)
Units : NJG 1, NJG 5, NJG 6

Greg and Mobious - thanks.

Nathan - Dragon's early days is alot like Trumpeter, hit and miss of nice subjects. Usually nice detail but silly things let them down (hell you still see it in some of Dragon's modern stuff).

Andrew

Got going on the 88 last night. Got the cockpit painted up and started on the eduard color pe. Im not sure what to think of this kit yet, the exterior detail is crisp and clean, but there is flash and ejector pin marks on everything! its gonna take time to clean up the parts...so i'll get wip up soon. here is the goods...

the decals will be totally unusable, probablly due to them being 18 years old or so...i'll have to figure out what to buy for aftermarket.

Mobious- Can;t wait to see the 219 being built...the kit is on my to do list..

Nathan

Happy New Year everybody!

Andrew, the micro scale stuff amazes me, really cool!

Got the cellophane off the 219, looking forward to getting started.

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Greg, hope multiple builds are ok, have a couple more nocturnal beasties in the stash and a Ta154 on the way!

Mo

Helo H-34

Happy New Year Greg .

Looking forward to paticipating in your Hunting After Dark GB

                                       John .

Thanks John, I'm glad that you joined.  You have a knack for choosing the most interesting subjects, and the guys not in the Korea GB are in store for some great stuff!

Andrew, good start already.  I like your mesh solution.

I am anxious to pull the cellophane off my P-70 when I get home from work today.  Hopefully, I will be posting some photos later.

Again, thanks to all that have joined.  Happy New Year everybody.

Cheers,

Greg

Happy New Year all.

Got some build time in tonight.

The kit  is Revell's 1/144 F-117 A, Very well detailed for the scale

The real nighthawk had mesh over the intakes. The kit supplied version is the worst part of the kit so I stole some guard rails (helicopter pad) from 1/350 USN eduard set that while are still not scale mesh they are much better then the kit.

Cockpit and intakes fitted. The baisic cockpit painting is done want to fine tune it yet.

Andrew

Just fininshing up a build for the mighty Eighth GB. I've been working on the cockpit for the Hellcat. Should have some WIP in the next few days.

Yeah me to, I just gotta find $200+ for that 1/24 Airfix Mossie!

Cheers

Happy New Year Greg .

Looking forward to paticipating in your Hunting After Dark GB

                                       John .

We are officially open for business!  Happy New Year.

Cheers,

Greg

Unfortunately, I don't have a photo sharing website or address.  I usually post directly to the website.  If you would like to see how far I've gone, you could go to the group build at ww2aircraft.net.  I've posted several pictures there.  Just look for my avatar.  You'll see it hasn't changed much.  :)  If there is no way to post to this site, I may have to open an account somewhere.  :( 

Not sure if you figured it out or not yet. save the pic to your computer (right click, save as) then upload it to your photo sharing website (photobucket, flickr, image shack etc.) then put the IMG code into your signature.

the IMG code should read something like ["IMG"]URL["/IMG"] without the " 

Greg - love the badge! How do I add it to my profile? Copying and pasting doesn't seem to work.

Cool...talk about prompt service.  Thanks Greg

I have posted the badge on page one, post one.  Please feel free to grab one when you start your build.  Only 11 days to go!   To all who have joined, thanks, I hope you have fun with this GB.

Cheers,

Greg

Gregbbear

Hercmech:

Forgive me Greg if I missed it...but did we ever decide on a badge?

 

I thought we did.  Let me go back and check.  If not, I will get back to work on it, unless anybody has a better idea.  My try at puttting a bunch of squadron crests together didn't work out.  I am just not that savy at photo manipulation.  I just can't seem to shrink stuff, except my bank account, brain cells, and space for more kits.

Cheers,

Greg

No sweat...I have slept since then so I might have missed it, and I guess since I have not even started my build I should not worry about it. However my sig line feels lonely and since I have not been a part of a group build I can't help but be excited.

Hercmech

Forgive me Greg if I missed it...but did we ever decide on a badge?

I thought we did.  Let me go back and check.  If not, I will get back to work on it, unless anybody has a better idea.  My try at puttting a bunch of squadron crests together didn't work out.  I am just not that savy at photo manipulation.  I just can't seem to shrink stuff, except my bank account, brain cells, and space for more kits.

Cheers,

Greg

Forgive me Greg if I missed it...but did we ever decide on a badge?

Stumpjumper70

Hi Greg. Great, put me down for the Dragon 1/32 C-7 then. I've seen some great reviews of that model plus a couple of iffy ones as well. It'll certainly be a challenge - hope I can do it justice!

Outstanding!  I've heard good things about the Dragon kit.  It certainly looks impressive.  I look forward you bringing it to life. 

Cheers,

Greg

Hi Greg. Great, put me down for the Dragon 1/32 C-7 then. I've seen some great reviews of that model plus a couple of iffy ones as well. It'll certainly be a challenge - hope I can do it justice!

BigSmitty

 

Scorpiomikey:

 

all the research ive done on the mossies lead to the all black scheme not lasting long (2 or 3 months). The black underside with camo upper came in pretty quick. Can anyone elaborate on this?

 

 

This link was all I could find on the night fighter camo introduction on the Mosquito.  

http://www.cbrnp.com/profiles/quarter2/mosquitos.htm

Doesn't show a time period when they switched, but for the majority of 1942, the Mossies were still all black.  One thing I read on the all black Spitfires used in a NF role... the exhaust manifolds glowed so hot that maintenance crews painted them with a heavy coat of red lead paint to keep the glow to a minimum.  If you look at the side profiles on the Mossies, it looks as if they have had the same red lead treatment on their manifolds.

Just thought it would be interesting to read up on.

Awesome, cheers for that. I also read the NF spits were scrapped due to too many landing accidents because of the long nose.

Also, i dont beleive the exhaust manifolds on the mossie were painted the lead red. from what i understand (not sure if its true or not) they had shields put over the manifolds to stop the glow and because they werent expected to last very long the red was a covering of surface corrosion.

Welcome Stumpjumper!  A Bf-110C sounds good.  What scale and manufacturer?  I was thinking about making a C model in Regia Aeronautica NF guise at some point myself.  Starting to ramble, sorry, just love them nightfighters!

Cheers,

Greg

Hi Gregbear - Bf110C OK? 

Scorpiomikey

all the research ive done on the mossies lead to the all black scheme not lasting long (2 or 3 months). The black underside with camo upper came in pretty quick. Can anyone elaborate on this?

This link was all I could find on the night fighter camo introduction on the Mosquito.  

http://www.cbrnp.com/profiles/quarter2/mosquitos.htm

Doesn't show a time period when they switched, but for the majority of 1942, the Mossies were still all black.  One thing I read on the all black Spitfires used in a NF role... the exhaust manifolds glowed so hot that maintenance crews painted them with a heavy coat of red lead paint to keep the glow to a minimum.  If you look at the side profiles on the Mossies, it looks as if they have had the same red lead treatment on their manifolds.

Just thought it would be interesting to read up on.

Matt, I added you to the roster.  Thanks for joining!

Doogs, I have your official entry down too.

Mike, as for mosquito's paint, anyone????

I just picked up my first mossie the other day, so I will be looking forward to learning more about this bird, err insect?  It is a 1/72 Tamiya NF VII.

Cheers,

Greg

all the research ive done on the mossies lead to the all black scheme not lasting long (2 or 3 months). The black underside with camo upper came in pretty quick. Can anyone elaborate on this?

Greg,

Just did a quick inventory of my stash, and I have Tamiya's 1/72 Mosquito (Warbirds Collection No.47)  that has an option for an NF Mk II bird.  I'm with Doogs, really thinking the all-black scheme is going to look cool.  So please add me to the roster with that Mossie.  

Making it official. Mark me down for a Mossie NF.II. I just may get to this puppy soon, too. Got some pretty involved paint-ups coming up, and the prospect of an all-black scheme may be just the thing!