Oh boy, I'm definitely in on this one! Pencil me in for something German 1/32!
Wait, make that something flown by Gerhard Barkhorn in 1/32...
While Erich Hartmann is known to almost everyone with an interest for militrary aviation, Barkhorn seems to be almost completely forgotten in comparison. I have nothing but utter respect for that man though.
During his career in the Luftwaffe he racked up 301 kills, making him the second highest scoring ace of all time.
Barkhorn was shot down 6 times, wounded 3 times, but only bailed out of his aircraft once.
The reason for him refusing to bail out of an damaged aircraft was the result of him doing exactly that over the English Channels pretty early in his career. While he was drifting around in the water, waiting for a German rescue boat to pick him up (and hoping the English boats didn't find him first) he swore to never do it again, so he wouldn't be as helpless as he felt in that moment.
Barkhorn survived the war with a total of 1104 missions flown and continued to serve in the Bundesluftwaffe after WW2 and retired on 30. September 1975.
He died on 11. January 1983 because of the injuries inflicted in a car accident a couple of days earlier.
Now what am I going to build? Well, there are two options for me to choose from: Either his Bf 109 G-6 or his Fw 190 D-9. I'm not sure which one it's going to be, but I'm leaning towards the 190 (got some Messerschmitts on my build list for 2015 already).
I also have a 54mm figure of Barkhorn I might put on a display base with the aircraft, but I'm not sure about that (would be my first serious attempt at figure painting)...
I hope this post contains enough information on Barkhorn...
Cheers, Clemens