Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Junkers 88 C-6 (R4+HH) of Oberleutnant Gerhard Böhme of 1/NJG 2















I am currently finishing an old Revell kit from 1974 of a Junkers Ju 88 C-6 night fighter. Although the kit features the Liechtenstein-equipped aircraft of Major Prince zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, I have decided to use another set of decals to build the C-6 (R4+HH) of Oberleutnant Gerhard Böhme of 1/NJG 2 based at Catania in Sicily.

Böhme shot down his first aircraft while serving with ZG 76, and one other was shot down in the early evening of January 3, 1941, when an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk. III was shot down 30 km southeast of Flamborough Head. By the time he was deployed to Sicily he had these two confirmed kills, although R4+HH sported three victory bars, possibly due to a claim by another pilot or an unconfirmed Abschuss by Böhme.

The kit is fun to built, although quite primitive by today's standards. However, the pieces came together rather nicely, and I added hydraulic lines for the wheel brakes, antennae, a rear-facing MG from a Do 17-kit, and a scratchbuilt cockpit including seat belts made out of masking tape.

The Ju-88 is displayed on a small piece of masonite with a mix of glue and baking soda on top to give it an uneven structure. The Model T ford ambulance is just to provide some color, and although I am clueless regarding the use of ambulances on Sicilian airfields during WW2, it seems reasonable to assume that they would use vintage vehicles. The next project will be a Bf-109 E4 in Slovak markings.