Most of the work on this is in the cockpit. I reposed an Immense Miniatures car driver figure for the pilot. I should be finishing this up very soon.
Hello ;
Question . Based on the limited space in a SailPlane , is his left elbow going to clear when you put the " Pit " in the plane ? T.B.
Looking really nice. Love the painting of the pilot and belts.
Yes, TB, it will fit. I sanded down both elbows. I won’t need to glue him in as the cockpit sills hold him down in the seat.
I hope some manufacturer molds some classic and vintage sailplanes. I’m bored with the mostly white glass slippers.
Finished this while waiting for the hurricane rain to come.
I had some trouble with the clearcoat, but fixing problems is what my model building is all about.
What a nice model. And yes, I agree. Glider models from the 30s-40s always seem to be military. But gliders were a huge part part of civil aviation in the inter war period.
Nice job !
We don’t get to see a lot of Sailplane’s here.
I may be wrong, but didn’t some of the German Luftwaffe train in glider’s / Sailplane’s before the war?
Very nice work, I like the subject and your skills!
v/r,
Ben
Really nice finish on an elegant airframe
My flying instructor flew gliders before WWII in Germany. He built and flew them in the Hitler Youth. He told me that the HY in his town just gave the local glider club lots of money but no indoctrination. With the funds the club bought enough material to let the teens build a SG38 and a Grunau Baby from plans. This is what they learned to fly on–the SG-38.
Later he worked for Wolf Hirth as a machinist. And got to know Hana Reich. He flew numerous gliders during that time and borrowed Hirth’s Minemoa—all were marked in typical civy registration.
Hirth tried to talk him out of joining the military—but he wouldn’t listen. He joined the Luftwaffe with lots of glider experience–but was told by the recruiter “We will make pilots out of butchers and bakers but you think your such a hot pilot–we will put you in the Luftwaffe infantry!” After basic training he came home to visit Wolf Hirth and found him with Hanna Reich and complained about the bad turn of events—when he got back off furlough, he was suprised to find that he had been transferred to flight school. His papers were signed by Hitler.
My instructor said that some of the squadrons kept a Grunau Baby or SG-38 in the back of the hanger for off duty flying. They were clear doped and varnished—marked with WL- (example WL-DBK) WL stood for Wehrmacht Luft. Letters were across the top of the wing like civilian birds.
After the war–1946-48 his local club built a Grunau Baby—This was illegal. They salvaged wood from the Waco troop gliders left out in the fields around his town for material. The club flew it on moonlit nites for slope soaring until it was legal to continue regular glider flying.