Luftwaffe Rescue Buoys

During the Second World War the Luftwaffe deployed a series of rescue buoys or Rettungsboje along the Continental side of the English Channel. The buoys were intended to provide shelter for downed airmen until help could arrive.

There were several similar buoy designs employed in this effort. Luftwaffe aircrew called them Udet-Boje after Ernst Udet, who directed their development. The British nicknamed them “lobster pots” due to their box-like shape and bright yellow paint schemes.

This contemporary magazine illustration shows the internal layout. The buoys were provisioned with food, dry clothing, medical supplies, and various means of signaling the need for rescue. There were also basic creature comforts such as playing cards, radio, and board games to alleviate boredom. Supplies were to be immediately replenished by rescuers to ensure the buoys were always fully equipped and ready for the next use.

The buoys were not secured in the typical manner using multiple anchor points and chains, but were moored using a single anchor line so ditching aircrew would have a visual indication of winds at the surface and could ditch their aircraft in a favorable position for the crew to reach the buoy. Consequently the buoys would occasionally part their moorings and wind up washed ashore like this example.

Retrievals were often performed by dedicated rescue aircraft of the Seenotdienst, the Luftwaffe’s rescue service. Here is a Heinkel He 59 in a high-visibility rescue scheme. These aircraft were suspected by the British of performing reconnaissance in addition to their rescue duties, and the RAF was ordered to consider them legitimate targets.

Seeing the value in the concept, the British developed their own version which was deployed along the English side of the channel. With a more boat-like hull, perhaps seakeeping was marginally improved.

Many aircrews were saved by the buoys on both sides of the Channel. For their parts, aircrew in distress took their chance for survival and used what ever rescue buoy they could reach, only the identity of their rescuers determining whether they would be held as PoWs or returned to their units.

A short but very well-done video description here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b44TxTuLB0&ab_channel=MilitaryHistoryinaMinute

Hasegawa Heinkel He 111H-20 of Dietrich Kornblum in 1/72 Scale

This is the 2004 Hasegawa He-111H-6 kit updated to H-20 configuration. The model represents the aircraft of bomber “ace” Oberleutnant Dietrich Kornblum, Staffelkapitän of 4./KG 53, located at Piastow, Russia in June 1944. Kornblum was awarded the Knight’s Cross after completing 400 missions. The aircraft has been overpainted with RLM 76 “clouds” and black undersides over the standard Luftwaffe RLM 70 / 71 splinter scheme. The dorsal turret transparency was formed using the “plunge mold” technique.

Construction posts here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2021/01/15/hasegawa-heinkel-he-111-build-in-1-72-scale-part-i/

Hasegawa Heinkel He 111 Build in 1/72 Scale Part III

He111_21 — With major assembly complete I sprayed the model with Mr. Surfacer 1000 to check for flaws. Given the size of the underwing crosses I decided they would look best if painted. I painted these areas white and masked off the crosses with Tamiya tape.

He111_22 — The uppersurfaces had a standard factory RLM 70 / 71 splinter scheme. The masking tape here is regular household tape.

He111_23 — Here is the splinter scheme with the masks removed. Two hours of masking, fifteen minutes of painting. I laid this pattern out as it is shown in the Monogram Guide.

He111_24 — The aircraft I’m modeling had black undersides for night missions. I have pre-shaded the panel lines with a scale black mixture, the same mix will be oversprayed in a light coat to bring out the highlights.

He111_25 — Here it is with the black applied and the insignia masks removed. The panel highlighting is subtle but you do get some tonal variation between panels.

He111_26 — This aircraft had “clouds” of RLM 76 Light Blue applied over the uppersurfaces. This photograph shows the colors used.

He111_27 — Decals are in place and have been sealed with Future (Klear) in preparation for panel line washing and weathering. Decals are from Aims sheet 72D010.

He111_30 — The kit pitot tube is easily broken off, at least by me. I have learned to replace this sort of thing with metal parts. I made this one with Albion Alloys tube and 0.005” Nitenol wire for the tip. The Nitenol wire does not break or bend, but returns to its original shape if bumped.

He111_31 — There is a lot of glare from the lightbox in this photograph but even so you can still see much of the interior of the nose compartment. With the hatch open even more of the detail is visible.

He111_32 — The finished model represents the aircraft of bomber “ace” Oberleutnant Dietrich Kornblum, Staffelkapitän of 4./KG 53. Kornblum was awarded the Knight’s Cross after completing 400 missions. The dorsal turret transparency was formed using the “plunge mold” technique.

More finished photographs here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2021/02/02/hasegawa-heinkel-he-111h-20-of-dietrich-kornblum-in-1-72-scale/

Hasegawa Heinkel He 111 Build in 1/72 Scale Part II

He111_11 — I’ll be modifying this model to H-20 standard, the most obvious difference is the dorsal gun position of the H-20 was replaced with a turret mounting a 13.1 mm gun. Here I have inserted a section of PVC pipe to build up the base for the turret.

He111_12 — The gaps in the opening were filled with superglue and the area smoothed with Mr. Surfacer 500.

Ju88P_05 — The turret ring was fabricated from various bits of Evergreen stock using the ring from a Revell of Germany He 177 kit part as a template.

He111_13 — There is a tricky area on the Hasegawa kit which I have learned to respect from previous builds. The bomb bay at the heart of the aircraft is the junction of seven different parts and the fit is not optimal. There will be noticeable seams here if one is not careful. It is best to address the seams in stages to get the best result. Here you can see the wing to fuselage to bombay joint has been filled using superglue and Mr. Surfacer and smoothed.

He111_14 — For my build the external racks are needed. Test fit these parts carefully, as the backs of these will need trimmed to get the best fit. Gaps at this point are filled with Perfect Plastic Putty and the excess wiped away with a damp swab.

He111_15 — The Eduard canopy mask set is a big time-saver. The kit provides an overhead instrument panel with a decal for the dials but does not have the panel next to the sliding hatch, which is a PE part here. The canopy curtains were made from rolled up sections of masking tape.

He111_16 — Aside from the bomb bay area the rest of the parts fit well. I use MEK from the hardware store which is the equivalent of the various “thin” cements on the market but vastly cheaper. This tends to melt any minor imperfections along the joining surfaces and results in a tight fit.

He111_17 — Here is the canopy in place with the seam filled with Perfect Plastic Putty. The PPP is ideal for this application.

He111_18 — The underside of the canopy join was not as tight as the upper side but close enough to fill with putty.

He111_19 — The other major difference between the H-6 and the H-20 is the H-20 had fewer transparencies in the area of the ventral bathtub. The excess windows were simply sanded smooth. The fit of this clear part is extremely good.

He111_20 — Here the RLM 66 interior color has been sprayed on the exterior of the canopy.

Part III here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2021/01/29/hasegawa-heinkel-he-111-build-in-1-72-scale-part-iii/

Hasegawa Heinkel He 111 Build in 1/72 Scale Part I

He111_01 — This is the Hasegawa He-111H-6 kit which was first issued in 2004. This will be my third time building this kit (fourth if you count the He-111Z as two) so this time I’ll be modifying it to H-20 standard, a rather simple conversion.

He111_02 — The kit has been criticized in some circles for having over-emphasized panel lines. There is some justification to this, although there are many examples of kits with panel lines which are worse. They are not far enough out of scale to bother me so I plan on leaving them as they are.

He111_03 — The detail sprues contain a few options. Hasegawa has provided three different types of exhausts which I believe covers all the major options. There are bomb bay doors or alternatively two different types of external racks which could be mounted in their place.

He111_04 — I also have on hand some Eduard PE frets. These were intended for the He-111Z Zwilling boxing, but I got them at a discount several years ago so there is enough to outfit two standard He 111s. I’ll be using the parts which are useful, but PE can be a pain to work with and many parts do not offer a significant advantage over kit parts so I’ll only use some. PE can be helpful as it gives you a choice but I don’t feel every part should be used every time.

He111_05 — Here is one application where the PE has some advantage. The kit wheelwells are a little on the shallow side and have some really inconvenient ejector pin marks. The top of the well is removed with a Dremel tool which deepens the part and then the interior is replaced with PE parts.

He111_06 — Not much of the interior is visible on this kit. The front cockpit greenhouse is the exception, and well worth the effort to add some extra detail. The clear parts have minimal distortion, also there is a sliding hatch over the pilot’s position so much of the interior in this compartment can be seen.

He111_07 — Here is the cockpit with several selected PE parts to enhance the detail. The most easily visible additions are the seat belts and the yellow wiring for the instruments.

He111_08 — Throttle levers are 1/700 ship railing, this allows for several levers to be installed at once and ensures that they all point in the same direction. I find this much easier to deal with than the separate levers on the PE fret.

Part II here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2021/01/22/hasegawa-heinkel-he-111-build-in-1-72-scale-part-ii/

Revell Heinkel He 177 Greif in 1/72 Scale

This is the Revell of Germany He 177A-5 Greif kit number 04616 in 1/72 scale. The clear parts could be a little better molded but overall it is an excellent kit. This one is armed with three Henschel Hs 293 glide bombs instead of the Fritz X weapons, but I believe Revell provides either option depending on the boxing. Decals are from Eagle Strike Productions sheet 72041 and represent an aircraft from II./KG 40 based at Bordeaux, France in 1944.

Upper surface camouflage is the standard Luftwaffe bomber RLM 70 Black Green / RLM 71 Dark Green splinter pattern. The under surface colors are open to some interpretation, sources are not in agreement as to which colors were used. Here I have chosen RLM 77 Light Gray spots over an RLM 02 Gray Green base. Other possibilities are RLM 76 Lichtblau over RLM 65 Hellblau, or some combinations of these. It is hard to be certain using black and white photographs, it is also possible different combinations were used on different aircraft.