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Bachem Ba 349V 'Natter' naked build


JamesHatch

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Hi folks,

 

It's been a while since I posted at LSP, and this particular project is almost complete. After a meeting in Munich with Alex Glass 'Uschi van der Rosten', we decided that I should end my period of burn-out with doing something a little unusual. Alex suggested a 1:48 Bachem Natter, but that's not a manly scale, so I opted to build the 1:£2 Fly Models kit I had in stash. I've heard some horror stories about this kit, but I'm pleased to say that I found those tales unfounded.

 

The aim was to build the Ba 349 as nature intended, i.e. in natural wood and metal, using the Uschi van der Rosten range of wood grain decals. This is stuff is translucent, so you need to prep your underlying paint to reflect the tones and tints you need, including subtle shading. I thought I'd share a few images of this for you. This model will be published in Military Illustrated Modeller later this year. Unlike those that post a few finished pics for mags in order to pimp their work, I don't mind posting more material if requested, or answering questions on the build.

 

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James,

 

Beautiful build. I did have a question I hope you can answer as I haven't been able to find any information on it. For the oblong openings around the rear portion just aft of the separation point I could never tell if they were open or closed although on pictures of the A/C they looked open but I could never tell how deep or if they were equal depth or angled as if for cooling vents. Do you know what they were for? Are they just the attachment points to join the front and rear halves together? I see you opened them and it looks like you just put a blanking plate behind it to add depth plus the hole in the middle of each one.

 

One other question. Did you replace the solid fuel booster bodies with plastic tubing?The ones in the kit are not that great.

 

Mark H.

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Thanks for the comments guys.

 

@Mark: Those oblong slots are indeed there to connect the front fuse to the rear section which holds the rocket engine. The rear section was the only part of the aircraft that had a parachute of its own (apart from the pilot!). The reason being to try to re-use the Walther rocket motor which was the most valuable part of the Natter. I drilled these out, thinned the plastic slightly and blanked them off. They were drilled out centrally and a resin 'bolt' attached.

 

Also, those boosters are indeed kit parts. Everything in this build is OOB except the RB Production seatbelts.

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Thanks for the comments folks.

 

Apart from the concrete base I need to add to the stand, this model is now complete, with its hood attached. Normally, the hood would open flat back against the top of the fuse, but doing that didn't have as much visual interest, and my way, you can see the outside of this more clearly with the wood nail decals. Hope you like it.

 

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