Der Galland-Zirkus (Horton HO-347 Der Blitz)

With the discovery of VK in 1942, German scientists found that they were able to push the boundary of aviation technology beyond their wildest imagination. With knowledge and experiments learnt from the their first jet engined fighter-bomber, the Me-262, they were now developing VTOL(vertical take-off & landing) capabilities.

This led to the development of the Horton HO-347 Der Blitz. German famed fighter ace, General Adolf Galland was tasked with recruiting the best pilots and training them for this new aircraft. After months of training, the squadron was now ready to take to the air and defeat the enemies on all fronts.

I initially wanted to paint this aircraft because I was bored with my Skaven project (painting 70 clanrats will do that to you). But then the Dust Tactics & Warfare facebook group organized a painting contest. Their timing was perfect :)  http://www.worldofdust.net/tabid/89/g/posts/t/162/Painting-Contest.aspx

Insipration for this model was the Jagdverband 44 fighter unit led by General Adolf Galland. Nicknamed Der Galland-Zirkus (The Galland Circus), their paint scheme was very eye catching to say the least.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JV_44 
 The red and white striped bottom fuselage is definitely attractive. I reckon this was their way of saying "We're the best! Come get us!" The down side to this is it involved a LOT of masking. 4 colors were masked to be exact. I'll share WIP pictures in the next post.

I was also lucky enough to have bought a 1/72 kit of this squadron a long long time ago. Decals used were from this box set.

I'm very happy with how the model turned out. Now I'll do some weathering. But for the contest I decided to leave the plane clean.

 Also painted the pilot but nothing special.

Many many thanks to Carl Lum for taking all these beautiful pictures. You da man bro!!!

Here's hoping that this will plane will bring home the honors for the Wildhost. Thanks for visiting. All comments are very much appreciated :)
Final two pics showing before and after pics, as a comparison.