It’s a bit odd. The MG breeches are open indicating that people have been around it and been playing with it and messing with it, alot of damage occurs to belly landed 109’s afterwards in the hands of soldiers, so much of the tail damage could have happened after belly landing but if soldiers have been around the cockpit area and playing with the breeches I have a very hard time believing they would leave a body in the cockpit, no.1 he’s in the way of all the souveniers! It seems like a modeller would love to make a diorama like this but it’s not particulary believable.
The tail wheel is down indicating that this k-4 had the tail wheel locked down as happened on many k-4’s but the tail wheel doors are open which seems strange, usually with retractable tail wheels locked down the doors are locked shut.
Also where are the wing large tire fairings? These are made out of very substantial and thick metal and riveted on top of the existing wing with the cutout for the balloon tyres but there is no sign of it?
How is the pilot sitting upright? His back should be held up by the cockpit bathtub that has apparently been blown away, also the MW tank is not damaged but that area has extreme damage? What’s he held up by (modelling glue!)
Around the firewall I would expect to see the U/C selector and drop tank valve as it is light natural metal but there is no sign of it.
Quite a few strange things really, I am not convinced, if anyone diasagrees with these observations the please say.
Matt

it’s such a shame that the luftwaffe birds are in a neglegted state, they are such a far cry from how they should be and are living reminders of the ‘bad old days’. Maybe one day they will get the proper restoration they deserve

Just another bit on DB engines,
A czech maintainance engineer on the late DB’s wrote this:

“don’t believe stories of communist sabotages invented by writers-the work was done thorougly untill the end of the war”

Personally I believe perhaps some sabotage occured but I don’t think it was a huge problem; it seems poor workmanship, adverse working conditions and haste was the real culprit for alot of sabotage!

Much Better quality can be found on the British pathe website rather than youtube.
Matt

Wot no CTC?

The collectors guild occasionaly have pieces come up for sale. There are much more interesting bits of luftwaffe aircraft to be had than cut up bits of hakenkreuz and for much cheaper prices too!

Here are some more shots I found on my laptop, these are all my photos.
The latch is very clever like all fasteners found on luftwaffe aircraft. In the bottom photo you can see we have the steel insert on the main body of the fastner, the main cast body and the the top cast piece. On the middle photo you can see the bracket it locates into, it is a steel pipe with formed and welded on parts. It is probably easier for you to look at the pictures and see how it works than me explain it. I think there is enough to go on here to make it apparent.
Personally I think these fastners are very effective, I remember looking round a hurricane for the first time and being astounded by the millions of dzus fastners used to hold simple covers on. These fastners do how get tired after alot of use and require replacement. I would be interested to know how they compared dzus fastners in combat. One or two well placed hits might make the cowling escape fairly easily but then again if you are receiving hits in that area you probably have more to worry about than a loose cowling!
I also remember looking round a post war yak (I think it was anyway) and I swear I saw this style of fastner on it as well as the normal wartungs deckel style push button cover. I also noticed that on my brothers gtd350 engine the oil cap is an exact replica of the german from the war!

*Edit* Whats piqued your interest in these peter?