SPA Modeler

One of the best historical quotes made into a movie line…

Nice to see a pair of the best aircraft of WWII being built Tom! (I'll just toss in that discussion grenade and run from the room teeheehee )

Two really good looking builds!

Thank you, Stuart.

Great looking pair of the second best fighters of WW II, Tom!

jeaton01 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2025 2:12 pm Great looking pair of the second best fighters of WW II, Tom!

Well the Hurricane was pretty spectacular!

And the debate rages on…

Well the top scoring highest aces of WWII all did fly Me-109s….

Yeah but their Eastern opponents started the war by flying aircraft so poor they made the Buffalo look good, so does that count?

Stikpusher wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2025 9:59 pm Well the top scoring highest aces of WWII all did fly Me-109s….

In the book, “A Higher Call” Makos says many German pilots way over claimed their victories. I’m sure not all. He also said a 4 engine victory was worth more in count than a fighter. Interesting stuff.

Great work, Tom

Over claiming was pretty common amongst all fighter pilots in any war. Both sides did set up fairly stringent criteria for confirmed kills. But in the heat of battle, the confirmation could be just as questionable at times. And like Stuart said, the Soviets did take some pretty poor aircraft to war in 1941. But they did have vast numbers. And one of the top scoring Allied aces was a Soviet pilot who fought from beginning to end and flew in some of those “dogs”. The bomber kills, aka “viermotor” counted more for Luftwaffe awards points due to their being harder to shoot down. They did not increase the pilot’s tally of kills overall. Pilots flying Reichs Defense were awarded the Knights Cross and subsequent upgrade decorations such as oak leaves, swords, and diamonds, with much lower amounts of kills compared to those facing only single and twin engined fighters and attack aircraft in the East.