from reconstruction to deconstruction

The item from Polish Aviation Museum, Kraków. Luftwaffe welded steel drop tank. Good reference as I have never seen the drop tank carefully reproduced in scale model so this might be useful for my future projects. The tank is not damaged, although its cast "elektron" made support brackets are dissolved and missing. The compressed air inlet/fuel outlet pipes and filling point cap are finely preserved. The bottom tank relief is clearly visible. Carriage steel belt is missing. Its paintwork is some sort of a riddle for me. Resembles German RLM 76 in its greenish-gray type but lacks any stencils. I am not sure it is original paint on it.

Below you will find the copy of a leaflet. There is clear information adressed to the Polish citizens of General Government explaining that this is not a bomb, but a tank filled with propellants. The tank should be returned to air force base or police station and treated with care, as it contains highly flamable fluids. The one liter of vodka is a reward. The disobedience to the above would be trated seriously.

The history of "white 3" is so well known, that I do not find it reasonable to uncover it once again here. The same with Me 262 walkarounds in general. One finds many on the book shelfs and on the web sites. I took those photos during May of 2011 in Munich. My main goal was to capture some tricky curves of this airframe, some not so often shown details and also try to portray area which I believe is still in its original wartime appearance. I am aware of poor quality of those photos but crawling under the Schwalbe belly with heavy camera was not the thing I went there for. Hope you enjoy those pictures.

White 3 in all her glory as it stands on the ground floor of Deutsches Museum. The airframe is displayed in its almost natural wartime look. Its paintscheme is well reconstruted and strongly resembles how she looked on April 1945. The main difference here is the lack of natural metal finish on the wings undersurfaces and the rear fuselage undersides which were common standard for the final Me 262 Obertaubling production. The belly and wings are painted now but the area between engines, which I believe is in its original wartime finish (see below);

Amazing is how smooth is the surface. No panel joints lines clearly visible, no rivet lines seen over whole thing;

As one may see, the skin of the airframe is cut in few places. Personally I do not like this kind of display. Open covers, naked engine on display it is all fine but those cuts;

Jumo 004 jet engine hanged wihout any cover. Rare and fine sight. I took the opportunity to take pictures of some wiring and piping usually hidden;

Jumo business end - the movable element seen in the middle of the noozle was called "Zwiebel" by the Germans (onion). Its colour is fine, it is heavily burnt and is flat light. Good to see to paint it properly on the model;

The rear part of the engine nacelle. Its aerodynamic shape is noteworthy. This element is often incorrectly captured in the scale models. Again I took this photo for further referrence;

Enigne air intake with its full coverning. The oil and primer filler points for a two stroke starter Riedel engine are visible. The weldings on the nacelle are noteworthy. This element was made from pressed steel parts, welded together and the weldings were sanded almost smooth;

Main wheel well in what I believe is still its wartime finish. The stamps of the dural plates manufacturers are visible. The greenish-olive paint appears to be the original late war dark RLM 02 too'