I looked around and to my dismay found no 229s without paint aside from one that appeared in a video several years ago but the link was broken. So... I made it myself!
Now some parts may not be fully correct as finding diagrams or models of the 229 without paint were hard to come by and many conflicted each other so take this appearance of the aircraft with a grain of historical salt. Keep in mind this is only my 4th skin so it expect some issues, but I personally am very pleased with how it turned out.
BackgroundIt's May, 1945, and the tide of the war is making a terrifying shift. The Germans are beginning to push back against the Allied advance and are inflicting a heavy number of casualties doing so. The war in the air is going as badly, if not worse than the push across the decimated landscape. The Luftwaffe has fielded its new wonder weapons in an effort to finally take back air supremacy over the skies of Germany. Many new innovative aircraft are at the forefront of this effort, with the most notable being the new high speed Me-262 HG-II, the Lippisch P.13a, the BV 237, the Do-335 Pfeil, the He-162, and one of the well known, the Horten Ho-229. The 229 had been in development for quite some time, but thanks to its prioritization the previous year and the fact that cooler heads had prevailed in 1941, development had continued alongside its peers, uninterrupted. However, despite the industry's best efforts, mass production could not commence until March of 1945. So by May, production was just now picking up the pace, however some "unnecessary" elements during the vehicle's production were dropped. In several cases, many underground factories decided to that painting many of these aircraft would simply delay production too much to be efficient so many left the assembly lines with only a protective coating applied over the surface to prevent rot. Well one of the many unpainted 229s that left the assembly line happened to be scheduled for delivery to Jagdverband 44, specifically to veteran pilot Oberleutnant Dieter Hoffman. Hoffman had been serving in the Luftwaffe since his enlistment in April of 1943, and had earned himself the title of ace by the end of the year. His career was quickly on the rise and nobody noticed this more than the ace of aces himself, Adolf Galland. He admired Hoffman's skill in battle but yet almost gentlemanly manner and insistence to go by the book and did not let his emotions easily get the better of him. Hoffman officially became a member of the newly formed JV-44 in March, 1945. Immediately he was given the best, the Me-262, however Hoffman's first flight did not go well as the starboard engine prematurely failed and was without a plane. Hoffman insisted that he not be put into the 262 and was offered the new Horten-229 which he quickly accepted. The plane was received at Innsbruch Hötting on May 2, 1945. Almost immediately Hoffman went into action and within the first month had earned 23 more kills to his name. Hoffman would continue to fly what he would refer to as "Ol' Bare Bones' until the plane was eventually heavily damaged over France in August, 1945, and had to be retired from service. Despite this, Hoffman would fight on until the war's end in 1954, with 202 confirmed kills to his name. Following the war's end, Hoffman went in search of "Ol' Bare Bones" and was able to trace it down to an old aircraft scrapyard in Lorient. The plane had rotted quite severely during his absence but in spite of that he requested the Luftwaffe have the plane be recovered and repaired in order to preserve the Reich's historical accomplishments and in order to remember the lives of those lost in the war. Thanks to his efforts, "Ol' Bare Bones" would be fully restored by summer of 1965 and to this day stands as a memorial to those lost in the Greater Nazi Reich aviation museum, where preparations are being made to restore the plane to airworthy condition.
DownloadThis pack contains "Ol' Bare Bones", a generic, and non-marked version -
https://www.mediafire.com/file/7sncm427g4i8bbk/Go-229A-1_JV44_Dieter_Hoffman.rar/fileCreditsThe awesome template created was Gibbage & Greenwood and was aquirred from the awesome Pavlac (R.I.P. pavlac.ru)
Author
Topic: Horten 229 A-1 Flown By Dieter Hoffman, JV-44, Innsbruch Hötting, May, 1945 (Read 1410 times)
