Franz Stigler

[richard m schwab]

Last year i built two 144 scale planes flown by the Luftwaffe pilot Franz Stigler. They are a ME-109f he flew in North Africa and a ME-262 he flew late war.
Stigler ended the war with 28 air victories with a total of 487 missions. He was shot down 17 times and and parachuted six times. This is from an interview . " Yeah, six times…I belong to the Caterpillar Club. Six survived by parachute…it’s an international club."
I included a link for and interview he gave fore his death. He was an interesting man with one unique claim to fame.
Here are some shots of my models.

Rich
http://109lair.hobbyvista.com/articles/pilots/stigler/stigler.htm



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[Roger Wilco]

Thanks Rich that interviews a great find.
Trev

[richard m schwab]

Trevor
I thought he was a very interesting man. If you do a search of his name you will find several good hits. Including the the one about his escorting of the B-17 in 1943.
In the late 70`s i worked with a man who served in the German Army in WW2. He started out a a radio man in Stug 111`s and ended up as a radio man/
observer with a field artillery unit. One cold day in December 1942 he was sitting in a fox hole when a shell wounded him and the guy with him. The guy with him said they were going to die. My friend told him to shut up and go get a medic, he was hit in the leg and could not walk. The other guy said they were surrounded and we will never get out of here. His reply was the only ones getting out of here are the wounded. He was the only man in his unit to come of Stalingrad alive!
Rich

[SgtWaka]

Nice pics,,,Richard. I love hearing new "true" first hand accounts from WWII vets. It makes the troubles in our daily lives seem so trivial!

Thanks!!:D

[richard m schwab]

Dave
Thank you. Stigler seemed to be character. In one of his interviews he was asked what his planes name was? He said the name of the girl i was going with! WE changed every time we moved, and we moved a lot!
Rich

[CappyTom]

Sweet paint jobs Rich. Now how much would it cost to paint me up 3 109s in desert tan? Just kidding but I hope they do come out with some in the near future.
Really good interview as well. Thanks for sharing.

Tom

[richard m schwab]

Tom!

That is why i do 144 scale ! No waiting for mini`s!

Rich

[CappyTom]

Tom!

That is why i do 144 scale ! No waiting for mini`s!

Rich

That's good for you but I'm not that good at painting anymore, plus I'm getting quit a collection of 1/200 planes.

Tom

[richard m schwab]

Tom
What 200 scale planes are you collecting? Did you see this post?


Rich

http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/showthread.php?4665-Mounting-of-AiM-Aircraft&p=64539#post64539

[flash]

Very nice Rich, have you a red tail mustang to chase him down?

[CappyTom]

Tom
What 200 scale planes are you collecting? Did you see this post?


Rich

http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/showthread.php?4665-Mounting-of-AiM-Aircraft&p=64539#post64539

Yes, I'm going to get some Dauntless dive bombers and some torpedo planes and try my luck at a simple paint scheme. Just waiting for work to pick up.

Tom

[richard m schwab]

Dave!

I do not know? I have four more Mustangs to build so i could come up with one!

Rich

[richard m schwab]

Tom!

They look nice! You cannot go bad with all dark blue!

Rich

http://parrotheadjeff.com/blog/archives/16027/retro-cool-plane-pr0n/

[The Cowman]

Rich, I feel like I must have missed a briefing somewhere... what is the story with the luggage key between the models and the ballbearing?

Signed,
One very curious Cow ;)

[richard m schwab]

Tom!

In all modesty it was prototype gimbals mount i was working on!:surrender: If you look at the date of the original post, you will it is over a year old. If you search magnet attaching you will see several threads on that subject! Here what i came up with i the end!


Rich