the WW2 Wiking B-29

[grwebster]

I just acquired a very nice 1:200 B-29 made for the Luftwaffe in WW2. The German aircraft modeled by Wiking were not given a country code but all the other countries aircraft had it. This B-29 has the code USA- 23.

[MichaelB]

Fascinating...since the B-29 didn't enter combat in Europe they must have had to fudge some of the details, which seem apparent. But, that's still a pretty good B-29 - their spies must have been busy!
Michael

[greyhairguy]

Hello GR. I understand that the some of the Wikings produced at the very end of the War were made of this blue plastic material. I am also told that these "blue" Wikings are very Rare. The only other one made in blue that I have seen photos of is the Corsair - USA 22. I would be curious what Ron C. would have to add to this. Nice pick up for your collection. M.S.

[ronc200]

Unusual colors in Wikings happened a few ways. Most common was doubtless variations in the available plastic stocks or pigments, particularly toward the end of the war and in the postwar period. A second explanation is that Wikings were sold on the civilian market at toy and department stores, and those were often but not always molded in the blue of GR's B-29. A third issue was variations in pigment mixing from batch to batch. A fourth, which I suspect happened more than anyone admits, was employees using any available plastic in the hoppers to run some bootleg copies when no one was looking.
Color variations also went the other way. There are substantiated reports of leftover ID models being ground up to make civilian items like hair combs and barettes.
It was not really necessary to use spies to get enough info to make a passable B-29. The German government had access to many magazines like Flight, The Aeroplane, Skyways, as well as to references like Aircraft of the Fighting Powers and Janes All the World's Aircraft. The Allies were probably happy to have Germany and Japan thinking about the B-29. A lot. A close examination of the Wiking B-29 does, however, disclose some issues that pictures and drawings in magazines probably did not help. For example the fuselage of the Wiking is substantially bigger in cross-section than it should be.

Ron