The Black Knight of Berlin – Part 1 (The Cockpit)
The finished model:
The scene:
Captain Herbert Von Richter, the so-called Black Knight of Berlin, despite being a Luftwaffe ace is also a man of chivalrous knight of old – preferring not to shoot down an already disabled plane. However, his code of honour proves to be his downfall as one of the gunners on an American B-17 bomber decides to open fire on Von Richter’s Fw190 during the “truce.” The distraction opens him up to an attack and he’s shot down by Lt. Hendrick Hamilton in his P-51D Mustang. After learning that a young woman named Henmary Margret died saving him from his burning plane, Von Richter vows never to be merciful again!
Check out the original manga scene from The Cockpit chapter “The Black Knight of Berlin” (1974) here:
The story:
A jet-black Focke-Wulf Fw190 vs. a shiny P-51D Mustang?! Count me in!
This is such an iconic chapter pulled from Leiji Matsumoto’s manga series The Cockpit that I couldn’t help but begin my The Cockpit 1/144 project journey anywhere else. That’s probably why I also started working on my 1/72 scale The Cockpit project with the same story.
Of course, it is a bit odd to read a story (manga or otherwise) where a Nazi is the protagonist, but I do think Matsumoto’s handling of the topic is generally a good one. There were certainly many atrocities committed during WWII, and I don’t believe there were “two sides” to the story – so there’s no real debate as to who were the good guys and who were the bad guys at the nations level. However, I can understand how an author who hails from a country that was one of the axis powers could have a slightly different take at the individuals level. In a lot of ways it reminds me of the “Gentleman Warrior” take in DC’s Enemy Ace comics – even though WWI and WWII have some pretty significant differences.
The other thing is that the story could really be airlifted right out of the German context and it would have largely the same impact. It’s focused on examining the “old school” chivalrous knight ideal in combat. Von Richter, despite being an officer in the Luftwaffe, is a man who follows a code of honor, but that code is put to the test when a) it’s not honoured by his opponent, and b) it results in the death of an innocent. For me, the takeaway is how hard it is to hold on to a personal standard or ideal in the face of war, rather than a glorification of the Nazi ideology.
The kit(s):
- Fw190 D-9 “JV44” by Platz
- P-51D Mustang by Platz
The build:
This was a build I wanted to do for a long time. The Platz kits are a beauty to behold – so detailed for 1/144 scale and they just seem to fall together with no real fuss.
So, from that perspective, there’s not really much to discuss on the build itself. The main difference with this project from some of my previous “spinning prop” projects was that I decided to only have the DC motor inside the fuselage itself. In order to peg back the RPMs (and avoid an annoying whine) I used some resistors to regulate the flow of electricity. However to save space, I decided to wait to add the resistance to the circuit until after it was mounted. All in all, not a bad plan… except for one thing. The propeller for the Mustang is a lovely little 6-part piece – four prop blades, a nose cone and a backing. The problem was that one of the prop blades wasn’t as firmly seated as it should have been, so, when I first connected the un-resisted current to the motor for a test run, the propeller spun at such a high RPM that it launched one of the tiny little blades halfway across my modelling room. It took me over an hour to carefully clean up the bench and execute a grid-search of the room… but luckily I found the prop blade right next (and thankfully not in) the aquarium. Whew!
What was really the challenge was the decals. Putting homemade white decals on a dark (especially black) background is nearly impossible. As most people know, the printer doesn’t really print the white… it just relies on the paper to provide the colour. So, to deal with that situation, I first gave the Fw190 a full coat of white and then applied the white decals with a black outline. After carefully sealing the decals with a combination of Tamiya decal set and a clear coat spray, I then masked as close to the white as I dared and then subjected the whole fuselage to a spray of X-1 Gloss Black (and then a second coat to cover my over-eager fingerprints). It wasn’t a prefect result, but it was definitely satisfactory. For the Mustang, I also carefully masked off and painted the invasion stripes, but I chickened out and use a pair of “homemade decals on a white background” for the checkerboard pattern on the table.
All in all I feel like I did my best. So be sure to tell me what you think!
