1:72 Luftwaffe External Fuel Tanks 300l Variant 3 (2 pcs / 3D-Printed)

Extra range under a fighter's belly

Anyone who wanted to escort bombers all the way to the target needed fuel. A droppable tank of three hundred liters capacity extended the reach of a single-engine fighter by tens of minutes of flight and so became standard equipment from the second half of the war onward. Pilots were not fond of it, though: it spoiled the rate of climb, and with a full tank the machine was noticeably more sluggish on the stick.

How the parts are made

In the bag you will find two pieces printed by photopolymer printing. The surface is smooth, the edges of the bands are sharp and the wall of the tank is thin, so the part does not look like a solid lump of material. Nothing has to be glued together from two halves, which with this shape saves the most time. The printed wall is also even all the way round, so the tank does not warp and sits against the attachment over its whole area.

Preparation before gluing

The supports are concentrated on one side of the tank. Cut them away with a flat section of blade and smooth the area with a high-grit sanding sponge, so that no flat island is left. The washing and the coat of primer that follow will reveal any grooves before the covering shade hides them.

How the result turns out

A tank hung underneath changes the silhouette of a model more than you would expect, and at the same time it gives a reason to put the aircraft on a base with a hint of a taxiway. If you are building the model with the landing gear down, check the height so that the tank does not touch the ground. On some types the tank was hung only after a fairing had been removed, so it is worth looking at a period photograph to see whether the attachment should be visible.