Nazi UFO ”Foo Fighter” model

In WWII the so-called “foo fighters,” a variety of unusual and anomalous aerial phenomena, were witnessed by both Axis and Allied personnel. While some foo fighter reports were dismissed as the misperceptions of troops in the heat of combat, others were taken with the utmost seriousness. In at least some cases, Allied intelligence and commanders suspected that foo fighters reported in the European theater represented advanced German aircraft or weapons, particularly given that Germans had already developed such technological innovations as V-1 and V-2 rockets and the first jet-engine fighter planes and that a minority of foo fighters seemed to have inflicted damage to allied aircraft.

Nazi UFO ”Foo Fighter” model

Similar sentiments regarding German technology resurfaced in 1947 with the first major wave of flying saucer reports after Kenneth Arnold’s alleged close encounter with nine crescent-shaped objects moving at a fantastic speed. Personnel of Project Sign, the first U. S. Air Force UFO investigation group noted that the advanced flying wing aeronautical designs of the German Horten brothers were similar to some UFO reports. In 1959, Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the first head of Project Blue Book (Project Sign’s follow-up investigation) wrote:

When WWII ended, the Germans had several radical types of aircraft and guided missiles under development. The majority were in the most preliminary stages, but they were the only known craft that could even approach the performance of objects reported to UFO observers.

The Model:

Well, here is something that we don’t see often. A German UFO is known as a ”Foo Fighter” made from off-the-shelf items and a .020 styrene card. It is basically 2 plastic plates ($1.49)  I found at the Goodwill store glued together. 2 ball-shaped toy yo-yos from the Dollar Tree store ($1 each). The top turret was made with the lid from a vending machine at the store exit (.75 cents).

All the cannons were made with 1/16 (1.57mm) aluminum tubes from K+S Engineering (#1008). The muzzles are 3.32” (2.38mm) aluminum tubes (#1015) also from K+S. The 3/32 fit in the 1/16 very nice but after cutting them, you’ll have to deburr a little bit with an old cutting blade. It deburrs very easily, is soft aluminum.

This was a weekend project, with some persisting asthma symptoms, I couldn’t drill the portholes. The top plate is made out of ”bakelite”, drilling it produces fine smelly dust very similar to that on resin parts. So instead, I did settle for .020” styrene punch holes.

Painting: Once everything came together, I primed it with Krylon Gray Primer. The primer was followed by a coat of Tamiya XF-66 Light Gray which is not really that light. Once the base XF-66 was applied, a random overspray with Tamiya XF-20 Medium Gray was applied. The Swastikas came from my spare decals folder. Everything was sealed with Testors Dull Coat Spray.  There is no way we can measure this on a specific scale. To add some size reference, the ship is next to a 1/76 Panzer Tank from Airfix models.

Below there is a documentary on some of the German secret technology. It is very interesting but certainly, I have seen better ones on the subject. Unfortunately, I didn’t bookmark some of them, and sifting thru YouTube will take some time. As always, thanks for looking. Comments or questions? Feel free to use the form below.

Approximate amount spent on this project, +/- $15-$18 USD and that includes the 1/76 Airfix Panzer which I previously had built.