aircraft. Why would Fritz have
seen this plane? Did he fly it?
Since the picture was clearer, I
decided to model this plane.
Close inspection showed
a name on the nose, “Otto
Brauligam”. I didn’t know who
that was; maybe it was the
person who donated the plane?
I made my decals using MS
Word. I scanned in the Baby’s
wings and half the fuselage, so
I had a 1/1 template to work on,
and then drew up the call codes
and German national markings
for the tail. This is not easy, but it
does work, and there’s no one else
out there who has these decals! I
printed them using Testors Inkjet
decal paper; the tail bands on
white and the letters on clear. I
put them on the glossed Baby and
then sealed them with Future.
Once the plane was done, I
decided I should look up “Otto
Brauligam” and see if there was
anything. I found that the plane
actually said “Otto Bräutigam”.
Oops. Well, it’s hard to see in the
photo, so I was close. My first
lead led me to some guy who was
a diplomat and was somehow
involved in the Holocaust. Nothing
about gliders, though. Then I
tried “Otto Bräutigam Segelflug”.Now, it all made sense...
Otto Bräutigam was a very
famous German glider pilot in
the 1930’s. In a country obsessed
with gliding and record breaking,
he was something of a celebrity.
In the mid ‘30s he flew 500+ km
in a glider: a world record. He
apparently toured all over Germany
and was known for his aerobatic
skills in gliders (much like Oscar
Boesch in the post-war era) as well
as for his long-distance exploits.
His celebrity and renown were
such that he was even part of the
International Olympic Commission,
and helped to select gliders for the1940 Olympics. Sadly, he was killed
on May 28, 1941, at Regensburg,
during some kind of test flight.WOW
So the photograph on which my
model is based is actually a picture
of a plane flown by this then most-
famous, yet now little-known,
pilot. Is it a plane my Great Uncle
Fritz would have flown? Well, now
I have my doubts; I can’t imagine
Otto letting a green NSFK kid fly
his plane. But I know Fritz saw it
since we have the photo to prove it.CONCLUSIONS
As far as models go, the Grunau Baby
is a nice, if not spectacular kit. I’ve
never built any other AZ models,
but they seem to be competent
mould makers and the detail on the
Baby shows a definite care in their
craftsmen. While the fit of the cockpit
was iffy, the only real complaint I
have is that the instructions just aren’t
clear enough. Also, the Baby is very
small, so even the larger “small bits”
are on the small side. Because of
these two issues, I can’t say the Baby
is good for a person without at least
moderate experience in modelling;
but with two kits in the box, the
AZ Baby does offer good value.
I started this build wanting to
pay tribute to my Oma who built
these planes and my great uncle who
actually flew them. What I found out
was that the plane in our family photo
was even more important than that.
Now I have a model of something
our family saw and experienced, and
that was something of a celebrity
in its day, so this model is a tribute
to both my Oma and Fritz, as well
as Herr Otto Bräutigam. While all
have passed on, I hope that this little
yellow model, and this article, will
help perpetuate a tiny fraction of
history in which they all shared.Here, the custom-made registration codes, nose script, and
tail band are all clearly visible. Note that the steel landing
skid attaches at three places, too“THIS MODEL IS A TRIBUTE TO
BOTH MY OMA AND FRITZ, AS WELL
AS HERR OTTO BRÄUTIGAM”
No mistaking whose plane it is from this angle! The call numbers
on NSFK planes were generally very large, as you can see. Note
the wing struts go right into the middle of the decals; that’s why I
put them on afterwardsKIT REVIEWS
WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • OCTOBER 2018 • 65
056-65-Reviews-1018.indd 65 14/09/2018 15:23