Page 25
The design of the MiG with the rabbits was
created by Jan Zdiarský, and less than a year
later we painted a real MiG-21 in Hungary in
the Bunny Fighter livery with a lot of help from
Eduard associate Karel Pádár and Hungarian
researcher and friend Gábor Szekeres.
For me it was an incredible experience, but what
a chore it was for all involved over two days. I was
even more than surprised by some all-knowing
internet discussants who were sure that these
were not real photos, but photoshopped fiction.
It wasn‘t! But Photoshop came later.
I remember that event, I think we
should do something like that again.
But in truth, I‘m convinced that
you invented the character of pilot
Kleinkönnig, not me.
No no, I didn‘t invent it. You invented the character,
and the fact that he‘s from Žatec. You also invented
his name and you wrote the first story. Stories
about the rabbit pilot Eduard Kleinkönnig have
accompanied most of the activation kits. If I put
the stories in chronological order, they were the
battles of Bf 109 G-6 from JG 9‘s against giant
carnivore penguins in the Arctic Circle, the Hawker
Tempest “Bunny Lady” from battles against Nazi
flying saucers over Antarctica, the MiG-15 “Bunny
Racer” from races around Africa and MiG-21 “Bunny
Fighter” from Carrot War. While typesetting these
articles, we occasionally used the aforementioned
Photoshop, for example, the MiG-15 guncamera
shots of a dinosaur, the photo of the Tempest
“Bunny Lady” from the bergship HMS Habbakuk,
or the Tempest guncamera shots of German flying
discs.
I mustn‘t forget Eduard Kleinkönnig‘s 1/32 scale
Curtiss P-40, for which Libor Špůrek has written
a history in the caption, he also covers the bunny
INTERVIEW
German fighter pilot Josef Mai. Pencil drawing based
on historical photograph, 2015. Compared to the
original photograph, a teddy bear of Ulrich Neckel
and a bottle of Chateu Margaux have been added
to the drawing.
Manfred von Richthofen‘s Albatros after his injury and emergency landing in July 1917. Pencil drawing, 2020.
The background area without the posing soldiers was reconstructed from other historical photographs
and Google Street View.
INFO Eduard
25
January 2024