[caldrail]

There's a number of ways of looking at this sort of plane. On the one hand, you can stick with the original intent of the program and develop models with historical significance - nothing wrong with that approach at all - or you can model whatever plane you wish as an outlet for creativity and personal fulfillment.

Ultimately you don't have to fly it if you don't like it, and the existing avenues for expanding IL2 are limited, so personally I've no problem with people doing these odd projects, even if the majority of them were little more than a doodle on a napkin by the designer. 'What If' scenarios are sometimes the most interesting because inherently you feel you're exploring possibilities rather than simply replaying the same old movie all over again.

I do actually think more needs to be done with early war aircraft, many of which never got the chance to shine, and there were some lovely aeroplanes (and some ugly ones too!) in service before 1941.

reading that luft46 post it appears that it was planned as a ground attack/fighter bomber? is that what jabo means? If so, why a puny little me109 as a base, surely they would have been better off adapting something like the 210/410 for a bigger punch!

Because of weight and air resistance. The larger Me210 fuselage is heavier and wider, thus bound to be slower unless you use more engines but you reach a point where getting larger and heavier doesn't work. Far better to have an overpowered slim fuselage with a bomb or two underneath?