Spencer's Heinkel 162 Mistel Combination

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Morning everyone - I hope hat you are well today and that your week is going according to plan!

Thanks very much for the comments on the Mistel, they really are very much appreciated. This is one of those models that seems to have captured the imagination and looks to be that will be very popular!

Jon - How are you today? Great questions and ones that I must admit to have asked myself before I painted the model. From a personal point of view I agree that certain things could have been more accurate on this model, but I always had in mind that it was going to form part of a diorama that would feature a large number of other items. These will no doubt be painted in later war grey colours and as such, I wanted the Mistel (the centrepiece) to stand out - hence the choice of greens for it. Also, I used as my inspiration colours used on both the V-1 and V-2. I considered a splinter scheme for the bomb, but decided that that would jar against the shape and colours of the '162 -

rather than forming a complimentary scheme. Also, the colours of the model needed to not clash with the structures that will form the backdrop and they will no-doubt exhibit large areas of read and browns and the hard standing shades of grey and beige - another reason to use other colours.

As for the '162, I wanted this to look like a 'sweetheart' aircraft and as such, drew inspiration from late-war Fw-190s that were cobbled together from parts from a wide range of sources - hence the mix of paint and metalwork - and the lack of any unit markings!

I hope that this helps explain my thoughts on this and thanks once again for your comments!

Spence

Hi Spence- very well thankyou!!

Thanks for your explanation as to your approach with the colours - it makes sense, and as I mentioned I am keen not to criticise your splendid build and finish at all.

The way LW'46 subjects are finished has intrigued me for a while - so I was keen to get an idea as to why you had chosen the colours. We so think of late war LW aircraft as a hotchpotch of differently painted or unpainted components- which is one of the appeals of this subject - that I guess to extrapolate these aircraft in the colours they might have been finished in had Germany been in a far stronger position in 1945 probably just takes away a lot of the enjoyment in building them.

I have always thought a Sea Fury would good in British Pacific Fleet markings - for a whif '46 Invasion of Japan, but as we can never know if the FAA would have changed colours or markings for this never undertaken operation - I could only build one in the markings that would be correct for 1945, and/or guess the rest!!

Cheers for the reply, and please can we see pics of the finished diorama?

regards

Jonners

[Angels49]

Rockin......very nice indeed

[Tizzy]

That is awesome.

[Erwin]

A most impressive piece of work.

A "firstplacewinner" for me !!

[GreenDragon]

Excellent model Spence, can't see anything wrong with your pics!

Paul Harrison

[Guest snipersmudge]

super finish and interesting combination

[turnerdad]

Great skills there Spence, a brilliant build.

[Craig S]

Superb. Does that about cover it? I'm not sure, that's a work of art!