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He-162 Volksjäger | HobbyBoss | 1/72 German Luftwaffe, I./JG1, 1945 Finished this on 1/2/2022. I just wanted a simple build to finish quickly before the end of the year -- and I just about made it. I went with the more brown/purple interpretation of RLM 81 Brown violet rather than the dark green interpretation. I believe now that I painted the tail fins wrong -- I believe they should be the bottom color blue rather than the top color, so the painting instructions guided me wrong there. The wheels are black, but in the historical photos I found they seemed to be either black or a light gray (RLM 02 maybe?) or a combination. I went with black because there was no way to tell where the wheel ended and tire began on the HobbyBoss wheels, so I had to free hand a wheel in black and a tire in Tamiya NATO black. Free handing circles is nearly impossible so the black on NATO black combination makes it nearly impossible to see what a terrible job I did. I couldn't find a picture of Wr no. 120097, but I found several of 120067 which also was a light colored '4' and had the same unit marking, so that added some confusion. So if nothing else, this model is a general representation of what He-162s might look like toward the end of the war. The kit itself was simple and fit together well. They made some engineering choices that made the gear doors easy to install, but at the same time the wheel wells look bad. It's a tail sitter so I had to put some weight behind the cockpit (since the top half connects to the bottom half and there was an opening there). As usual with HobbyBoss, the cockpit was a featureless tub. I used Eduard steel seat belts to spruce up the seat (since it will be plainly visible through the large, crystal clear canopy). I decided to make an instrument panel and shroud and used the IP/shroud of a Testors F/A-18 back seater to do that (pictures follow). I'm normally not a panel line pre-shader, but almost all the He-162s I found historical photos of had a distinct vertical striping in the paint under the cockpit and along the side to the back of the wings. I tried to emulate this with black pre-shading. Finishing: Seams filled with Testors putty, scratchbuilt part of the cockpit, Eduard Steel Luftwaffe seatbelts Paint: Hataka orange line paints: Custom mix of 1 part RLM79b to 2 parts RLM82 for the green, custom mix of 1 part RLM79b to 2 parts RLM81 for the brown violet, RLM76 for the bottom. Here's how I trimmed the F/A-18 shroud to fit the He-162 cockpit. The edges are rough, but are concealed by the canopy framing: And here's the instrument panel -- I should've trimmed it up higher so the pilot can get his legs under it, but with RLM66 Black Gray on it, you can't see it through the canopy: The finished cockpit. Eduard steel seat belts and a gunsight I carved out of the absolutely enormous one that HobbyBoss provided. In retrospect I should've made a new control stick, but I wasn't sure how to cut the old one out without damaging the seat and side walls. The IP decal was trimmed from my recent HobbyBoss F8F-1 decal sheet. Hope you like it! Comments, questions and constructive criticism welcome!

I built this kit a while ago just after I got back into modelling. As with all Tamiya kits it's a joy to build. The only minor issue was keeping the shape of the clamshell halves accurate. Even had go at a bit of oil wash. Airbrushed with Ultimate primer and finished with Tamiya acrylics. Apologies for the over the top wiring on the engine but I had a bit of fun. Thanks.

The Heinkel He.162 – Airframe Album 13 A detailed Guide to the Luftwaffe's VolksJäger (9780995777347) Valiant Wings Publishing The He.162 VolksJäger was an emergency project that was instigated in a desperate attempt to reduce the devastation that was being caused by the Allied bombing offensive, using few strategic materials that were becoming increasingly scarce, and that was also supposed to be easy to fly. A number of companies submitted their design with the Heinkel option gaining the contract, using laminated wood extensively in the aircraft's skin and mounting a single jet engine above and behind the single-seat cockpit. It reached many goals as an interceptor, being small and agile with minimal used of metals in non-essential places, but it wasn't quite as easy to fly as hoped, and the use of the notoriously unreliable, fragile jet engine would itself limit production, even if the constant downpour of bombs forced much of construction underground in tunnels blasted out of the living rock. In the end it was too little too late, with few reaching service, many being lost due either to its half-hour endurance and resulting gliding accidents, or structural failures due to the aircraft's hurried design and the use of slave labour in its construction, such as the tail unit, which had a habit of detaching under stress. A number of pilots used the early ejection seats that were fitted, but some were killed due to failures in the system. The Book The thirteenth volume of the popular and interesting Airframe Album series by Richard A Franks details this sleek and sporty little interceptor that may well have gone on to better things if it has been given enough time to be developed properly. It spans 88 pages and is perfect bound in an A4(ish) portrait format. If you are familiar with the series you will know what to expect, with the book broken down into sections, as follows: i) Introduction A brief narrative history of the development and operational use of the He.162 by the Luftwaffe, as well as scartures and evaluated examples 1) Technical Description Detailed coverage of construction and equipment 2) Evolution – Prototype, Production and Projected Variants 3D Isometrics illustrating differences between variants 3) Camouflage & Markings Colour side profiles by Richard J Caruana, notes and photographs 4) Model A build of the 1:48 He.162A-2 from Tamiya by Steve A Evans Appendices I Heinkel He.162 Kit List II Heinkel He.162 Accessory, Decal & Mask List III Bibliography As usual with Valiant's books, the pictures are both high quality and unusual, with lots of "behind the scenes" shots of production, testing and their ultimate capture by the Allies, plus plenty more pictures of museum examples for those needing reference pictures. I always find the 3D Isometrics very interesting to discern the differences between variants, and some of the projected types with Pulse-Jets like the V1, and V-tails are very intriguing, so much so that I've just been on eBay and picked up a conversion set. Oh the shame of it! Conclusion Valiant Wings publish a good book about interesting subjects, and this is one that tweaked mine right away. If you're a modeller, aviation buff or even just interested in engineering, this will make an interesting read, which you'll come back to again when you need it for references. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hello Folks, As my A-10 is currently stalled whilst I work out how to resolve a few issues I thought I would start on another kit. Just to stop the dust from settling on my workbench of course! Its the Trimaster kit of the Heinkel He162A-2 in 1/48 with a resin pit by Aires, etch from Eduard and Montex masks. I bought this kit and the associated aftermarket as a 'job lot' at Sword and Lance in Darlington in 2014. And thought it would be a nice quick and easy build to keep me occupied. It was the box picture and the resin bits taped to the lid that caught my attention (the opportunity to add extra details to cockpit and engine!). The box was still sealed in it's cellophane. Anyway, here is the obligatory in box shot... 'Only three sprues included in the box? hmm that's not much for your money' thought I and then I decided to have a look inside the little blue 'packing' box on the right, and these fell out... Sorry about the poor photo I didn't realise it was part in shadow until too late. I'll include better shots later in the build. Etched detail parts for the cockpit and engine, and a set of PE hinges (to assemble!) for the cowlings. There's also white metal landing gear, ejector seat, and even a cast nose weight shaped to fit in the nose! The remainder are bits of brass rod, wire, tube etc, for the other details. I wonder why the original owner bought the resin pit and Eduard etch? Speaking of which, here's the aftermarket... And a better picture of the resin 'pit before cleanup. Well, these things don't build themselves, so better get started.... More to follow later Al (Edit to correct typo's)

Howdy all, I have a question. Does anyone know if the Aires cockpit set for the Tamiya 1/48 Salamander (https://www.scalemates.com/kits/150624-aires-4359-he-162a-cockpit-set-and-wheel-bay), provides the large spring visible on the bulkhead of the forward landing gear, as seen in this pic from the 1/32 Revell kit When I look at the image of the set, that spring doesn't appear to be present, and it doesn't appear to be present in the instruction images for the Tamiya kit (very basic). I'd love to try and leave the nose off, but I don't want to simply buy that set if it would be missing parts for that, making the reveal incomplete. I do plan to get the gun bay set, and figured this would be another nice bit to open up. If anyone has any experience with that set, please let me know Many thanks, Gaz

Last hope for the Luftwaffe: Me.163, He.162, Me.262 1:72, 1:48, 1:32 Kagero This is issue 37 of Kagero's successful MiniTopColors series, that consists of a booklet of 18 pages containing three-view digital paintings of ten different aircraft with decals to match in 1:72, 1:48 and 1:32. There are three schemes for the Komet, four for the Salamander, and three for the Schwalbe. As these are late war aircraft, they are rough and ready, with very heavily adapted and personalised schemes, altered airframes with unpainted parts, previously painted grafted sections, and naked metal with puttied seams evident. The schemes are as follows: Me.163B V53 W.Nr. 16310062, White 9, flown by Kurt Schieber of 1./JG400, Brandis, Germany early August 1944. Me.163B White 10 flown by Lt. Hans-Ludwig Loscher of 1./JG400, Brandis, Germany, late February 1945. Me.163B V52 W.Nr.16310061 Yellow 1, flown by Lt. Reinhard Opitz, Kapitan of 7./JG400 Nordholz, Germany, April 1945. He.162A-1 W.Nr. 310003 Yellow 5 of 3./JG1, Leck, Germany, May 1945. He.162A-2 W.Nr. 120067 White 4 of 1./JG1, Leck, Germany, May 1945. He.162A-2 W.Nr. 120028 White 3 of 1./JG1, Leck, Germany, May 1945. He.162A-2 W.Nr. 120231 White 6 of 1./JG1, Leck, Germany, May 1945. Me.262A-2a W.Nr.110613 9K+DK flown by Ofw. Hermann Wieczorek of 2./KG51 Rheine-Hopsten, Germany 25th February 1945. Me.262A-1a Yellow 2 of 3./KG(J)54, Prague-Ruzyne, Czechoslovakia, May 1945. Me.262A-1a White 34 of III./EJG2, Brunnthal, Germany May 1945. The decals are printed by Cartograf as usual, and are of top quality, with good register, colour density and sharpness, accompanied by a very glossy and close-cut carrier film. Each scale is separated by a dotted line, so you'll not get confused between scales. Conclusion Perfectly timed for the release of the new Meng Me.163B kit, and I'm sure a great many of us will end up owning both. The partially bare metal schemes are very interesting, and there's a lot of mottle, scribble and soft demarcations between colours, so you'd best spruce up your airbrushing skills to tackle them. I'm personally very tempted by them all, although having only one Salamander in my stash is now starting to look like a problem. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of