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Messerschmitt Me.262A-1a Fighter (81805) 1:18


Mike

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Messerschmitt Me.262A-1a Fighter (81805)

1:18 Hobby Boss via Creative Models Ltd

 

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The Schwalbe had the distinction of being the first jet engine fighter to see active service, and was respected by the Allies due to its speed and manoeuvrability, care of the advanced axial-flow engines that burned brightly, but not for very long. It came too late with too few airframes entering service due to delays with the engines, and the German high-command's insistence that every aircraft should have a myriad of variants sporting different configurations that brought with them further delays and confusion.

 

The A-1a was armed with four Mk.108 cannon mounted in the nose, which resulted in a concentrated destructive power for this innovative aircraft.  It could also carry bombs under the nose, or a palette of unguided rockets under each wing, thanks to Hitler’s infernal meddling that helped the Allies win the war.

 

 

The Kit

This is a reboxing of the kit that was released by Hobby Boss/Trumpeter’s sister company Merit International in 2013, which I think has also been available as a completed display model at some point in the past, although I couldn’t prove that in any way shape or form.  It is what I’d call a project model, because it provides the base level of detail you would expect from a 1:48 kit, but in this scale of 1:18, which is roughly 2.67 or 2 2/3 the size, the detail seems spartan in places, and softer than you might like in others.  In addition, due to the huge size of the kit (the fuselage is almost 24”/60cm long) it uses screws to hold some of the larger parts together, which have plastic covers that will need filling to make them melt away, and it is moulded in tougher ABS plastic to maintain structural strength.

 

Inside the big top-opening box are a lot of parts separated into two sub-boxes with the fuselage taking up much of the remaining space.  There are thirteen sprues and four engine nacelle halves according to the instructions, but the fuselage, intakes and exhausts and some of the other parts are supplied off their sprues in my boxing.  It’s all moulded in grey styrene, and there are three very firm flexible tyres, a bag of thirty screws of four types, plus a large decal sheet in the bottom of one of the boxes.  The clear parts are bagged in bubble-wrap, as are the two large nose weights that are simply 45mm lengths of 14mm bar that have been dressed roughly and given a coat of something shiny to prevent corrosion.

 

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If you have a copy of the excellent 1:48 Hobby Boss kit to hand, the parts will be very familiar, as it is almost a straight “blow up”, or pantograph (a slightly outdated term now) of that design in terms of how it builds up.  Construction begins with the nose gear, with the strut having a clip-on retraction jack and wheel made from the black tyre that has the two sides of the hub pressed into the central hole.  This clips into the gear bay part, and has the two cylindrical nose-weights attached to the top in a retaining frame with a cross-brace keeping them in place.  The four Mk.108s are then made from two-part breeches, a top section and the barrels, which will need drilling out after you’ve flattened off the tip that seem to have been tooled with safety in mind rather than crispness.  The bay floor and bulkhead are fitted together and the guns are placed on top with ammunition guides leading away through the floor for each one.  A frame holds the barrels in place, with a bracing rod linking it back to the bulkhead, then the assembly slots over the nose gear bay, with a small bulkhead attached to the front.

 

The cockpit is next, and has a front and rear lamination to the instrument panel, adding dial decals as you go, then slotting it into the top section of the cockpit tub. The lower tub has the side console detail skins and controls added, a pair of rudder pedals, control column, and electrical panel fitted, before the seat with separate side panels and bulkhead behind it is slid into the rear.  The tub is bookended front and back by another pair of bulkheads that suspend it within the fuselage above the main gear bay.  The fuselage can be closed up at that point, after installing two spreader bars in the open lower section to ensure a good mating surface between fuselage and wings.  The cockpit and nose gear bay are slotted into receivers on the inside of the fuselage, and you are exhorted to also put the canopy in place then too, which traps it between the fuselage sides and the cockpit, allowing it to open and close without glue.  The rudder is also trapped between the fuselage halves, and then you glue and screw the two halves together, choosing the correct covers for each screw, as they are shaped to match the contours of the fuselage.  The radio bay door is also popped in, although there’s no detail behind it out of the box.  They clearly had a 2-seat version in mind, as there is a large rear insert behind the cockpit, which has the usual turtle-deck and T-bar added before it is glued in place – glue the D/F loop in place now at your peril.  The rest of the canopy is clipped in place at this time too, and it’s worth stating that the clarity isn’t 100% here.  They have a very slight cloudy aspect to the panes, and this may or may not disappear after dipping in Klear/Future, plus there’s an odd ‘bullseye’ in the left curve of the canopy part that creates visible distortion from some angles.

 

The engines are next, and are made from two main halves that push together using internal turrets/receivers, then have the intake with trunk screwed inside, and the exhaust made in a similar way, with decent fan detail in both ends.  The three-part exhaust bullets are then centred within the trunk, and of course there’s another one to be made up for under the other wing.  The completed engines are then mated to the lower wing with a couple of screws from the inside, and the main gear legs are built up with more clip-on retraction jacks and two-part hubs round flexible black tyres.  The bay doors attach to the back of the struts, reflecting its “toy” roots, with no internal detail moulded-in.  The wing is completed with the upper panel fitted over the top, trapping the slats, flaps and ailerons in place, all of which have T-shaped hinge points either separate parts or moulded-in.  A clear(ish) wingtip light is also trapped on a pip during closure.  The wings are screwed together with 3 screws and contoured caps, then the process is repeated for the other wing.  The two completed wings screw together at their roots with three more screws, and have the internals made up and screwed into the assembly to be seen later from inside the bay.  The wings and fuselage are then brought together with more screws and caps, and the smaller mid-line bay doors are made up and inserted into the centre, although the instructions seem to depict them closed, which isn’t usually the case.

 

It's looking like an aircraft now if you back off far enough to be able to fit the whole thing in your vision, and we’re about to have a break while you make up the two fuel tanks on their stubby pylons, install them with RATO (Rocket Assisted Take Off) bottles under the trailing edge of the wing, an aerial under the wing, and a stubby antenna under the fuselage.  With the model sitting on its own wheels, the tail is built with movable flying surfaces, then the upper nose panel with cannon ports is put in place, and here I feel the lips around the teardrop shaped apertures is too soft.  The gun bay panels behind it can be closed or posed open on the central spine, with a pair of stays supplied, then the final part is a pitot probe at the tip of the port wing.

 

 

Markings

You get two decal options in the box with precious little background information as we’ve come to expect from Hobby Boss.  Check your references in case there are any discrepancies between the portrayal and reality, and make your own decision.  From the decal sheet you can build one of the following:

 

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As you’d expect the decals are massive and benefit from their size, having nice crisp outlines, legible stencils and detailed dials for the cockpit instruments.  The swastikas are included in two halves each for territories where the symbol is legislated against, and you get what appears to be a good selection of walkways and all the commonly depicted stencils along with some rather large crosses – whether the stencils are spelled correctly I will leave to a German speaker to decide, as they have printed their own name as “HobbyBoos”, which isn’t a confidence boosting goof.

 

 

Conclusion

This is a LARGE model.  You don’t fully realise that fact until you open the box, and then you take a deep breath and begin opening the bags wondering where you’re going to put it when finished.  Personally, I feel that it is a model that you should take your time over, detailing the heck out of it, maybe adding a full set of rivets to the skin, although maybe not as they were supposed to be puttied over, which may come in useful, as the panel lines are quite deep and wide. For the internal details that us modellers usually obsess over, I’m hoping that the aftermarket companies are already getting their upgrade sets into production.  As it stands it’s more of a toy than a model, but with the right builder a stunning replica could result, as the shape seems to be about right, and all the major components are there for you to go to work on.  The transparency issue is a downer, but it’s a good candidate for someone to come along with a resin or vacformed replacement, the latter being almost below scale at 1:18.

 

Recommended, after reading this review thoroughly.

 

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Review sample courtesy of

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A fair review Mike.  Are you using the past tense when you write that they "had" two seater in mind?  I ask as I fancied doing a nightfighter in large scale and have the vac 1/12 scale which I move around the stash every now and then, look at and sigh and just put away again.  Its even more basic.  I dont suppose there is any whispers in the wind whether this will see the light of day of someone clever like AIMS will do an upgrade and conversion set?

 

On the kit itself I think it could well be the basis of a very large and quite stunning finished model.  It is what you have said - a not quite blank canvas.   It just requires references of which there are plenty and the addition of modelling skill of which there is not in my case.  Still for the money not a bad start to a long term project maybe :hmmm:

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17 hours ago, Mick4350 said:

I thought that the kit had its origin from 21st Century Toys in 2006/7, and predates Merit/Hobbyboss by at least 10 years.

I must have uploaded an older version of the review somehow, as my Word copy mentions the 21st Century Toys logo under the elevator that I found while photographing the sprues. How that happened, I don't know, but when I'm in front of a PC I'll update it. :shrug: 

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