Amusing Hobby Messerschmitt Me.262 HG.III (48A003) 1:48

[Mike]

Messerschmitt Me.262 HG.III (48A003)

1:48 Amusing Hobby via Albion Alloys

 

 

The Me.262 was a ground-breaking aircraft, as it was the world’s first fully operational jet-powered fighter that went into action too late to make any real difference to the outcome of WWII thanks to Hitler’s meddling (Nice one Adolf!), insisting that it was made capable of performing as a fighter-bomber, thus delaying its entry into service by around a year – a crucial period in wartime.  It was an amazing leap forward in technology, able to outpace the best piston-engined fighters by around 100mph, although it wasn’t without its problems, mainly because of the engines.  Due to their isolation from the metallurgical technology and supplies from the majority of the free world, the Nazis were unable to make the kind of metals that were needed to stand up to the rigors and heat of burning jet fuel for more than a short period, which meant that the engines were effectively ruined within a few hundred hours of use.  The Junkers Jumo 004 engines were the more advanced axial-flow type, but they were slow to spool up and down, which made the aircraft vulnerable to attack during take-off or landing, which resulted in a lot of losses once the Allies caught on.  Add to that the weakness of the nose gear to this early tricycle design, and it was far from perfect.

 

As with all technology, the next version is underway before the original has even reached completion, and the 262 was no exception.  A streamlined canopy option was mooted initially, and that became known as the Hochgeschwindigkeit I or HG.I.  Another variant was to have a greater sweep to the wings at 35^o and closer-set engine nacelles, with a V-tail that turned out to be an aerodynamic faux pas.  A further design had a greater sweep still at 45^o and two of the more advanced Heinkel HeS 011 engine in semi-conformal nacelles buried in the wing root, but the war ended before that got further than the drawing board.  Some of the DNA of the HG.III may well be found in subsequent designs in early US, British or Soviet jet aviation.

 

 

The Kit

Anyone that knows me will also know that I have a bit of a thing for Me.262s, so when I saw this one in the Rumourmonger area of the site, I was very happy and you can probably see my excited comment there if you care to have a look – feel free to roll your eyes.  Amusing Hobby specialise in models of unusual types, whether it’s armour or aircraft, and this is their third venture into aviation, which makes me very happy they have.  The kit arrives in a slim top-opening box, and inside are two large sprues in sand-coloured styrene, a clear sprue, decal sheet and the glossy instruction booklet with colour profiles on the rear for the markings options.  Two sprues may seem a little light for a 1:48 jet fighter, but because of the design of the HG.III, the blended forward fuselage, nacelles and wings take up only two parts, with another two for the aft section of the fuselage.  This cuts down on the part-count substantially, as does some nice moulding of the cockpit and the nose gear bay.

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the lower fuselage for a change, into which you add the long nose gear bay, after deciding whether the deeply hidden ejector-pin mark in the very depths of the bay is worth hiding.  Speaking personally, I will be putting a tiny shim of plastic over the complete roof of the bay to make sure it’s never seen again.  A central spine is inserted onto three turrets running from the nose gear bay to the aft of the main gear bays, forming the centreline of the latter.  From the outside the gear leg, its retraction jack and captive door are added to the front, and nearer the rear a side-opening door with its own retractor is fixed, with a scrap diagram showing the correct orientation of the jack.  The nose wheel is a two-part assembly with radial tread and a separate inner hub, just like those in the standard 262.  The tapering intakes are made from top and bottom halves, and these are slipped inside a bulkhead with half-circular cut-outs, then the assembly is dropped into the lower fuselage on a number of receiver turrets.  At the rear of the engine trunking, the rear fan and bullet fairings are slotted into place in the exhaust trunking in preparation for the centre section that will be visible through the main gear bay openings.  The centre section has a pair of oddly-shaped sort-of figure-of-eight bulkheads that are spaced apart by two sets of trunking, which comprise a series of stepped cylinders.  A pair of jacks are set diagonally between the two bulkheads before it is inserted into the lower fuselage ready for closure.

 

 

 

 

The cockpit finally gets some attention, based upon a familiar cylindrical part that bears a close resemblance to the original 262 cockpit, into which the seat, control column and rudder pedals are mounted, with a fuse box on the right side and the main instrument panel lowered into a slot in the sidewalls with a clear gunsight on a rod mount passing through a notch in the top of the panel.  Given the relatively low part-count for the cockpit, detail is good, with excellent raised and etched dials on the panel and side consoles.  If you wanted to add more detail however, it’s entirely probable that existing Me.262 aftermarket will fit due to the similarities between it and the standard cockpit.  The completed assembly is inserted into the upper fuselage, then the two halves are joined together, with a chunk of weight added to the space in the nose, although you aren’t given a value to help you work it out.  The D/F loop and pitot probe are glued into position at this point, but I’ll be leaving them off until after painting.  The canopy is sadly a single part, and fits into the recess over the cockpit, with a portion of the fuselage moulded into the front of the windscreen for ease of merging it with the rest of the fuselage.  My example had a few small scratches on the surface, but they will probably disappear after a coat of Klear, and incidentally it’s the streamlined canopy, not the standard comparatively upright version.

 

Underneath, the main gear legs are inserted into a pair of sockets moulded into the upper fuselage, and both have a two-part wheels with diamond tread fixed to the axles, and a half-circular bay door with jack, and a triangular rear bay door, with an antenna just behind the bays.  A scrap diagram shows the correct angles from the front to assist you in placing them.  The aft fuselage is split vertically, and has the elevators fixed to slots in the tail, then the completed assembly is mated with a stepped lip at the rear of the forward fuselage.  I would leave the elevators off until after the fuselage is joined to ensure that they are set perfectly square with the wings, but that’s just me being cautious.

 

I couldn’t resist nipping a few of the major parts off the sprues and taping them together after completing the review.  Fit is excellent without glue, and the canopy slots into place perfectly, so probably won’t need any remedial work if you’re careful with the glue.  The join between the front and aft fuselage is cleverly stepped for strength, and the elevators have one or two tabs to ensure the correct one is installed.  It’s surprisingly large!

 

 

 

 

 

Markings

The HG.III was a paper project so it’s unlikely that anyone got as far as designing a camouflage scheme specifically for it, so the world is your lobster when it comes to markings.  In sensible mode, extrapolating existing late war schemes would be a sensible move, but no-one can argue even if you painted it sky blue pink with purple spots, although they may question your sanity in private.  There are two decal options included on the sheet, with profiles provided by AMMO, and using their colour codes to identify the shades.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

 

 

Decals have never been the strongest part of Amusing Hobby’s offerings, but this sheet seems well-printed apart from a slight smudge on one of the E3 decals, with a matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas.  The supplied Swastikas are in dog-leg halves, and they seem a little large to my untrained eye.  The white ones with black outlines will need a little of the black outline cutting away if used, but the black with white outline markings correctly have a gap in the white outline where they will overlap.  I’ll be using some of my Xtradecal Swastikas when I build mine for my own ease.

 

 

Conclusion

Hopefully, all those that would pooh-pooh this release because it “never existed” have given up reading by now, and I sometimes wonder how they cope when they’re watching fictional movies, Sci-Fi or other non-existent things.  It’s an injection moulded Me.262 HG.III, which I thought we’d never see in my lifetime, so there’s a lot to be happy about.  The detail that is provided is good, but if you’re a detail fiend you might hold off your build until someone has created detail sets for the landing gear bays, which could be seen as a little simplified to some, although little will be seen once it’s in the cabinet.  External detail is excellent however, with rivets and raised details over the entire surface.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Available in the UK in all good model shops.

Review sample courtesy of

[Mu17]

Thanks for taping the model together, it really does look very nicely made, with a sensible breakdown of parts to capture the flowing shape.

Whilst I have one in 1/72, this is a must.

As you say, its Luft 46 but a project that was being seriously studied and highly likely to have been built as a high speed testbed, even if not selected for series production. 

Paul

[Mike]

2 hours ago, Mu17 said:

Thanks for taping the model together, it really does look very nicely made, with a sensible breakdown of parts to capture the flowing shape.

I have a confession to make.  There was some glue involved, and, and.... some filler

[Eivind Lunde]

Looks like a fun kit, certainly something worth considering. But as to your comment @Mike about the Me 262 being delayed by a year because of Hitler meddling in it's development, that is a myth. The delays was mostly because of problems with the engines, and Willy Messerschmitt also said it would be quick and easy to convert it to a fighter bomber, not taking more than about 2 weeks.

In addition to all the other problems with this airplane I also read that the tyres needed constant replacement due to the landing speed, so it would certainly be a costly project with perhaps not much to show for it since the allies soon learned to just pick them off during landing anyway.