|
By Adam Rehorn
1/72 Mistel VI (He-162/Ar-234 C3)
If you've seen my other two Luft '46 projects, the Fi-203 and the Me-168, then you know that I am fond of taking existing Luftwaffe planes and making project aircraft out of them. The more
of these things I build, the more outrageous the next one has to be. I just need a stronger drug, I guess. Well,
that's what lead me to this project. Ages ago, I build the Revell Germany Ar-234 B2/C2/C3 Blitz kit, the one that's
just a repress of the old FROG kit. It turned out badly. I wanted to replace it, and ordered one from Eric Green's estate. However, I then got an original FROG from Doug, and figured I could spare one. I also picked up
the ancient FROG "international assembly kit" (i.e., a bagged kit of lower than usual detail and quality) of the He-162 Salamander.
On their own, neither of these two planes is that special to me. I like the Salamander, but don't think much
of the 4 engined Blitz. Of course, I wouldn't build it as a twin-engined type, because that's just too boring.
Then the idea came to me... what would the Luftwaffe do with the spare (and largely useless for air combat) Salamanders and
Blitzes they had, should the war have gone on? Why, they'd make one of those amazingly desperate and hopeless Mistel
flying bomb combinations! A perfect way to make use of a tapped out bomber and a dangerously flimsy fighter. Thus,
what I call the Mistel VI, or "Blitztel" for short, was born.
Above: This collage shows 4 views of the final product. Note that all the dark panel lines were originally raised.
I had to etch them with a straight pin. Note too, the Funtac-masked cammo pattern and amazingly clear canopies.
Source Material:
This project was not undertaken with the best source material. No DML
Blitzes or Salamanders here. It was FROG all the way! The Revell Germany Blitz is identical to the FROG, except
for its Swastika-less decal sheet. This means the Blitz is a fairly basic kit with moderate surface detail and only
so-so fit. It also has next to no cockpit detail, although since the entire front end of the plane is a warhead in this
case, it doesn't matter.
The Salamander was a different story. It was reprehensible. Being a cheap kit,
there were no wheel bays, no compressor face in the engine, no floor to the engine bay and no dashboard. The plane was
effectively hollow, and if the wheel bays were left open, it would have shown up BADLY. Thankfully, it is the top of
the Mistel, so the gear bays are closed up.
Oddly enough, the canopies on both kits were quite good, although it only
mattered on the 162. In addition, the Blitz has LOTS of spare parts, so future projects, like my two-seater Blitz and
my bomber Uhu, have good spares.
Getting It Together:
Before I could start building, I had a few major issues to contend with.
The first was the panel detail. It is all RAISED. This is a hallmark of old (and crappy) kits, and these are FROGs
we're talking about. I thus had to go and re-etch all the panel lines on both kits. This was done almost entirely
freehand, although some Dymo tape was used on the long lines on the Blitz's wings and the Salamander's engine. This
scribing process was the most painful thing I have ever done in relation to a model. I have seen others doing it, and
thought it would be neat. Of course, the panel lines on the FROG weren't quite right, but they do the job. The
scribing was done by putting a sharp straight pin in an X-Acto handle, and just following the original raised detail for a
guide. The result was worth it, but it was way more work than I thought. Thank God for cyanoacrylate (CA), which
I used liberally to fill in mistakes made during the scribing process.
Another problem was the design of the engine
pods for the four-engined Blitz. The exhausts weren't right at all. Rather than being bulged, as in the real plane,
they were just straight pipes. I took a round needle file and recontoured them the best I could. I also tried
to add some puffiness to the exhausts by waisting the junction between them and the rear of the engine pod. While still
not perfect, there is at least some shape there now. I also filled in the Blitz's rear guns, since a bomb doesn't need
defence.
The Salamander, apart from being hollow, was warped. It's not just that it didn't fit quite right, it
was TOTALLY WARPED from the rear wheel bay backwards. The reason: the thin plastic along the centerline had broken,
and over the 30+ years of sitting in a box, it had warped. It took a lot of CA and elastic bands to get it back together,
but so far, it has held.
To add insult to injury, the engine tube, which is very prominent, is also hollow.
Thus, you can look in and see... nothing. I had to fix this. Thankfully, the compressor face on the Jumo 004B
engines from the two-engine Blitz looked like it would fit. After cutting off the cowling, I found that it fit perfectly!
I know the compressor should be for a BMW 003E-1 (the Salamander's real engine), but I was in no position to argue, and I
read in one of my books (or on Luft46.com) that it was designed to take a 004 should the need/opportunity arise. Adding
to the problem was the fact that even with the compressor face in there, the bottom of the engine bay is still empty!
This was corrected with a piece of Dymo tape that was CAed into place. Finally, the Salamander was glued together, and
the real fun could begin.
Above: This gives some idea of how bad it was. This is the FROG He-162. As you can see it is hollow.
The compressor face from the 2-engined Blitz and its Dymo tape duct can be clearly seen. A DML or Tamiya this ain't...
Awful Assembly:
With the fuselages together, and the wing detail etched, I figured putting on
the Blitz's wings would be easy. Yeah, well... it wasn't. Not only did they not fit, they wanted to sag, like
those on my original kit. It took some coaxing, but I got them to sit on there right, and then came the filling and
sanding. Looking in my Hitler's Luftwaffe book, I found that the wings join the body with a nice fillet.
The FROG doesn't do this, of course. Thus, I had to bust out my round file and create the illusion of a fillet where
none existed. This was done entirely freehand, and it obliterated most of the scribing I had done in that area.
Out came the straight pin again...
The Salamander actually went together quite well, and the wings were on in no time.
The tail required a bit of surgery to blend the tailplane into the body, rather than just having it stuck on there.
Some round filing for more fillets and I was good to go, the fins going on next. It was difficult to get the fins to
sit at the right angle, and there was considerable sanding needed to hide the connector points on the tailplane's underside.
The Blitz's tail went on very smoothly, although I had to modify the rudder slightly. The rudder is one of those
molded to one side of the body, which meant that it looked like it was one piece with the vertical tail. On the other
side, it looked like a separate piece. I heavily scribed the one side, to get the illusion of separation. I also
outlined it with a Gundammarker to add a sense of depth. A major problem with the Blitz is that it is tail heavy.
To correct this, I CAed a bolt into the front fuselage. This seemed to work well. To the bolt I glued a golf tee,
to act as the long fuse often seen on Ju-88 Mistels. I then built the warhead completely freehand out of Milliput around
the golf tee, and tried to contour it so that it matched the original Blitz shape. I didn't want to just use the clear
canopies painted over, since I'll need good glass for other projects. The warhead proved to be a major pain, though,
requiring filling with Testors grey putty and CA many times.
Above: This view shows the nose before the Milliput warhead was added. Yes, you're seeing it correctly. That
is a golf tee CAed to a bolt. I guess that means Home Hardware and Sunningdale Country Club are the providers of my
aftermarket conversion kits.
The final touch was the addition of the 'Mistel pylons' to carry the Salamander. I've never liked the clunky framework
affairs on Ju-88 Mistels, and wanted to avoid it. I figured that airfoil cross-section braces would most likely be used
to keep the speed of the composite plane up, so I took some flap from a beaten old 1/48 A-10 I got second hand and cut it
down to fit. I beveled the edges to fit with the contours of the Salamander and the Blitz's wing, and glued the pylons
in place with CA. A third, smaller brace was added to support the 162's tail.
About this time, it occurred to
me that the Me-262 Mistel aircraft I've seen drawings of all launch from a heavy cart. This is because the landing gear
on a 262 barely hold up one of it; they'd never hold two. However, I didn't want to make a cart, and I reasoned that
if you could launch a V1 from a Blitz, then a Salamander shouldn't be a problem. However, I also decided that on the
ground more support would be needed, so I built a set of jettisonable dolly wheels that attach to the mid fuselage bomb recess.
The dolly is made from the rear wheels of the 1/48 F-16A from Hobbycraft (yes, Roland, it was a bad kit) and the strut from
a 1/72 VF-1 Valkyrie from Bandai, cut to fit. All tires were flattened, since I figured this thing would be heavy.
Painting:
I
wanted to do a paint that would look somewhat winterish, as if the Mistel were being used in late '45 - early '46 in the winter
months. To this end, I decided to paint both aircraft entirely off-white. The colour used was a mix of Tamiya
Flat White XF-2 and JN Grey XF-12. I then used Funtac (that blue sticky stuff) to lay down a 'worm' camouflage pattern.
This was done so that I'd have white worms on my paint. The main camouflage was done using XF-12 JN Grey, which is way
more green than grey.
Above: This is what the plane looked like before painting. You can see the panel lines showing as a lighter colour,
as well as the remnants of some primer on the wing. The white warhead is all Milliput, and was difficult to shape correctly.
I always put the wheels on last, so they're not in this picture.
I decided to do the engine cowl leading edges and rudders in the same blue-green as my 1/144 Javelin from V-Gundam.
I know the Blitz is disposable, but I figured bored ground crew would have decorated the bomb to match the Salamander.
The panel lines were done in HB pencil, and the entire plane was coated using thinned Tamiya clear and Future.
I learned
that when brushing over pencil, I should just not do it. I should have airbrushed a sealer coat on first, since the
pencil smudged when coated, making a lot of the plane appear dirty. Maybe this is okay, but I didn't like the effect
much myself.
I decalled the Salamander using decals from various aftermarket decal sheets (Thanks, Eric!), as well
as getting letters from the Monogram 1/48 AH-1S kit. The Werke number is from there too. Of course, there are
no decals on the Blitz, since it is disposable.
Final Assembly:
Once the paint and decals were
on, all that was left was the landing gear on the Blitz and a few aerials and canopy on the Salamander. The original
loop antenna on the 162 had to be cut off for sanding the engine cowling, but I found the loop from the Heller Komet (which
became the Me-168) was a perfect fit. The canopies, while clear, didn't fit all that well, but there's nothing I could
do about that.
The landing gear on the Blitz were washed in acrylic black, along with the dolly, centerline bomb recess
and engine exhausts. The Salamander's engine intake and exhaust were similarly washed, but the rest of both planes were
left as clean as possible.
I made the Mistel pylons in such a way that I can slip the 162 onto them, without having
to glue it on there. I figured this would make transport easier, and it seems to have worked.
Operational
History of the Mistel VI
Please note that the following is FICTIONAL. Despite the various combinations
that were put into service or drawn up as Mistels, there never was an aircraft called the Mistel VI, and to my knowledge no
such design was ever put forward. I am a sci-fi fan, and thus I enjoy fictional histories. This kit gives me a
chance to both build a coolly fictional yet plausible model while also allowing me to indulge in creating a bit of alternate
history.
Understand that this is NOT intended to be a revision of any true, WWII history. It is not intended
to re-write any of the facts or refute any of the known events that transpired in the dark days from 1939-1945. If you
believe this write up instead of the many excellent texts on the Luftwaffe or WW II, you do so at your peril. The standard
disclaimer having been given, here we go:
The Mistel VI was conceived in mid June 1945 in response to the failures
of existing Mistel composite aircraft. A major problem with the first three Mistel types was the low flying speed of
the combined plane, which rendered it vulnerable to Allied fighters and AA guns. While several other Mistels corrected
this fault by using jet aircraft, most of these suffered from having a fairly small 'bomb' component, only the Me-262 Mistel
having any sizeable warhead.
What was needed was a fast composite with a heavy warhead. The primary roles envisioned
for this new plane was the destruction of Allied shipping and port facilities, on both sides of the English Channel.
The aircraft originally proposed consisted of an Arado Ar-234B-2 Blitz bomber, converted to a bomb, with an Fi-103 Reichenberg
IV perched on top. This idea was soon discarded for two reasons. Firstly, the Ar-234B-2 bomber was considered
insufficiently
powerful to do the job, while the Fi-103 was considered too poor a combat aircraft to be able to make it back from a mission
in one piece.
The proposal was reworked and presented to RLM staff on June 14, 1945. This proposal used a factory
fresh Ar-234C-3 bomber as the bomb, while the piloted half was a surplus He-162 Salamander. This proposal was accepted,
although minor alterations were made. The 162s involved in the project were strengthened at the wing/body junction,
and quick-release fasteners were fitted, to mate the plane to the bomb. In additon, the Jumo 004B engine was fitted
to the 162, to increase its thrust. Spare 004 engines were available from obsolete or damaged Blitz B2/C2s, while the
162 itself was, by this time in the war, outclassed by both Allied fighters such as the P-80 and Meteor, and German planes
such as the Focke Wulf Flitzer.
The first aerodynamic prototype was flown in late July 1945, and the first live fire
test was undertaken in September of the same year. The Mistel VI was shown to be capable of creating heavy damage to
fortified buildings as well as warships. With a long penetrator fuse, it was expected that a single Mistel would be
sufficient to cripple or sink transport ships or heavy cruisers.
By the time conversion training got underway, and
production had ramped up, it was late October 1945. At first, accidents were frequent due to the tricky takeoff procedure.
Several main gear failure on taxiing resulted in 7 deaths within a two week period. This was rectified by fitting
an additional dolly under the Blitz, in its original weapons 'bay.'
The first and only unit assigned to Mistel IV
operations was KG 958, which was formed on October 1, 1945 (before many of its planes were ready), and which was based at
makeshift facilities in northern Germany. The intended mission for KG 958 was the destruction of shipping in the Denmark/Norway
area, as well as attacks on Belgian and Dutch ports and Allied coastal assembly points, as part of a planned German offensive
for early spring, 1946. This operation, named "Totregen," or "death rain," was intended to push the Allies out of the
Low Countries' harbour areas, setting them up for eventual destruction when their supplies gave out.
Unfortunately,
the Mistel VI was not a very good strategic airplane. Despite its 6,000lb warhead, it was fairly ineffective, due to
its short range. Under ideal conditions, the range of the Mistel IV was no more than 321 miles, and that was assuming
a cruising altitude of 25,000 feet. Needless to say, the Mistel VI, or "Blitztel" as its crews nicknamed it, was never
used in the grand operation envisioned by Luftwaffe planners. Of the 75 completed, only 42 were in service when the
war ended in February 1946. In the scant 3 months it had been operational, KG 958 had only flown 8 operational missions,
and only 4 of these had seen the bomb released at the target. Two of the 8 missions were aborted half way through
due to technical problems, and two were shot down by Allied fighters.
Two Allied patrol ships were hit by the Blitztels
of KG 958, however, one of them sinking and the other managing to limp back to base. An RAF Mosquito also was destroyed
by KG 958: the unfortunate aircraft was jumped by one of the He-162s as the German plane was making its way back from a failed
attack mission, and was destroyed.
Above: In these 3 views, you can clearly see the extra set of wheels I fashioned for the Blitztel. You can also
see the way the Mistel pylons fit up into the wing/body junction of the He-162.
|
