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REVELL 1:72 F.W. FLITZER |
Reviewer:
Hrvoje Šafhauzer (contact via SMAKR webmaster)
Kit Review submitted: 17 June 2009
Revell 1/72 Focke Wulf FW-226 V1 & A-0 (mod.) "Flitzer"
A Puch car stopped close to the Linz Hoersching Air base strip, and an instructor, Major Ludwig Stampa, got out followed by three trainee pilots. The 46-old veteran ace from the Eastern Front took a glance at his students, selected to become the cream of the Oesterreichische Luftstreitcraefte (Austrian Air Force) and destined to fly SAAB J-29 Tunnan jets, purchase of which was being negotiated between Austrian and Swedish Governments. In was early October of 1956, the Indian summer had just started and every day of fine weather was to be used for as much as training as possible. The strain of being under alert conditions for almost two months, dictated by a turbulent situation in neighbouring Hungary, was also visible on the young men’s faces. He was lucky that his wife Helga, former Luftwaffe Hilferin (auxiliary) was fully understandable but the kids at home were unhappy not seeing a father for a while. He had been in Flieger Schule 2 for two years then, being commissioned by current Commander, his former student from JG104 at Furth during war.
In front of them there were four metal birds gleaming under the sun, with underslung 5-rocket trees. Live rocket firing and strafing ground targets at a firing range with 20 mm cannons was planned for that day, to give the students proficiency in that segment of flying too. Major's plane was first in a line, and coming closer he noted a hand-painted British roundel added under a canopy side, behind other "kill" mark. He found that one applied yesterday morning, consisting of number 15 over a red star, and ground crew Chief, a former V/JG 52 mechanic, whom he knew from Crimea and who was aware of his tally, had placed it stating that it was authorized by Commander. Stampa advised him that a RAF roundel was missing, for a Mustang IV that he downed in late April 1945 over his native Croatia, last Croatian WW II air victory. Now it was there, applied to a FW-226 A-0 Flitzer. For a moment he started remembering a strange story behind that plane.
In early February 1945, Erprobungskommando (Operational Test Unit) 226 was established at Wien-Aspern airfield and equipped with 16 pre-series FW-226 A-0. These aircraft were equipped with 7.85 kN (800 kp) thrust Jumo 004 engines, since the He S11 A engines were still far from being successfully proof-tested and released for service. Top speed, with the rocket motor off, was a mere 750 km/h, just enough for evading Allied fighters in anticipated combat. Operations were not highly successful, the notoriously unreliable engines giving constant troubles coupled with risks of dealing with liquid propellants for Walter rocket motor, and weather was mostly appalling, leaving very little possibility for prolonged flying. However more experience was gained in dealing with combined-power aircraft. But in the beginning of April things changed suddenly. Orders came, signed personally by Ernst Kaltebrunner, Austrian-born Head of Reich Sicherheidinst (State Security Service), directing that ten aircrafts with spares, and appertain manuals, should be dismantled, preserved, and crated immediately. Few days later, a convoy of trucks with SS plates arrived and the crates loaded. Unit personnel loading the crates quickly realized that trucks were accompanied by the Totenkopfsverbande men, the guards from Mauthausen concentration camp, and found wise not to ask any questions at all. Even the SS-men were not aware what was exactly in the crates, except some officers.
At dusk, the trucks left the airfield towards the west, meeting the two trucks with chained camp detainees in process. Their destination was an abandoned mine south of Saltzburg, and after arrival detainees started unloading the crates and moving them deep into the mine, still working in chains and at night. Unbeknown to them, their destiny was to be grim, since dead mouth do not speak, they were to be executed after return for keeping the secret. Unloaded trucks departed from area immediately in various directions. When the crates were placed at the planned positions, several blasting charges were activated at various points, denying access to the stores. However, chained men worked not fast enough, and three trucks with them and guards left some two hours after dawn, to be caught on the way to Mauthausen by Allied fighter-bombers roaming the skies and annihilated. Very few guards survived, but chained men had no chance.
In the early autumn of 1944, Reichsluftministerium (RLM) was worried about the He-162 Salamander project and decided that a backup was needed. Consequently, Focke Wulf offered their project for a single-engined mixed power interceptor intended to use both a jet engine of Heinkel production, for easing the burden on Junkers Jumo 004 production, and a Walter already proven bi-fuel liquid rocket motor with variable thrust. The design specification called for a plane with a short nacelle, swept wing and tail carried by two booms, a configuration dictated by desire to minimize the thrust losses. Prototype construction went fast, but main powerplant for V1 became an issue. Since the 12.75 kN (1300 kp) thrust He S11 A originally intended was not still available, and wanting to test aircraft handling, equipment and weapons, the FW's engineers modified mountings inside fuselage to accept a proven 1425 hp Jumo 211 J driving a pusher propeller. Radiators were placed in the jet intake ducting in both wing roots with cooling air exit ports located underwing, spoiling the aircraft clean lines very little. Nose gear angle was changed for providing better propeller clearance. For better elevator efficiency, the horizontal tail was lowered to be in line with propeller using a prop wash effect to maximum. Maximum speed was some 550 km/h only, but the flight testing showed good handling and behavior with rocket motor on. For using rocket motor, the propeller was to be feathered and locked in a position not impeding a jet from motor, and the engineers came with solution even enabling that to be done in flight, albeit at minimum height of some 700 m and with certain risks. During one of the test flights with rocket motor on V1 zoomed pretty close to an American bomber formation, causing some head scratching to USAAF intelligence officers wandering about a new rocket-interceptors base. Plane proved to be a good stable firing platform, expressing no troubles when 20 mm MG-151/20 and 30 mm MK-103 cannons being fired in unison. Based on the test results, and not enthusiastic with Salamander handling, engine location and rear view from cockpit, RLM ordered production of a pre-series batch.
After being reconstituted after WW II, the Austrian Government found out about the Flitzers, and after the creation of an air force was authorized by both Soviets and Western powers, they submitted a request for granting the use of jet combat aircraft. It was granted, eventually, but the issue of the unreliable engines was still to be resolved. The solution came from an unexpected source. Soviets provided fifteen 12.77 kN thrust Lyulka TR-1 engines, their development of Jumo 004, together with deliveries of the Czechoslovak-produced Let C-11 (Yak-11) trainers and some other miscellaneous equipment. WNF factory at Wiener Neustadt was tasked with installing the engines and other modifications. Slightly larger Russian engine fit in a fuselage with some tweaking. Using a HWK 109-509 C liquid-fuel rocket motor with the appertain highly toxic and corrosive propellants was considered unacceptable for a peacetime service, so the engines and heavily lagged propellant tanks were dismantled and replaced by jet fuel tanks increasing a range. Rocket motor jet nozzle was faired over with streamlined fairing incorporating a fuel dump pipe. Two 30 mm wing cannons were omitted, their ammunition was too expensive and not available, and replaced by a landing light in starboard wing and a gun camera in port one, making plane suitable for night flying also. That enabled installation of two underwing hardpoints, giving more versatility. Two fuselage mounted 20 mm MG-151/20 cannons were retained, ammunition being available and affordable. Also the cordite-fired ejection seats were installed replacing the previous non-ejecting ones. With higher thrust available top speed reached planned 850 km/h, but in the mid-50s that was considered not adequate for fighters so six planes were assigned to pilot school, with other four retained for showing the flag at a Wien-based fighter flight. Two from the pilot school were lost early in use, and all remaining were scrapped in 1961, just when the first Tunnans started entering the service.
After completing a training flight and landing, Major Stampa parked his plane, and slid a canopy back. He was happy with the student's skills, guys were learning more each day. He just hoped that they were never to be called to fire the guns in anger, knowing that there were pretty good chances for them becoming a cannon fodder for Mig-15 and Mig-17 equipped tentative opposition.
The Instructions are newer Revell, A4 in size on decent paper dictating a slightly bigger box than would normally suffice, and incorporating the real history of this project that only reached the mockup stage. There are 15 construction steps plus two pages dedicated to painting and decaling of both options. Only thing not clear to me is: Why are the "Luftwaffe 46" planes always depicted fighting with 1944/45-vintage RAF/USAAF ones? By 1946 the Meteors, Vampires, Shooting Stars and like should be available in service and in quantity for sure…
Two marking options are provided, both for "Focke Wulf P VII" from JG 1 in Reich Defense markings in 1946. First one is "white 5" from first Staffel of I/JG 1 in splinter RLM 74/75/76 scheme and yellow nose tip and wingtip undersurfaces, based at Leck. Second one is from the boxart, a "red 3" from second Staffel of II/JG 1 and "flown by Lt. Urlich Stampa", painted in RLM 82/83 over sky blue (RLM 84?) scheme and based in Finow. Both are offered with the respective Gruppe (Group) distinctive signs and with the red Geschwader (Wing) identification bands at tail booms.
Since I was to make some small modifications, the first thing was to determine what to do. Throughout construction Revell glues, putty and paints were used, except where indicated. For V1 prototype, I removed the intake ducting walls in upper and lower wing parts, and glued the radiator exit flaps made of thin styrene over a small area that I carved in the undersurface parts. The Radiator's honeycombs were made using fine mesh from my used blood glucose measuring strips, and glued in the respective wing halves. Then, I had to deal with the kit supplied seats, for both models, since these are so narrow that none of my pilots in 1/72 scale can fit in, only a 1/100 scale one. For the V1, I trimmed the seat sides/armrests providing wider cushion and back areas. For A-0 (mod) I sourced a seat from the spare box, slightly wider and taller than the original in the kit. Using a Jumo 211 engine, one unused in a Revell Ju-87 D-5/G-2 build, I determined a place where the engine exhaust could be situated in respective fuselage halves, as well as air intake. From the outset intending to reposition a horizontal tail at V1, I used putty to close slots in fins, and I closed cartridge case ejector ports in lower wings of A-0, as well as a hole for an IFF antenna.
It was time for pre-painting, where I used different colors for A-0 interiors. My reasoning is that in 1953 the US/British paints would be more readily available to Austrians than the original German ones. So there it was for V1: fuselage interior and components, seat, wheel hubs, instrument panel and dashboard were painted in Humbrol Hu-92 iron gray for RLM 66. All landing gear legs, landing gear wells and covers inner surfaces, intakes and radiators, and radiator exit surfaces were painted in R45 light olive for RLM2. Oleos were painted in aluminum bronze. For the A-0 it was: fuselage interior and components, seat, landing gear legs, wells and covers inner surfaces painted in R360 satin fern green for interior green. Oleos, all wheel hubs, and jet intake ducting were painted in aluminum bronze, while instrument panel was painted in Hu-92. Dashboard was initially painted in Hu-92 too, and Hu-53 gunmetal was used for jet engine exhaust nozzle. In both models the pilot stick handgrip and tires were painted in R9 anthracite, and Hu-53 was used for cannon barrels and rocket engine nozzle. Seat cushions were painted in R84 leather brown followed by harnesses painted in R314 satin beige.
Construction continued, naturally, with cockpits - assembling the respective parts, and touching up some handles and grips with black permanent soft tip pen. Some trimming of the replacement seat for A-0 was required, as well as the side consoles to fit inside the fuselage. Instrument panel decals were applied then, as well as the decals for LH consoles. While drying I sourced a piece of sprue having a diameter similar to the jet exhaust nozzle for making an insert, shaped it, drilling a hole for a propeller shaft, and trimming it to fit in a V1 fuselage tightly. Upper wing halves were glued to lower ones, taking care about pre-painting, and clamped by clothespins. When dried, I cleaned seams using a modeling knife and made a seat for landing light in a starboard wing intended for A-0 using a needle round file and followed by gluing a piece of clear sprue in it. Then, I noticed the wings from the tail boom connecting points had a slight downward wash, but that was all for the wing halves, so it could be a distinctive feature of Flitzer from the outset. A few days later, I realized the reason for that. Formation lights were plainly missing to me, and I scribed them at wingtip fronts and painted them using permanent transparent soft tip pens. Now, it was time to do the fuselage.
In both cases, an applicably painted cockpit was glued to front wheel well and that subassembly glued into a starboard fuselage side. Revel instructions are stating that 3 gram of weight should placed in nose, so I crammed as much as I could over the wheel well using old lead pipe, cut in pieces by wire cutters and formed by fine pointed pliers. Flat piece of lead was placed beneath a cockpit floor, too. For V1, I also add some lead in part of the well covered by fuselage bottom skin to be more on a safe side, since a propeller was to be placed at fuselage rear. Liquid glue was sparingly used for slightly positioning the lead weights in place. Rear fuselage insert and jet engine nozzle were glued in their respective places. Now, it was time for joining fuselage halves together. Maybe it was my positioning of interior subassemblies, but I needed to clamp fuselage halves together tightly using both clothespins, tricky at oval shaped surfaces, and rubber bands. And I had to trim upper sides of replacement seat back slightly, touching up the edges with green permanent soft tip pen. After drying and cleaning the seams with modeling knife, I noted gaps in front and behind cockpit, in both cases, so filler was used to cover it. Also I reinstated some of the panel lines obliterated by scrapping and sanding. Contrary to that, halves for four tail-booms mated together with no fuss when test fitted needing only a small amount of glue, and no clamping was needed. When dried, their seams were cleaned, pending the mating bigger things together. I made a fairing made of stretched sprue conical part, and attached it over A-0's rocket motor nozzle and shaped it using a fine flat file. Later, a 1 mm hole was drilled representing fuel-dumping pipe. In the meantime I sanded a clear sprue flush with a starboard wing surfaces, getting a wing leading edge placed landing light.
Mating the wing to fuselages revealed problems, no matter how I tried to sand slightly for achieving a better fit. These should be assembled with dihedral at roots – that is why there is an outer wing wash, the booms' roots and sides should be level not staggered – and out of four wing-to-fuselage joints all had gaps at both upper and lower sides albeit at different locations. So filler came out again, and it was applied over all the joints. Some internet sources suggest smoothing it with nail polish remover/acetone, before getting hard, but since I am a single male no such thing is available at home!! So, I used cotton tipped sticks soaked with nitro-thinner. When dry, wet and dry sandpaper was used for further blending, followed by some rescribing of the damaged panel lines. Time was now for positioning the exhaust stacks at V1, beneath wing roots, and for that I used parts gladly scavenged from Matchbox Mosquito BXIX/NF30. Based on their position and using Jumo 211 engine, I marked place at the fuselage where I should attach an engine compressor air intake later also being guided at respective position at Avia S-99 model. Now came the turn for attaching the tail booms, and horizontal tail(s). I did A-0 first to get experiences for positioning at V1.
Tail booms went on relatively nicely, leaving slight gaps at the attachment joints filled with glue and sanded later. Some positioning was required, especially for V1, but at the end I was happy. Landing gears followed – main legs plus retracting arms and front gear – taking care of using the respective prepainted parts, again with A-0 first followed by V1, and respective landing gear covers were attached later. Since A-0 was to have more updated radio equipment, two antennae were added from spares, a blade one at fuselage underside and an (American-) football shaped one at upper fuselage taking care of a clearance for canopy in a slid back position. V1 got a radio direction finder circular antenna at upper fuselage, followed by gluing a canopy with white glue. Wingtip pitot probe and underwing antenna followed, as well as air intake. Canopy for A-0 was left to be attached after painting. Last step was to make a pusher propeller for V1. At the beginning I was contemplating which one from my spares should be sacrificed, but in a meantime a parcel came from Austria containing the cache of various spare parts sent to me by Mr. Carlos Gianni. (Thanks Carlos, again!). There was a Frog Ta-152 propeller with separate spinner, a perfect candidate for trimming. For giving a clearance from the booms, blades were trimmed to 38 mm diameter, and tips reshaped, followed by twisting the blades by pliers to get pitch as a pusher instead of tractor propeller. Consequently, I canted a nose landing gear leg towards obtaining some ground clearance for propeller blades. Long propeller shaft was fashioned and attached for placing the propeller after painting, which was the next operation to be performed.
© Hrvoje Safhauzer 2009
Since A-0 was to be adorned with the wing and tail boom placed yellow training bands, a complete model, bar cockpit area, was painted in R99 aluminum and left two days to cure. In the meantime I had to mix RLM76 shade observing the Revell instructions using R49 light blue and R5 white in 80/20 ratio, I was going to need it in several pending projects anyhow, and I painted V1 in RLM 76 overall. I decided that a prototype was to be with uppersurfaces covered with RLM 83 blotches, so I used a dedicated R65 bronze green for that – I need to reduce a quantity of paint in a tinlet for mixing a RLM 82 shade for other 1945-vintage projects. I have never understood why Revell is not able to produce dedicated RLM or RAL shades when churning out so many Luftwaffe subjects, both vintage and modern. Propeller blades were painted in R65 too, I was too lazy to clean brush one more time and use more common RLM 70. Clear gloss alkyd paint was applied over all V1 surfaces, and A-0 wing and boom stripes edges were masked with masking tape and R12 gloss yellow applied. This is definitely last time I am using dedicated paper-based industrial self-adhesive masking tape, since several projects shown it was not a completely satisfactory solution. Modeler's masking tape is not available here, and I think I am to revert to Scotch "Magic Tape", which is thin also and with better adhesion although slightly more rigid. I used household black gloss enamel for A-0 front and rear coamings, windscreen frames, and anti-glare panel in front of windscreen. Bumpers under the tail boom lower ends were accentuated by black permanent soft tip pen.
© Hrvoje Safhauzer 2009
Revell decal sheet is crammed with some 50+ individual decals, so hands up to see how many masochists are there willing to apply as much of them as possible. Add one more – me. For A-0 I used Austrian national markings and pilot school code letters from Revell (Heller/Lodella) T-6G kit, and boom located "factory code letters" for V1 came from decal dungeon being from ancient VEB's 1/100 kit. They needed longer soaking to leave backing paper, as usual, but stick where required with no fuss. After applying national insignia to both planes, I started with myriad of stencils. To gloss-coated V1 they adhered with no trouble, but not so to R99 painted surfaces at A-0. I decided not to seal them at all, both gloss and mat paint would not produce required metallic effect. As a consequence, in latter handling I lost some of the decals, but who cares! For V1, I used dry transfers and swastika was printed at sticker paper, with edges painted in RLM 76, I did not want to use waterslide-one from my limited stock. At a piece of blank decal I hand drawn a star and a roundel, applying later a number 15 from Revell decal sheet – sometimes the small decal sheet indication numbers are useful, too. Decaling took some 2 days, and after that a V1 was completely covered with R2 mat clear sealing the decals, while R2 was used for overpainting black surfaces at A-0 and affixing a cockpit canopy, with a little help from a rubber band.
© Hrvoje Safhauzer 2009
Since I lost V1's pitot probe during decaling process becoming a victim of carpet monsters, I made one of stretched sprue and attached it. As for A-0, I placed dedicated pitot probe, as well as two underwing 5-rocket trees from a Matchbox P-38 L kit, followed by the rockets. So some 15 days after starting, with hour or two of work at odd days, two kits have been completed, and ready to go to cabinet. One with keen eyes would see that I managed to bend and break off a pitot probe handling the V1 with my clumsy fingers during photo session, but it was repaired later.
© Hrvoje Safhauzer 2009
This kit does have some fit issues with the wings mating, and some trimming of cockpit parts is needed. Otherwise, parts fit well, and making it would also be easy for the beginner, learning how to align some things like tail twin-boom assembly. And remember that wings are "warped" with a reason, so do not remove the warp from them no matter what some internet-provided drawings would indicate. Like other Luft'46 subjects it has a flavour, and enables a lot of the hypothetical schemes, or conversions, limited by one's imagination and available decals. It also shows how designers around had the similar approaches to solve the issue of limited thrust available from early jet engines. I would recommend this kit, especially if one is not to pay much attention to ultra-slim seat in there.
Review courtesy of my inclination to purchase more than one affordable and interesting kit.
© Hrvoje Safhauzer 2009
In summer of 1945, a former VVKJ (Royal Yugoslav Army Air Force) pilot and Croatian AF ace Ljudevit Bencetić left Yugoslavia after being granted an amnesty, joined his wife Helga Stampa, and dully changed his name to German equivalent of his name Ludwig taking his wife's surname. During WWII, as a member of 15(Kroat.)/JG 52 he scored 15 confirmed victories at southern part of Eastern front, as well as serving as an instructor. At the end of war with tally of 16 confirmed victories, he surrendered to British troops in Austria, and was returned to Yugoslavia facing a court – a luxury not afforded to a number of ethnic Croats caught by Yugoslav Partisans, or handled over to them by British after 9th April , who were either promptly executed or sent to death-marches towards detention camps in eastern parts of Yugoslavia. Vae victis!
© Hrvoje Safhauzer 2009
© Hrvoje Safhauzer 2009
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