GERMAN HEINKEL JET BOMBER ‘LUFTWAFFE 1946’ KIT

SMN report:

Fantastic Plastic is at it again with an interesting ‘Luftwaffe 1946’ offering, a Heinkel long-range jet bomber design. The project never left the drawing board, but as with all these Luft 46 designs, offers a fascinating insight into the direction World War II could have taken if Hitler’s secret projects had reached fruition.

Last-ditch wonder weapon

As Fantastic Plastic puts it: “Even as the Allies were advancing on Nazi Germany, German aircraft companies were scrambling to create new ‘wonder weapons’ for the Luftwaffe.” And one of these is the subject of FP’s latest model kit.

Swept-back wing

The Heinkel project was a jet-powered 60-tonne weight long-range bomber. It reached only a preliminary design stage, but had several radical components, especially the cranked wing, featuring a 45-degree sweep at the root, reducing to a 35-degree sweep further out. This was echoed by later bombers that did ‘make the metal’, including the UK’s Handley-Page Victor and Vulcan V-bombers. 

Six engines

The Heinkel had a multi-glazed nose, a conservatory-like element that featured in most heavy bombers of the time, with a massive pair of air intakes to feed the engines. The design was good for four or six of these, and FP has chosen to model the six-engine version, powered by a sextet of Junkers Jumo 004s. Had the plane flown in anger, it could have carried a three-tonne payload up to 14,000 km (8700 miles) away, before returning to base - which was enough to bring the US West Coast in bombing range. 

What’s in the box?

It’s a resin kit, so you need to take more care than with a mainstream injection model, but with only 26 components, the 1:144 scale Heinkel bomber should be an OK project for anyone with reasonable modelling skills, though getting the wing dihedral right, and the landing gear assembly just-so are aspects for care and attention. When assembled, the Heinkel measures 140 mm (5.5 in) long, with a wingspan of 230 mm (9 in), and would look good if displayed with some other World War II bombers to the same scale.

Box art

The neat box art was created by Martin Letts, who has a fascinating site, XPlanes3D, which is well worth a visit, as he features other what-if designs from the US and UK as well.

Visit Fantastic Plastic here.

Visit XPlanes3D here.

'IRON SKY' - LUFTWAFFE 1946 FANS JOIN THE QUEUE RIGHT HERE

Iron Sky looks like it’s going to be an intriguing 2010 movie. Judging from the video clip we show here, Iron Sky should have Luftwaffe 1946 enthusiasts in seventh heaven (and we’re keen L46’ers here at SMN) as it includes so many popular themes and memes. Secret advanced technology - yes! Secret UFOs - yes! Secret moonbases - yes! There’s even a military sidecar outfit bopping along a lunar highway, though we’re guessing that, conceptually at least, it’s not powered by a BMW flat-twin internal-combustion engine. Pressurized gas from that big tank behind the handlebars might push the cylinders though...

These days the Luftwaffe 1946 fan has a huge range of choice, with even mainstream manufacturers like Revell providing some excellent kits to build. Among Revell’s L46 squadron is the 1:72 scale Focke Wulf TL Jager Flitzer (‘Hunter Streaker’) pictured above, which is a little more ‘real’ than many Luft 46 models, because the original did get as far as wind tunnel testing, though it was cancelled before entering production. The twin-boom layout echoed other designs of the era, including the British Vampire, which test-flew as early as September 1943, and the Flitzer’s predicted single-engine performance was as good as the Messerschmitt Me262 flying on two engines. A rocket booster could have increased speed to nearly match the climb-rate of the famed Me 163 Komet interceptor.

To Revell’s model - the Flitzer is neat and tidy, though it's a confirmed tail-sitter, so you need to pack the forward fuselage with lead-weight if you want the aircraft to stand on its undercarriage unaided. Panel detail is crisp and neatly done, and the general fit of components is good too, which means little filling is needed at the seams. The kit was first released some ten years ago, but it’s lasted well, and would look good in any lineup of Luftwaffe 1946 aircraft. Next year, let’s have some Iron Sky UFOs to build!

There’s an excellent review of the Revell Fw Jager Flitzer by model fan Adam Rehorn here.

You can obtain the Fw Jager Flitzer here.

APOLLO 11 ANNIVERSARY ON MONDAY - BUT APOLLO 27 IS WHAT COULD HAVE COME AFTERWARDS

‘What if’ scenarios are a favourite with many modellers, especially the ‘Luftwaffe 1946’ brigade (SMN is what-if central, so the plea here is guilty, m’lud), so when Pegasus Hobbies brings to market a 1:72 scale Apollo 27 model, it’s a max-interest event.

The Apollo 27 is a good size model, scaling out at some 254 mm (10 in) high when sitting on its outriggers, pointed at the great beyond. A neat bubble canopy reveals the pilot-astronaut and all-in-all the A27 is well worth adding to your collection, especially so because you can display it with any current-generation 1:72 models.

So far as styling goes, Apollo 27 is perhaps a little retro, owing more perhaps to rocket designs of the 1950s era than those of the post-Apollo 11 age. But that’s carping - the idea is ace, the execution OK, the choice of scale top. All aerospace fans should have one!

Visit Pegasus Hobbies here, and UK online supplier Frontier Models here.

More Luftwaffe 1946

Woah! Re the previous Revell post, this video shows just about every uber-aviation project dreamt up in the dying days of the Third Reich.

There's even rousing march music as background – well done Green Cacktus, who put the whole thing together.