Frog 1/72 ME262

[stona]

It's an Me262A-2a to give its correct designation. It belonged to 1./KG 51 "Eidelweiss" (cue singing nun). The aircraft individual letter (F) and nose and tail tips are all in the Staffel colour,white.

Two 30mm MK 108 cannon were fitted in this version though some still had four gun ports. This unit typically outlined the lower,active,gun ports in white,a bit tricky at 1/72. They also carried two ETC 503 bomb racks as shown on the model.

Cheers

Steve

[stona]

I typed that reply without looking anything up and since I got home I thought I should check a little niggling doubt I had.

As usual with the Luftwaffe nothing is simple.

It turns out (as I had a suspicion) that the -2a dash number was discontinued in late December 1944. The two cannon were removed on that version for weight reasons. The undercarriage wasn't strong enough to carry the extra weight of fuel in the extra tank now being fitted and a bomb load along with all four cannon and their associated gubbins. There were serious centre of gravity problems when the bombs were dropped which meant that all sorts of complicated tank switching procedures had to be carried out.

New undercarriage developed by Messerschmitt and Opel allowed the LANDING weight to be increased to 5,700 Kg which allowed a fighter bomber to have a TAKE OFF weight of 7,100 Kg. This meant that the two upper cannon were now fitted as standard.

9K+FH has the werknummer 111685. This gives a very late production date in February/March 1945. This means that it was designated an Me262A-1a/Jabo. It had all four cannon and the two ETC racks.

There were still CoG problems and the ETC (bomb) racks were aircraft specific,often carrying the aircraft's werknummer,hand painted.

Cheers

Steve

[papa 695]

Thanks Steve for the information on my build its great to findout a little about the ( in this case ) the plane and owner/s i should start looking up on more info when i start anyway thanks again

[Dave W]

I built the Monogram 1/48 ME262 almost 20 years ago.I finished it in the kit colour scheme and markings which by coincidence were the same as this model.Although monograms suggested camouflage scheme was a bit different (see my gallery).I must say you've done a great job on this old Frog kit.

[papa 695]

Hi Dave seen your ME262 a good build but the Frog suggested camouflage scheme shows your scheme with different decals [ATTACH]39377.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]39378.vB[/ATTACH] I'm not sure if the Frog info is correct or not but i'm sure Steve ( stona ) could let us know which is correct

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[stona]

Just a quick update,I like to get things correct.

I've had a chance to look this aircraft up in Dan O'Conell's "Me262 - The Production Log 1941-1945" which I had loaned out but came home this morning.

It is listed as an A-2a. In a photograph of the aircraft as it was found at the side of the autobahn in the Hofoldinger forest south of Munich,near Neubiberg, the gun bay is open and there are definitely four cannon fitted.

It's BAL acceptance flight was on 13/3/45 at Kitzingen.

On the evening of 15/3/45 it was ferried from Kitzingen to Hopsten (370 Km) and delivered to 1./KG51.

Around 26/4/45 it was ferried to Riem and transferred to JV44.

It was dragged into a field and scrapped in May 1945.

Cheers

Steve

[papa 695]

Ok the base is finished [ATTACH]39471.vB[/ATTACH][ATTACH]39472.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]39473.vB[/ATTACH] Its been a nice kit to build and iv'e had fun building the cockpit. Now posting the full display on the completed forum happy modeling everyone

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