Hobby Boss 1/72 Heinkel He 162 Salamander

HOBBY BOSS 1:72 HEINKEL HE-162 SALAMANDER

Reviewer: Mark B (SMAKR Webmaster) (smakr1@optusnet.com.au)
Kit Built + Review Submitted: May 2009

Kit Details:

Hobby Boss No.80239 - He 162 Salamander "easy assembly authentic kit"

Aircraft History:

The He 162 was one of several jet warplanes produced by Germany in the closing stages of WW2, and apart from the more renowned Me 163 and Me 262, was built in more numbers than other jet projects being worked on. The idea was the He 162 would turn the tide of Allied success in a last ditched effort to win the war.

It took less than two months from the initial drawings to the prototype flying in December 1944. The He 162 was intended as a fighter and interceptor that could be mass produced by workers with basic skills and operated by units with inexperience and semi-trained personnel. This was reflected in its simple design, incorporating basic materials, tricycle landing gear and a very easily accessible (and replaceable) engine housed above the fuselage.

By the time the initial production models began to be built, the structural and handling problems of the very first prototypes had been mostly rectified, with a few "we can live with this" concerns still apparent. The first operational wings were equipped with He 162A-1's in May 1945, just in time to be overrun by British allied forces. Over 100 aircraft were built in readiness for war and some flew as interceptors mainly against B-17's in fast close in, fire, dash past and come back tactics which actually saw a lot of success. Many historians generally agree that if the He 162's were able to fly earlier they may have completely altered the strategic bombing campaign undertaken by Allied Forces by decimating B-17 and B-24 fleets, thereby allowing the Luftwaffe breathing space to build better planes with more resources (which may have not been bombed by the Allies) and produce devastating flying weapons that may have changed the course of the war.

Some historians also firmly believe that the speed and manoeuvrability of the He 162 would have had it winning most encounters with any Allied jets of the time, such as the P-80 and Meteor, some believing it could even mix it with the Sabre and MiG-15 (as attested to on "secret aircraft of the Luftwaffe" History channel - which I find are not always very accurate).

As with many new jet planes and rocket programs that the Luftwaffe were producing, most of the production was carried out in the safety, secrecy and security of underground Luftwaffe hangars/bunkers set inside hills. It is said that around 800 incomplete He 162's were found in these underground "factories" along with aircraft designs such as the Ta 183 and Flitzers. Many of these were very close to taking to the skies to reek havoc on American bombers.

In the end large numbers of He 162's were captured by the allies and many found their way into museums around Europe. The Soviets captured the largest number and many of these were used in service and as a test bed for their future jet projects.

The Kit:

My first foray into a Hobby Boss kit, heard heaps about them, now it was my turn to finally build one as they are not easy to find in my parts, having to rely on ebay for purchases. There's about 20 parts in this kit, really not much to it all with all the parts packed in vacuform keeping it nice and protected. The forward fuselage comes by itself, along with a sprue containing the wings and upper fuselage part, then another small sprue with all the bits on it and finally a small clear sprue for the canopy. The plastic feels good but is pretty thick with mainly engraved panel lines, although I found one rear panel scribed in raised detail. You know this is going to be quite a quick little build!

Instructions:

An A4 sheet, folded to make a small A5 booklet is provided. The 'cover' side of the booklet is adorned in colour, with a copy of the boxart and some modelling info on one half and the other containing four view diagrams of the two versions the kit allows to be built from the box. The black and white centre spread contains a sprue map/contents diagram and two assembly steps (although really step 2 is broken into two steps). There are not many parts in this kit and with the help of alignment pins and holes, it's pretty difficult not to be able to follow the instructions. A little bit of internal painting is provided, mainly in generic names, except a couple of RLM numbers for undercarriage and cockpit interior.

Construction:

Construction is very quick, but a bit of work is needed to get it looking ship shape authentic! The forward main fuselage body already has seat and control column inside, with just a clear gunsight and head rest to be added. Pretty basic and rather inaccurate as well, with the seat so far back it would be like a kid trying to reach the pedals of his dad's car. Nevertheless I made good of a not so good situation by removing the control column and glueing it closer to the seat and adding in a fabricated dashboard panel. Not so long ago I did an inbox review of the Dragon He 162 kit, so I was able to use that kit as a basis for sprucing the cockpit of this one up. More time spent in the cockpit than the rest of the kit, including painting and decalling and varnishing! RLM66 (Humbrol 32) was used in the interior, don't forget to paint the front of the upper fuselage panel as this forms the back upper bulkhead of the cockpit.

The upper and rear fuselage section comes with the wings already molded. This should be an easy fit into the lower forward fuselage, with big alignment pins, but test fitting revealed the pins needed trimming and the holes inside the fuselage enlarging, and some small ejector pin stubs removed. Despite doing this and the fit was relatively easy, there was still a nasty seam that had to be filled and sanded.

The rear tailplane needs a test fit first, because on mine ejector pin stubs refused to allow an easy fit, but once these were removed, the fit was pretty good, really not needing any glue. Then the small twin tail fins were added, again, a run of the hobby knife to remove the most tiny amounts of flash (but enough to make the project frustrating) and also ensure you attach the correct fins to the appropriate side, they are supposed to only go on one way. It's not hard - partly because the alignment pins are larger on one side - but also a quick study of the diagram will reveal which side which goes on. I made sure these dried at the right angle, something you will need reference material for because the kit doesn't really tell you, and theoretically you could put them at any angle you wished.

All the gear doors fit very well, but there are "hinge" tabs on their sides to assist in displaying them open, as a wheels up modeller these are just too big to fit in their grooves so had to be cut right down (not all the way, just enough to fill the groove). Meanwhile the engine assembly was put together and again very easy, before the canopy was placed into position (the tabs stay and neatly slip into the cockpit so it fits snug) and the kit was complete, save the painting.

Colour Schemes:

There are two versions provided for in the kit, An RLM 81 (not RLM8 as the instructions say)/82/76 Luftwaffe example from 1./JG1, May 1945 presumably discovered when the caves were found and the other a Soviet Red 02 example in overall Light Gull grey from 1946. Given I had the Dragon kit, I had decided from the start to do the Soviet example as something a little different - but near the end of my build, given I may not build the Dragon kit for many years, I changed my mind and went for the Luftwaffe example.

Decals:

The decal sheet is quite small featuring only the general aircraft roundels for USSR and Luftwaffe, including swastikas which are broken into halves. There is no stencilling at all provided. The decals are in sharp register with a thin semi gloss appearance but a fair bit of thin carrier film attached to them - particularly the Luftwaffe crosses, not so much the other decals on the sheet. However, I found the decals to work extremely well on the gloss painted surface, very easy to use and dried quickly without any need for decal setting solution. Despite the extra carrier film there was virtually no silvering effect even before sealing the decals in with a gloss cote and finishing off with a matt one.

Accuracy:

I don't have a lot of material on this aircraft, but I do have a great colour picture of an He 162 in a European aircraft museum back in the early 1970's, and this kit looks every bit of that aircraft. It scales up to measurements very well. If I was to criticise anything, perhaps the engine doesn't quite have the right frontal shape - the aircraft looks like it has an intake ring whereas the kit implies it is all molded integrally; and the canopy is a bit flat and one shaped whereas the aircraft has a bulbous canopy and windscreen, with the frame having a similar effect to putting a rubber band around the middle of a balloon. But overall I am pretty happy with the end result.

Overall Recommendation:

A very easy kit to put together, but still needed some "kits under the belt" type of experience purely as a result of the removal of ejector pin marks and some flash. The kit wouldn't otherwise fall together as easily for a beginner. This is my first foray into Hobby Boss and for the market (quick and simple kits) this was absolutely fantastic. The downside is that it wasn't a great deal of fun to put together because it happened so quickly (I often use glue and paint drying time for research and writing components of the kit review!) and accuracy falls a fair way short. Still, it is marvellous therapy for AMS and also for watching that unbuilt pile reduce a little more quickly! More accurate kits are on the market, so I wouldn't recommend this kit on that basis, but if you want a quick and easy project, or one for the kids, this certainly is a little rippa!

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