REVELL 1:72 MESSERSCHMITT ME 262A-1A

 

Reviewer: Myself  (smakr@bigpond.com)
Kit Built June 2000; and Review submitted:  July 2000

The Me 262 needs little introduction and there are other reviews on this site to consult if you wish to have a look at some preamble on this remarkable yet underachieving aircraft of the Second World War.


Here's the boxart for the old Revell release!

This Revell kit is of new tooling standard and was one of the more eagerly anticipated construction projects for me, for some time, since I only had a very old earlier Me 262 kit, which I think was also Revell.

This kit was constructed at the same time as the Smer Me 262B version, see related reviews below for link to that review. It gave me an opportunity to compare the quality of both kits and how they match up in size, mold etc.  I can tell you now that there is NO comparision as this kit is an absolute gem.

The 45-55 light grey-green injection molded parts are of '97 new tooling vintage with exquisite surface detail that is finely engraved.  There are 3 main sprues plus a stores sprue of very crisp parts.  If these parts were potato chips they would melt in your mouth!  The canopy section is made up of three clear parts of which two (windows) are not used.  The kit also appears to double up (with a few holes drilled and extra sprues for differences of course) as the Me-292B variant released by Revell.

The instructions are via a huge fold out sheet giving the usual history, a number of exploded assembly views and alternative colour and markings examples, plus two three-view drawings and a small photograph of the model. 

Construction begins in the "office" with a cockpit tub that contains exquisite detail including sidewall plumbing and boxes. The seat has raised harness and seatbelt detail. The Large instrument panel has raised console detail. The stick is nicely rendered to complete the cockpit unit.  This then goes into one of the fuselage halves, fitting snuggly into the alignment rails. Be careful though that you have the cockpit tub in correctly and fully aligned against the top of the cockpit area as the main wheel area will be affected and will not allow the belly section to affix properly.  The fuselage halves fit beautifully - but don't forget sufficient weight in the nose to prevent a tailsitter - something Me-262's are notorious at doing! There is the undernose section that says to drill two holes before affixing to the aircraft, this is where a read ahead of the instructions pays dividends. These holes are for attachment of undernose rockets.  I decided not to affix rockets so later had to fill in these holes, so best to make up your mind at this point so you don't drill holes unnecessarily.

I made the error of not fixing the cockpit flush against the upper undersides of the cockpit and when I tried to put on the wing section I realised the error, had to remove the cockpit unit and refix it in without any hassles.  Therefore, I cannot see any reason why you couldn't actually put the cockpit unit in after the fuselage halves have been affixed, but of course that is up to you to try if you want!

The wing comes in three pieces with two upper halves and one underwing section. These affix easily although best result will come if some care is taken to position absolutely perfectly.  Having discovered that the cockpit unit needed reaffixing in the above paragraph, this task was done before affixing the wing unit. This then fitted in very snuggly, almost like a "snap kit" and did need a touch coaxing, without any need for filling or sanding. The tailplanes fit nicely and fit in a way to make you place it with the correct angle profile, but to be sure I stacked playing cards underneath to allow them to dry at the precise angle.

The engine pods were then sub assembled and these are also beautifully rendered. I painted the interior, cone and exhaust stack before fitting into the cowlings.  Most of the interior of the pods was painted black, rather than just the end section because you could tell where it wasn't painted.  Burnt iron for the exhaust and silver for the rings on the front of the cowling and cone interior.  The engine pods attached to the wings very nicely, again almost like a "snap kit".

The canopy fits nicely but required a firm hold for a minute or so before it fused with the fuselage as it tended to lift off a little if left to its own devices and not held in place for a short period of time.  The rest of the construction process went without a hitch with usual attention needed to ensure everything fits as it should, perhaps with the only minor criticism being external antennae which did not have sufficient locating holes/tabs/points and will need reference material for correct placement.

The kit allows for two examples to be reproduced, essentially the same except one has more pronounced mottling than the other.  Uppersurfaces are painted in RLM 81 (Braunviolett) and RLM 82 (Dunkelgrun), mottling done in the latter RLM 82, and for the undersides RLM 76 (Lichtblau) is suggested.  A couple of the undersurface panels as well as the intake cowlings were instructed to be painted in an aluminium finish, which I complied with to a tee.  Looks okay in spite of others suggesting it looks out of place.  Of course there is no reason why another scheme of choice can't be done as there are plenty of versions one could reproduce on this aircraft depending on preference.

The decals supplied in the kit are thin and are hard to see against the dark RLM colours.  Naturally there are no swastikas so you will need to add these on yourself.  They are finished in Matt with excellent register and adhere to the model surface very well.  My only point of criticism is the the Red/Blue "1" band that is often found in these kits.  Revell have produced one with a white number where most of my reference material, including those depicting this actual plane, show yellow.  Although you can find many debates on this subject in the various modelling forums so I will leave this up to you to decide. I left it as Revell provided.

The finished model looks spick and span and basically flawless. It matches up to any reference material very well, both in profile and measurement, and is often cited by modellers as their definitive choice for an Me 262A in this scale.  This is clearly a high quality kit that was an absolute joy to build.  It was an excellent kit and for the nominal price was also absolute value for money considering the outcome.  For the "swallow" in this scale I would not look anywhere else and suggest you add one to your collection if you haven't already.

 

Note: the following related reviews links have not been updated since early 2000's - more kit reviews of this aircraft may now be on SMAKR, not reflected below.  Refer to the Index for other kits of this type.

Related Reviews:-  

Related INBOX Reviews:-

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me262.jpg (44544 bytes)
Photo Credit: Ronald J. Bokleman, Jr  (webmaster@netting.com)

This is a very nice example of a version the kit reproduces