Matchbox 1/72 Me 262A-1A Schwalbe

MATCHBOX 1:72 ME-262A-1A SCHWALBE

Reviewer: Michael Johnson (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 1 July 2003

The Aircraft

The Me262 was the first operational turbojet powered aircraft. In addition to being jet powered, the Me262 brought forth many advancements in aircraft design. Although sometimes viewed as a last ditch super weapon, the Me262 was under development before the start of WWII. Though never available in quantity, it was effectively used by the Luftwaffe in a variety of roles and proved itself a potent weapon.

Development began on the Me262 in April 1939, code named Stormbird, the Me262 was a combination of excellent design resulting in a very sleek sharklike shape incorporating a number of un-proven features. An example of this is the Me262's wing, the characteristic swept design was the result of a need to place the centre of gravity aft to compensate for heavier then expected engines. It was only later that the benefits of swept wings were realized.

The Jumo 004 would prove to be the Me626's greatest weakness. The turbojet was still in its infancy and had many technological hurdles to overcome, with a lengthy period of development leading to a continued delay in the production of the Me262. Engine development was hampered with a lack of the materials necessary for proper heat proofing. As such, alternate materials were forced to be used, which resulted in engines that were less than reliable. In some cases, new engines would suffer catastrophic failures during the initial run-up. Even engines that worked correctly had a very short operation span with most would only lasting 12 hours. On many occasions, pilots were forced to land with one or both engines out. However, the Me262 was especially vulnerable as the turbojet's relatively low thrust resulted in slow acceleration. It took some time for the jet to get up to speed, but once there, no Allied aircraft could touch it.

Towards the end of World War II, the German Me262 became the first operational jet fighter to engage in air to air combat, out manoeuvring the Allied escorts while attacking bomber formations. This led to the beginning of the jet age, in which aircraft soon flew at more than twice the speed of sound and easily climbed to altitudes of 50,000 feet. At the same time, advancements in electronics removed the task of early warning from the pilot’s eye, and guided missiles extended the range of aerial combat.

There were three main variants of the Me262, the A1-a (Schwalbe) fighter, the A-2a (Sturmvogel) fighter and the B-1a (fighter-bomber). All were single seat aircraft powered by a pair of Junkers Jumo 004B axial Turbojets developing 900kg (1,980lbs) of thrust. The maximum speeds were;

Me262A1-a: 540mph (870km/h)
Me262A-2a: 470mph (755km/h)
Me262B-1a: 497mph (800km/h)

They climbed at 1200m/min, to a ceiling of 11,500m and had an operational range at cruising speed of 1050km (650 miles), although in use it was considerably less.

The fighter variants were armed with four 30mm Rheinmetal-Borsig cannons in the nose, two carried 100 rounds each, and the top two carried 80 rounds each. Combined with the The 30mm cannon and being capable of carrying 24-55mm rockets, 12 under each wing the Me 262A1-a was extremely lethal. Despite being designed as a fighter the A-2a could also carry a pair of 500lb. bombs on the bottom of the fuselage.

The B variants were variously armed with four cannons and two MK108 20mm cannons (inclined to the rear of the cockpit in Scharge Musik installation) for attacking night bombers and could be variously armed with a set of SG500 Jagdfaust with 12 rifled mortar barrels inclined in the nose for attacking day bombers, 50mm MK114 gun or 48R4/M rockets for attacking bombers. Most of these last armament installations were not effective, especially the Jagdfaust mortars that created considerable drag and instability in the aircraft.

Preamble

Fired up by my recent build of the geriatric Matchbox TF104G “on a stick”, I delved into the dusty and dark recesses of my stash and emerged with a battered Matchbox Me262A1-a. This was going to be an ideal companion to the Starfighter sitting on my office desk!

The Kit

A typical Matchbox side opening box, with a clear plastic corner. The box proclaims “1:72 in two colours” with the single paint scheme printed on the rear of the box.

Ahhhhh, pausing to drink in the memories of sagging plastic, Airfix glue and the smell of Humbrol enamels I then opened up the box and emptied the contents out onto the modelling bench. I resisted the urge to regress to 14, make the kit, hand paint and decal all in one afternoon. I actually do remember building this particular kit way back then, with much enjoyment!

So what is in the box? There are three sprues within the typical box, one blue, one green and a clear sprue for the canopy. The canopy is rather thickly moulded, with small specs of discolouring throughout, but has nicely defined framing. The inherent thickness does cause some minor issues during assembly.

One decal option is provided, along with an instruction sheet. Painting instructions are printed on the back of the kit box.

The kit is typical of Matchbox, trench like panel lines abound, dubious shape issues and some badly fitting parts. Strangely, the fuselage panel lines are raised. Well I was not after a contest winner here at all, so I could safely ignore all the shortcomings built into the kit or otherwise. The stand would have to come from my diminishing supply of Matchbox stands dating back to those halcyon days of youth.

Construction

Assembly started with the cockpit, what cockpit??? I sprayed the cockpit walls and tub flat black. The matt black hid the gaping deficiencies in detail. I then painted the pilot carefully and sat him in place on the bench like seat which was attached to a peg moulded into the fuselage side.

I cemented the gear doors closed, hiding the rather bland and shallow wheel wells, discovering that gaps as wide as the Tasman appeared once the closed doors were in place. I chose not to worry about filling the gaps, keeping in mind that this is a fun build!

The remainder of assembly proceeded smoothly and rather quickly, with only small amounts of filler required to smooth out ill fitting joints. At this point I cleaned up, polished and masked the canopy. The canopy was offered up to the fuselage and cemented into place with clear parts cement, reinforced with a careful application of liquid cement; this filled any gaps between the fuselage and the canopy. No amount of polishing was going to remove the whitish blemishes on the clear plastic. Does anyone know what causes this?

Painting and Decaling

Now that construction was finished I could settle down to masking fun and painting. I started with a white primer, base coat overall. For white schemes generally I use Citadel “Skull White” spray cans. These cans have 3 times the amount of a Tamiya spray can and cost around $15 from Games Workshop or Games World stores. In my opinion they are the best hobby spray paint on the market, giving a fantastic even coat in minimal passes.

When the base coat dried I sprayed Aeromaster RLM 84. Masking and spraying continued using RLM 82 and RLM 83 until all the splinter and mottle camouflage was in place. I had never applied mottle to a 1:72 scale plane before, so I was quite happy with the results once done. I found the trick was to build the mottle up slowly using well thinned paint and my Aztec airbrush set at a minimum setting.

Matchbox offer one decal scheme in the kit. The decals had not appeared to have yellowed with age and the markings are reasonably crisp and in register. They certainly looked fine for the purpose of this build, but if I was building seriously I certainly would have tossed the kit decals out and replaced them with an aftermarket sheet.

Once all the paint had cured, I applied several coats of Johnsons Future with a wide flat brush, kept especially for this purpose, to seal everything in and preparing the surface for the decals.

The decals turned out to be a real problem. Matchbox decals do not react noticeably to setting solutions and these were no exception. In the end, all the decals were bedded in Johnson’s Future, once dry this sucked the decals down over the surface details.

All those trench like engraved panel lines where then treated to a wash of thinned raw ochre/burnt sienna oil paints, the excess wiped off with a cotton bud and soft lint free cloth. The dark wash imparted a more “grimy” worn feeling to the Me262, more in keeping with service use and the nature of the airfields these pioneering Luftwaffe jets had to endure. Cannon barrels were treated with chalk pastel gun smoke strains created from a combination of black and grey colours, with those raised fuselage panel lines lightly brushed with dark grey pastel. Jet exhaust staining was then added around the jet exhausts using a darker mix and finally wear at the wing root and fuselage side where simulated with careful dry brushing using Humbrol flat aluminium.

I then sprayed 2 light coats of Aeromaster Flat to seal the decals in and impart a flat finish.

All the canopy masking was removed, the stand was added and the Schwalbe was finished. I reckon it will look quite nice next to my Starfighter at work, with its shark like shape and two tone green camouflage.

Overall

The 1:72 scale modeller is well catered for in regard to the Me262. All the major model companies and even limited run manufacturers have marketed kits. I must draw attention to the superb recent Revell (Dragon re-boxing) releases. For those who want a super detailed “Braille scale” replica, there are also plenty of aftermarket detailing sets and decal sheets available.

All that aside, the Matchbox Me262 builds surprisingly well. The shape looks a little dubious and the decals are poor but this bird is a quick fun build. Total build time was only about 10 hours. My other more serious kits in this scale have taken a lot longer.

Good fun!

References

None!!!

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