Developing a plan

I thought it might be informative to give everyone a little insight as to how some of these weird projects gestate in the dark and cobwebbed portions of my brain.

Although I can’t really consider myself a big Bf-109 fan, I have built a few over the years, if only because there are a number of nice kits out there for the type. And of course I am drawn to the oddball variants. One of these is the Planet Models kit of the speculative Bf-109TL, a possible option for mounting Jumo 004 jet engines in pods on the wing. It was apparently considered as a possible alternative to the Me-262, since they could use a lot of existing 109 tooling that would speed up production. I had gotten the kit out and begun some preliminary explorations, including the standard “stick the kit components together with Tamiya tape” routine (a part of my process and a source of endless hilarity to modelling chums).

Since I have been feeling the need to return somewhat to my roots, primarily WW2 aircraft, after the flood of postwar and modern jets that I’ve been doing this summer, I began thinking about what other types I could do along with the 109TL. I had already completed a Me-262A, Me-262V1, and He-280, so maybe it was time to do some other Luftwaffe late war twin engine experimentals.

After a trawl through the stash, I was suddenly surrounded by the Hasegawa Me-262B (the two-seater), Special Hobby’s 3-seat Me-262 project, Academy’s Me-262C, and Revell’s Messerschmitt P-1099 heavy weapon 262 project. Not only did they create a nice little development series, but they also had the advantage of needing a lot of the same paint colors (primarily RLM02 for the interiors and gear bays to begin with) and mostly the same late-war RLM colors on the exteriors.

To this point, only the 3-seater is fully together, though I have gotten two other cockpits painted as well. Hopefully I will get the other cockpits together and painted shortly. Two have the dreaded vacform canopies, though hopefully my success with the Sack As-6 will give me enough momentum to deal with those.

And that is how one of these projects comes together. Although I did spend some time pulling 262 books out of the downstairs library room, it’s not like I took a monk-like sabbatical to research all the possible variations. I identified an interest, sought out the kits in the stash, and got them moving into their construction cycles. Hopefully you’ll see the results before the end of the year.