Revell Horten Go-229

The third and final of the October whifs to cross the finish line is the one that actually got me started on this tangent, the Revell Horten Go-229. While it is a vast improvement in detail from the earlier PM Go-229, the Revell kit does suffer a bit from overcomplicated engineering. It admittedly provides some really very interesting internal detail, but the number of small parts is startling given the size of the kit. When I began building the kit, I had intended to put it in Luftwaffe markings, but managed to make some ham-fisted mistakes in both the cockpit and especially in the nose wheel well area, which had me considering whether to can the model altogether. But rather than do that, I retreated to the backup position of a what if model in some other, non-authentic markings.

USAAC markings seemed likely, given that they were evaluating a number of German late-war fighters after the fighting stopped. In fact, they brought home a Go-229, though it was in pieces and was never put back into flying condition. So this model postulates that it received the usual Olive Drab and Neutral Grey camo, US markings, and the “Watson’s Whizzers” badge on its nose.

It isn’t up to Profoundly Average standards, but since I have a second chance at the kit (another copy of the boxing that I didn’t realize I even had until I went Stash-diving), the work still results in another completed model and a conversation piece.

This is completed model #412 (#37 for the year), finished in October of 2012.

  

I forgot to set the photo up, but once I return from Vancouver this weekend I will also include a group photo of the three what-ifs: North American F1J1 Sea Mustang, Vought P-52 Corsair, and Horten Go-229. My son’s dog (a Bernese Mountain Dog, who looks like a mountain when compared to our pug and Frenchie) is doing an agility trial in a dog show on both weekend days.