¹⁄48

Fw 190 D-12/V-1 Mistel

About the original

According to technical references and drawings, the germans wanted to use the Focke Wulf Fw 190 as a transport aircraft for a Fieseler Fi 103 (V-1) flying bomb in a Mistel configuration.

The conversion kit was obviously based on an undated drawing. However, it is likely that the document was made in the later half of 1944.

The conversion kit

The conversion kit was manufactured by the small Argentinian company Antares.

The kit is composed of 38 white metal parts for the launching trolley, a small photoetched fret with the supports for the airplane and a complete V-1 in resin. The instructions are limited but this is not a problem for a modeller with some experience.

The model

To make the model look even more "exotic", I chose not to use a Fw 190 A-8 (or F) as advised in the instructions, but a Fw 190 D-12 "Torpedobomber" from Dragon instead.

The trolley of Antares was originally completely made of white metal parts. However, most of them were unusable because they were too strongly bent and exhibited a lot of molding lines. Thus I decided to replace them with Evergreen profiles. I did the same with the V-1 which was replaced by the Tamiya version. The latter one is better detailed and also includes a set of decals. Besides, everyone knows how difficult it is to build full resin kits, so sometimes taking the easier way is better. Unfortunately I lost most of my build pictures so I have only one work in progress photo to show to you.

After I found a picture of a launching trolley of the Arado 234 in a magazine and noticed it was fitted with brake hoses and a parachute, I decided to add these to my model. They were made from wire and leftover parts from the spare box. Since a Mistel made from a Fw 190 D-12 and a V-1 would have had a takeoff weight of nearly 7 tons, I added a pair of rockets from a Me 262 kit. The original solid-propellant booster rockets were manufactured by the Rheinmetall Borsig company and carried the name RI 502. Originally they were manufactured for the large troop transport glider Gotha Go 242. Filled with Diglycol, the rocket burned about six seconds long with a middle thrust of approx. 600 kg (1.300 lb.) and a maximum thrust of approx. 900 kg (2.000 lb.).

Camouflage painting

For the camouflage painting of the D-12, I used very nice pictures of late Doras I found in the JaPo books. The original planes of that time were built up in field workshops from individual parts delivered from different manufacturing plants. Because of a shortage of camouflage paints in the last months of the war, the airframes no longer carried complex layers of lacquers but only limited coats of paint. Sometimes, parts from cannibalized aircraft were used as well. Since every manufacturer had his own finishing standards, the final result were often an interesting patchwork of multicolored parts. Most of the time, the fuselage and wings of discarded Fw 190 A-8s were used to build Doras, since they shared identical sub-assemblies. The vertical stabilizer is a so-called "unit tail" used on late Fw 190s and Ta 152s.

Hangar and equipment

The 1:48 scale hangar, which was made from scratch, and the interior equipment are models of a friend without whom the pictures would look only half as good. Thanks Dirk!