Just finished this one, destined for a WWII aviation museum in Norfolk. The kit is 1/72 by Airfix, with Eduard etch. Depicts a captured aircraft of course!
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To be picky, a B-1a/U1; the fifteen B-1a conversions were trainers, with some converted into the B-1a/U1 night-fighter variant. It appears that White 306/Red 8 and Red 12 were the two B-1a/U1 aircraft received by Kommando Welter, which operated the 262 day fighter, but the unit did not have the technicians to support the radar equipment, so they were never used as night fighters. The unit commander, Oberleutnant Kurt Welter, took his unit to the airfield at Leck and surrendered it intact to the British, which is how Red 12 came into British hands. It was supposedly damaged in a landing accident, leading to the mismatched front of the starboard engine nacelle.
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Thanks for the information, Sean. I’ve updated the title to be more specific.
That information will be helpful for the museum that I built this for, adding some provenance to the history of the aircraft represented by the model!
Much appreciated.
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srmalloy is dead on. I did an Airfix 1/72 as Wr. Num. 110639, the last surviving Me-262B-1a produced by Messerschmitt and as modified by Blohm and Voss. It is a true two seat trainer. This plane was seized by Watson’s Whizzers during Operation Lusty at Lechfeld.
It spent many years at Willow Grove. It arrived at Willow Grove NAS in 1946, located just out side of Philly. During those years it was part of an outdoor display which took its toll.
The plane was returned and a full restoration was done. The plane then became the prototype for the 5 Me-262s made for the Me-262 Project.
It now lives at the National Naval Aviation Museum located at NAS Pensacola, FL.
Mine is not as high a quality as your is, very nice job.
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Just as a side note, the five replicas the Me-262 Project built were so accurate to the original design that Messerschmitt AG issued each of them an official Werk-Nummer in the 262 production series, making them in effect genuine Me 262 aircraft.
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Pensacola is about an 8 hour drive for me so I hope to make a weekend available to take the trip.
When it was at Willow Grove we had base access (dad had 100% disability from the war) and during the summer mom and I would spend just about every day at the O club pool. The display was right across the base road from the pool. This was when I was oh about 6 to 12 years old. I could go right up to all the planes in the display. There was a period of time when one of the cockpit panes was broken out and I was small enough to climb thru and get into the rear seat. To be truthful I have no idea how many P-51s I shot down with an overstimulated imagination.
When you go set aside time to visit John’s Models in Cantonment.