"Some Lindberg Luftwaffe Lunacy in 1/72" Topic

I just finished up three new additions to my WW2 airwar collection, two in the "Too Cool" category and one in the "What Were They Thinking" slot. link

The 1/72 Lindberg aircraft were awesome when first released-- unusual subjects, and they only cost 39 cents each. I ended up with 3 of the Me163s, a FW190 and the late mark Spitfire.

khanscom,
At one point or another I had most of the classic kits, Lindberg, Monogram, Revell, Aurora, etc. Being a child of the 1960's I either shot them to bits with BB guns or blew them to smithereens with firecrackers. I have rediscovered the fun of building these old kits (even if the ancient decals are thick and fragile!). From a wargaming standpoint the simplicity makes them quick to get onto the table and sturdy as well.

Always loved the look of the HE-162 and you have captured it very nicely!

While Too Cool in the looks department it could also fall into the What Were They Thinking department. Limited flight time of 30 minutes. Periodic flame outs and structural failures led to pilot loss. Speaking of pilot lose at least one, if not more, pilots were killed when they attempt to eject only to have the canopy fail to separate. Test pilots found it interesting to fly but on at least one occasion an RAF test pilot was killed when rudder and fin failed during a flight.

Definitely NOT lunacy to produce a model of such a lovely looking jet.

Flameouts were common with early jet engines, and even occurred regularly in some produced decades later.

Slaves were used to produce the components, and to assemble them, and sabotage by at least some of them was in play.

Also, the wood glue factory was bombed and destroyed earlier in the war, and the replacement formulation produced after that does not seem to have been up to snuff.

Given it's quick speed, decent firepower with the twin cannons, low cost to produce, minimum of strategic metals used in construction, and speed of production on the assembly lines, it made great sense at the time.

Luckily for the allies, they were unreliable, and the pool of pilots to use it was very subpar, with 10 – 20 hours or less of flight time at this stage of the war.

If more time for development had been available, and if decent pilots had been provided, it would have been a real threat to both the USAAC and the RAF.

And it would be a great space fighter. You could see it turning and burning against the X-Wings …

I built all of these as a teen! I did not paint them to your standard (or even at all!), but I thought these were all neat aircraft, even if their combat effectiveness was slight. Those were the days . . .

Thanks for sharing!

Great kits and I remember well building an Me-163 as a teen and thinking, "who the devil would actually fly one of these"?

Marc33594, Oh, I wholeheartedly agree, it is a matter of unusual good fortune that the Nazis were so blindingly inept that even simple ideas had to fight their way through the corridors of corruption and patronage. The HE-162 was victim of that foolishness, being rushed from design tender to completion in less than 90 days. What WERE they thinking?

If the Nazis were able to mobilize the way that the USA did the outcome may well have gone the other way. In Germany you had to seek permission to design a potentially war-winning aircraft, in the U.S. they just said "Show me your best fighter/bomber/attack plane, we will buy a bunch!" Yes they bought some real dogs (B-18 Bolo or Brewster Buffalo anyone?) but the full reign of creative energy was exploited instead of being constrained and obstructed.

Regardless I have thoroughly enjoyed you sharing your latest projects with us. I remember some of these kits from my long ago youth and your ability to turn the proverbial sow's ear into a silk purse is always inspiring. My own modeling, outside of war game items, is confined to 1/35 scale armor as being more forgiving of my blunt approach. My long ago project to model Russian WW II fighters in 1/72 having fallen to my inability to produce results even half as good as yours. I am especially taken with this batch with your HE-100, very nicely done sir.

Marc33594,
Thanks for your kind words. There are better kits out there but I find that the old Lindberg stuff is easy to build and tough as nails, which is important from a wargaming point of view.