Revell 1/72 Flitzer

[MichelC]

I have most of the Revell Luft 46 kits and this one was next up.

The box:



Inside the box:



The detailing set:



An easy an fun build. Or so I thought.



That mess is a few hours into the build. I'd bought two kits (long story) and on the first evening I was already cannibalizing one of them for spare parts after botching up the pit consoles. Same for the 2 Airwaves photoetch detailing sets. There went my plan to build 2 kits in parallel.

The Revell pit is so small no undernourished pilot could fit in if his life depended on it. Things get worse, much worse when you try to fit in the PE. After busting both the Revell and the Airwaves consoles I turned my attention toward the front wheel bay in disgust. Which is when I discovered this:



At that point I was seriously considering to just scrap the whole thing.

But then I had a better idea. Close up the wheel bay doors and have my Flitzer in the clean configuration. Ha! That'll take care of that fit monstrosity! Plus I can cut off the back of the wheel bay that dovetails into the tub and make room for the pilot to stretch his legs! And cram in the details into the pit.

We shall prevail!

I even have an exciting little idea of how to pose the model in the all clean config. No, not in flight. And not crash-landed either. Let's see who'll guess what I have in mind...

M

[MichelC]

I started this build over a month ago and finally got back to it just the other day so here is the latest.

The pit opening had its unsightly sill removed.



The tub was detailed with bits from the Airwaves PE detailing set. I say bits because I had to hack and carve to make the stuff fit. No Eduard precision here, let me tell you!





Some detailing was added to the otherwise bare side walls with the salvage from the Airwaves fret.





Seat, IP and rudder pedals are OK. The later had to have new, thinner straps made from adhesive aluminum tape.



I'll get to shoot some paint onto all that this w/e (I hope!)

M

[CSMO]

1) If you are building it gear up, are you going to build a Mistel?  If yes, then 2) What are you going to build for the bottom half that goes BOOM?

Looking good, so far.

Adios, Larry

[Captain Canada]

Yes...looking good so far ! Glad you're keeping at 'er !

[Army of One]

I say......a halftrack type of vehicle.....a big one.......with some sort of ZELL launcher......and maybe RATO for the Flitzer......

[zenrat]

I say...submarine...

[dumaniac]

yes - nice start but your eyes and hands are in better operational order than mine

keep up the good work

[Dizzyfugu]

Thanks for posting this and mentioning the issues with the kit. I also have one or two of these in the stash, and (at least) two plans for converions. One will become (some day ) a ground attack variant with a different central pod, and the other one is supposed to become a turboprop version with a single T-tail that was actually under consideration.

Looking forward to what becomes of yours!

[MichelC]

Thank you all!

Army of One, a ZELL launcher it is!  Not a mobile one, though, as that would make the project over-ambitious. I thought of it but opted against as I do not wish to invest so much time in what was supposed to be a simple build. Instead I found a fixed launch system from another kit. All that's needed is to adapt it to the Flitzer.

I may add RATO's to the a/c but that depends on the fit. What I mean is that the fuselage of the bird is quite small and I'm not sure there'd be enough surface to attach the rockets. Perhaps under the wings. We'll see. In case no RATO's I can always justify it with the fact that the Flitzer had its own Walter rocket engine in addition to the turbojet. The same rocket engine as powered the Komet. In combination with the jet engine it must have had quite a kick!

M

[MichelC]

yes - nice start but your eyes and hands are in better operational order than mine

keep up the good work

Sorry to hear. What's wrong with your eyes and hands?

M

[MichelC]

Thanks for posting this and mentioning the issues with the kit. I also have one or two of these in the stash, and (at least) two plans for converions. One will become (some day ) a ground attack variant with a different central pod, and the other one is supposed to become a turboprop version with a single T-tail that was actually under consideration.

Looking forward to what becomes of yours!

You're welcome!

Never heard of the turboprop version. Where did you get this from?

M

[dumaniac]

Eyes and hands after 60 - are just not what they used to be.  Glasses with increasing level of magnification just do not help.  I have progressed from 72 scale to 48 scale which helps.  The cut-and-shut of Luft46 just happens on a different scale.

And the old hands are a bit shaky these days - painting details by hand results in many unintended schemes, even in a cockpit.  Folding photo etch just takes so much longer to get everything in it's correct place.

But it does not prevent me from admiring the lovely work of others in the following generation.

Keep up the great work.  Let me find my glasses to proof read this before I hit the send button

[Tophe]

I wish you success with this twin-boom kit!

[Dizzyfugu]

Thanks for posting this and mentioning the issues with the kit. I also have one or two of these in the stash, and (at least) two plans for converions. One will become (some day ) a ground attack variant with a different central pod, and the other one is supposed to become a turboprop version with a single T-tail that was actually under consideration.

Looking forward to what becomes of yours!

You're welcome!

Never heard of the turboprop version. Where did you get this from?

M

"Luftwaffe Secret Projects - Fighters 1939-1945", by Walter schick and Ingold Meyer. That's a very fundamental work that has been around for ages, and has been re-released in three separate book. There seemed to be two designs (p. 55 ff): one that looks much like a twin-boom Flitzer with a four-bladed prop, and there's an alternative with a single tail that reminds a bit of a PZL Iskra trainer. No project number or such, AFAIK.

[MichelC]

Thanks for posting this and mentioning the issues with the kit. I also have one or two of these in the stash, and (at least) two plans for converions. One will become (some day ) a ground attack variant with a different central pod, and the other one is supposed to become a turboprop version with a single T-tail that was actually under consideration.

Looking forward to what becomes of yours!

You're welcome!

Never heard of the turboprop version. Where did you get this from?

M

"Luftwaffe Secret Projects - Fighters 1939-1945", by Walter schick and Ingold Meyer. That's a very fundamental work that has been around for ages, and has been re-released in three separate book. There seemed to be two designs (p. 55 ff): one that looks much like a twin-boom Flitzer with a four-bladed prop, and there's an alternative with a single tail that reminds a bit of a PZL Iskra trainer. No project number or such, AFAIK.

Oh yeah, right. I usually check my books before starting on a build but it seems that in this case I forgot to go back to this major reference! Yep, turboproped Flitzer, right there on page 56. Thanks for reminding me, Dizzyfugu and wishing you the best for your own Flitzer projects. I'll mention any other pitfalls on the Revell kit if I do run into any.

M