1/72 Revell Horten Ho.229

Gallery Article by lisec on February 28 2014

 

 

Horten 229, a fighter/bomber, was designed to be a 3x1000 airplane, that is-to be able to go 1000 km/h; have a range of 1000 km and carry a 1000 kg load. Horten brothers were confident they would succeed to meet Goering demands, they designed a very unusual plane, a flying wing powered by jet engines. V1 was a testbed plane, made as a glider, V2 was given a Jumo 004 engine and tested while V3 got an engine upgrade in the Jumo 004C and was to be used as a muster plane for A-0 series. It was not completed and ended up as spoils of war in the U.S.

The plane was almost completely laminated wood over a steel tubular frame, made to reduce the costs and more importantly, to simplify the production. The engine covers were steel as was the panel behind the exhaust with air vents for cooling the plate. It was to carry 2 MK 103 cannons mounted in the wing roots. A thing of note was the reduced radar signature, due to the shape of the plane and the carbon powder mixed in the glue for the wooden parts. It was not effective as we now would expect, but it was later tested and the reduction in the signature would have seriously impacted England's air defense reaction time. 

 

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The model had several areas that needed addressing -the cockpit, the frame interior and wing, recreation of the engines and redesigning the exhaust. As a reference, original photos were used as were the the one from the Smithsonian museum.

A new instrument panel was made in the cockpit, wiring, side panels, seat was thinned, PE harnesses were added and PE foot controls. Interior of the plane was done with styrene tubing and strips, engine from spare plastic bits and ends, wing fuel cells were made from MagicSculp. Landing gear was also slightly altered. Guns got a medical needle barrels, pitot tubes were replaced (and are slightly bent as I saw on the photos, corrected now) and a new loop antennae.

Painted with GunzeSangyo paints (RLM 76,81,82) and original Revell decals used (not a good decision as they are thick and hard to work with). Weathering was done by postshading and washes. 

Of course, as this was a what-if of a sorts, some artistic freedom was used...

lisec

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Photos and text © by lisec