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Trumpeter 1/32 Me-262A-1a |
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Kit Number 32235 |
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Reviewed By Dave Morrissette, #33653 |
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MSRP: $69.95 One of my long awaited kits came out when Trumpeter released their 1/32 Me-262A-1a. This is the four-gun fighter version, and I already see the bomber version coming-judging by the parts breakdown more will follow. Let’s dive in… The kit comes with several options not seen on any other kit, any scale- first is positionable flaps and slats which are very well done and have no metal parts, just tabs. A complete interior is included; from the gun camera in the nose to the gyrocompass/radio set in the rear, it’s all there. Options include open or closed gun bay, and a separate hatch for the radio area. The kit comes with photo etch seats belts (two sets- two seater maybe?). Instrument panel is film sandwiched between a clear front and a styrene back and looks great. There is a choice of metal gear with both types of nose gear (narrow or wide tire) or you can elect to go old school with normal plastic parts. There are two complete Jumo 004 engines, lacking only wiring and plumbing. The forward gun bay is good, only missing one set of chutes but including stenciling decals for the electrical boxes. Other options include clear engine nacelles to show the detailed engines. All that said, this is a kit of firsts that have never been available on a kit without buying a lot of resin details sets. The engraving of the panel lines is excellent also. Bravo Trumpeter!! The acid test for me was the build and I am very happy to report that it fit very well. The attached pictures show the results and I am going to hit the highlights. Cockpit was easy and I added only foot straps to the rudder pedals. Throttles and levers are separate and look great. The gun bay is excellent. One detail missing is the shell feed chute for the upper two guns. This isn’t noticeable when built. When all the interior parts are built and ready, it is time to close up the fuselage and here I screwed up. I dry fitted the parts and they fit perfectly. When I put the halves together this time, I managed to spread one side when I put the radio rack in. This caused a slight mismatch of the fuselage and lots of extra work to fix it. I think the next time I will spend even more time getting all the interior parts aligned and this should be a no brainer. The engines and nacelles are next. The engine assemblies have 32 parts each and they need to be built as the kit uses them to space both ends of the engine inside the nacelle. I spent considerable time building these in hopes of finding a way to display them. I opted against the clear nacelles and in the end decided to close them up; I took a picture of the complete engine so people could see them. Thanks, Alclad, for making metallic easier (www.alclad2.com for their web site). Second problem - when I tried to close the nacelles, they do not close well around the completed engine. actually had to tear parts off to get the fit to be tight. All the different pumps, boxes and reservoirs can be left off if you aren’t going to show them. With the nacelles complete, I built the wings and attached them to the fuselage. Fit was good and would have been great if I hadn’t misaligned the fuselage halves. Both nacelles attached with minor use of filler and we were ready to paint. I chose a scheme not on the kit and went for White 8 in an overall gray scheme. Painting was done with Xtracolor Luftwaffe colors and I set the kit aside to dry and built the landing gear without incident. I had the HobbyDecal 1/32 Me262 stencils and used them to put the entire set of data on the plane. These were remarkable - easy to use, no silvering and the definition in the printing is exceptional. This was especially true of the wing walks (those pesky dotted red lines). I added decals from the kits. A little weathering and flat coat, and the kit was finished. I can’t say enough good about this kit - fit, finish and attention to detail were superb. If you like this plane, you need to get this kit. The price is VERY reasonable for all you get and whether you build OOB or are a detail freak, you can build a great kit. I also really recommend the stencil set from HobbyDecal - you can get them here in the states from Design and Marketing International (www.design-marketingintl.com). I would like to thank Mike Bass from Trumpeter for the review kit. This kit is probably the best Me-262 I any scale and is by far the most detailed. I am buying more. |
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