, so I had to do some major changes.
Towards the end of WWII, the Luftwaffe had a mind-boggling quantity and variety of aircraft projects on the drawing boards. Among them, were the Me262 high-speed and interceptor models, some of which were actually built and tested.
The Me262 HGIII Nightfighter was a paper project, and represents the culmination of the Me262 family line.
1/48 scale models of these are only available as resin conversion kits. I decided to build this model, using a Monogram fuselage and the Antares Models wings, engine and "V" tail configuration. See the Antares site for availability of these and many other excellent resin kits.
But the Antares kit is a single-seat fighter , so I had to do some major changes.
The Antares parts(click on the thumbnail: 
Stages of the fuselage assembly
I used a cockpit tub from a DML Me262B-1a/U1 nightfighter, plus added a "late-war "Berlin" radar nose (an Airwaves resin part).
To attach the gondolas, the kit wing roots have to be ground off (Antares photo)
I deviated from the Antares main landing gear layout, which had the struts retracting backwards, 
and went with the standard Me262 layout. This plane would have used Heinkel jet engines, which were more compact and would allow for this layout, while still yielding higher thrust.
I decided to include repositioned flight surfaces on the wings, so I cut out the flaps, and the leading-edge slats. The slats are automatically deployed at low speeds and are always out when the plane is on the ground, so this was important for an accurate replica.
It was tricky with a solid resin wing, but came out nice...
(click on the thumbnail photos for finished model display)
This is a nice addition to my collection, and a unique model: it may be the only one like it in the world!
Return to Steve's Me262 Scale Model Page
Last Updated Jan. 2, 2006 by Steve Brauning