MPM's 1/48 Fieseler |  |
The Kit
While there are several kits of the V-1 in 1/48, I believe this is the first injection-molded example of the Fi 103. Like just about any kit of the V-1/Fi 103, this kit is very simple in construction, with a total of only 21 parts, including the injection-molded canopy. The parts are very well molded with no flash and very crisp surface detailing. Construction of the kit starts with the interior, so let's look there first.
For the cockpit you get a very basic setup consisting of a rear decking with a support, a rear bulkhead, an instrument panel, and a set of rudder pedals. The seat base is molded into the fuselage halves, and right in the center is a bump created by the locating peg and corresponding hole. This is something that you'll probably want to clean up, as the resulting shape won't look quite right. In fact, I'd recommend building up a floor insert to help cover the seam that will result from joining the fuselage halves.
Once the interior is done to your satisfaction, the rest of the kit is extremely easy. The fuselage halves go together, the front intake gets a blanking plate inside and is then fitted onto the jet pod, and the flying surfaces are attached. The wings are split into upper and lower halves, while the tailplanes are solid right and left pieces. There's a separate belly skid and a separate nose warhead 'button'. The one-piece clear canopy and the separate wing control surfaces round out the kit. One interesting glitch I noticed in the kit is that the locating holes for the wings are in different places on each side. Out of the box this would result in one wing being angled up higher than the other. Best bet would be to fill in the trailing edge holes and use a jig to align the wings and control surfaces.
For markings, the instructions outline three examples, all from 1944. They're all using late war upper surface colors of RLM 82 and RLM 83, while the lower surfaces are RLM 76 on two and RLM 65 on one. The decals provide stencilling only, as no national or unit markings were carried.
Conclusion
Need a quick build to get your creative juices flowing? Grab this kit. Even if you decide to redo the entire cockpit and superdetail this plane, you could still finish it in a couple weeks, tops. Out of the box and you're looking at a weekender, easily. The only downside to the kit is that once it is finished there's no way to display it without having a wing scrape on the shelf. Some research is in order to build up an accurate trolley to place it on, or perhaps a larger project with a Heinkel He 111 holding it under its wing.
