21st Century Toys 1/32 Me 262A-1a
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History
Loads have been written about this first operation jet fighter that
the Luftwaffe quickly pressed into service. Thankfully Adolf Hitler saw
his prized Blitz Bomber in this aircraft and held it back from the Luftwaffe's
much-needed air defense missions. Despite this operational setback for
the Luftwaffe, General Adolf Galland used his influence to acquire a handful
of Me 262s to attack the allied bombers, followed soon by a handful of
Fw 190D-9s to protect these Me 262s from the fury of the Mustangs and
Thunderbolts that began to prey on these jets while they were vulnerable
- whilst landing.
Much has been written about the consequences on the war had the Me 262
entered service as a fighter from the beginning. Despite its ferocity
at altitude, the aircraft was indeed vulnerable under a number of conditions
that would have eventually weeded these hunters from the skies.
Nevertheless, it was thanks to the Me 262 that we were able to save
another fighter program - the P-86 and FJ Fury. North American was having
problems making their straight-winged prototype perform to the governments
requirements until they were granted access to Messerschmitt's design
data for the Me 262. Armed with this new data, the wings were swept and
given the same spring-loaded leading edge slats of the Me 262. Thanks
to the Me 262, we were able to successfully counter another deadly jet
fighter - the MiG-15!
The Model
We recently reviewed the nicely done 1/32
Bf 109E from 21st Century Toys. While these aircraft and their larger
1/18 scale Extreme Details brothers are considered toys, these are about
as close to die-cast collectors items as you can get in styrene. As you'll
remember, the Bf 109E was nicely finished and even weathered. Its only
compromise was a diamond on the tail in place of the swastika to allow
the product to be sold in overseas markets (like Germany).
The 21st Century Toys' Me 262 is finished in an accurate color scheme
for the aircraft and (unlike the Bf 109E) has nothing on the tail for
markings. The aircraft features a removable pilot figure inside the side-opening
canopy, retractable landing gear, opening gun bays, and removable bombs.
Like the Bf 109E, the aircraft is also weathered.
As you can see in the photos, the aircraft is shipped with the wings
removed, but they snap nicely into place. The packaging of these products
is extremely well done, you'd be hard-pressed to find a damaged one on
the shelf.
One of the interesting trends in the hobby seems to be with refinishing
these aircraft to a given modeler's preferences. While this particular
paint scheme is rather bland, it can be easily repainted (or painted over
as the real aircraft were) and new markings added. With the availability
of numerous 1/32 Me 262 decal sheets, you have a wide variety of choices
to refinish this aircraft from one of Galland's aircraft, to one of the
many Schnellbombers (as the bombs on this one would indicate) to a captured
aircraft or even a Czech-produced post-war example. The decals and the
variety of options are limited to your imagination.
If you are looking for something different to work on and really want
to play with your painting and finishing skills, this is a project for
you. I'll be refinishing this one for the January issue for fun myself.
Is this something that will make it to an IPMS contest table? Absolutely
not (though I have seen a few at IPMS meetings) but it looks great on
the desk or on the shelf. Give one a try! You can find these at any Walmart
or other fine toy store.
My sincere thanks to 21st Century Toys for this review sample!
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