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der Spatzfalke! The operational Ho-229

Heavens Eagle

Well-known member
Continuing on with my German aircraft builds, here is the back story.

Shortly after the start of WWII during the air battles for Britain, Das Fuhrer suffered a fatal heart attack while throwing an apoplexic fit over the poor results. With Hermann Goering now leading Germany and the Nazi party, the attack on Britain was paused and Germany closed the borders of all it's occupied lands from the world for a period of 6 months. During this time, Britain and the allies relaxed slightly as it appeared that with the death of Hitler the war was basically over before it began.

Little did they know that during this time Germany and it's territories were going through a massive revision. The experience with the failures in the air over Britain made Goering come to the conclusion that better aircraft and a much larger prepared force was going to be needed to invade England. He also became aware that Stalin was only biding his time before attacking Germany. Aircraft development was pushed to the limits to create better aircraft and other armaments and weapons were improved and added as well.

One of the things that was learned was that the early warning systems in Britain were using the new radar technology. With this in mind newer aircraft technology was brought to the forefront and developments came through with lightning rapidity. Engine and airframe development proceeded such that jet aircraft and large bomber type aircraft were actually in production and in use by late 1942 and early 1943. The early problems with the He 177 having engine fires and problems were solved such that that bomber became a mainstay with larger planes to follow.

As a side note, in late 1941 a late typhoon in the pacific almost completely destroyed a Japanese carrier task force that appeared to be heading for Hawaii. The US was maintaining her neutrality and continued to maintain it's isolation. With fears of how the axis powers kept growing their areas of control it was mid 1943 before the US considered entering the war to Roosevelt's great consternation.

Back to the problem of England and it's early warning radar. It became clear that to overcome the amount of warning time needed for the British to successfully engage invading aircraft, something new was going to be needed. Enter the Horton brothers and their flying wing design. With jet engine development proceeding at a high rate, the Horton designs were being developed along with the other jet fighters and bombers and became operational by early 1944. With the use of the new Ho-229 it was now possible to get a jump on the British and with some of the other new aircraft the British lost control of the skies over their home island.

This was not to last as the US had overcome her isolationism and entered the war. It was only for a short time that Germany was able to hold on to Britain. They had destroyed Moscow and most of the western Soviet Union, but the tenacious Russians, now with the help of the United States, fought back and started pushing Germany back. Germany and Japan both were finally defeated mainly due to constant undermining and attacks in the occupied areas by freedom fighters and the long range of the US B-36 bomber groups. Surrender by all the Axis powers came about shortly after single planes started appearing above their major cities which were then obliterated by gigantic fireballs from a new weapon.

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Here is the place holder. This now makes 3 planes in the build loop.
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I have several Z-M kits and this one just seemed to fit the bill on this. I could have done the Japanese Shin Den or I have 3 Do-335 kits 1 Z-M and 2 HK kits, but just decided that this one needed to be built. I have seen it built with all the wood panels showing and even done where it has the wings separated as the Smithsonian one is still. I want to do it as it would have ended up with paint worn through to the wood surface and dings and dents.

Assembled it has a respectable wingspan and should be a nice display piece once done.
 
Just to let everyone know, it isn't forgotten, I am just enjoying the Bf-109 build which is going great right now. The box is setting right next to my computer as a constant reminder.
 
I had some things taking extra time with the Von Werra build so it was time to actually start on this. It is one of the more interesting aircraft and models that has been in my stash and I have been looking at the box every day since the decision was made to build it. It was a bit of a cringe to start one of these. (Not as bad as a WNW build will be) but I finally bit the bullet and cut plastic.

The first thing the instructions have you do is start on the engines. There are 130 parts in just the engines and the kit has something like 319 parts as listed on ZM's site. Of course I have most all of the AM parts to go with this so the build level is starting out on a higher level.

I am also not going to do much to open viewing for the interior parts other than maybe some open panels and maintenance being done.

So, here we go! First off the engine title page from the instructions gives a good breakdown on how the kit build looks.

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No, most of the engine paintwork will be references from the Paul Allen Me-262 restoration as they have some awesome photos online of these engines.

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Definitely a different kind of build. I am a little surprised at the things I am discovering with this kit. I am sure there was a ton of research done on it, but the little gaffs I am finding makes me wonder a little bit. I only address the items that pop up when doing research and when the photos show something noticeably different. The engines should never be an issue with errors as they were used in a number of aircraft and the reference photos were easy to find online.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed this first installment!

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OK, I have a little quick info post here. Right after posting the engine startup I was scanning down the ZM page and they have a resin upgrade to add the combustion chambers. I won't be getting this, but will be making a master to add the details seen through the holes I just added.

Here is what their resin add on looks like.

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This is most impressive and informative. I have a 1/72 scale Horten to do. I might start it as a concurrent build to yours.
 
Bob, I think ZM kind of had that in mind, but the complexity and fit internally doesn't quite work all that well. Too many tolerances that add up weird. I only built the engines with the front 4 sets of stators in order to give it a decent look down the nose.

Mike, thanks for looking in!

Mark, go for it! I have (had?) a resin 1/72 Ho229 in my stash for years. Won't ever build it. (isn't really that good if I remember correctly) Thanks for looking in!

Bruce, it is an interesting aircraft and it seems that overall ZM did a decent job on the kit. It is a first time building one of their kits. Definitely not a shake and bake kit, but seems decent overall. We will see. Thanks for looking and commenting!
 
Another quick update on this little beastie.

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I also took one of my super fine escapement files and thinned down the front stators a bit more. Once painted the front of the engine should be rather interesting if not impressive.

Thanks for looking in!
 
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