German Mistel Composite Aircraft

Airfix Mistel Ta154 and Fw190

Airfix Mistel Ta154 and Fw190

I’ve long had a fascination with German Mistel aircraft… the idea of using a war weary bomber as a weapons delivery platform is the sort-of inspired desperation we’ve come to expect from the last months of the German Reich.

I believe that they were used operationally only a few times in the destruction of bridges to halt the allied advance as well as Royal Navy capital targets ( Battleships, Cruisers, Aircraft carriers and the like).

There is also evidence they were used against the artificial harbour (Code named Mulberry) during D Day, which I also believe to have been less than successful!  Although, a headquarters ship (HMS Nith) was apparently damaged by the blast with loss of life and casualties.

Airfix have at least two Mistel kits; they are the FW190 and Ta154 Moskito and Do217 and Me 328. I’ve built the Fw190 and Ta154 kitset which uses the Pioneer Ta154 mould and the Airfix Fw190 mould.

Anyone who has built the Pioneer kit knows that the fit is indifferent and the details vague. Cockpit detail is two seats and that’s about all. I scratch built side consoles and an instrument panel just for my benefit because there will be little to see as the canopy is thick and distorted even when coated with future! (but I know they’re in there!) As well as the lack of detail, you must love to fill gaps as there are quite a few!

This is the second time I’ve built one of these so the construction went quite well. I used a lot of thin super glue and accelerant, the theory: is to flow the thin super glue into the gaps and set it fast then re-apply as necessary.(which worked reasonably well)

Airfix supplies the mounting brackets for the piggy back fighter and gives you the measurements to drill the holes. It must be said that Airfix’s measurements are right on the money and everything slots into place nicely.

I do recommend that you paint each one independently of the other then glue them together. I suggest the you glue the brackets to the Ta154 and tape the Fw190 in place while they dry and then carefully paint the Ta154. I say “carefully”, as the supports are delicate and wont take much mishandling – I know, I broke mine off several times even with me trying to be careful. In the end I drilled holes and inserted metal pins, which worked very very well.

Another caution is remember to add weight to the nose as it’ll be a tail dragger otherwise! Not a very good look when it’s a tricycle under carriage! (Remember to add weight to the Fw190 nose as well!). I found I needed to add weight in the Ta154 engine nacelles as well to get it all to balance correctly.

The Airfix Fw 190 is a little shy on detail but still a good kit when finished. I made a drop tank for the Fw190 out of the bomb that comes in the kit. I bought and built this for two very good reasons:

  1. I love the Ta 154 and Fw 190, and
  2. I wanted a cheap kit to practice and hone my skills on as I have a couple of 1/48 scale Mistels to build

I wanted to sort out some issues I might have with the build and it turns into a nice model with a little effort.

I didn’t write a detailed build review because this was purely an experiment to find and solve problems with this kind of kitset. But if you’d like a detailed review leave comments and I’ll see what I can do. I’ve put up some pictures in the a gallery marked Airfix Mistel if you’d like to see more.

Well that’s all for now fellow modelers

Cheers

NzFlyBoy

by

Avid WW2 aviation enthusiast and modeller. Been making model kits since age nine and I now model mostly ww2 model airplanes. (my wife is an understanding one!)

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