As you can imagine, there is just oodles of information on this aircraft ....... Actually, I know pretty much nothing about it and that is true of just about everyone else. I can tell you that the center fuselage section has much in common with the P.194 ground attack aircraft as do the wings. I can also tell you that there is so little known about this design, that none of my references even mention it!!

What I can tell you is that, had it been built, it would have been an interesting aircraft indeed. Not many tail-wheeled jets were built (only the prototype 262s and some early Russian jets). The problems with FOD ingestion with the low mounted engine as well as setting the flying field alight being two of the biggest problems. Just how one would go about engine changes (the life expectancy of the average turbojet in 1945 was about 15-25 hours), would also have been a real challenge and one that would have had the ground crews cursing mightily. However, it is just a paper project and one doesn't really have to worry about things like that, or about 'proper' camo schemes or 'experts' telling you that something isn't right! That is what makes these kinds of kits so cool!

Pend Oreille has been building resin kits for, I'd say, at least 5 years. In that time, the quality of their kits has improved quite a bit. This last offering from them is probably one of the finest resin kits I have yet seen. There are several reasons for that. First of all this is the first resin kit I've seen that has alignment pins just like a Hasegawa or Tamiya kit. Not only that, but they seem to line things up properly! It also has very good interior detail for a kit of its size and has believable wheel well detail. And the wings actually have tabs on them that fit into slots in the fuselage. No more butt joins of these large and rather heavy parts.

As you can see from the image above, many of the parts are on wafers, this helps to eliminate the problem of air bubbles. In fact, I could find no air bubbles or little balls of resin or any other molding glitch at all on any of the parts. In addition, POM has molded the landing gear around wire to add to the strength of these parts and to ensure that in 5 years your kit won't be sagging near the ground as the resin gear slowly succumbs to gravity! To add to all this, there are separate control surfaces; ailerons and flaps on the wings and elevator/rudders on the tail units. Knowing our problems with messing up a resin canopy, two of them are provided.

As great as the kit is, so is the instruction sheet. The construction drawings are well drawn and leave no doubt as to what part goes where and how it is supposed to be aligned. There is also a full parts list, though no accompanying drawing, but not a problem. There is also no color information. Well, this is a Luft '46 kit, so you can really paint it any way you want. Most of us who do these kinds of kits have a pretty good idea that the interior is supposed to be RLM 66 and the wheel wells RLM 02 with 02 or 66 struts and black wheels. For the outside, just about anything goes. The kit also does not include decals. Again, not a problem as insignia are easy enough to find. When one reaches the resin model stage, it is expected that some things will have to come from the spares bin.

The entire kit comes well packaged in one of those boxes that you buy necklaces and things in. Complete with the soft padding and the small bits and canopies in their own little bag. 

Frankly, I'm pretty stoked about this kit. It is truly one of the finest resin aircraft kits I have seen and I'm really looking forward to building it.

Thanks to Pend Oreille for providing the review sample.

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