Arma Hobby 1/72 Me-262A-1a

The Messerschmidt Me-262 Swallow was the first German jet fighter to see actual combat. It might have made a slightly bigger impact in the later stages of the WW2 European Air War if not for the stupidity of Adolf Hitler who envisioned it as a bomber rather than a bomber interceptor. Despite its advanced technology, the Me-262 was only available in small numbers as there were only a few qualified jet pilots who could handle it and the teething headaches caused by new technology like their Jumo turbojet engines which only had an operational lifespan of a few hours.

It was a twin engine, short ranged, single seat jet armed with four short ranged, but rapid fire 30mm cannons where each individual shell had enough explosive power that a single hit could take down a P-51 Mustang and three or four hits could shatter a B-24 or B-17.

After the war, these were among the technological prizes the Allies raced to gather as well as the engineers and scientists who worked on various Nazi technological projects.

The Arma kit has a model parts layout roughly similar to the Tamiya 1/48 Me-262, but includes the leading edge flaps that Tamiya omitted in their otherwise excellent kit which RM did in their earlier 1/48 scale kit. One thing they’ve done in comparison to their older 1/72 kits is eliminate a lot or all of the photo etch. I’m not sure if it was done as a cost reduction measure or complaints from myopic modelers not used to building 1/72 scale. Instead they have used 3D printed parts to replace details lost in the injection molding process. In this case, the main detail improvement is the 3D printed cockpit tub.

The plastic parts are typical Arma’s hi quality plastic with fine details. Includes two sprues of grey plastic and a clear sprue. The kit decal sheet covers two schemes from the WW2 Luftwaffe and one Czech Scheme for an Avia S-92 which is the Czech made version of the Me-262. The kit comes with Tamiya Tape style masks.

I started with painting and decaling the 3d printed cockpit after I removed it from the printer sprue plus various plastic parts. It was mostly painted Tamiya XF-63 German Grey with the seat belts painted tan and the buckles silver. I also dry brushed certain details as well as for wear (all silver.) I then added the rest of the cockpit tub parts. The exterior of the tub was painted Vallejo Metal Color Aluminum along with the interior of the fuselage halves. Certain areas were brush painted with Xtracrylix RLM02 as per instructions. Next I added some small painted detail parts to the fuselage.

The nose landing gear (with 3 ball bearing weights) was quickly assembled and painted Xtracrlyix RLM02. The fit of the nose didn’t fit as well as it could. I’m not sure what I did wrong as I cleaned all the parts for sprue nubs and excess paint.

Next up, I assembled the wing and landing gear well box. It’s all good following instructions, but I did have some noticeable gaps in the areas where the wing slats are supposed to go. The painted parts of the engine pods were glued together (using CA glue) and the each was glued to the wing section. I noticed that there was a thin gap where the top of the engine pods meet the wing (both sides.)

I then glued the fuselage together using Tamiya extra thin cement, jammed the nose on and then added the whole thing to the wing.

I then used CA glue and Tamiya’s answer to Mr Surfacer to fill in all the gaps (leading edge of wings, the top of the engine pods, the join of the nose to the rest of the fuselage.) When cured/dry I sand those areas smooth and rescribed the lost detail.

I stuffed the cockpit with cut to size packing sponge and taped up various openings in preparation for painting.

The model and various parts (landing gear, wheels, masked canopy bits, slats, antenna) were primed with Kaleido Acrylic Primer. Once dry, the few rough areas were lightly sanded using fine grades of sandpaper and wiped clean using damp J-cloths.

I first sprayed on Vallejo Metal Color Aluminum on the underside. When that dried, I masked off certain areas and sprayed them with RLM02. After that I sprayed on various Xtracrylix Luftwaffe colors. First it was RLM76 on the underside and sides then it was RLM 81 and 82 using low tack tape masks. I’ll admit that I screwed up the sides and to replicate the wave pattern, I masked off the topside using stiff blue painter’s tape (it’s easy to cut into shape) and sprayed on RLM76 on both sides.

I changed airbrushes to my finer Iwate Revolution and sprayed on RLM82 and RLM81 in thin waves to get the mottling down. It didn’t take as long as 1/48 plane (20 minutes) and I got it mostly correct the first time (a rarity.)

The slats were more of a headache to get the wavy pattern down. I ended up having to use a combination of masks/spraying and brush painting to get the colors the way I wanted.

The Arma decals went on for the most part. Doesn’t matter what scale, but I always seem to have a problem with those damn Luftwaffe wing warning markings. At least no one’s going to notice. The color band decal had a little gap on top which I fixed by painting the gap RLM23. For the most part I used MicroSet and Mr Mark Softner.

I weathered the model using dark Flory weathering mix (clay) and the landing gear doors were weathered using Tamiya Brown Panel Line Accent. The excess was removed using damp Q Tips. The final coat was Vallejo Flat.

I added the landing gear and doors. I used CA glue to hold the landing gear doors in place. The canopy parts were added. I noticed that there was a slight gap between the windscreen piece and the fuselage. I used Vallejo Plastic Putty to fill the gap (excess removed with damp Q-Tips) and resprayed the area with RLM81.

The rocket rails I added. I ended up having to brush paint the rockets. Removed the molded on wingtip lights and used the clear parts. The Me262 wingtip lights are clear with a colored bulb in the middle which was represented with a dab of paint (green and red.)

Finally I glued on the painted pitot tube. The canopy masks were removed (in closed position) and I finally had my 1/72 Me262.

The Arma kit Is a pretty good representation of the Me262 with the dropped forward slats a really nice touch (a glaring error that the otherwise excellent Tamiya kit has.) It does require some modeling skill (sanding and filling) but not a show stopper by any means. The 3D printed cockpit has enough detail to make it almost look like a 1/48 scale kit, but minus the eye strain caused by tiny PE which was the bane of my existence with the earlier Arma kits. My eyesight definitely approves of the 3d Printed parts over PE.

It’s a fun little kit that makes for nice build for all levels of modeler. The only thing that might cause some trouble is doing the Luftwaffe mottling.

Dan Lee

9 September 2025

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