Special Hobby 1/72 Focke-Wulf Flitzer

The design began as Focke-Wulf Project VI which had a central fuselage and two booms carrying the rear control surfaces, having great similarity with the contemporary de Havilland Vampire. Project V had the air inlets still positioned on either side of the nose, just below the cockpit.

The estimated horizontal speed was not satisfactory and in the next development, Project VII, the jet intakes were situated in the wing roots. Further improvements over Project VI were a narrower fuselage and a changed pilot's canopy. In order to improve the rate of climb, a Walter HWK 109-509 hypergolic liquid-propellant rocket was built in to give supplementary thrust. A complete mockup was built and all construction and assembly plans were finished, but the aircraft was not accepted by the Reich Air Ministry (Reichsluftfahrtministerium, RLM)

This is one of Special Hobby's early ones and as such, it has all the hallmarks of the time. The single sprue has fairly faint engraved panel lines and all of the parts have flash that will have to be removed. A single photo etch fret that is suitable for all their early Luft '46 kits is included as is a single vacuformed canopy.

The p.e. consists of two sets of seat harnesses, a set of rudder pedals as well as various antennas. The cockpit has no sidewall detail and you are provided a flat floor and rear bulkhead onto which one fits a seat, a pair of generic side consoles and the rudder pedal bar onto which the p.e. pedals are fit. There is no control stick so obviously this is flown via mind control.

Attach the exhaust cone and the interior and then the fuselage halves can be closed. I can guarantee you'll need nose weight, though no amount is mentioned. With the fuselage together, the upper and lower wing halves are joined and butt fit to the fuselage. Same goes for the twin tail booms that have the horizontal stab attached between them. There are separate intake rectangles, but no ducting.

When it comes to landing gear, the parts provided are adequate for the job. There are no proper gear wells. One simply sticks the gear leg to the inside of the wing or the underside of the cockpit floor. The gear doors are also butt joins. You'll have to drill out the wheels to attach to the axles. There is a section of armor plate for behind the cockpit and you do use the antennas provided.

Instructions are little more than a single sheet of folded paper with six construction steps on one side. Color info is with RLM reference. The color options provided are one in unpainted metal and the other in a splinter pattern of RLM 81/82/84. The small decal sheet provides the markings shown on the box art. Of course, you don't have to paint it as recommended so use your imagination on this one.

The soft and somewhat crude detailing on this makes it something that is really only for a fairly experienced modeler. A lot of time will be spent cleaning up the parts and multiple test fitting will be needed. There is also the fact that this kit does not include the rocket housing. For that, you need the much easier to build, and much more difficult to find Revell kit. That being said, this is a kit that will, with the requisite effort, make into a nice representation of what is a quite small aircraft.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Flitzer

December 2018 

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