The design was particularly unusual. It had no wings, and all lift and thrust were provided by a rotor/propeller assembly 1/3 of the way down the side of the craft (roughly halfway between the cockpit and tailplane). When the plane was sitting on its tail in the vertical position, the rotors would have functioned similarly to a helicopter. When flying horizontally, they would function more like a giant propeller.

The three rotor blades were mounted on a ring assembly supported by bearings, allowing free rotation around the fuselage. At the end of each was a ramjet. To start the rotors spinning, simple rockets would have been used. As the speed increased, the flow of air would have been sufficient for the ramjets to work and the rockets would expire. The pitch of the blades could be varied with the effect of changing the speed and the lift produced. There was no reaction torque to cause a counter rotation of the fuselage, since the rotor blades were driven at their tips by the ramjets. Fuel was carried in the fuselage tanks, and was piped through the centre support ring and along the rotors to the jets.

A cruciform empennage at the rear of the fuselage comprised four tailplanes, fitted with moving ailerons that would also have functioned as combined rudders and elevators. The tailplane would have provided a means for the pilot to control a tendency of the fuselage to rotate in the same direction as the rotor, caused by the friction of the rotor ring, as well as controlling flight in pitch, roll and yaw.

A single large and sprung wheel in the extreme end of the fuselage provided the main undercarriage. Four small castoring wheels on extensible struts were placed at the end of each tailplane to steady the aircraft on the ground and allow it to be moved. The main and outrigger wheels were covered by streamlined clamshell doors when in flight.

When taking off, the rotors would be angled to give lift in a similar manner to a helicopter. Once the aircraft had attained sufficient altitude the pilot would tilt it over into level flight. The rotors continued spinning in level flight, maintaining 220 rpm at the aircraft's maximum forward speed.

Forward flight required a slight nose-up pitch to provide some upward lift as well as primarily forward thrust. Consequently, the four cannon in the forward fuselage would have been angled slightly downward in relation to the centerline of the fuselage.

To land, the craft had to slow its speed and pitch the fuselage until the craft was vertical. Power could then be reduced and it would descend until the landing gear rested on the ground. This would have been a tricky and probably dangerous maneuver, given that the pilot would be seated facing upward and the ground would be behind his head at this stage. Unlike some other tailsitter aircraft, the pilot's seat was fixed in the direction for forward flight. The spinning rotor would also obscure rear vision.

The aircraft was still in the planning stages and no prototype had been started.

Many years ago, Huma released this aircraft in 1/72 and it became a major seller for them. Since then there have been resin kits in 1/48 and recently a 1/35 offering from MiniArt.

Amusing Hobby seems to make its business model developing kits of prototype or paper project vehicles having started by doing armor. This is apparently their first 1/48 aircraft if one can go by the part number.

The kit is actually fairly straight forward and the design of it is such that one gets multiple identical sprues for the rotor bits and the tail bits. The fuselage is on its own sprue. The tan plastic is very nicely molded and free from flash and obvious molding defects. You get a well appointed cockpit that really only needs a seat harness. The nose section is separate from the wing assembly and the rear fuselage. It is provided with a windscreen and canopy, but is shown in the closed position.

With that built, the rotating wing housing is built and attached. This is followed by the rear fuselage assembly minus fins, but with the main gear installed.

There are three identical sprues for the each two piece wing/rotor and its five piece ramjet. These are then slotting into holes in the wing base assembly. There are four identical sprues for the four fins with auxiliary landing gear. These four smaller and the main gear have petal shaped doors. These can be modeled closed, but you are on your own when it comes to finding a display stand.

Instructions are well drawn but provide no color information. You can pretty well assume that the cockpit would be RLM 66 with perhaps RLM 02 landing gear struts. A fairly large decal sheet is included that provides a variety of insignia, unit badges, and numbers so you can make up your own. There is a large, fold out colors and markings sheet that offers some suggestions for splinter camouflage schemes. You can, of course, paint yours whatever way you might wish.

First thing I did was to do subassemblies as this kit has a lot of same sprues. In this case, I assembled the wings and tailplane pieces. While doing this, I noticed that pretty much every part needed clean-up that you wouldn't expect from someone like Tamiya. There are ejector pin marks of course, but some are not in the best places and many of them have little raised areas of flash that have to be sanded away to join parts. I also noticed that the sprue gates are fairly large and in some cases very large. Thick parts also suffered from mold dimples. This all points to treating this as a short run kit.

Anyway, the wings needed filler, especially on the leading edges. Building up the cockpit proved to be quite simple. There are separate rudder pedals that seem more at home in a 1/72 kit as they are quite small for the scale. While this was drying, I built up the rotating center section. It is important to remove the mold seam from part D20 if you want smooth operation. I also built up the main gear assembly minus the wheel. The kit instructions provide zero color information during the build, which is a down side.

This is a kit that one has to paint as one builds. When the cockpit was mostly built, I painted it RLM 66 using Tamiya's German Grey, which is pretty close. This will benefit from dry brushing when dry. I also rounded up a set of Eduart seat belts as the cockpit is fairly Spartan. I then assembled the rear section that includes a tube into which the single main gear fits. Each of the fins has its own small landing gear leg with a separate forked wheel assembly. These latter bits have very large sprue attachments so you'll be doing some sanding.

The center section is what holds the rotating wing. This is trapped between the forward and aft fuselage sections so one has to be fairly careful about applying cement. At the tip of each of the wings is the ramjet engine. This builds up fairly nicely and though it is a pseudo butt join, the area provided fits nicely on each wing tip. I left the forward section off as I wanted to paint these a different color.

COLORS & MARKINGS

The kit does provide a number of interesting color options and one that got my attention was the overall RLM 76 with RLM 75 mottles. For this I used Model Master enamels for the 76 and AK Interactive for the 75. These schemes are fun to paint. I did not mottle the wings as I figured they'd be spinning at such a speed that camouflage wouldn't be very effective. The scheme is not a ground scheme but one designed to make the aircraft a bit more difficult to see in the air. I left the wings off until the end of the build, but they just snap into place.

I painted the fronts of the ramjets with red before installing them and the rather loosely fitting bullets that go on the inside. I also painted the main leg doors complete with mottles but did not mottle the small outrigger doors. I then attached the outrigger wheels. The outrigger forks are very fragile and can be easily broken while spreading them to insert the wheels. The main gear doors require super glue to attach them. Once that was done, I gave the airframe a coat of Future in anticipation for the decals.

Aside from the aircraft number and the swastika, I used kit decals. These are a bit thick and fairly matte. The white crosses silvered and seemed to be fairly impervious to various setting solutions, including Solvaset. Once all was dry, the airframe was again clear coated, this time with Tamiya matte clear. A few additional pieces were added and some goofs touched up. Note that the leg for the main landing gear is too long. I cut mine short, put cement on the strut, placed it in the gear tube and then on a piece of glass where it slid down the tube to the surface and dried.  Then the masking was pulled from the clear bits and I was done.

It was generally a fun project. The kit is fairly well done and while it needs to be treated like a short run kit, the end result is quite pleasing. It is also something that you can paint as you wish. Probably the least likable thing about the kit are the decals. I like Luft '46 subjects from time to time and this is a nice one.

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