The V-2 (A-4) was the world's first ballistic missile. Developed by EMW, it was fueled by liquid oxygen and hydrazine. While it had a rather primative guidance system, it was able to hit somewhere within a fair sized city or town. The main recipients of V-2 attacks were London and Antwerp, though other cities were targeted. The V-2 was able to carry both chemical and radiological warheads, though Hitler forbade the use of either of those in fear that the same would be used against Germany.

In the last year of WWII, over 3,000 missiles were launched, though not all of them were successful. While these attacks killed thousands on the receiving end, even more slave laborers died building them. Post war, the US was able to obtain over 80 complete missiles and used them in a variety of test programs in the late 40s and early 1950s. The Soviets captured the manufacturing facilities and were able to build the even larger A-9, which the Soviets called the R-2.

A few decades back, Dragon had a 1/35 V-2 kit. This is not that same kit. The Dragon kit was more simplistic than this one. This one is not at all complex as kits go with four of the six construction steps dedicated to building up the launching stand. This is a bare bones kit that does not include the Meiler wagon nor the SS100 tug, though if you want to spend big money, Takom would be delighted to sell those to you.

As mentioned, there is little to the construction and following the well drawn instructions should have at least the stand ready to paint within a day or two depending on how much time you wish to spend in construction. There is a tiny etched fret that is used for latches on the cover of the warhead/electronics bay. Most of the time on this kit will be spent painting the missile. The instructions provide several painting options with some being fairly simply while others will require considerable masking to look right. One thing that could be improved are the painting diagrams as they only show one side of the missile so you'll have to use some other reference or take a guess at how it should look. All the paint references are to MiG paints, though they are fairly standard German Army shades. A small decal sheet provides stencils. 

Other than perhaps painting, this would make for a good weekend project or something to build that won't take a lot of time. It is, of course, not the only V-2 kit ever done as most scales have had one done before, but it is the newest and for that reason worth picking up if interested.

April 2025

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