Mistel Arado E 377a/He 162

Dragon Kit No.5002

Scale: 1:72 Golden Wings Series

Mistel 5 He 162A-2 w/ARADO E-377a

Review and Photos by: Anthony Manzoli

The Heinkel He 162A-2 Volksjager, code named "Salamander", was a German air defense jet fighter that entered service with the Luftwaffe in 1945. There were many improved versions of the He 162 either in planning stages or actual development stages when the war ended. One of these projects was the Mistel 5, a combination of the He 162A-2 and the Arado's E-377a non piloted flying bomb. The Plan was to mount a pair of BMW003A turbojet engines on the E-377a flying bomb which in turn would be mounted underneath the He 162A-2. The E-377a would serve as the child bomb aircraft while the He 162A-2 the mother aircraft. The He 162A-2 would carry the E-377a to a specified target and release the flying bomb.

Dragon has done a nice job reproducing this kit. The kit features 83 flash free light grey styrene parts in all, it also includes10 photo etched pieces and 4 tinted plastic pieces. The kit can be constructed together with the He 162A-2 mounted atop of the the ARADO E-377a which sits on a 5 wheeled tow cart. If you wish, you may build the He 162A-2 with it's landing gear down. The kit comes with two instruction sheets, and there are a total of 23 stages. The colours that will be need for the kit are (white, black, red, yellow, silver, flat black, field gray, red brown, RLM 71 Dark green, RLM 02 gray, burnt iron, khaki green, olive drab, dark green, and light blue.)

I chose to start construction of the ARADO E-377 first. The construction is pretty straight forward, and so far there has been little use of filler. From the looks of the instruction sheet, the He 162 may be a bit trickier but will offer the average modeler little trouble. The He 162A-2 may be built with the engine compartment open to show off the nicely detailed BMW003E-1, which has a few pieces of photo etching to add to it. The kit will look quite nice when completed, and will be a great conversation kit. The following thumbnails are photos of the ARADO E-377 with steps No. 1 through 4 completed.

(Click on the thumbnails to view a larger image.)

The next six steps are for the dolly, take special care with the smaller parts, they are molded close to the sprue and can easily be broken. I actually ended up breaking the pull handle while trying to cut it from the sprue, but it was easy enough to scratch build one from steel wire. As you can see I have completed the dolly and the ARADO E-377, the final assembly of the kit will be of the He 162A-2 Volksjager. I should have most of it completed by the end of the weekend if time permits. Stay tuned for it.

(Click on the thumbnails to view a larger image.)

The He162A-2

Now that the construction of the He162A-2 is under way, the Mistel 5 is near completion. The kit offers some minor detailing but nothing significant. I tend to favor 1:48 kits because of the detailing involved. 1:72 tends to lose the details that only larger scales can provide. The kits photo etching adds a bit of detail to the Salamander, as well as the landing gear and bays. Unfortunately I have planned on building my Mistel 5 as one unit, so the landing gear will be in the up position and not included. Up to now the kit has required filler at the wing joints, the front and rear landing gear doors and the top and bottom of the fuselage seems.

(Click on the thumbnails to view a larger image.)

Paint and Finish

The directions call for RLM 76 Undersurface with RLM 83 and 81 upper fuselage and wings. I used Gunze acrylics which carry a large selection of Luftwaffe colors. I find the RLM 81 is a bit too green for Brown Violet, it is more like an olive drab. I did follow the directions and painted one wing and the engine cowlings RLM 81 though hardly distinguishable. After the paint had dried I used a sharp pencil to accent all of the panel lines. I carefully dipped the canopy in Shine Magic, if you have not yet tried this, I highly recommend doing it. The canopy will turn out so clear, it really sets off a nicely finished model. The cockpit is detailed enough to want to leave he canopy propped open. The final steps will be painting the wheels of the trailer, decaling and gluing everything together.

The kit offers decals for one plane, and after a coat of the Shine Magic I applied the decals and then followed with a second coating with the Shine Magic. The final step was to ad some small paint chips with silver pencil and spraying a matte coat of a mixture of Tamiya Flat base and the Shine Magic. The kit is now finished and looks pretty good completed. I am going to build the Mistel 2 in the next year in 1:48 scale though.

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