Developmental
Background
In January of 1944 the Technical Air
Armaments board (Technische Luftrüstung) issued a specification for a
definitive night fighter with a top speed of 559 mph and four hours of flight
time. For this particular day and age these requirements were extreme to say the
least. Dr. Richard Vogt was already developing the radically designed Bv-212
fighter/interceptor for the Emergency Fighter Program and immediately
looked to this design to meet the requirements of the new specification.
The Bv-215 was essentially an enlarged
Bv-212; it had slightly less wing sweep at 30 degrees compared to the 40-degree
sweep on the 212 and a slight 6-degree dihedral with anhedral wingtip control
surfaces. The 215 was designed around a tubular steel frame with a wet wing
containing nearly 7800 liters of fuel. The fuel was fed through a spiral
plumbing system wrapped around the engines intended to preheat the fuel before
being introduced to the combustion chamber. The single rear mounted Heinkel He S
011 axial flow turbojet engine seen on the 212 was replaced with a pair of
tandem mounted He S 011 engines fed through a nose intake. Warm air from the
engine compartment was circulated through the wings leading edges to act as a
deicing system.
The pressurized cockpit held a three-man
crew; a pilot, radar operator and navigator/radio man, and all three were
provided with ejection seats. Several different offensive weapons systems were
designed to fit in the nose such as combinations of Mk 108 and Mk 213 30mm
cannons or Mk 112 55mm cannons or internally stored R4M Rockets. Defensive
armament consisted of a FHL 151 remote controlled rear-facing turret armed with
either one or two MG 151/20 20mm cannons. Also housed internally were options
for several different radar systems. This aircraft could use the FuG 244, 280 or
350 Search Radar, a Ground-to-Air Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system as
well as a Ground/Air Radio homing device and a bad weather radio landing aid. A
review of all the proposed navigation and search electronics reads very similar
to what would be expected in a contemporary jet fighter.
In the end none of this made it off the
drawing board. At wars end only three prototypes of the single engine Bv-212
were under fabrication and the Bv-215 was still a dream for the Luftwaffe.
The Kit
Before we get into the model lets
take a look at Fliegerhorst and Eric Kappner. Fliegerhorst translates directly
as Air Base, which seems an appropriate name for this model company. Eric
Kappner is the driving force behind the model and the company. A pattern maker
by profession and an avid aircraft modeler Eric has the good fortune to be able
to combine his professional and leisure talents. Still somewhat new into the
model production game, the Bv-215 is just his second production piece.
Considering the skill and craftsmanship displayed on this model, I am looking
forward to seeing his third (Bv-155) and forth ((Bv-208.3). There is even more
good stuff to look forward to as the next planned release from Fliegerhorst
Models will be the De Havilland Comet Mk-1 with decals!
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This kit arrives in a light duty cardboard box of apparent recycled material
with a photocopied pen and ink drawing of a Bv-215 in a forest setting. The
contents inside the box are well packaged with parts being grouped in small
zip-lock bags and the entire contents layered with bubble wrap. Considering that
this has been manufactured and packaged in Germany, shipped to the East Coast of
the United States, uncrated then repacked for shipment to me here in Ohio I was
pleased to see that no part of the kit suffered damage from transit. Also
included in the box are a good quality printing of the instructions all in
German, and a flier from DMC
Models, the U.S. distributor of the kits.
The first bag of parts I looked into
contain all the flying control surfaces. Bags containing the landing gear and
gear doors, the flaps, the cockpit and canopy follow this. In the bottom of the
box rests the two solid cast fuselage sections and the single piece main wing.
The flaps include pieces for flaps up or flaps down and neither these nor the
pieces covering the flying control surfaces have any panel lines but are simply
smooth cast and allow full range of positioning. All of these pieces as well as
the main wing are cast with the leading edges up. The results of this is that we
have very nice trailing edges with no bubbles the leading edge has the remains
of the pore stubs and a small collection of bubbles that will have to be filled.
The main wing has good dihedral, no obvious warpage and very lightly engraved
panel lines but these seem to have been slightly obscured during the casting
process due to a heavy coating of mold release agent. All of the panel lines
will need to be rescribed and could be elaborated with a few additional lines. I
dont know what kind of mold release agent was used but even a good bath in
warm soapy water did little or nothing to remove it. Ultimately, I removed it
with a paper towel and small amounts of lighter fluid. Fortunately this is the
only piece that suffers from the monster mold release.
The fuselage of the aircraft comes as
a solid cast nose section with better engraved panel lines and no noticeable
release agent. This piece encompasses the cockpit tub, nose gear bay, two
detailed electronics bays and two of the three forward gun bays open and
detailed. This piece was cast nose down and the resin quality around the deeply
hollowed intake is excellent. This piece ends at the engine compartment with
half of the rear gear bays and a large alignment stud. The rear section piece
has a large area hollowed out which indicated to me there was a real attempt to
keep the model from being a tail sitter. Exhaust cones are molded in for the
S-011 engines and, like the wings, was cast with the tail down so the quality
level is very good around them. |
Click on
image below to see larger image
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These two large pieces mate with
very little work required and leaves a very fine seam. Unfortunately the front
surfaces of the landing gear bays trapped lots of air bubbles that really are
not visible until some primer hits them.
The landing gear are cast around
heavy 412 wire that should support the model without difficulty. The resin
struts and retraction arms display nice levels of detail but also have the worst
flash of any of the parts in the kit. Even at its worst this flash will
present little problem and cleans off easily. All three of the wheels managed to
collect air bubbles so some fill work is required here. The gear doors all look
good and have some descent interior detail.
The last bag holds am unusual item of
interest. Before we get to that, lets talk about the other pieces here for the
cockpit. The ejection seats are well done but have no seat belts. The radio
operators seat looks good and has no seatbelt detail either. This is probably
a good thing because with a kit like this youd probably want to add some
scratch built or PE belts anyway. The hooded dash and the radio bay are
adequately detailed and dont seem to have any bubble damage. Included in this
bag are two vacuform canopies featuring soft frame lines and mediocre clarity, a
coat of Future will probably help on that score. What so interesting in this bag
though is the master for the canopy. I see two possible uses for this piece; I
could use it to attempt to vacuform a better-defined canopy or use it as a
master for cutting paint masks or both. There are plenty of fine air bubbles in
the master but this shouldnt present any problems in using the part.
The main parts of the kit seem to fit
well together other than the parts for the flaps in the up position. It looks
like some shims may be needed for that option. All together the kit contains
forty-four parts cast in light tan or nearly white resin including the wire
reinforced struts, 2 vacuform canopies and a single canopy master for 47 total
pieces in the box.
Decals and
Instructions
The decals are easy in this kit
there are none. This leaves you with wide-open options to raid the spares box,
buy aftermarket Night Fighter sets and adapt them to the kit or paint your own.
The instructions begin with a full
page of information on the aircraft along with some general painting guidelines
but this is all in German only. Following this are three pages containing
exploded view assembly instructions. The instructions indicate the front
fuselage section as being of three pieces with a vacant bay for the top front
machine guns and an air inlet canal that travels through the entire front
section. I can only imagine that this may have caused the model to be a tail
sitter and casting it as a single piece may have resolved the issue thats
only a guess mind you. These exploded views cover all the basic pieces included
with the kit. There are no specific color codes or call-out for the interior
details. There are also no suggestions for potential aircraft markings.
Conclusions
A few things are lacking in the
interior detail department here. It is up to the modeler to scratch or scrounge
things like the control column, rudder pedals, small control levers and any
other details needed to complete the front office. The general fit of the parts
is good and other than the air bubble issue the parts are of good quality. The
lack of decals is nothing more than an inconvenience and maybe even a blessing
prompting the modeler to exert his or her creativity. A few recesses in the
interior pieces contained small bits of the molds making me wonder just how many
units can be produced before a mold reaches the end of its usefulness. With
nothing else to compare to, this may just look like another version of the
Bv-212 that has been on the market for a few years now but it definitely is
something different. The picture below shows the main wing and fuselage parts of
the Bv-215 next to an FM 1/48 Bv-212. Thats what I call a Big Brother.
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This is the only kit of this aircraft available in 1/48 scale and, while pricey
and requiring a good level of skill, will make an exceptional addition to any
collection. One final note, Mr. Kappner informs me that the mold release agent
issue on the wings has been resolved on future castings. Review kit compliments
of my pocket.
Matt
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