Me262 Schwalbe (Hans von Hammer “The Enemy Ace”)

The finished model:

In the comics:

The Enemy Ace… in WWII?!

Okay, I’ve long been a fan of Hans von Hammer, aka “The Hammer of Hell”, aka “The Enemy Ace”, but I’ll save some of those ramblings for my project featuring his iconic Fokker Dr. I tri-plane facing off against (arguably) his greatest foe, the Hangman and his Spad XIII.

Instead, suffice it to say that after stumbling across the two-issue limited series Enemy Ace: War in Heaven (2003), I just could not resist building a bright red Me 262. One look at the cover art by Christian Alamy and I was sold. The first issue features a bright red Messerschmitt Bf 109G and the second issue features the red Messerschmitt Me 262. Unfortunately the interior story art (see above) leaves a bit more to be desired in my opinion, so that was disappointing. But, even thought I found the story a bit contrived, I still enjoyed it. Just getting to see the Enemy Ace in action for the Luftwaffe during WWII was worth the price of admission.

The other factor that greatly influenced this build was my eagerness to join the Scalemates Schwalbe Group build 2021 – everybody was building Me262s and I wanted to get in on the action. I find Group Builds a lot of fun, and seeing what other people do with the same subject (or kit) inspires me to put a lot more effort into my builds than normal (not that it shows!). In fact, it was so much fun that I instantly reached back into my stash and pulled out another Me262 kit. It seemed like a good idea to kick off my Leijiverse 1/72 scale projects with the Black Knight of Berlin.

The kit(s):

Me262A-1/2 “Last Ace” by Academy

The build:

Honestly, I’m not entirely sure why I had this kit in my stash. Like most of the WWII-era kits I have, I bought them as part of my initial plan to build the Tintin-related Voir et Savoir project in 1/72 scale. So, having changed gears on that one to focus on 1/144 scale instead… this kit became somewhat of an orphan. Regardless though, I knew it was a good kit and a newer tool, so I’m just glad I found a home for it.

The build itself was relatively uneventful. The fit of the Academy kit is very smooth, so even though I used some putty on the wing and engine joints, it probably was a bit of overkill fuelled by my desire to make this build “perfect”. I paid close attention to the colour details for the interior (after all, the rest of the plane is basically just… red), and I noticed that the Academy kit instructions have a typo in them. After sorting out the issue, I basically just used Tamiya XF-63 German Gray for the interior and XF-22 RLM Gray for the wheel wells (with a mix of XF-16 Aluminium). Then I coated the entire plane in XF-22 to give it a rich, dark, base coat and added some XF-1 Flat Black for detailing along the panel lines. Several coats of XF-7 Flat Red and some Future to seal the deal and we were ready for panel line washes and decals.

There were two main issues with the build though. The first was that I seem to have been missing a piece right out the box. After an extensive search turned up nothing, I re-checked the sprue shot and discovered that the front, side landing gear door had been missing from the beginning. Unfortunate, but I was able to scratchbuild a passable substitute easily enough.

The second issue was with the paint. I’m not sure why, but the red paint was quite rough to the touch after spraying and drying. I used a micro-fibre cloth between coats to try and smooth it out, but it was more stubborn than usual. So much so that the coats of Future really struggled to get the decals to sit down flat. I had quite a lot of silvering, which was very visible against the mostly flat red. Another coat of Future seemed to help in the end, but it was probably the most frustrating part of the build. Regardless though, I was pleased with the deep red colouring… someone on Scalemates said it looked like Hellboy’s private jet fighter, and I agree!

I also had the chance to paint a small Luftwaffe pilot – he’s not the perfect stand-in for Hans von Hammer, but good enough for basically a first try at figure painting.

Anyway, I think it turned out all right, but feel free to lend me your comments below: