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Developmental
Background
The
story of the Bv-141 began in the late 1930s when the Luftwaffe was shopping for
a light ground attack aircraft to supplement the Junkers Ju-87 Stuka, which was
already in production. Focke Wulf proposed its Fw-189, while at Blohm &
Voss, designer Richard Vogt came up with what is certainly the most asymmetrical
airplane ever flown.
Although the firm is best known for
building Germany's World War II flying boats and was well established as a
manufacturer of sea going vessels, Blohm & Voss is most notorious for its
profoundly eccentric Bv-141. It was precisely this eccentricity that doomed an
otherwise operable and reportedly reliable airplane.
Blohm & Voss actually undertook
to build it at their own expense. It worked, but pilots refused to trust such
unorthodox lines and the British laughed at them. The airplane that emerged from
Vogt's drawings was remarkably aerodynamic, the fact of which he'd already
known. It was 39 feet 10 inches long, with a wingspan of 50 feet 8 inches and a
weight of 8600 pounds, putting it in almost exactly the same size and weight
class as the familiar Messerschmitt Bf-110. Powered by a BMW132 865 hp radial
engine, the Bv-141 had a respectable top speed of 248 mph and a ceiling of
29,530 feet, while its 700-mile range was almost twice that of the Fw-189.
The Bv-141 was a very unusual,
asymmetric aircraft. The configuration was adopted to give excellent all-round
view from a single-engine aircraft. An extensively glazed nacelle was fitted to
the left of a slender tail boom. The Bv-141A (with symmetrical tailplane) was an
excellent aircraft but the RLM rejected it as underpowered. The more powerful
Bv-141B (with asymmetrical tailplane) had some handling problems. Both types had
hydraulic problems.
Its first flight, on 25 February 1938, proved the Bv-141 to be more airworthy
than its detractors wanted to believe. Over the next two years three Bv-141A
prototypes and 10 Bv-141B production aircraft were completed, but the poor bird
never shook the stigma of its disfigured appearance and the Folke Wulf Fw-189A
was the winner of the contract.
The Kit
To the best of my knowledge this is
the only kit produced of this aircraft in 1/48 scale. This kit was released
briefly in 1999 and one of the most unusual features of the kit was the clear
gondola section. I’ve modeled the FW-189A in 1/48 before with a typical
arrangement of clear canopy pieces to complete the large greenhouse on that
craft so this looks to be an interesting alternative to that design.
Unfortunately the central seam runs right through two windowpanes and it will be
very difficult to conceal. The remaining hatches that are located along this
seam are separate pieces and present no problem. With an aircraft with this
caliber of a greenhouse I strongly recommend purchasing a set of Black Magic
masks.
Many modelers have complained in the
past about the accuracy of Black Magic masks, that they had to cut or trim some
individual masks to get a perfect fit. I have used many sets of these and yes, I
have had to trim a few, usually one in every set. Did you count the number of
windows on this model? I think trimming one mask is not a bad deal verses
masking each window individually with tape.
Okay, enough of that, let’s get
back to the kit. The kit includes 97 injection molded parts in a medium gray
plastic that appears to be of an adequate hardness along with 6 clear parts. The
parts have nicely engraved recessed panel lines and have a nice, smooth surface.
The sprue gates of a normal size and there is no flash to speak of. The clear
parts are clear and not too brittle. Also included is a set of photo-etched
parts for the instrument panels, seat belts, oleo hinges and engine cooling fan.
There is also a small acetate sheet for the instrument details. Like most kits
coming out of the Czech Republic this one has no locator pins and with some of
the larger parts alignment will require care.
The
decals provided with the kit are manufactured by Propag Team. The registry looks
good but I am a little worried about the color density. I am concerned that the
underlying camouflage pattern may show through the large crosses on the upper
wings. Registry markings are provided to do 5 of the 10 “B” models produced.
The
instruction booklet is very nice and is actually a booklet. It is 12 well
printed pages that includes a brief history of the aircraft in English and in
Czech (?).There is a nice color code chart and parts breakdown just inside the
cover, the individual construction steps are very well illustrated and the
camouflage and marking directions are very well done.
Conclusions
Without a doubt this is one of the
more unusual and, in some peoples opinion, one of the ugliest aircraft of the
Second World War. It is an excellent addition to any Luftwaffe collection. Due
to the large greenhouse and the skills that will be required to complete that
structure, I would not recommend this for a novice modeler but for those of some
experience. Not only do I recommend purchasing the Black Magic masks but have
considered getting a second set to mask the interior of the gondola with so that
it could be airbrush rather than painting the exterior RLM02 first and relying
on that to color the interior walls. Hmmm, something to think about.
Matt
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