[email protected] +++ 1:72 Me 410 B-4 night fighter, 5./NJG 1, Gelsenkirchen, early 1946

[Dizzyfugu]

Well, "my" Me 410 night fighter is certainly not the first one of its kind (IIRC TomZ had built one, too?), but a personal interpretation of the subject with as much late-WWII hardware on board as possible, for a purposeful look and feel. The basis of this build became the Italeri Me 410, mostly because it comes with "plugs" for the fuselage flanks where the original Me 410 carried its defensive gun barbettes – IMHO useless on a night fighter. The plugs are, however, rubbish, because they fit poorly and still have to be PSRed into the flanks so that they could be easily omitted anyway...

Another typical ingredient was a Quickboost FuG 240 thimble radome for the system's static dish antenna, originally intended for a Ju 88 G-6 night fighter but in this case mounted to the aircraft's nose and PSRed into shape, too. The radome's "flat" underside was also a plausible detail for an open field of fire for ventral guns in the former bomb bay – a conversion that had been done to many Me 410 heavy fighters with field modifications and cannon Rüstsätze.

The cockpit was insofar modified that the former gunner on the back seat now faced forward, and the workstation received some scratched devices like a radar screen and a tilted gun sight. The pilot received an IR sight, mounted through a hole that was drilled into the windscreen, and a separate bulletproof glass panel behind the windscreen. Since I did not want to open the already complex/fiddly three-part canopy I added two crew members.


1:72 Messerschmitt Me 410 B-4 'Hornisse' night fighter; 'G9+FN' of the 5./NJG 1; Gelsenkirchen (Ruhrgebiet/Germany), spring 1946 (What-if/modified Italeri kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Messerschmitt Me 410 B-4 'Hornisse' night fighter; 'G9+FN' of the 5./NJG 1; Gelsenkirchen (Ruhrgebiet/Germany), spring 1946 (What-if/modified Italeri kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Messerschmitt Me 410 B-4 'Hornisse' night fighter; 'G9+FN' of the 5./NJG 1; Gelsenkirchen (Ruhrgebiet/Germany), spring 1946 (What-if/modified Italeri kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The former machine gun barbettes were faired over, and instead two hollow steel needles were mounted behind the cockpit on sockets/bulges, plus a clear "sensor some" (all made from sprue material). Hollow steel needles were also used to simulate protruding gun barrels in the ventral cannon compartment and on the back. Under the wings a pair of OOB 300l drop tanks were added, a plausible payload, and to beef up the armament I scratched a Magirus-Bombe gun pod and mounted it on a central hardpoint from a Fw 190.
As an individual detail I lowered the aircraft's flaps, which was quite easy to do. The wing segments were simply cut out and semi-circular styrene profile used to create the hinges.


1:72 Messerschmitt Me 410 B-4 'Hornisse' night fighter; 'G9+FN' of the 5./NJG 1; Gelsenkirchen (Ruhrgebiet/Germany), spring 1946 (What-if/modified Italeri kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Messerschmitt Me 410 B-4 'Hornisse' night fighter; 'G9+FN' of the 5./NJG 1; Gelsenkirchen (Ruhrgebiet/Germany), spring 1946 (What-if/modified Italeri kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Messerschmitt Me 410 B-4 'Hornisse' night fighter; 'G9+FN' of the 5./NJG 1; Gelsenkirchen (Ruhrgebiet/Germany), spring 1946 (What-if/modified Italeri kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

To make the Me 410 night fighter look a bit more purposeful I furthermore used flame dampers on the exhaust stubs; these were taken from an Italeri Me 110 night fighter, and this worked better then expected. I just had to modify one of the exhaust pipes due to the different position of the carburettor intakes on the Me 410. Furthermore  I replaced the original three blade props with four blade alternatives (which had been tested on Me 410 V15 IIRC, but had not been adopted) from a FROG D.H. Hornet. Not a perfect match, because the spinners were slightly too big in diameter (could be trimmed down, though) and the props are handed, but that's only obvious at second glance.


1:72 Messerschmitt Me 410 B-4 'Hornisse' night fighter; 'G9+FN' of the 5./NJG 1; Gelsenkirchen (Ruhrgebiet/Germany), spring 1946 (What-if/modified Italeri kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

More to come soon...

[NARSES2]

You have my attention 

[PR19_Kit]

That's looking pretty darn good Thomas, a real 'spares box build'. 

[Dizzyfugu]

Thank you. It's amazing how much the longer nose changes the Me 410's overall look, as well as the 4 blade props. Appears like a Mosquito NF.30 night fighter on steroids. Odd, but cool and purposeful! 

[zenrat]

 

[George the Cat]

Very good. 

[comrade harps]

I know this will be cool.

  the radome.

[Dizzyfugu]

Some more pics from the painting stage. I kept the livery conservative, and wanted to keep the aircraft relatively light overall, like a typical German late war night fighter. Therefore, the machine initially received an overall coat with RLM 76 (Humbrol 247), only with a few blurry fields and speckles with RLM 75 (Humbrol 246) on the wings' upper surfaces and on the spine. Additionally, some mottling with mixed sahed of RLM 76 and 75 were added, primarily to the fuselage, engine and fin flanks. The cockpit interior became very dark grey (RAL 7021, I used Revell 09 Anthracite) while the landing gear and its respective wells were painted in RLM 02 (Tamiya XF-22).


1:72 Messerschmitt Me 410 B-4 'Hornisse' night fighter; 'G9+FN' of the 5./NJG 1; Gelsenkirchen (Ruhrgebiet/Germany), spring 1946 (What-if/modified Italeri kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

An unusual marking is a single black wing underside. This is/was not a camouflage measure but rather an identification marking for anti-aircraft artillery on the ground to avoid friendly fire. This was, just as in real life, done with water-soluble paint (acrylic tar black, Revell 06), so that the original light blue-grey paint would shine through here and there and the black paint would easily wear or flake off.
To achieve this effects and to blur the mottling the whole model received, after it had been painted, an overall treatment with fine wet sand paper. After a light black ink washing some post-panel-shading was done, too.


1:72 Messerschmitt Me 410 B-4 'Hornisse' night fighter; 'G9+FN' of the 5./NJG 1; Gelsenkirchen (Ruhrgebiet/Germany), spring 1946 (What-if/modified Italeri kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

After the two basic tones had been applied I dropped the plan to add even lighter blotches in RLM 77 (an almost white grey, today RAL 7035) to the flanks and upper surfaces - while a little "boring" I felt that the paint scheme just looked complete and right?

1:72 Messerschmitt Me 410 B-4 'Hornisse' night fighter; 'G9+FN' of the 5./NJG 1; Gelsenkirchen (Ruhrgebiet/Germany), spring 1946 (What-if/modified Italeri kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Decals/markings were puzzled together, but the tactical code G9+F(red)N is "authentic for an aircraft from the NJG 1's 5th squadron. I kept things minimal, too, just added a fictional unite emblem and kill markings under the cockpit.


1:72 Messerschmitt Me 410 B-4 'Hornisse' night fighter; 'G9+FN' of the 5./NJG 1; Gelsenkirchen (Ruhrgebiet/Germany), spring 1946 (What-if/modified Italeri kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

To set them a bit apart the drop tanks and the Magirus Bombe were painted in RLM 65. Hollow steel needles were used as gun barrels.


1:72 Messerschmitt Me 410 B-4 'Hornisse' night fighter; 'G9+FN' of the 5./NJG 1; Gelsenkirchen (Ruhrgebiet/Germany), spring 1946 (What-if/modified Italeri kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

And close to the finish line things look like this; the donor props and exhaust flame dampers really make a difference:


1:72 Messerschmitt Me 410 B-4 'Hornisse' night fighter; 'G9+FN' of the 5./NJG 1; Gelsenkirchen (Ruhrgebiet/Germany), spring 1946 (What-if/modified Italeri kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

[Gondor]

Very nice, Thomas. The 17 Squadron RAF emblem does not look out of place at all. 

[PR19_Kit]

That does look suitably brutal with that big radome Thomas. And the 4 blade props really do it too. 

[Dizzyfugu]

Very nice, Thomas. The 17 Squadron RAF emblem does not look out of place at all. 

Keen eye!  But that was my thought, too, looks pretty German...

[Dizzyfugu]

That does look suitably brutal with that big radome Thomas. And the 4 blade props really do it too. 

Yes, the long nose makes it look very un-Me 410-ish! However, 4-blade props had actually been tested during flight tests, but were not adopted in real life. Here they are intended to act as air brakes when the night fighter closes in on its target - but they look cool, nevertheless. Small mod with much effect. 

[NARSES2]

Looking very good 

[Gondor]

Would Mosquito four-bladed props work Thomas? They both rotate in the same direction.

[George the Cat]

Well done.