Me 410A-1
The Messerschmitt Me
410 was essentially an improved Me 210. Most of the issues that lead to
the cancellation of the Me 210 had already been worked out prior to it
being canceled but due to the scandal that occurred in official circles
as a result of the dismal failure of the original aircraft, it was
deemed necessary to change the designation to 410. Only nine months
elapsed between the cancellation of the 210 and the time that the first
410 rolled off the assembly line. By comparison with the original Me
210, the handling characteristics of the 410 were, if uninspiring,
perfectly acceptable. It possessed no serious vices and it was spin
proof. Most important its performance was an advance over that of the
Bf
110 which it was to replace. Within a few weeks of the V1 aircraft
completing initial handling trials the production line was turning out
A-1's and A-2's. The A-1 was a Schnellbomber
and the A-2 a Zerstorer. Both
versions were similar, both having a fixed forward armament of two
20-mm MG 151 cannon and two 13-mm MG 131 machine guns. For defensive
armament two 7.9-mm machine guns mounted in remotely controlled lateral
barbettes. The internal weapons bay could accommodate a single 2,205-lb
SC 1000 or SD 1000 bomb, two 1,102-lb, SC 500 bombs or up to eight
110-lb SC 50 bombs, although all loads over 1,102-lb, were considered
overloads.
The B series took the place of the A series in April 1944. Structurally
similar to the A series, differed in being powered by the DB 603G
engines with
higher power. The B-1 and B-2 were the Schnellbomber
and Zerstorer
respectively.
A variety of armament kits were tried to improve it's potency as an
anti-bomber weapon. While it initially was successful against bombers,
once the P-51 showed up in numbers, attrition eventually became too
great and by the end of 1944 the Me 410 was phased out with a total of
1,160 built. Remaining aircraft were converted to single seat fighters
and operated in the reconnaissance role.
The Kit
The box is fairly
large as one might expect but only a little over 1" deep. Both the top
and bottom are of corrugated cardboard. When opening the box here is
what you see.
Inside the box is partitioned and on
top of everything else one finds two color brochures featuring other
HPH kits, a zip lock bag of metal parts, another zip lock bag
containing the decals, three PE frets and a sheet with vinyl masks for
the clear parts. The CD has the instructions in pdf format. When those
items are removed besides the kit parts one finds...
A Belgium chocolate, this is included in all the HPH kits as I
understand, it was quite tasty ! As can be seen below everything is
well packed and wrapped in bubble wrap.
So going section by section lets see what hides beneath the bubble
wrap. The first one I opened contained the fuselage halves. As you can
see this it a large plane in 1/32.
The fuselage halves set flat on the table indicating no warpage. There
are some fairly heavy molding stubs to be removed, the worst of which
is under the nose. The area at the tail end is fairly thin next to the
fuselage and shouldn't be that hard to remove. There are some places
flashed over but the resin is paper thin in these areas and will remove
easily. A close up shows the lovely surface detail consisting of fine
recessed uniform panel lines and recessed rivet detail. The rivet
detail looks good for the scale and not over done as on many Trumpeter
kits .
The next two photos show some of the interior detail and the thinness
of the fuselage walls, thinner than some injection molded kits. I
didn't photograph it but there is also structure molded in the tail
wheel bay as well. The cut outs in the structure are for other pieces
added during assembly.
The bomb bay is molded closed but can be cut out and separate parts are
supplied for the open doors.
The next section contained the wing parts. Again these parts exhibited
no warping that I could detect. The pour stub along the leading edge
should be easy to remove by scoring along the leading edge of the wing
and snapping it off. Use caution and make certain your scribe line is
deep and uniform as I have heard that the resin HPH uses is a bit more
brittle than some others.
As with the fuselage the wing surface detail was quite nice and I found
it hard to get the lighting to show it off. Although the outer edges
look rough, this is outside the actual wing area and should smooth up
with a light pass with a sanding stick.
The bottom wing section is molded as one piece and is an impressively
sized casting. The ailerons, flaps and cooling flaps for the radiator
are all molded separately. The piece had the dihedral molded in but
sighting down each leading edge the outer wing sections showed no signs
of warping.
The surface detail is equally nice on this part. Some areas were
shinier than others add I can only guess that these sections of the
master were more highly polished that the others.
From here on we get to the pieces parts, each of the remaining sections
in the box contained one or more bubble wrapped zip lock bags full of
parts. In some cases I did not photograph all the parts in case of
duplicates. I also have not identified all of them as it would have
required my looking through the instructions to identify some of them
them. In some cases there were too many in a bag to get in one photo so
I did them in groups so I could get closer shots.
Lower wing engine cowlings.
Props, spinners and engine cowl fronts, one prop was off the mold block
but apparently it occurred at the point of origin as there was no extra
block in the box, it won't be an issue as there is enough shaft to
mount to the hub.
Landing gear struts and wheels, as you can see the tires are weighted
and the hubs are separate. The struts have a steel pin inside for
strength.
Engine cowlings, under wing tanks and under wing radiator housings.
Horizontal stabs and elevators, vertical tail and rudder.
Flaps, ailerons, bomb bay doors and some interior panels.
The next group consists of an internal fuselage tank, a jig for
drilling the prop shaft in the rear of the spinner and what I think is
an ammo canister that mounts in the bomb bay. the bottom part I didn't
identify.
Many of the smaller parts are attached to a thin film of resin which is
easy to remove but holds the parts secure until needed. Next up is the
upper cockpit decking, parts to close in the wheel wells, pilots seat
cushions and a number of other interior parts to numerous to mention.
Parts here include rear part of cockpit tub, radio rack, bomb bay
structural parts, shell ejector chutes, remote gun turret parts, wheel
hubs and tail wheel fork.
A lot of odds and ends here, some bomb bay parts, structural parts,
some of the struts are for the under wing tanks and some for the under
wing mortar tubes.
Pilot and gunners seats, a lot of cockpit related parts including
a life raft and joystick.
More cockpit tub parts, under engine radiators housings, flaps for the
engine radiator and landing gear doors.
More of the gun barbette parts, exhaust stacks, tail wheel, tail wheel
strut, gun breaches, sub instrument panels, gun charging bottle
and other parts.
Whew, that's a lotta parts, but wait, were not through yet ! Next up is
the clear parts. These are cast resin, thin and very clear with options
for open panels, also included are wing tip navigation lenses and an
armored piece for behind the wind screen.
While I didn't go over each part looking for defects I really didn't
see any pin holes, air bubbles or short shots in any of the major
parts.
If that weren't enough the kit also includes two PE frets one colored
from Eduard and one not. The Eduard set covers the cockpit with their
typical consoles, panels and radios and a few levers.
The second fret provides a whole host of things including intake and
outlet screens for the radiators and coolers, rudder pedals, some
structural parts and all sorts of actuators and levers, grab handles
and the back ends for the aerial mortars.
Also included is a set of HPH's microfiber laser cut seat belts. I
didn't take them out of the wrapper so it's not the best view of them,
they do look really nice in person but I suspect will be a real test of
patience to assemble.
And a small fret of buckles to go with the belts.
The decals provide marking for two aircraft, both 74/75 over 76, one
with mottles and the other with mottles and 02 squiggles . There is no
printers name on the sheet but they look to be from one of the top
houses. Everything is in register including the very small white border
around the W, the borders on the fuel markings as well as the white
border on the Swastika which is provide whole and not segmented as is
norm for European made kits. There is a goodly amount of stenciling
provided and even the smallest ones are readable. Wing walk areas are
provided in both white and red. The amount of excess clear film is
minimal, they appear opaque and the decals have semi gloss finish.
And lastly the kit comes with a set of vinyl masks for the clear parts.
A little hard to see but I think you get the idea.
The instructions as I mentioned earlier are supplied on a CD in pdf
format. The manual is 52 pages long including the cover page. So if you
desire a printed copy it's just a matter of printing them out. The
instructions include a parts map which is a photo of all the parts with
them numbered. There are very few drawings provided with nearly all of
the assembly steps illustrated with photos of the actual kit parts. The
only drawings are for assembly of the seat belts and harness, one
illustrating how the mortars and external tanks mount and one showing
the proper angle for the gear wheels. Throughout the manual there are
extensive notes concerning where to sand or thin things for better fit
and dimensions shown for critical fit items. A color list is
provided listing generic names and RLM numbers where applicable
and matching Gunze numbers. There are a few translation issues that
result in some strange sounding terms but nothing that can't be figured
out. While I don't think I would like to build while looking at it on a
computer it would have been difficult and expensive to do it in this
style in a fully printed format. Here are a couple of pages from the
manual to give you an idea what it looks like and some of the level of
detail.
After Market Goodies
No good reason to need any !
Conclusions
OK, this kit is not for wimps ! It's a large very complex model that
will require doing a lot of clean up of the many parts, some of them
quite delicate. It is also quite pricey when compared with many
injection molded kits in 1/32 scale of similar size, however, if you
look at it from a value stand point it really isn't that bad. Look at
what an after market cockpit set costs in 1/32. How many folks bought
the HK B-25 or the Hobby Boss P-61 and then spent more on after market
parts than the kit cost, making it a lot more expensive than this kit
which is pretty complete right out of the box and until someone does an
injection molded kit of it, it's the only game in town. You will also
get your moneys worth in entertainment time as this kit will be quite
the project, not something you can bang through in a short period of
time. Not recommend to anyone that hasn't already built a few all resin
kits and someone who feels that they are up to the challenge of a major
project. The kit provides the necessary materials to build a stunning
model of the Me 410.
Links to kit
build or reviews
Still looking !
References
"Warplanes or the Third Reich" by William Green
"Messerschmitt Me 210 / 410 in Action" by George Punka
In Detail Special No.1 Me 210/410 by Frantisek Koran, Martin Velek and
Jan Martinee
Back
to the Misc German page
Updated
8/12/14