Mistel 4 Me-262 A1/A2/U2 Resin Conversion Kit 1/48

Facts on the

At the end of WWII the leaders in the RLM ordered more so called "Mistelgespanne" attacks against large targets like bridges and ships. For that task investigations on development and logistics of suitable airframes were made.
Besides a lot of other composite aircraft designes the Mistel 4, a composite of two Me 262, was investigated.

Table taken from:"Mistel - German Composite Aircraft and Operations 1942-1945"

The "Gespann"
The Mistel 4 is a composite aircraft, consisting of a explosives filled Me 262 and a so called "Führungsflugzeug" (guidance aircraft) Me 262 A1 or A2/U2 which was mounted on top. This composite aircraft didn't make it far more then to the design stage and never became operational.
The reason for its development might be the fact that all composite aircraft were quite vulnerable during the target approach run, because they weren't fast and manoeuvrable. Also the new jet engines made a compact design and a higher payload possible. As well as they were the reason why this project never made it . There were to less of this engines available at that time and they consisted of precious and needed materials, that couldn't be wasted.

The developement was almost completed by the end of the war and production could have started soon. The war situation and strategic reasons may have prevented its use.


Me 262 A2a/U2 - Me 262 A	Me 262 A1/A2 -Me 262 A

The flying bomb Me 262 A
The Mistel 4 consisted of two Me 262 mounted on top of each other. The lower Me 262 A was modified to a so called "Sprengstoffträger" (explosives carrier).
The complet front section, up to the wing frontedge, was designed as a warhead. So this was a seperate construction section at all, the warhead could have been built as a seperate section and fitted on. For example the whole section was planned to be made from explosives, without any wooden or aluminum fuselagecovering. More explosives, liquid and solid ones, should be placed in the aft fuselage.
The lower Me 262 should be older ones or especially designed ones made from no metal materials like wood. There have been tests to build the Me 262 fuselage particialy and in whole from wood to save precious aircraft aluminum.

Table from: "Mistel- German Composite Aircraft and Operations 1942-1945"

The Guidance Aircraft
For a guidance aircraft the Me 262 A1 as well as an A2 or the prototypes unter testing Me 262 U2, with glazed nose section, were considered. The Me 262 U2 existed only in two prototypes, with slightly differing glazings, by the end of the war. The front was designed to carry a bombardier who coordinated the drop of the wapon. It can be assumed that for weight reasons the A1 or A2 versions would have been preferred.
On the flight qualities of the composite can be speculated only. Special problems may have occured on the handling of four jet engines at a time. Because it is known that even two jet engines kept the pilot bussy during flight. Maybe this is the reason for the U2- version considerations?

The Me 262 A2/U2 V484 towed by a tanker. Watch the cover on the nose section.
(Picture by: "Mistel- German Composite Aircraft and Operations 1942-1945")

(Picture by: "Me 262", Aviatic Verlag)

View of the first "LOTFE-Bombers" Me 262 A2/U2,
Prod.-No. 110484 with two SC250. The LOTFE mounted in the V484

The second modified aircraft, Prod.-No. 110555 (V555) with Antennas.
(Picture by: "Me 262", Aviatic Verlag) The V555 shortly after lift off.
Watch the front section is clearly different in color.
(Picture by: "Me 262", Aviatic Verlag)

One of the last pictures of the V555
after a belly landing on 08.May 1945 US Personnel checking the aircraft after it was landed on airfield Weimar-Nohra by Oblt. Benz almost without damage.

The Trolley

The trolley with booster is most interesting. Here a Walther HWK109-501 rocket booster should have been used for. This made a reconstruction of the center structure necessary, to fix the "Starthilferegrät" (booster) to the trolley. Below the booster the break parachure box was placed. The rest of the trolley was similar to the Ar 234 and E377/E377a trolleys.
Because of the higher weight and the minor wing size the boosters were needed to speed up the Mistel during take off.

Walther HWK 109-501 with 30 sec. running time.
(Picture by: "Die deutschen Raketenflugzeuge 1935-45", Motorbuch Verlag) Scheme of the Walther HWK 109-501
(Picture by: "Die deutschen Raketenflugzeuge 1935-45", Motorbuch Verlag)

Colours and Insignia

The painting and squadron affiliation are pure fiction. It can be assumed that the guidance aircraft was painted in the colours of late war camouflage shemes. The bomb would have been covered, if at all, with an improvised camouflage. Maybe a light grey corrosion protection would have been sprayed over with a random green or brown camouflage pattern. It is also possible that it lacked any painting at all and was used in bare metal.

Mistel 4 - Me 262 A2a/U2 - Me 262

Picture from: "Mistel- German Composite Aircraft and Operations 1942-1945"

The kit consits of 52 parts:

Mainframe, Set of Wheels, Suspensions, Booster Support Parts	Main Axles, Angles and Plates, Handwheel

Schock Absorber, Support Struts, Booster Frame, Screw, 2 Styrene Plates, Parachute Box, Front Wheel Suspension	Cockpit Cover, Booster, Fuselage Nose, Brass Wire

Model made and photographed by
Thorsten Schrecke

This model is built from historic informations.
The markings meet the standards of its historic origin.
They do not reflect the political oppinion of the modelmaker in any way!


Sideview of the Mistel 4 in all of her pride.	Frontview. Good to be seen the supportstruts. By the way the upper plane is just put in place and not cemented. The tension of the struts hold it perfect.

Right view. This shows the camouflage pattern very well.	Left view from above. The cockpit hatches can be shown in open or closed position.

Sideview from the right side.	The bombardier figure comes with the Dragon kit. The pilot is from the Tamiya kit, but the Dragon kit also contains a nice pilot figure!

View of an besides standing observer, it seems.	The bombardiers compartment is well detailed, although it can't be seen much here. The bombardier figure is only put in place, not cemented!

The Tamiya pilot is more of the size of a Japanese than a German pilot, but he has an oxygen mask and can be placed on top of the belts without looking to tall.	The cockpit without a pilot. The belts are put in place and the pilot is placed on top of them, without guleing. This allowes to still change the diorama situation later on.

The warhead of the "Sprengstoffträger" Me 262A. The red "bellytie" is a marking of the connectingpoint and a warning sign too.	Backview with boosters HWK 109-501 and the parachutebox.

The frontwheel of the trolley. The shock absorber keeps the wheel from lurching at highspeed.	The parachutebox for the breakparachute. The ropes to the left and right hold the parachute when ejected.

The maingear with its shock absorbers and wing support strut.	Detailview of the parachutebox and booster. The wire goes below the box and is attached with thin ropes to the frame. The ropes are predetermined breaking points.

Detail of the booster and mainstruts. The parachutepack on the booster is still mounted but off duty during this operation.	Details that make a diorama. Handmade barb wire fence to keep out the sheep.

Model made and photographed by
Thorsten Schrecke


Complete view of the Mistel 4 model under construction. Both Me 262 are from Dragon /Italeri. The nosepart of the lower plane comes with the conversion kit, as well as the cockpit cover.	The composite without guidance aircraft. Clearly visible are the shapes of the struts.

Detail view of the tail support strut.	Frontview of the Mistel 4. Good to be seen the positions of the struts on the trolley as well as on the bomb plane.

The front wheel of the trolley in detail.	The lower support struts in detail.

Position of the wing support strut at the trolley.	Detail of the booster rest and parachute box.




The painted trolley with mounted booster HWK 109-501.	The lower side of the "Sprengstoffträger". Insignia would have been the only markings attached here ( besides some savety markings).

The Sprengstoffträger with all markings. The red ribbon is fictious and marks the mountingedge. It could have been a security marking. A warning of the high explosive load.	The Bombardiers compartment with antennas. These consist of 0,8mm wire. The tipcaps are a drop of superglue!

These pictures are helpful for building the kit, because they show the support strut positions and other details very well.

It can be done larger too!

I made this model in 1/18 scale too!
This time with the Me 262 A1 Version on top!

Details on making it can be found on the Making of -page, at the link behind the picture!
Just click on the picture!

48 Special Models feels complimented to be copied by a known injection mould manufacturer. Unfortunately not perfect. A more careful investigation would have been of some help. Because although the Me 262 Mistel only was a project, it still is subject to some fundamental, constructive requirements. Sure one or the other point may be worth a argumentation, but some points are pinned to well-founded reasons that make the design. By use of the photographs below and the numbering I will show up some of the main mistakes.


Point: 1. On the mount at the tail no data exsists. Truely it is a design of my own. Good noticed. 2. The struts are in the right place, but streamlined struts always were fixed ones. They couldn't fall over! The struts on the wing need to fall over, because they may damage the aircrafts engines while seperating. 3. The inner struts seem to come from the Ar234 Trolley and are much to wide spread to take any force. Also the mounting points, that are to be used here, are located more narrow to the fuselage on the main bar of the wing structure. 4. The rocket to be used here is not powerful enough. I is a HWK 109-500 with 500kp thrust for 30s. A bit less for a almost 19ton mass to lift (see above). 5. The R4 rockets are attached above and on estimated 5000kg of explosives and fuel. A mindblowing idea even at those days.	to 1. The mounting point is a design of my own, which results from its task. If it was used this way or another can't be said. But nice they where the same opinion than I was ;0)). to 2. Even on the Mistels in use all fall-over struts where simple tubes, with a hinge below and an explosive bolt on the top, which was remotely ignited during seperation. It was essential the strut fell over, so the guidance aircraft wasn't demaged while seperating. Streamlined tubes would have made this more complicated and needless too. These streamlined tubes where used sometimes on the main supports to cover the wires. to 3. The structural capacity of the Mistel was forced to the edge. All forces needed to be take the best way down to the trolley. So the supporting struts needed to be most upright. Here the Arado 234 trolley was copied, without thinking. to 4. The Walter rockets, which should have been used here, were of the Typ HWK 109-501 and developed 1500 kp of thrust for 30s. They are much larger than the HWK 109-500. The HWK 109-501 was the only booster available in that size at the time. More powerful boosters where under developement, but not available then. to 5. R4 boosters would offer in this case, but obiously have some fatal problems in this constellation. First they have to be ignited all together with the main engines on the spot. The TL-engines alone caused trouble to the pilot. To coordinate additional 5 boosters was impossible. Also the rockets tend to explode sometimes (see Bachem Natter). Imagine that happening to a Mistel 4. Also the attachment points on the lower fuselage are quite problematic.

Point: 6. External fueltanks were not necessary, because the lower Me 262 held enough fuel and additional weight couldn't be managed. 7. The front strut is a fall-over strut too and for that reason round. Also the hinges are much to massive. 8. The trolley is made from welded steel plates! It has a boxlike shape and no bolts at all! For the steps on the sidewalls there are no evidence at all, but they make sense, because the vertical plate can be welded on from both sides. 9. The hinges are to massive too. That the struts are fall-overs and round shaped was told before. 10. This support is a step, which only makes sense at the Ar 234 trolley. To get into the Ar 234 when it sits on the trolley the pilot used this step to reach the steps on the fuselage side of the aircraft.. 11. The wheels are standard tires, what can't be said of the ones used in this kit. The rims are fictitious and for nothing too.	to 6. The mounting points for the fueltanks have only been on the Bomber version of the Me 262. The U2 Version had had a different nose section and was nose-heavy too. to 7. The struts on most of the Mistels were round tubes, only the JU 88 Mistel main support struts under the fuselage have been streamlined tubes. This was used to cover the wires and lower the drag. In most cases the special tubing simply wasn't available and round tubes were used. to 8. The shape of the trolley mainframe is fictious in all descriptions, because no photos or plans exsist. The picture above even shows a plain mainframe. I questioned the structural forces to the trolley while designing it and came to the conclusion that the I-shape is the only one that makes sense. By shifting the sidewalls to the center, they can be welded on on both sides and reduce the load to the width of the frame. Surely it were steel plates welded together not bolted! to 9. The fall-over hinges consist of a triangular plate, bolted to the wing and holding a forkhead end of the strut with a bolt. Crude mounts like here are not only wrong, they also look stupid. to 10. This step on the front of the trolley doesn't belong there., because it makes no sense. The pilots only got into the cockpit by use of a ladder.