The idea was for the pilot to bail out after aiming the aircraft at the target, but it’s doubtful anybody would have made it. Luckily for the volunteers it never went operational.
The model -
Pros:
Excellent molding
No flash
good detail
decal sheet full of stencils
press-fit parts (as opposed to snap) could be assembled with no glue.
Cons:- The press-fit pins are so tight that it’s impossible to get the parts all the way together! You need to open the holes a little, or cut the pins off. The wing dowels broke off when I tried to push them in. I made a spar out of plastic tube and drilled holes in the wings for it.
Although there are over a dozen stencil decals, the instructions only tell you where to put two of them! Oddly, if you have Monogram’s book “V Missiles of the Third Reich,” you can use the marking diagram on page 321. The ref numbers even match.
The stencil decals are printed in bright green, when all photos I have show them as black on the real aircraft.
The “operational color scheme” on the box wasn’t really. They used a picture of a display aircraft from after the war, that was cobbled together from parts of several others.
But once it’s together it looks cool, and it’s a nice big size.
Hmmmm…
.
The (limited) reading i’ve done of this weapon indicates that that the seated version was a prototype only, to test its flying & autopilot systems.
It was test-flown by a ‘famous’ woman test pilot, whose name escapes me… (g)
.
I could be wrong, but I’d like to see evidence of operational use, tho’ I did read a ‘commando’ comic as a kid with a piloted V1 as the storyline…
She was proponent for the piloted version of the V-1 in suicide missions. These where never used operationally. Ultimatly the party leaders decided that suicide missions did not correspond with their views of european/german character.:
I’ve heard that that the noise the pulse jet made was unbearable inside the cockpit. Something about it being tuned to the human body resonance or something exotic like that. It made the eye balls vibrate madly within their sockets and concentration was near impossible.
No mind to that though, I’ve also heard that at Chino’s Planes of Fame Museum they’re putting together an airshow demonstration flyer powered by the same pulse jet! …coming soon!