First look at this kit and you can see a very close resemblance to the V-1 flying bomb. So a quick check of the Internet and Wikipedia found this- “Reports of the German V-1 flying bomb attacks on London prompted Stalin to initiate a program to develop a Soviet equivalent, commencing in June 1944. Vladimir Chelomey, who had been working on pulse jet engines, was assigned to the project in October 1944 and given control of OKB-52. The program was assisted by the partial recovery of a V-1 by Soviet forces at the Blizna test range in Poland. The initial V-1 copy was called 10Kh and later Izdeliye 10 ("Article 10"). Serial production was scheduled to commence in March 1945 with 100 per month, increasing to 450 per month later that year.”

The subject of this model in 1/48thscale is model 16KhA which is the duel pulse jet version two Chelomey D-3 engines mounted side by side on V-configured pylons on the aft fuselage and extended tail planes with rectangular fins and rudders at the tail plane tips.

The Brengun kit comes with a single brown sprue with nicely engraved panel lines with 24 parts (2 of which are not used). A decal sheet is also included, and the color paint guides are on the back of the box and cover three models- two trial version with striking red/white markings and one potential operational version in green. In all cases, the pulse jets are silver. One other note, 10 of the 24 pieces are for a cart to support the 16KhA.

Assembly is straightforward. This is a short run kit so some prep is needed. I start by making the two pulse jets which include interior parts and move on and assemble the main fuselage. The wings and the tails are added and primary assembly is done. I left off the prominent front probe until later as I am sure it would break off from handling. I puttied and sanded the seams for a couple rounds and they disappeared nicely. I wanted to do a red/white one so I base-coated the entire kit with Tamiya Gloss White thinned with lacquer thinner. Once this dried hard, I masked and sprayed red and repeated that process several times (four times to be exact) until I had the red panels done. I touched up the white and set the kit aside to dry.

While drying I built the cart, which required a little clean up but went together very well. This was primed and then painted gray with silver jack mechanisms and black tires. The support blocks are wood colored.

I added the decals to the airframe and they went on well. I added a wash to pop out the nice panel lines and then added the airframe to the stand. I added the two pulse jets next and this was the most difficult. Being a short run kit, there is no direct attachment point, just a pair on indentations. I used super glue and accelerator to get the engines on after several tries but they are very weak. In hind sight, I should have pinned these with wire to add strength. I flat coated the entire kit and it’s done.

The finished red/white scheme looks great and really stands out amongst all the gray jets I like to build. The fit is good and this would be a great first introduction to limited run kits for anyone. My only suggestion would be to think through the pulse jet attachments.

Recommended! My thanks to Hauler Brengun for the opportunity to review this kit and IPMS for the entire review process.