Special Hobby has released this new tooled kit of the V-1 Fieseler 103. The V-1 was known by the British in World War 2 as the Buzz Bomb due to the unique noise of the pulse engine. The subject has been covered a lot but not at this scale. The kit includes the handling trolley and some photo etch.

In the box is:

• 3 x light grey sprues
• 1 small decal sheet
• 1 photoetch detail set
• 1 instruction booklet

The kit consists of 3 main sprues; the sprues are very typical of Special Hobby product which are made from a soft plastic. The decals allow you to finish the V-1 in two different versions and paints schemes for three V-1. The instruction booklet is very well laid out and easy to follow.

Construction

Before I started I had decided to build the V-1 on the handling trolley with the wings removed and stowed. Also I opted for a color scheme of the V-1 that missed my Mother’s home in East London in 1944.

First is the construction of pulse engine inlet, followed by the gyroscope housing. These stages had no issues.

Next is the assembly of the fuselage, here I encountered the first issue; in that some of the locating holes were solid and need drilling out. Once the fuselage is together some filling was needed. At this stage you can choose to install the armed nose cone or a transportation cover. I went with the armed version. Also, with the nose cone you can select a plastic nose generator propeller or a photo etch one. Here I went for the more realistic photo etch one.

Next the tail elevators are installed. These need to have the slots opened up to allow them to be installed.

The wings and wings strut are next, I did a trial fit of these even though I was building the V-1 in the transport mode with the wings removed. The wing strut hole in the fuselage does need to be enlarged to allow it to be fitted. The wings assembled very well with a little filing needed.

Now the assembly of the handling trolley which was a breeze to assemble and no issues at all.

Now I painted the V-1 and the handling trolley and installed the V-1’s decals. The decals were not easy to use as they folded back on themselves and some became unusable.

Last was mounting of the V-1 on he handling trolley. One issue here was ensuring the shape of the photo etch straps were formed correctly permit installation. I did find this a bit of a challenge.

Summary

This was a nice kit and apart from the frustration of the decals and locating holes. I highly recommend it to experienced modelers with a lot of patience.

Thanks go to Special Hobby for providing this kit to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them.