History

The Messerschmitt Me P.1103 (12/09/1944) was one of a series of experimental projects developed by Messerschmitt and other German manufacturers as desperation types designed to combat the heavy bomber offensives of the U.S. 8^th Air Force and Royal Air Force towards the end of World War II. The aircraft was classified as a Bordjager, a fighter meant to be carried or towed aloft and released by a fighter aircraft, either a Bf-109G or ME-262. Powered by a liquid propellant rocket motor, the P.1103 was armed with a single MK-108 cannon mounted in the forward fuselage. Earlier developments had the pilot in a prone position, but the December 1944 version used a regular pilot’s seat and regular one piece canopy.

The aircraft was to be initially moved around on a dolly, but after takeoff, the dolly was jettisoned and the plane landed on a skid. Keep in mind that this was a drawing board project only, and the actual aircraft was never built or flown. Therefore, it probably would qualify as a Luft 46 type. The color schemes provided by the kit manufacturer are obviously conjecture.

References

There isn’t a lot of information on these aircraft. Probably the best source is

Ingolf Meyer’s Luftwaffe Advanced Aircraft projects to 1945, Vol. 2, published by Ian Allen, in England, in 2006. Translation from the German was by Ted Oliver. I don’t know if the book is still available. I’ve had mine for years. The P.1103 is covered with text, a three view drawing, and an artist rendition on page 138. There were several variants of the design, all covered in Meyer’s text, but the kit is appropriate only for the December 1944 version. Development of the type was abandoned when the Luftwaffe decided to develop the Bachem Ba. 349.

Instructions

The instructions consist of a single 8 ½” x 11” sheet, folded into four sections. Page 1 has a black and white copy of the box art and a useful sprue diagram, although a few parts aren’t listed. Pages 2 and 3 include 8 assembly drawings, and there is some color notation. Page 4 has a line perspective drawing of the aircraft along with small illustration of other Brengun products.

The box art has three suggested color schemes, all of which are pure fiction, as the aircraft was never built or flown. I have no idea how a wind tunnel model would have been painted. The back of the box has good three view drawings along with a color guide, so it will be very useful if you want to follow it.

The Kit

The kit consists of one sprue of grey plastic, including 22 parts. A clear plastic canopy is also provided. A small decal sheet provides markings for all three suggested color schemes.

There is only a little flash on the parts, but keep in mind that this is a SMALL airplane in 1/72 scale, and some of the smaller parts are truly microscopic. If you are not careful, they will escape your modeling desk to be gone forever. The fuselage consists of two halves, horizontal tail units will butt fit onto the rear fuselage, and the one-piece wing assembly fits on the top of the fuselage after the halves are joined. The only problem I encountered was that the sprue attachment points for the wings and tailplanes attach to the leading edges of the units, requiring careful trimming. Trim these before you attach them on the airframe.

Assembly

The cockpit interior consists of 9 parts, which all need to be painted before assembly. The cannon barrel appears to be smaller than the illustration on the instructions, and once the canopy is in place, you’ll never see it anyway. I had problems lining up the interior parts, and had to do some sanding down of the unit to get the fuselage halves to fit together. Parts 6 and 7, which go in the extreme nose, look nothing like the parts shown in the instructions, and they also will be invisible once the canopy is in place. There are no mounting pegs and holes on the fuselage, so this can be tricky. I ended up using a little putty to smooth out the seams.

Once the basic airframe is assembled, the only landing gear consists of a small dolly with two wheels which attaches to the bottom of the fuselage. You have, however, the option of omitting the dolly, and extending the skid as it would have been for landing.

Painting and Finishing

The instructions call for the fuselage interior to be basically RLM 02 grey, whereas most late war Luftwaffe aircraft used the darker RLM 66. The instructions say to mask off the canopy, and mention that Brengun sells a canopy mask separately. I tried to mask it with tape, and eventually settled on liquid mask, as there are no bracing struts in the canopy. I painted my model overall RLM 02, and used the white decals. Although the other two choices had fuselage crosses, my version only had small white wing crosses. The tail swastikas are printed in two parts, obviously for political correctness purposes.

The dolly was easy to install, although you have to be careful to line it up correctly. The instructions are a little unclear as to exactly where it goes. A side view drawing should have showed its position, but didn’t.

Conclusions and Recommendations

This is a model of an airplane that never really made it off the drawing board. I suppose that if you do Luft 46 aircraft, this would fit in quite well. If not, it would go in with the “what if’s” that many of us do. It is not a bad little kit, and will go together in just a couple of hours, except for paint drying time. If you want to do one, it is a good little kit, especially if you have some experience. Conditionally recommended.

Thanks to Brengun for providing the review sample.