Model Aircraft – August 2019

this into a piece of plastic
card sat on a large blob of
plasticine - hey presto!
I then cut the bulkhead
out with a sharp knife,
and after some
rubbing down
and fettling,
the bulkhead
dropped in the gaping
hole almost perfectly.
Next, the Reichenberg’s wings. Here I wanted
them detached from the aircraft, so I needed
to replicate the little ixing lugs and aileron
attachments. Again, carefully looking at
exploded diagrams and period pictures, I was
able to craft the smaller parts using plastic
strip and card, and then I glued them to their
respective locations on the fuselage. The same
procedure followed regarding the detached
wings. I hollowed them out as thin as I

could then made some spars

from plastic card to it over the

ends. I then carefully cut out a framework and

itted them on.

Then it was time to paint, and I wanted the

aircraft to look abandoned, as if it was left in an

old hangar or factory for some time. I base coated

the fuselage with Stylinrez Grey Primer and gave

it a basic pre-shade along panel lines with Tamiya

Flat black. I then used Vallejo model air paints,

spraying the underside of the fuselage and wings

with RLM Lichtblau. The upper surfaces was a

mish-mash of RLM greens, with sections painted

slightly diferently, to give the impression of an

hastily and modularly constructed airframe. The

entire airframe was then given a wash of thinned

Agrax Earthshade, to accentuate panel

German Manned

Flying Bomb!

T

he Fieseler Fi 103R, code-named ‘Reichenberg’,

was a late-World War II German manned version

of the V-1 lying bomb (more correctly known as

the Fieseler Fi 103) produced for attacks in which the pilot

was likely to be killed or at best to parachute down at the

attack site, which were to be carried out by the Leonidas

Squadron, V. Gruppe of the Luftwafe’s Kampfgeschwader

200. The V-1 was transformed into the Reichenberg
     by adding a small, cramped cockpit at the point of the
     fuselage that was immediately ahead of the pulsejet’s
     intake, where the standard V-1’s compressed-air cylinders
     were itted. The cockpit had basic light instruments and a
     plywood bucket seat. The single-piece canopy incorporated
     an armoured front panel and opened to the side to allow
     entry. The two displaced compressed-air cylinders were

replaced by a single one, itted in the rear in the space

which normally accommodated the V-1’s autopilot. The

wings were itted with hardened edges to cut the cables

of barrage balloons. It was proposed that a He 111 bomber

would carry either one or two Reichenberg’s beneath its

wings, releasing them close to the target. The pilots would

then steer their aircraft towards the target, jettisoning the

cockpit canopy shortly before impact and bailing out. It

was estimated that the chances of a pilot surviving such a

bailout were less than one-percent due to the proximity of

the pulsejet’s intake to the cockpit.

MODEL AIRCRAFT AUGUST 2019

REICHENBERG IV

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