What If?
Model and Text by Mark Zimerman
Photos by Michael Eastman

ME-262 Seaplane "Wasserjaeger"

The ME-262WJ (Wasserjaeger) was designed to provide fighter cover for coastal installations such as U-boat bases. Although delivering somewhat reduced performance compared to land-based variants, the ME-262WJ was superior to other water-based fighters available owing in no small part to the reduced drag permitted by the combination fuselage/main float made practical by the use of turbo-jet propulsion.

Was It Real?

"Luftwaffe 1946" has become popular as of late among many modelers and it isn't hard to see why. As more information becomes available about some of the fantastic and just plain weird born-out-of-desperation designs cranked out by aviation engineers of the doomed Third Reich, modelers have been adding them to their collections. Some because they represent the enemy we could have faced and some to break the monotony of row after row of ME-109's and FW-190's typical of many WW II Luftwaffe collections. At first I thought I had 'dreamed-up' the design as I doodled with a three-view drawing of an ME-262A-1a. But when asked by fellow modelers at my IPMS chapter if it was a real RLM proposal or my own design I had to be honest: I'm not sure.

The forward mounted cockpit reminiscent of the Gloster Meteor was proposed for some ME-262 variants intended as 'Aufklarer' (reconnaissance) and 'Schnellbomber' (high-speed bomber) aircraft as is the deeper fuselage that could easily have "morphed" into the combined fuselage/float. Drawings of these proposals are avialable in "Jet Planes of the Third Reich" by J. Richard Smith and Eddie J. Creek on pages 113 and 140. Other works I have seen depicted fuselage moounted engine nacelles for porposed "pager airplanes" that didn't go any further than the drawing board. Maybe these elements coalesced into the ME-262WJ or maybe there actually was a proposal for a water-based variant of the ME-262 that I saw once long ago but didn't fully retain because I was concentrating on armor dioramas at the time. I honestly don't know. If anyone can find documentation for a floatplane variant of the ME-262 I would appreciate any assistance in clearing this matter up.

The Model

I chose the Jo-Han ME-262 kit in 1/72 scale as the basis for this project. Despite it's advanced age and lack of some of the finer details of the Hasegawa and Monogram offering in the same scale, it is accurate in outline and has a good, thin canopy to work with. The relatively thick plastic of the basic airframe and modular construction of the kit combined with good value for the dollar make it the perfect basis for a 'kitbash' project. I had some prior experience with this kit when I scratchbuilt an ME-262 'Mistel' using the nose of the then-newly released Me-262 A-2a/U2 from MPM grafted to a Jo-Han airframe with a secomd Jo-Han airframe to make the flying bomb. (Only to discover that MPM release a kit of the Mistel just as I applied the last decal, but that's another story!).

I begain by cutting the opening for the new cockpit location and adding a scratchbuilt cockpit assembly. When this was done, I cemented the fuselage halves together and filled in the resulting opening of the old cockpit with sheet plastic. I then assembled the Jumo 004B engines supplied with the kit. When these were dry, I removed material until they fit the top of the fuselage to my satisfaction. The wing was then assembled with sheet plastic filling in the openings left by the engine nacelles and the wing was added to the fuselage. I also added the landing gear doors in the closed position at that time.

Now came the fun part. I cut the "keel" of the main float and cemented it to the fuselage centerline using the ventral seam as my guide. I added bulkheads and a transom to the keel and fuselage and used thin plastic sheet for skinning. Red putty was used to blend the fuselage and float into a single unit. Smaller floats were added to the wings where the engines would have gone and were built up in a similar manner to the fueselage/float assembly. I considered adapting the float assemblies from the J-Han Zero/Rufe kit, but was satisfied with the results I obtained via scratchbuilding. The final modification was to fill in the openings for the upper pair of MK 108 30 mm cannon. These were deleted to make room for the relocated cockpit. I also filled in the appropriate shell discharge chute openings.

Painting and Decals

When the putty work was done, the cockpit was masked and the entire model was given an overall spray of RLM 76 light blue. When dry, the nose, rudder tip and nacelle intake cowlings were painted red. After the red trim had dried, the model was camouflaged in a splinter pattern of gray RLM 74 and 75.

The Jo-Han decal sheet provided the crosses and swastikas and the red "45" came from the decal sheet of the DML ME 1101. Weathering consisting of standard drybrush/wash techniques completed the painting.

Conclusion

A beaching dolly was scratchbuilt using Evergreen strips and the kit's landing gear. This was painted RLM 02 with dark gray for the tires. A Preiser 1/72 scale Luftwaffe figure was added sitting on the leading edge of the port wing. (I used the one intended for the lounge chair.) This was a fun and inexpensive project and was well recieved at the April 1998 IPMS Gateway Chapter Meeting.

Also by Mark Zimerman

Mark brought this in quite a while ago and I would like to share some of the inventiveness that he shows in his modeling. It is a diorama with two different scales put together showing a RC flyer and his model. Enjoy!