AZ Model – AZ7825 – Heinkel He 162A-9 “Salamander” JV44

Description:

Heinkel He 162A-9 “Salamander” JV44

Unassembled plastic model kit in 1/72 scale of a German WWII Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger jet fighter aircraft, made primarily of wood as part of the Emergency Fighter Program to defend the Reich. Over 300 units were produced with several hundreds more in different stages at the factories when the war ended, but less than 200 had been delivered before May 8th 1945. It Proved to be a good design but due lack of materials, time to refine and training to crews together with the low number and very late delivery has no impact in the course of the war in the air.

A-9 variant is not recorded in the official list of variants of the aircraft, the closest A-8 was just an engine upgrade proposal.

Kit tooled in 2022.

Includes decal sheet with three markings from the Jagdverband 44, formed during the last months of the war to operate the Messerschmitt Me 262. During the last weeks of the war Jagdverband 44 received some or all of the He 162 which originally had been used by the so called “Erprobungskommando 162” (Test Unit 162), the first 46 He 162 delivered (A-0 variant). The markings shows the camouflage pattern of the Würger-Staffel (Protection squadron) of the Jagdverband 44, seen on Fw-190 D-9 and Fw-190 D-11 used to protected take-off and landings of the Me 262, painted in bright read and white stripes in the under-surface to avoid friend anti-aircraft fire from the ground.

We can’t confirm or deny these markings but they looks speculative to us. For sure the JV 44 received some He 162 but it’s not even clear if they were flown in any kind of operational sortie, and they would have been used as the Me 262 which did not wear the red-white camouflage and not as part of the protection squadron. Staff of the Jagdverband 44 destroyed all their He 162 on capitulation.