Horten help!

[Guest]

my new task, just finished a Do 335, is to build a Horten Go229.

now ive read a little bit and i think there was somin like one or 2 completed aircraft? anyway. i need to know what colour to paint the exteior. i think im right thinking the cockpit is RLM 66 and the other bays, like undercarriage, and RLM 02.

but i didnt want to do the conventional splinter camo on the flying wing. are there any other patterns i can use? bear in mind this is the revell 1/72 one.

thanks

iain

[stona]

Hi Iain, I may well have something for you in a couple of days when I get home. Without looking I'd say RLM 66 cockpit. Wheel wells etc either Natural metal or RLM 02. By this time the RLM had already issued orders not to paint the aluminium parts of aircraft undersides at all but only wood and other metals.

BTW the Go designation comes from Gothaer Waggonfabrik, the firm that the RLM gave the project to for development, and causes as much confusion as the Bf/Me prefixes. Your aircraft was designated Ho229 by the RLM. They liked to acknowledge designers as in the Ta152. It's a fantastic "what if",the performance of the prototype (before it crashed!) was allegedly astonishing. I think two flew but I'm not certain.

Good luck with it,I'll stick anything I find at home in this thread.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

sound!

solid peice of intel there mate.

which parts were alumininium, do you know?

and what camo scemes were used?

im sure you'll dig somin up, specially what oyu said bout the Do335. fantastic help.

thanks

iain

[stona]

I'll have to look it up but a substantial part of the Ho229 was wood! I believe the central "fuselage",if you can call it that, was aluminium skinned but on a steel tubular frame. I haven't got anything specific on this aircraft but I'll have something in more general references (I hope). Isn't there a good chunk of one somewhere in the U.S.? I'm really straining the memory banks now! Might be worth a google.

Cheers

Steve

[PJP]

Go 229 also Ho IX

Just had a rummage and my reference books have it as a twin engined combat/fighter aircraft. The wing section needed a redesign because the engines were deeper in section than the designers had allowed for. It was destroyed in a forced single engine landing having flown only a few hours and showing speeds up to 800 kmh (597 mph).

It was of welded steel tube centre section with wooden outer wing panels and extensive use of plywood covering.

Prototypes up to V5 were built and V6 & 7 were under development when captured by the Americans. Wonder where the B2 came from??

I have pictures of the V3 cockpit & centre section under construction and with wings removed if you are interested, and line drawings of the complete aircraft but no colour scheme.

A black and white picture of the Ho V shows a standard looking splinter camouflage but the Ho VII picture seems to be bare metal.

There is also a black and white picture of how it was expected to appear in production and this shows what looks like dark green patches over grey, but patches not splinter pattern.

[Guest]

so looks like im gonna be splintering it?

Horten Ho 229 by Toby Nelson (Dragon 1/48)

ive seen this, but this could be wrong?

[stona]

I don't think there is a right or wrong. It never got beyond a prototype so I doubt that the manufacturer ever submitted a camouflage scheme to the RLM for approval. I've seen some colour photos of the dis-assembled one at the Smithsonian and the underside is certainly blue/grey (RLM76). The upper surface shows the remnants of a green scheme. They recently built a replica and coloured the upper surface in a single green close to RLM82. An official scheme so late in the war would have been unlikely to have had any grey on the upper surfaces. If we make an informed guess (going by other schemes approved at this time) I think the two upper colours would be RLM81 and RLM82,probably in a splinter scheme. The picture you showed seems to have those colours but at this time I haven't seen one mottled scheme approved for factory application.

Here's some piccies of the one in the U.S.

Fuselage:



Underside:



RLM02 in the wheel well???

Wings:



Finally one that shows the laminated wood covering the wing:



Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

oh thats a cool photo, you can certainley see the wooden wings there. but i think im gonna be doin the splinter camo.

thanks for all the help guys!

[stona]

Here's a few more

From a Russian source showing the tubular structure of the centre section (I couldn't understand the text!)

Cockpit

Front of engine showing original underside colour

Finally happier days

Quite shiny the last one. I don't believe that the Hortens had any INTENTIONALLY designed stealth factors on this aircraft. I believe one of them claimed this retrospectively,long after the war when true stealth became a factor in aircraft design,giving birth to yet another internet myth.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

i like the last pic!

looks like a UFO. haha

so im gonna be doin the splinter camo thats sorted.

and they are some cool pics. i dont know how you guys find em!

haha

thanks

[stona]

I think that's a good call. I got home this morning and had a quick look for a camouflage schedule for the Ho229 with no luck. I reckon that if you base it on the approved scheme for the Me163 you'll have a reasonable "what if" result. Artistic license is,of course,allowed.

Image from Michael Ullmann's excellent book (Luftwaffe Colours 1935-1945).

Good luck with it.

Steve