Bachem Ba 349A Natter

by Enrique García García
 

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By the Spring of 1944, it had become evident to the German High Command that the steadily escalating daylight offensive against the industry of the Third Reich being mounted by the U.S.A.A.F. could no longer be countered by orthodox means alone. so serious was the situation that careful consideration had to be given to the unorthodox, and there was no shortage of highly ingenious schemes for intercepting and destroying the intruding bomber formations, but few withstood more than cursory examination of their practicability.

One radical proposal which did appear to offer some possibility of success, however, was that submitted by Dipl,-Ing. Erich Bachem who suggested an inexpensive vertically-launched semi-expendable rocket-propelled target-defense interceptor.

Alternative forms of armament considered during the initial development stage included a Rohrbatterie of 49 30-mm SG 119 rocket shells, and the cylindrical semi-automatic Trommelgerat with 40 30-mm shells, but eventually a Bienenwabe (Honeycomb) arrangement of hexagonal tubes for 73-mm Hs 217 Fohn
(Storm) missiles or quadrangular tubes for 55-mm R4M missiles was adopted.

(Excerpts from http://www.germanvtol.com/bachemfolder/bachem.html )

This kit is the initial Bachem Natter released by Dragon that included the launch tower. After the aircraft was built I decided to not to build the launch tower due to its height, so I scratch-built its little bed using some launch tower pieces. I also left out the solid fuel rockets since I didn't like them.

I painted my Ba 349A in RLM 81 over RLM 76, with the cockpit and its bed in RLM 66. Panel lines were highlighted with a wash of Raw Umber oil paint along with a dark oil wash in the cockpit.

Both wing crosses and tail swastika are hypothetical since it is assumed that disposable aircraft didn't need to carry them. Even so, I thought that the model looked more sensible with them.

 

Model, Images and Text
Copyright © 2002 by Enrique García García
Page Created 05 April, 2002
Last Updated 07 April, 2002

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