Heinkel He-162 in NII-VVS

[marluc]

Hello:

I would like to know in which colour was painted this Heinkel He-162 Salamander tested by the NII-VVS:



Thanks in advance,greetings.

Martin

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Martin,
I suppose it's an irregular layer of aluminium paint with some red parts.
Regards
Massimo

[marluc]

Thanks Massimo for your reply.At first I thought it looks like some kind of winter finnish,but I doubt it.It could be aluminium as you mentioned or a not evenly applied layer of AMT-7 perhaps.
Greetings.

Martin

[John Thompson]

For what it's worth, here's a profile from Wings Palette:
http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww2/f/454/1/0/1

Note the NII logo on the tail in the profile; my wild guess for overall colour would be either a very weathered aluminum paint or else A-36m or its wood-use equivalent, since the He-162 was of wooden construction. Since Luftwaffe stuff is not part of my usual diet, I found the Wikipedia page on this aircraft to be interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_162

The comment regarding its design for construction by semi- or unskilled labour was sadly ironic - "unskilled labour" no doubt meant "slaves"...  Considering the circumstances in Germany at that point in the war and its unconventional appearance, it was apparently a surprisingly good aircraft!

John

[Massimo Tessitori]

The comment regarding its design for construction by semi- or unskilled labour was sadly ironic - "unskilled labour" no doubt meant "slaves"..

Hi John,
for what I know, many pieces were made in furniture workshops. I don't know if these factories utilized war prisoner, women or what else at the end of the war.
Regards
Massimo

[John Thompson]

The comment regarding its design for construction by semi- or unskilled labour was sadly ironic - "unskilled labour" no doubt meant "slaves"..

Hi John,
for what I know, many pieces were made in furniture workshops. I don't know if these factories utilized war prisoner, women or what else at the end of the war.
Regards
Massimo

I'd rather be wrong about this, but the fact that one of the construction sites was Salzburg, of which city Wikipedia says, "During World War II, the KZ Salzburg-Maxglan concentration camp was located here. It was a Roma camp and provided slave labour to local industry" certainly suggests otherwise. Another site was Hinterbruhl; here Wikipedia is more specific - "During the Second World War, a satellite camp of Mauthausen concentration camp was opened inside the caverns, producing parts for the He 162 jet fighter". And finally, the even more horrid "Mittelwerk" - "Central Works (German: Mittelwerk) was a World War II factory that used Mittelbau-Dora forced labor in 2 main tunnels (1.6 km each) in the Kohnstein. The underground facility produced V-2 rockets, V-1 flying bombs, and other Nazi weapons". The postwar inspection report regarding this site (reproduced as a sidebar on the Wikipedia page for Mittelwerk) is just frightening. I'm posting this not because I want to prove my point (my ego is a bit more rugged than that) or to arouse old hatreds, but more as a reminder of the ultimate sacrifice made by so many innocent and forgotten people during those hellish times.

John

[marluc]

Thanks John for the profile.Greetings.

Martin

[John Thompson]

From the Red Stars-2 group build:
http://scalemodels.ru/modules/forum/viewtopic_t_30114_start_0.html

John

[marluc]

Many thanks for the link John.Greetings.

Martin

[John Thompson]

Another photo which may be useful, found on ebay.de, although I think from the markings on the back of the photo that it might have originated from the Imperial War Museum archives, so it's probably fairly well known:



John

[marluc]

Thanks for the photo John,I didn?t know it.Same plane but from a different angle,greetings.

Martin