V-1 - Takom 1/35 - Showcase
Casting aside the terror these things caused, although I guess you could make that case for just about everything I model, I have always liked the lines of the V-1. I’ve had the Tamiya 48th scale kit in the stash for some time but never got around to putting it together. But now my V-1 dream was about to become a reality with the release of the 1/35 scale interior version from Takom.
A couple of years ago I’d built the V-2 that Takom had released. It was a basic kit but nevertheless an important part of history. It is a model I often enjoy looking at in the display case so it seemed reasonable that the V-1 should accompany it. Now the kit was in the perfect scale of 1/35 it seemed logical to add it to the collection.
** Full Build and Paint review over at The Modelling News
The V-1 was essentially the first cruise missile the World had seen. Also known as the Fiseler Fi103 or sometimes the wing bomb, it was regarded as the first of the so called ‘Vengeance Weapons (or V series) deployed for the terror bombing campaign of London.
Developed in 1939 by the Nazi German Luftwaffe, the project went under the codename of ‘Cherry Stone’. The rocket had a limited range so it was envisaged the weapon would be launched toward London from sites along the French and Dutch Coastlines.
The first V-1 was launched for London on the 13th of June 1944 and was fast-tracked mainly due to the Allied landings in France the week earlier. At the peak of the bombings over 100 rockets a day were fired toward England. A total of 9521 V-1s were launched at England only ceasing once the Allies overran the launch sites.
A further 2448 V-1s were launched at targets in Belgium and only ended in the last months of the war in Europe.
Interestingly the Allies named the V-1 as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and in Germany it became known as Kirschkern (cherry stone) or Maikäfer (maybug).