The Me-410 Hornet was the last of Messerschmitt's line of Zerstörer aircraft. It was directly descended from the earlier Me-210 which itself was intended to succeed the Me-110, but instead proved to be a failure, being very difficult to handle and suffering from extreme instability and prone to stalling and spinning. Finally, the type's poor performance and an alarming accident rate led to Me-210 production ceasing after only 200 had been built. It an effort to salvage something from the Me-210 program, Messerschmitt completely redesigned and lengthened the rear fuselage, added automatic wing leading edge slats and installed 1,750hp Daimlier-Benz DB603 engines as well as a host of other modifications. This became the Me-410A which was further developed and given 1,900hp DB603G and produced as the Me-410B.

As a weapons platform, the Me-410 was extremely versatile. Not only did the type feature a bomb-bay with 1,000kg capacity, it had two 13mm MG 131 machine guns housed in rearward firing barbettes mounted on the rear fuselage sides, the Me-410 sported a great variety of forward firing armaments. It carried 13mm MG 131 machine guns and numerous combinations of MG 151 20mm and MK 103 30mm cannon in the nose, fuselage and in Rüstsätze sets and some even had a BKS 50mm cannon with 21 rounds of ammunition. The B-1/U2 version could mount four GR-2 210mm rocket tubes under the wings. One interesting configuration that did not prove very successful was the mounting of a six-tube rotary GR-2 210mm rocket pack in the bomb-bay.

In an attempt to combat increasingly heavy Allied bombing attacks on the Reich, the Me-410 which was introduced to Luftwaffe service in the spring of 1943, was utilized initially as a home defense heavy fighter and at first it had some success against the bomber streams. However, during the later half of 1944 with the introduction of Allied fighters that could escort the bombers all the way into Germany, the Me-410 proved no match for the single seat fighters and began to suffer appalling losses. The Me-410 found itself removed from front-line service and relegated to reconnaissance and some B models were outfitted with radar and torpedoes for the anti-shipping duties. Due to production of single engined fighter being given priority and a serious maintenance and spares problem due to continuous Allied bombing of factories and depots, it was decided in September 1944 to cease production after completion of 1,160 examples.
 
 

This kit is the Pro-Modeler Me-410B from Revell-Monogram. It's a fine kit with good fit overall, but a lot of cleaning up of mold lines is required. A very comprehensive 24-page instruction booklet is provided complete with detail photographs of the real aircraft. There are 131 light grey parts and 13 clear parts. You will be most impressed with how crisp the molding is. The cockpit is well outfitted with lots of detail and appears very accurate. The only thing you'll probably want to add is seat-belts. Weighted tires are included, although I'm not sure how the real plane sat on the ground. A nice radiator with lots of detail is included under each wing. The only major fit problem I had was getting the canopy (awkwardly molded in several pieces to facilitate the mold process and the bulged rear of the canopy) to fit over the rear gun-sight arrangement. I ended up cutting off and repositioning the rear gun-sights. Were I to build another, the only thing I would do differently, as far as assembly goes, is put the canopy together before attaching it to the fuselage. I didn't do this and the result is some unseemly gaps where none should exist.
 

Construction started with the cockpit tubs. Both the front and rear cockpits are well detailed. The front office has separate rudder pedals, seat back, throttles, control column and left and right instrument panels. All this fits in a tub with plenty of detail molded on. The rear compartment is next and this section is just loaded with great detail. There is a whole slew of radios and instruments that look quite sharp after painting and detailing. Dry bushing was all that was needed to bring out the wealth of detail. The gunner's compartment fits under a separate rear decking that in turn is attached to the rear of the front tub. The fuselage sides have detail molded on them as well and after adding the blast tubes and some more detail parts, the completed cockpit was inserted between the fuselage halves and joined together with Tenax. Fit of the fuselage halves was excellent and only light sanding and a bit of work were needed to eliminate the seam. The instructions would have you add the remainder of the cockpit parts, some interior framing, the rear gun-sight arrangement and armor plated headrest but AI left them off till painting was completed. Things get interesting now because you have to decide which version you're going to do. There is two choices for armament to fit in the lower nose section. For the B-1/U2/R4 version you can add a pair of MG 151/20mm cannons or if you're doing the B-2/R2 version you have to add a pair of MK 103 30mm cannons. What I did was just cut the cannon barrels off and stuck them in from the front after painting and finishing was completed. After you've decided which version to do, the lower nose can be attached to the fuselage. Some light filing and the part fits very well and again no filling was needed. I left the guns off of the fuselage gun barbettes and just tacked them in place with a bit of white glue in preparation for painting.

The wings were next and didn't pose any problem at all. The radiators under each wing comprise six parts apiece and look just great. They're shown open and R/M even provide the small actuating arms. Before you glue the wings together, make sure you open up the holes for the GR-2 210mm rocket tubes used by the B-1/U2 version. The engines are next and after the exhausts and shields were added the two halves are joined with Tenax and attached to the wing. As with the rest of the kit, fit here was almost flawless and only minimal cleanup was required. The wing to fuselage fit is just superb and Tenax blended them and the tailplanes to the fuselage with no gaps whatsoever. Next you add the gun pack under the fuselage if you're doing the B-2/U2/R4 version.

The landing gear was assembled and set aside for later. It's quite well detailed and even has brake lines molded on the main strut. I next assembled the four underwing rocket tubes and put them aside as well. The tubes comprise four parts each, a left and right half and a warhead and tail that fit between the two halves. In preparation for painting, I cleaned up the clear parts and masked them with Parafilm. This took a while as there's a real mess of framework on the greenhouse like canopy. I sprayed the clear parts RLM66 to simulate the interior framing colour.
 

Now it's time to paint and R/M give you three marking options all for aircraft based at Königsberg. All three are finished with splinter camo of RLM74/75 on the upper wings, tailplanes and top fuselage deck. The undersurface, fuselage sides and tail are RLM76 with a mottle camo of RLM74/75 on the fuselage sides, tail and engine nacelle sides. The Option 1 is a B-2/R2 with a white Reich defense fuselage band, and RLM71 spinner with small white spirals. Option 2 is a B-1/U2/R4 flown by Gruppe Kommaneur Major Eduard Tratt, the leading Zerstörer ace with 38 victories. This aircraft also carries the white Reich Defense band and dark green spinners with large white spirals. The spirals for option 1 and option 2 are included as decals. Option 3, the one I built is a B-1/U2 without any Reich bands and the front of the spinners painted red.

My advice is to throw them out. If a well-funded and established company chooses to introduce a line of kits called "Pro-Modeler", then the least they should do is provide decent decals. Alas, these suck, out of register and with very poor adhesion qualities, even with setting solution. The good news is there are a number of after-market decal sheets available.
 

I used ModelMaster enamels for painting, Tenax 7R and Humbol cement for construction and Parafilm for masking the canopies. All in all, this kit was a pleasure to build, a lot of work, but well worth it. Any problems I had (except for the decals) were due to a lack of modeling skill on my part, not the manufacturer's fault. Except for the decals, a great kit and another gap in the WWII aircraft void filled.