September 21, 2025

Product Spotlight: From Whence the Boogeyman Comes

German Messerschmitt Me 410A-1/U4 Heavy Fighter – Oberleutnant Friedrich “Fritz” Stehle, 5./Zerstorergeschwader 26 “Horst Wessel”, Hildesheim, Germany, March 1944 (1:72 Scale)

The culmination of Germany’s vaunted “Destroyer” concept, the Messerschmitt Me 410 was the intended successor of the Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter. Despite entering service almost two years late, it was arguably the Luftwaffe aircraft which most closely matched Britain’s magnificent de Havilland Mosquito in terms of role and performance.

Unquestionably one of the most interesting aircraft of the Second World War in appearance, the Me 410 was a true multi-role aircraft and could be adapted to perform a number of offensive roles, including that of heavy bomber killer.

Equipped with the mighty Rheinmetall manufactured BK-5 autocannon which protruded from the nose of the fighter, this weapon was a development of the 50mm Kampfwagenkanone anti-tank gun found in Panzer III tanks.

With 21 shells housed in a magazine in the weapons bay of the fighter and a shell already loaded in the breach ready to fire, the pilot could usually only rely on one round being fired, before this temperamental system jammed, leaving just reduced standard armament to be used during the sortie.

A single, well-aimed shell did possess the destructive power to easily bring down an Allied bomber and could be fired at ranges where the attacking Luftwaffe aircraft were effectively impervious to the wall of return fire put up by the bomber stream. However, the additional weight and drag caused by using this powerful gun made the Me 410 incredibly vulnerable to marauding Allied fighters.

On March 6th, 1944, the US 8th Air Force launched Mission No. 250, sending 730 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers to targets in Berlin and the surrounding area. This vast armada was escorted by a total of 801 Lockheed P-38 Lightnings, Republic P-47 Thunderbolts and North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft of VII Fighter Command. The Reichsluftverteidigung controllers sent 463 Luftwaffe aircraft to intercept and engage the approaching bombers.

Led by Staffelkapitan Oblt. “Fritz” Stehle, 5./Zerstorergeschwader 26 “Horst Wessel” operating from Hildesheim dispatched 10 Messerschmitt Me 410 aircraft, and formed part of a large ‘Gefechtsverbande’. Some of the aircraft were fitted with the Bordkanone 5 (BK 5) a hard hitting 50 mm Kanone which it was planned would enable the Me 410s to engage the attacking bomber aircraft outside of the range of their withering defensive fire. In practice, this was not realized and they were forced to commence their attacks at close range, making them vulnerable to both return fire from the bombers, and slow and thus outmaneuvered by the escorting fighters.

5./Zerstorergeschwader 26 “Horst Wessel” were able to engage Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft from the 1 Bombardment Division, and claimed 7 ‘abschuss’ between 12:35 and 13:15. Claims were submitted by Uffz. Hartl, Oblt. Stehle, Uffz. Retschy, Fw. Schneider, Ltn. Kutscher, Ofw. Fros and Ofw. Pennekamp. In the ensuing air battle, 5./Zerstorergeschwader 26 “Horst Wessel” were intercepted by North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft over the Doberitz-Brandenburg-Bernburg area, and six Messerschmitt Me 410 aircraft were shot down. Ofw. Ziesch, Feldwebel Bonnecke and Uffz. Patsch were all killed in this engagement. The Luftwaffe lost 63 fighters, with a further 19 damaged on this day. The US 8th Air Force lost 74 bombers and 14 fighters. Oblt. Stehle would go on to fly Focke Wulf Fw 190 aircraft with 6./Jagdgeschwader, before being assigned as Kommandeur I./Jagdgeschwader 7 flying the Messerschmitt Me 262.

On May 8th, 1945, Oblt Stehle shot down a Russian Bell P-39 Airacobra which crashed near the village of Klinyin. This may have been the last fighter victory of WWII in Europe. Post war, he helped train the Syrian Air Force before joining Lufthansa. He died in October 2008, and was credited with 26 victories. He was awarded the Deutsche Kreuz in Gold, and the Ehrenpokal fur besondere Leistung im Luftkreig.

Note: the barrel of the BK 5 with five white abschuss rings. The machine was fitted with the Zielfernohr ZFR4 telescopic gun-sight installed in the cockpit. Characteristic of II./Zerstorergeschwader 26 “Horst Wessel” is the yellow ‘Holzschuhe’ (wooden clog) ‘Wappen’ on the engine-cowling.

Wow! Wowee, Wow, Wow, Wow!

Years ago, actor/comedian Christoper Walken performed a sketch on Saturday Night Live, one in which he played a so-called sophisticate speaking to the camera as if there was a supposed woman in his apartment. Decked out in a smoking jacket and likely living in a simple and unremarkable one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, the performance struck a note with me. In fact, I oftentimes try to mimic his daffy performance for anyone who is willing to give me a moment of their time. Anyway, I’ve always been struck by that skit, both for its comedic value, his range as both an actor and comedian and its application in real-life.

USAF Northrop/McDonnell Douglas YF-23 Air Dominance Fighter – 87-0781, Dave Maurice, “Gray Ghost”, PAV-2, 412th Test Wing, Edwards AFB, California, 1990 [Low-Vis Scheme] (1:72 Scale)

Which leads me to the point of this blog post. Last week, we finally got in our batch of Hobby Master 1:72 scale Northrop YF-23 air dominance fighters, after waiting for what seemed like an eternity for the shipment to reach our shores. When we put this item up for sale on both our web site and on eBay, I couldn’t believe how quickly it sold out, even when we nudged up the price a bit to throttle sales. As you might imagine, the first batch is now gone and we obviously under-anticipated demand for this model and its legacy as a potential aerial platform.

We’ve since placed a large re-order with our distributor, who claims more are expected in November. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if we never see another piece as they get gobbled up by collectors worldwide. I know they made quite a few of these models and even with the tariffs imposed on product coming in from certain countries still managed to break our sales records with inquiries about its availability still filtering in.

USAF Northrop/McDonnell Douglas YF-23 Air Dominance Fighter – 87-0800, “Black Widow II”, PAV-2, 412th Test Wing, Edwards AFB, California, 1990 (1:72 Scale)

Anyway, we’re leaving this model up on our web site and are still accepting orders should they indeed materialize for the holiday rush. Just as importantly, however, is the second release of the YF-23, known rather surreptitiously as the “Black Widow II”. Painted in matte black, we believe this version will also sell like hotcakes, possibly even breaking the first model’s sell-through rate which, as I’ve already pointed out, may have been our fastest selling aircraft model in our 25-year history. Food for thought if you don’t mind waiting a bit, have space set aside for this beauty and have your heart set on what many believe should have been our nation’s fifth generation air dominance fighter.

Update: If sales are any judge of a model’s success, then I think we can safely assume that Hobby Master’s initial release of the YF-23 will be hailed as the 2025 model of the year, perhaps usurped by the dark grey/black follow-on release expected by year’s end. We don’t acknowledge runaway “runway” hits all that often but it certainly appears as if the YF-23 may indeed receive these honors when the year is out. We did mention to Hobby Master that a navalized version of the YF-23 was planned by the aircraft manufacturer back in the 90s, featuring, among other things, more robust landing gear, canards and other external improvements so there’s a possibility that they may examine its feasibility as a potential model come the new year. What follows is some information on the at-sea version, excerpted from, you guessed it, Wikipedia.

A proposed naval variant of the F-23, sometimes known unofficially as the NATF-23 (the proposed naval variants were never formally designated), was considered as an F-14 Tomcat replacement for the U.S. Navy. The original HSF configuration of the F-23 was first considered with the initial DP500 design but would have had issues with flight deck space (it was to be no longer than the F-14), handling, storage, landing, and catapult launching, thus necessitating a different design. By 1989, the design was narrowed down to two possible configurations: DP533 with four tails and DP527 with two V-tails and canards. DP527 was determined to be the best solution. The NATF-23 design was submitted along with the F-23 proposal for full-scale development, or engineering and manufacturing development (EMD), in December 1990. However, by late 1990 the Navy was already beginning to back out of the NATF program and fully abandoned it by FY 1992 due to escalating costs. A wind tunnel test model of DP527, tested for 14,000 hours, was donated (with canards removed) by Boeing St. Louis (formerly McDonnell Douglas) in 2001 to the Bellefontaine Neighbors Klein Park Veterans Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri.