Airmodel 1/72
DFS 230 Assault Glider

Background

The DFS 230 was a German transport glider operated by the Luftwaffe in WWII. It was developed by the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fur Segelflug (DFS – “German Research Institute for Sailplane Flight”) with Hans Jacobs as the head designer.

The glider was the German inspiration for the British Hotspur glider and was intended for paratrooper assault operations. The glider could carry 10 soldiers with equipment or a payload of about 1,200 kg. They were used in the landings at Fort Eben-Emael and Crete, as well as in North Africa and the rescue of Bonito Mussolini.

The Kit

The kit is vacuum-formed and in a large blousy cello bag with the instructions. I consists of one large white vacu-formed sheet of parts, a smaller white sheet of plain 1/16” thick plastic sheet and a clear vacu-formed canopy part.

The instructions consist of 2 stationary sized pages.

The first page has a 3-view black and white line drawing of the DFS 230, showing the side, top and front views. On the reverse side of this page is color notes and 9 paragraphs of assembly instructions. No assembly drawings are provided. The second page continues with 6 more paragraphs for a grand total of 11.

For color information the instructions say that DFS 230’s produced before WWII carried a splinter of 70/71 on top. On the sides, this came down to the mid-section of the fuselage. The underside was 65. A red band was carried on the tail with white circle with a swastika on it that carried across the fin and rudder. Four-letter factory codes were on the fuselage sides and under the wings. Wing crosses were painted above and below the wings, but not on the fuselage.
In service, the codes were changed to a “D” registration (example: D-57-754 to the normal 1-125), the latter being spaced either side of the small fuselage cross. After the war had started the overall color was changed to 71. There was a soft-line between the 71 and bottom 65. Over the 71 was an irregular blotched mottle of 70.

The cello bag holds on large white sheet of parts. These are: the fuselage halves, the wing halves, the horizontal tail halves and the wheel halves. Taped inside one of the fuselage halves is the clear vacuformed canopy part. (12 parts total in the kit)

No decals are provided, nor interior parts. Modelers will have to find an appropriate after-market sheet of decals for the model and will have to fabricate interior details. A wing spar is suggested to strengthen the wings to fuselage joints. Wing struts and landing skid, tail skid will have to be fabricated by modelers. This kit only provides the basic major parts. The plain white sheet of plastic card is obviously supplied to chop up and use as needed.

Conclusions

I bought this kit back in the 70’s. Recommended to modelers that have experience with other vacu-formed kits and scratchbuilding skills.