Tamiya 1/48 Me-262 "White 3" Completed-07/08

Thanks you guys.

Not a whole lot of visual progress but I've been working on this pit since last week. No PE or added details yet in the way of parts but here we are before all of that stuff.

Looks great Joe. 

Looking good Joe! I like the look of the leather backrest

Thanks Ernie and Andy!! Glad to have you both along.

 Seat belts, rudder pivot and pedals all installed. The belts were Eduard color parts that I took the liberty of weathering up a bit as well as weathering the whole cockpit area. This whole instrument panel ordeal that's coming up is gonna be a pretty big task. I have the Eduard color IP but it aint gonna work with the Aires IP. No cheating for me on this go round with that as it's gonna be down to the nitty gritty with the detail painting. 

 Ya know fellas....the one thing that I absolutely cannot stand is when I buy something and then go and LOOSE it. I bought the decals for "White 3" and now can't for the life of me find them anywhere. I already know what's gonna happen too.....I'm gonna buy a set and then the day after I apply them ....I'm going to find the original set. Happens every single time. 

Anyways....progress:

and then the instrument panel mock up. There's gonna be some more detailing to this in the way of painting up and detailing the back of the IP gauges/ wiring.

Lol Joe, if you buy the decals again you know they will show up eventually. Did you put them in a book, under a box, in another kit box, in a drawer? I have done all those 

As Higgins used to say, by the by, simply a smashing looking cockpit you have there.

Thanks Ernie!! 

I have some touch ups to do here and there as well as some more parts to install but we do have some progress for today...

Good to see you again Mustang. =] I'm digging the upgrades. That cockpit is absolutely looking the part. Nice job building up the color on that leather seat. Very cool. Can't wait to see what else you have in store. 

Joe that gauge cluster looks the business!

Looking sweet Joe.  The Tamiya 262 is a great kit.  The cockpit work is fantastic. 

Thanks bvallot, Chad and Joe!! Feels good to be building an aircraft again for a change.

Ok Fellas.....I finally got some measureable benchtime amidst my 7 day a week / 10 hour a day work weeks.

Cockpit is....finished!! 

That came out really nice!  Makes me want to try more after market parts.

Mike

Thanks Mike!! 

Some progress on the gun platform. Got some more detailing and weathering to do in here but had to post a pic to let you all know that I'm still progressing with this build. 

The business end looks great. 

plasticjunkie

The business end looks great. 

 

Tojo72

Moving along nicely

 

I did make some progress on my 262 after being gone for a week on vacation. Just needed a break away from work and all the ho hum of daily life around here.

Finished gun platform:

Great cockpit, Joe.

Guns look good, too.

Again, good to see you working on an aircraft.

Nicely weathered and detailed gun platform Joe. 

Man you nailed that metal finish  wear.   

Excellent weathering! Had my eyes fooled and I had thought one of your long barrels was up top lol.

Stupid optical illusions. 

Thanks you guys. It feels good to be building an aircraft again ( I do have my next automotive project lined up already though.....lol) .

Mike: Didn't notice the optical illusion till you pointed it out. lol 

Hey Mustang,

Can you talk a little bit about what you did on those guns? They look fantastic! I feel like I haven't gotten a good technique like you've nailed down here, so I'm looking to learn!

Thanks for sharing your build!

RadMax8

Hey Mustang,

Can you talk a little bit about what you did on those guns? They look fantastic! I feel like I haven't gotten a good technique like you've nailed down here, so I'm looking to learn!

Thanks for sharing your build!

 

The whole painting / weathering process started cleaning up the plastic parts of all seam / mold lines and then applying a coat of MM Metalizer Lacquer. Just a real thin coat is all that's needed. After that I shot a coat of MM Gunmetal acrylic paint over the parts. When that dried I took a toothpick and lightly scribed the flat areas and then applied moderate pressure with the toothpick to all raised areas and edges of the guns and ammo chutes. After that I took some ground up black pastel and dry brushed the guns and ammo chutes to tone everything down some. 

The bare metal walls and flooring of the gun platform was accomplished by a coat of MM Metalizer Lacquer. I picked all the details out with the appropriate colors followed by a very light acrylic based dark wash and then a light dry brushing of the ground up black pastel. Hope this helps.

Just to show some progress at the bench. I've managed to get the fuselage halves joined together. I've got the upper nose panels press fitted into place during the whole body work/ painting process. Sanding and filling are going to be plentiful on this build.....

One thing that I do NOT miss about aircraft building is seam filling in smaller areas. The seam line going down the middle of teh bird was interrupted by these small inspection panels in front of the windscreen soooooooo.........gotta take care of the seam lines ont he panels themselves. I'll be using my tried and true super glue filling method on these and I'll rescribe the panel lines.

Some more progress. In the last week it's been mostly build up and getting things ready for the painting stage of the build. Looks like the wing/ fuselage fit is gonna be pretty good on this one. Good ol' Tamiya kits....just can't beat 'em. 

Black based yesterday...

and applied the warble pattern today......

Looking for paint this week.........

I felt that something was missing from the prep work so I applied some black to the panel line areas:

This'll be the scheme that I'm going with.

and with the RLM 76 applied:

Was gonna do more paint work yesterday but I had the opportunity to work on my other and MUCH more expensive hobby. I replaced my insufficient shorty headers with a set of Hedmann long tube headers on my 94 Silverado. The efforts were worth it both in the sound and the performance department as it made quite a noticeable difference from my shorty headers that I had on there. The instructions called for removal of the starter and torque converter/ flywheel inspection pan to install them but I ran into issues being able to get that passenger side header in there so.....the engine had to come up about 2" on that side to be able to install it. So much for simplicity ...right??!! 

And the ummm......Hankooks got replaced by a set of BFG T/A Radials.......so those things depicted in the pic below are no longer there ....thank God. If you want traction....DON'T buy Hankooks.

Enjoy seeing your black-basing paint steps. Looking good.

Good to see the pickup, too.

Thanks Greg. Been laying down the first of the color coats over the last few days.

Got the truck at the muffler shop today getting the exhaust all buttoned up all nice n' proper. We're off to the carburetion conversion next......

Now working top side....