Endgame 1946 GB - 1/1/09-12/31/09

A quick update on my 262.

The front landing gear supplied by Pegasus is quite good, but as I had a Tamiya spare I decided to combine the two.

The Pegasus component attaches via a lug on the top of the strut assembly which includes the gear door, so I simply cut the leg away, and drilled a hole in the lug to accept the Tamiya component.

Here it is installed in the bay.

I need to do some work on the retraction strut to make the joint look a bit more realistic.

I used the Tamiya seat harness decal, as I figured with the canopy on, it won't look too bad. I also punched out some dials from an old Hase 109 IP decal to liven up the IP.

The bit of 262s I always hate are the engine nacelles, I always seem to *REPORT ME!!* these up.

I'm glad to say the joints are these are quite good, so I added a thin smear of filler between lines of Tamiya tape in an attempt to preserve the detail.

And here it is standing on it's feet, so to speak. 

I wanted to check that the nose weight supplied, (Yes even a Pegasus kit comes with a nose weight, other manufacturers take note!) was sufficient. As you can see it was.

Karl

Hello together

I just yesterday found this great forum and today I signed in.

I want take part in this GB with Revell's Focke Wulf TL-Jäger "Flitzer", 1:72 scale.

Is  it possible?

Best regards from Poland

Dirk

Welcome to the forums Dirk! Glad you found these forums. They are great. Yes, it is possible for you to participate in this GB. I will put you on the list for Revell's Flitzer.

RBaer - looks good, nice work

Karl - very nice scratchbuilding there... great job on the me

Matt - that is one sweet build. Great figures too!

Swanny wrote:

That's looking pretty sharp, what are you using for snow?

Me?

If so, the gray is MrSurfacer 500, added to fill and blend seams where kit parts joined in the same place the actual vehicle had mold and casting seams, and to add texture to areas that should have been rougher. I'm still not sure if this thing will have any snow or whitewash on it. It doesn't have any paint on it yet.

JMart, thanks for the encouragement.

I've had a day off today, so have had chance to get a lot more done.

The pit is now complete, and ready for install.

It's not going to win any contests, but it looks good enough to me for a £7 kit.

One of the biggest omissions from this kit is deck behind the pilot's seat, so I scratched one from plastic card, and added a couple of sections of strip for it to rest on.

I'll add some more detail once all the seams are cleaned up.

Talking of seams there is a gap about 1mm at the base of the fin. Nothing a little plastic card and some filler can't sort out though.

The kit front gear door is nothing more than a plank which sits in the bottom of the nose wheel bay, so fresh from my experience with the RoG 110 I scratchbuilt a new one.

I purposely made it different to the standard 262 door, as I wanted to suggest production changes on an early 1946 machine,for this GB.

Finally I replaced the kit main wheels with some spare Tamiyas.

I added the brake lines, and inserted short sections of alloy tube as axles for the new wheels.

RBaer wrote:

Swanny wrote: That's looking pretty sharp, what are you using for snow? Me? If so, the gray is MrSurfacer 500, added to fill and blend seams where kit parts joined in the same place the actual vehicle had mold and casting seams, and to add texture to areas that should have been rougher. I'm still not sure if this thing will have any snow or whitewash on it. It doesn't have any paint on it yet.

DOH! I thought that was snow on it -- my bad.

Karl,

Good start! Look forward to updates.

Thanks for sharing.

Karl,

I should have looked over the whole thread before posting to your previous post.

Looks great! I especially like the cockpit and IP not to mention the landing gear. You've taken a basic and really upgraded it without alot of aftermarket parts.

Well done so far!

Matt,

That's one sweet looking build. What kind of car does Klaus drive when he's not buzzing around in his sporty fighter jet!

Excellent work!

Hello folks

here some pics of the modelkit I will do.

I will do it in a natural metal finish and I hope, it will be looking nice.

Best Regards

Dirk 

 

Swanny wrote:

RBaer wrote:  Swanny wrote: That's looking pretty sharp, what are you using for snow? Me? If so, the gray is MrSurfacer 500, added to fill and blend seams where kit parts joined in the same place the actual vehicle had mold and casting seams, and to add texture to areas that should have been rougher. I'm still not sure if this thing will have any snow or whitewash on it. It doesn't have any paint on it yet. DOH! I thought that was snow on it -- my bad. No prob! I hope to get some bench time this weekend, do some stowage, maybe even, yes, PAINT!

model geek wrote:

Matt, That's one sweet looking build. What kind of car does Klaus drive when he's not buzzing around in his sporty fighter jet! Excellent work!

Tom, thanks for the encouragement.

Work has been busy this week, so I haven't made as much progress as I would have liked, but here goes.

I've finished the engines and wings, and attached these to the fuselage.

The joint between the engine and the wings needed a little putty, though no more than any other 262 kit, even the Tamiya offering.

The fit of the forward nose panel over the weight is pretty good, but only if you put it on straight, which I didn't! Must have knocked it while it was drying.

I also added the hinges for the gun bay doors, as well as drilling out the cannon ports. The panel behind the pilot I detailed with a couple of peices of solder to represent the locking frame.

I want this to be a long range 262 with the twin drop tanks, so I've added the Tamiya Viking Ship racks to the undernose area. I have a couple of Hase metal drop tanks in the spares box which, with a modification witll suit this build perfectly.

As you can see a little filler was needed around the fuselage joint, as there a slight step.

I rescribed the small hatches on the top of the nose using a home made scribing template, and a pair of dividers.

The airframe has been primed, and I'm now sorting out a few blemishes, mainly seams on the engine nacelles.

Karl

Karl,

Looks great. You're a far braver man than I scratch building and scribing. I need more practice before I'll have the nerve to try on a kit I want to display.

I too have had little time to build between work and my family. I hope to take some pictures this evening for my 1st update on the Meteor Mk 1 I am building.

Thanks for the update.

Very ince work so far Karl. The added details really make it look better. Looking forward to the next update. Are those R4M brackets I see under the wings?

Can't wait to see the progress on the Meteor model geek.

Here's the first WIP on my 1/48 Tamiya Meteor MK1. Progress has been slow as I've been busy with work and my family. I am building the kit OOB except for Eduard PE detail set for the cockpit.

I did some reading ahead of time on this kit. One item that was mentioned was the fit between the wings and fuselage. Even with repeated dry fitting and sanding I was still left with a substanial gap at the wing root. I guess I'll be getting some more practice on seam filling!

View of landing gear bay. Finished with MM Aluminum Metallizer and a sludge wash.

Seat with PE belts.

On to the cockpit. I was making good progress until a bone headed mistake. It seems that I can't complete a model without making one. In this case there were a couple of parts that I painted RAF interior green and formed. These were put in a zip lock bag for safe keeping. Now they're gone and I believe I may have mistakenly tossed the bag thinking it was empty. So I will be ordering another set to replace the 2 pieces lost.

On the subject of PE which I am fairly new to what type of CA is everyone using? I've been having trouble with pieces falling off. I'm not sure if it is improper prep or such small points of contact.

Thanks for looking. Comments and suggestions welcome.

Airplanes! Sorry, unusual for me.......

OK, a little progress on the Pershing, mostly stowage and the spotlight on the mantlet. The pics are lousy so I'll be conservative, but it's coming along. I still haven't decided if the drivers will be buttoned up or not, and I need to add a 30 for the loader and I may add another 50 mount for the commander. The giant bedroll-looking things are something I saw on a couple of pics in Squadron books, not sure what they are but I like the look of them.....

Thanks for looking, and comments are always welcome. And I really do enjoy watching the progress on the various aircraft, really!

Love the Pershing. Looks like it's ready to go toe to toe with a King Tiger. I actually built a lot of armour when I was in high school. I still have about a dozen of them still around after 30 years. My 15 year old likes to look at them and builds armour kits now. He's participating in a group build in the armour forum.

Thanks for sharing.

Tom, thanks for the kind words. Scribibg is actually quite simple, it just requires practise.

The Meteor is looking great, sorry to hear about the missing parts.

For CA I use Zap Super Thin.

Warhammer, thanks for the encouragement.

Rbaer, the Pershing looks top notch.

Progress from me this week.....

Seeing as this is a Luft late 45/46 machine I decided to go with an RLM 84 finish for the undersides.

I used Tamiya Sky, with Gunze Sky for the lightened panel centres as there is quite a difference in shade between the two brands. It may look overstated, but I usually undercook the contrast, not this time!

Next up was the RLM 82.

Like most Gunze acrylics, these come up slightly glossy, which really highlighted the fact that I hadn't properly hidden the top seam! 

I ended up scraping the top seam and sanding again. You can see the grey primer down the spine on non 82 sections here. 

Like the 84, I lightened all the panel centres, with 84 and a touch of Sky.

I did think about free handing the RLM 83, but wanted a factory finish for the bulk of the airframe, so masked up with good old Tamiya tape.

Is it just me, or does it look a bit like the Jamaican flag? Note beverage in back ground,Non-alcoholic obviously!

The Gunze 83 has come out looking more like 81, which is weird as I have used it before and it looked right. Think I might have mixed up a batch of 81, and stuck it in the wrong jar, not that it matters with this build.

Karl

Karl,

I really like the camo! Can't wait to see it finished. Also thanks for the advise on the CA.

Hope to do some more work on the Meteor this weekend, seam filling and building the engines. Also need to order the extra PE set to replace the lost parts. Looks like I'll have to bring them in from over the pond as Squadron.com is out of stock.

Tom, glad you like it.

I've done some more this afternoon.

The panel shading looks over the top in the above shops, but should calm down after a coat or two of Future and some washes.

Karl

Swanny wrote:

That is an excellent paint job, I'm actually jealous.

Stop it, I'm blushing.

Warhammer, meant to say, those are R4M Orkan racks on the wings.

I've finished the 'extra' paintwork, and am now ready for decals.

I'll post some pics later.

Karl

As promised, pics.

I like my late war and Luft 46 machines well used, and so the 'extra' paintwork had to be done.

262s had a habit of collapsing their nose wheels on landing, and many ended up getting a nose transplant, often without gaining a matching paint job. Too good to resist.

New noses were joined at the gun bay rear bulkhead, so I simply masked back from the gun bay and sprayed the lower section faded 76, with a faded 83 on the top. Many Kommando Novotny machines were straight 76/83, which is where the inspiration for this came from.

Collapse of the nose wheel often led to damage to the lower engine nacelles, with replacement parts being taken from old or damaged airframes around the field.

To add a bit more variation, I've assumed one of the donors was a 262 nighfighter, hence the black nacelle, with 76 on the other side.

With the paintwork complete I've started on the decals. This will be a KG54(J) machine as I like the Death's head badge their machines wore.

The fighter code numbers are by Tally Ho! and are beautiful, being very thin, and extremely opaque. These come in packs numbers in all the major styles, as well as Staffel colours.Well worth investing in.

I used a strip of masking tape to keep the numbers level.

In Brett Green's Gotterdamerung, which I can reccomend to all Luftwaffe fans, there are a number of training machines with the last 3 digits of their Werknummer, rather than individual aircraft number, worn forward of the cockpit, which I liked the look of. Most Kommando Novotny machines carried their numbers forward of the cockpit rather than behind as per normal practise, even more reason to do it here.

I've taken this a step further and assumed that with the chaotic war situation the same was applied to frontline aircraft, hence the Soviet style Bort code. 

Thanks 

Karl

KJ200, that camo is sweet! It would actually look very "futuristic" on one of the paper panzers....

Hmmmm......