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

Brendan, thanks. That's the direction I'm trying to go with this thing.

Karl, sweet Swallow!

Russ: Great work on the Pershing! I love the additions you made especially the .30 cal. Kind of reminds me of the late-war M4A3E8's.

Karl: That 262 just keeps getting nicer and nicer. It is looking very cool!

Well everyone, I belive I will be including another build in this. I am currently working on a Do-335B-4 for the Fantasy Fliers GB. While applying the first round of decals yesterday, I thought this fits all my rules so why don't I include it as well? Hopefully I will have some pics up of it sometime today or tomorrow.

Guys, thanks for the encouragement.

RBaer, the Pershing is looking stunning.

Work has been heavy this week, hence the lack of posts, which in turn hasn't meant as much time at the bench as I would have liked.

I finished the decals on Monday....

...the skull and cross bones is the badge of KG54, which converted to 262s in late 44 early 45.

I've added some stencils, as I wanted the airframe to look like a full factory build, but using late war austerity markings, such as the plain black crosses on the undersides of the wings.

The decals are a mix of Tamiya, AIMS, Tally Ho! and Eagle Cal.

Having finished the decals, I wiped the airframe down, only for two chips of paint to detach themselves....

One came off clean down the plastic, the other to the primer layer. Not a big deal but a pain all the same.

Once I'd sorted out the paint, all the panel lines got a wash with oils.

Once the oils were dry, I simply wiped the airframe down with a paper towel, and set to work shading all the panel lines with a very dilute mix of Tamiya Smoke.

You can really see the lack of wheel well detail in this shot.

I used the post shade to highlight the areas of filler on the real machines, as these always seemed to attact more dirt, possibly due to the porous nature of the filler.

To add some more depth, I added streaks chordwise on the wing, masking along panel lines with post it notes.

This allows streaks to start behind panel lines as they do on the full sized aircraft.

Finally standing on it's undercarriage, ready for the next stage of the weather process, a dot wash.

Karl

Paint! I added a 30-cal for the loader, and moved the 50-cal to the front of the commander's hatch. I tried to keep vision devices un-obstructed, only partially successful. So far, I have Tamiya dark gray for primer, then OD and clear gloss. Next will be decals, washes and then some filth.

Karl,

Really outstanding work all around and well researched and hypothesized.

Seeing all this progress on this GB is making me antsy.

I am still waiting for the Eduard Photoetch detail set that I ordered 3 weeks ago at my LHS.

Grr. I should have just done the 163 oob. :(

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

Hmmmm......

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

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

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

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, 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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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!

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 

 

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!

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!

Karl,

Good start! Look forward to updates.

Thanks for sharing.