ME-262: Reich Defender II 10/09-7/10

Vetteman, I have not been brave enough to try preshading yet so you're one up on me!

Jason, love the paint job and markings.  That is a beautiful looking aircraft!

Frank, you're mad I say.  Stark raving lunatic mad but I love what you're doing!!! 

Jason - I really like the scheme on that one... nice job. Looking through my decal collection for some spares and found that sheet. The blue and whit really stands out. Keep us updated.

Randy - Nice work on the preshading. I have always wanted to try that technique but was afraid of screwing up and haveing to start over. Props to you for giving it a try.

Frank - I haven't been keeping up here so I must have missed you starting another 1/144 Swalbe. And with radar antenna too! And filling gaps with styrene? Now you're just showing off. Seriously, nice work. I envy your talents sir.

Quick update on the tiny 262B...

Wings are on, and the gaps filled.  I used this strips of .005 styrene to fill the major gaps, then trimmed those down and filled the rest with Tamiya putty.

Next up, canopy masking YIKES!  A lot of tiny frames on this one compared to the -1a.

Welcome back Jason, glad to see you here again!  Love that jet, some of the coolest markings it ever wore IMHO.  Which kit is this one again?

Randy- Looks like you've got the preshading down!  The rather unevenness of it will help give you a convincing shaded look.  I think you are well on your way to a great paint job.

Thanks for the warm Welcome Back.

Vette- You are right. I need to quit Puzzyfooting around and finish her.

Mike- great observation. Yes I am missing the front engine cones, its all part of an evil plan!!! (insert evil laugh here)

Cheers & Semper Fi-Jason

Randy that pre-shade looks good enough to me, keep up the good work.

Jason it's good to see you again. Your paint looks really good from here. I do all kinds of stuff on my builds, I'm a big fan of post it notes, just lay them on a few panel lines and spray some slightly darker base colour to break up the lines etc, that works well on the control surfaces. I use some Tamiya pastels around the ejector chutes and I'm gonna get a few more Lifecolor Tensocrom which are fantastic to apply just with a small brush and they clean up a doddle with water. Just do what you fancy but build it up slowly and I think you'll be a happy guy. I did wonder are you missing the front of the engines?

Cheers...

CallSignOWL Hey thanks for the heads up there,  the missed preshading has been corrected this morning. Also touched up some other places while the AB was loaded up. Always better to have more than one pair of eyes looking at a model.

Evil Herc glad to see you back, your build is looking good. Did you preshade your build ? I ask because the panel lines look really good and it looks faded in places too. I always get all kinds of nervous when I get ready to weather one of my builds especially when I really like the paint job. But as my Daddy always told me " No guts, no glory " So I tend to dive right in and go for the gusto so to speak.

I will be painting the base colors on my 262 today, and not being too familiar with German camo so I hope I get the colors in the right places. My second build coming back to the hobby was a LInberg Stuka that the colors are not right on but it looks cool anyway. Hopefully I will have some pictures to post this evening.

Wow... I have been away to long. Some really good looking builds here.

Frank, hope you don't mind if I join back in and start posting pics again at this late date.

I have almost finished my 262... she has paint on her & decals. I am wanting to do some post shading and weathering to her but am so scared of messing it up.

Comments are always welcome. I need all the help I can Get.

Cheers & Semper Fi-Jason

Looking good, Ive been watching this GB for a while (school has put my modeling on haitus for right now), and I'm thinking the next kit I'm going to get will be an ME-262!! Man, you guys have some awesome planes here!

vetteman42:  i noticed that you pre-shaded the line of the elevator hinge on the top of your bird, but not on the bottom...did you miss that, or was that done on purpose?

Thanks guys your kind words are great encouragement for me, really means a lot. I do have more WIP pictures for ya. Got her primed today and preshaded, I used a white primer and flat black for the preshading. I am by no means a pro with an airbrush and as you will see in the pictures I got better as I went along. The left wing looks much better than the right. Tomorrow the base colors start going on, I will be using Model Masters Acryl RLM 74, 75, and 76.

Comments good or bad are welcomed and encouraged how else will I learn ya know.

Randy, looks like your winning the battle with this one, I wouldn't know you'd had trouble with the canopy, it looks spot on .

Cheers...

Man, that's a lot of work you have put into that one Randy!  I too cannot wait to see some paint on her.

Loking good Vettman and you have put a lot of work into it. Cant wait to see some paint on it

Steve

Thanks for the eye candy TK Models that 2 seater is interesting.

Ok here goes guys, some WIP pictures of my 262. She is ready for painting now, I took these pictures just before masking was done. As you can see it did take a bit of putty and Mr Surfacer to clean up gaps and such but I think it will come out well. I decided to go with a closed canopy and had a lot of trouble getting the center section of the canopy to fit, turns out it was too long and a bit too tall. Took a few hours of sanding and fitting, then sanding some more, it isn't perfect but will do I think. If the weather is warmer tomorrow the primer will go on.

Nice stuff TK, I like the two seater especially, well done on the squiggle.

Cheers...

Here's some of my small scale 262's from the past couple years. Enjoy! All have pe seatbelts added and I did some scratchbuilding in the gear wells. I opened the canopy and used a vac from hood on the second.

Revell 1/72 Me 262 A's and 262 B

I believe this is Planet Models' 262 3 seater in resin. I added fuel tanks from my spares.

Fran, looks great on both builds. I cant get the belts right on a 1/48 so I know that was a lot of detail and frustrating to get them looking so good. Good stuff my friend

Steve

Looking good Frank, that 1/144 makes me squint even looking on my monitor! I look forward to seeing more progress.

Cheers...

Right on buddy, signal received and returned!

PM inbound Frank!

                                                                                                                  Soulcrusher

I have made some progress this weekend on the 1/32 and 1/144 ME-262's.  On the little one, the cockpits are finished, engine nacelles glued, and most of the pre-painting is done.  The aluminum interior was a PITA to mask and paint (trying to mask the cockpits for the aluminum undersides and RLM 66 interiors was tricky!)

On the Trumpeter 1/32 kit, I assembled the engines, thankfully installing them while the glue dried into the nacelles to be sure they fit later.  A good tip!  Also painted the exhaust "onions", intakes, and exhausts.  Still have some weathering to do on these parts.  I also finished assembling the gear bay bits and gave them a squirt of aluminum too.  More to come!

Looking aft...

Looking forward...

Frank your a glutton for punishment. More power to ya

Steve

Thanks guys, I think you're all correct- I am nuts!  What was I thinking?  Well, too late now- work has begun.  More pics soon!

Thanks Randy, I'm chuffed everyone has taken so well to striped finish. Can't wait to see more of yours.

Frank that looks like a real good reason to break out the 'velocity', scary scary stuff

Cheers...

Frank, OMFG you are a sadist. I have to try one of those.

Randy, every picture I have ever seen of a 262 shows uneven panels on the nose so don't worry about getting it "perfect".  Congrats on a 1000 posts.

I have done very little on the Mistel.  I was sick at the beginning of last week and this working thing and house hunting is really cutting into my bench time. 

JOHN

Spike190 man yours is a build to be proud of, I really like the camo and am thinking if I do another 262 I will copy your example.  Very well done

Daywalker are you kidding me ??? You are doing another super micro mini 262 ?? I cant even see the PE fret in the picture man. My hat goes off to you sir, cant wait to see what you do with this one.

Thanks guys for the kind words. And Mike is sayin I have a craftsman's eyes ? Nah just lots of practice using putty building mostly Revell and Monogram kits. Of course I have found that using Bondo Glazing putty is much easier to work with and sands better than the other puttys I have been using.  Should have some more progress pictures up later in the week, the build seems to be going pretty fast now. If I get lucky may get to start painting next week

(Shaking head in wonder...) Frank, I swear your infamous giant penny is getting bigger...

Cheers, Mike

LOL, you're absolutely right Mike- I am a glutton for punishment.  Must be that masochistic streak I have...

And you're right about the microscope too- I use a 50x 'scope to detail the tiny parts.  Here's the fuselage halves taped together, along with the added details to the office.  I used a few tiny strips of Tamiya tape for the belts, some brass wire for the control sticks, and a jeweler's beading tool set to add the gauge detail.

You can also see the tiny photoetch fret included in the kit.  Those antenna are a PITA in 1/48, can only imagine what they're gonna be like in 1/144.

And finally, a photo showing it next to "White 17", the other 1/144 kit I built and painted in the wrong colors!  Oh, well...

The 262B in KG(J)54 colors, is that the one with the white "Z" on the nose?  I'd love to see another two-seater here.

Randy -- you have a craftsman's eye for the application of filler!

Frank -- you're a glutton for punishment, you know that? You must use a microscope...

My Hasegawa 1:72 Me 262 B/1a KG(J)54 arrived and I'm tempted to try to knock this one off too. The Tamiya will be back on the bench for paintwork in the near future, that's a promise!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Randy- Man, that kit is a putty machine!  I can tell you have put some serious effort into this one already.  Looking forward to the next set of WIP pics!

On a side note, I pulled out another one of those 1/144 Eduard -262s last night, this time the two-seat "B" model.  This little thing even has PE radar poles on the nose!  Tiny to say the least.  I'll get a pic or two up later tonight.