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

Richie- Too bad about the masking issue, but honestly from the "after" photo, you can't even tell it happened- great recovery!

Got a lil progress to show. Got the clear parts masked and painted, will install them shortly before the flat coat. Also have the nose wheel on the strut finally. Will be doing the mains soon. Had to take off the mold line down the centerline of the wheels and then repaint. Letting them dry completely then will build the mains up. Had an oops after demasking the office area. Was so caught up in getting the Xtracrylix paint to flow that I failed to notice the corner of the tape I placed over the office had stuck to the fuse, and upon removal I was left with a perfectly masked grey area. begrudgingly put same said paint in AB and touched up the area and futured. Tamiya acrylic thinner works with Xtracrylix as well I found out, then the flow problems persisted. No matter how I have thinned it , it still doesn't flow like Tamiya does. Anyway, without further ramblings, the pics!

clear bits masked, interior color, and exterior color with the nose gear....

the offending area found after demasking office....

and said area touched up with no masks the more I use my AB the more I love it!! lol

Fiddly bits to go and then the finish line.

I am using the "...white fuselage letter “Y”, werk no. 170120 of the 1/KG51, Autumn 1944..."

Just looks so cool to me!

Great stuff Mike, and glad to see another 262 about ready for page 1!  Which markings are you using?

Thanks guys!!! Yes, the finish line is getting close!!!

Mike that is looking great!!! Love the paintwork!!!

Richie, looking really good mate, you got that future on nicely, much smoother than I managed. Stickers look good, that finish line must be getting pretty close.

Mike, nice airbrush work, I like the preshading, look forward to more.

Cheers...

Jeez, I put the same photo twice.  This one should have been included:

Howdy all,

Alrighty, I am getting close!  Finishing up the canopy, need to do the front of the engine nacelles, and a few little bits and then its to the decaling!  Not sure if I am going to try giving it a coat of future before hand.  I have not had what I consider the best of luck with that route.  I s'pose I could be doing it wrong but the best decal job I have ever done was on a Revellogram Stuka, straight onto the flat paint using the kit decals then dull-coated.  Looks great!  The worst was a Czech model ME-209 over future and then dull-coated.  Both the underwing crosses have since fallen off.  Hmmmm?  I do love the smell of future though so maybe I will give it a go.

Regardless, here are some WIP pics:

The underside has my biggest 'oopsies' of the whole thing so far:   I put the landing gear in out of order and forgot to put in lever/actuator in.  I tried to squeeze it by but no luck.  I gave the gear a bit of a tug but the CA had set pretty good and I was worried I would do more harm than good if I forced it.  Ah well....

All the paints are acrylic, mostly craft paints but some MM.  All were 'blown' with a Badger 155.  I am really digging that brush!  I am considering getting a second airbrush just to have a spare but that is another conversation.  :)

With any luck I will be decaling by the end of the week!

Enjoy!

Mike

Ohhh.. SHINEY!!!   Looking good Richie, you're really flying now with that one!

Got the "stickers" on and settled. I like Academy decals compared to the old Hase ones from the Jake!!! If they were large area ones like on the Jake I might have had probs but these went on easy peasy!!! A few pics.

....and got the two-piece swastikas purt near spot on I'd say

Well i got two coats of future on and will start putting on the decals shortly. Working on when to actually put my canopy on.   Anyhoo here is a few pics with the gloss on that smoothed out all blotchiness on the brown as hoped.

Coming together nicely Richie! The mottling looks perfect... well done!

Thanks Mike!! Glad i'm not the only one with Xtracrylix woes.

Richie the paint looks good from here. I struggled with the Xtracrylix as well, go down nicely if you can get them to spray, gave up in the end and went back to the Gunze, I have found they brush nicely for detail painting etc so hang on to them.

Frank what a pain having to strip the paint, which kit was it?

Cheers...

Cheers guys!!!! Hopefully the lil bit of irregularity on the 81 will dissipate with the future, which will be going on in short order after a bit of touchup with some more 76. Then decals yayyyyyy!!!! Then the fiddly bits.

Richie looks really good to me you nailed that paint job

Frank it would not be normal if you did'nt strip one of your builds at leadt two or three times before you were happy with it.

Richie your still building? Man your making Frank look  fast!

Soulcrusher

Bummer about the paint Richie, looks like you have got it licked!  Love the mottle, very well done.  Must be something in the air this week with acrylics- I have been fighting with my Tamiya paints all week, and guess what?  I'm stripping paint AGAIN!!!

Man it's quiet here!!!!! The end date is passed , but that doesn't mean the build is over, for some of us lol. Anyways, found out I don't much like Xtracrylix either. Tried several ways of thinning, and they either didn't mix up, or dried too fast and kept drying on the needle tip, even with my final thinning with Windex. Shot it last night/this morning and finally called it quits bout 3:30am!!! The manufacturers thinner probably would work a charm but didn't get any when I bought the paint thinking it's just another acrylic. WRONG!!!! Being it was the closest color I had for RLM 81 I was forced to fight with it and I think I finally won the battle. Here's a couple pics, any comments welcome.

Had some quality bench time tonight/morning. Found out I don't like Polly Scale paints for airbrushing at all!!! They are entirely different creatures, or is it just me??? Anyhooo I had a Humbrol tin that was purt near so I used that, took awhile to get consistant flow but finally had a good mix and settled down to putting the RLM 82 on. Tomorrow going to shoot the 81, well later today anyway. Here's a few pics.

Well had a bit of progress tonight, got the RLM 76 facsscimile on the bottom and sides. Nothing to write home about but a lil bit forward nonetheless. All the references I have checked point towards Tamiya XF-53, and Humbrol 126 and concoctions of many which I am not game enough to do consistantly. So I decided to get the paints I had on hand together and dab a bit onto a test piece and compare to the color chips I have from Luftwaffe camo & markings Vol 2. The two colors mentioned earlier weren't even close. My gf went to a market awhile back and picked up some old tins of humbrol and a few rattle cans for next to nothing. One of those tins was Humbrol 87, a close enough dead ringer for RLM 76. Problem solved! YIPPEE! Splinters and mottles going on next.

If you are still finding them then, no, you are not missing anything. Seriously, better now then after you start the top coats.

Thanks for the comments guys.

I'm sorting out the seams on the fuselage at the moment, something I always make a pigs ear of.

Even using CA & talc, I keep finding seams re-appearing.

Am I missing something here?

Karl

Wow Karl your build is inspiring me to build another better 262 That is some fantastic detail work you have done there.

Wonderful detail work Karl! I hope mine turns out that good!

Nice looking build but I notice he's left the horizontal panel line below the gun bay where Tamiya have you insert the shell ejection port insert.

Karl

Hi Richie and Spike -- thanks for the info. The latter would support this interpretation:

http://www.modelaces.com/148_scale_model/messerschmitt_me262a_1a.php#top1

which looks pretty darn spectacular, even if the panel lines have been highlighted instead of filled in. Frankly, this is the look I find myself wanting to create... The big question is whether the suggested mixing ratios to create 74/75/76 as supplied in the 190 A-8 kit are accurate. I guess I'll find out...! I should be spraying the 262 and two of my 190s in the same major round of work, including soft-masking the 48s, and maybe the side demarkation of the 72s as well.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Mike I had a little dig for my instructions but couldn't find them, I did find this though,

 "Red 13", W. Nr. 110559 III./EJG 2, March/April 1945, Lechfield. The personal mount of Heinz Bär. This machine has previously been depicted with RLM 81/82 upper surfaces, the upper surface colours of Red 13 are unknown, comparisons with colour photos of later aircraft in the same production batch indicate that it may have been camouflaged with RLM 74/75 upper surfaces.

Hope it's of some use.

Cheers...

Mike, my Academy 1/72 calls for 81/82/76 on most of the schemes, there are exceptions to these though lol. So I would do as much research as possible. HTH a lil !!

I have got to get me one of those, Karl! Woo-hoo!

For now, I have the beautiful Tamiya to finish and I've decided the only way to go is acrylics. This is the coldest winter in 60 years and I can't shoot solvent indoors, it's not healthy and not fair to the rest of the family. So my option is to mix the RLM equivalents in acrylics... I did some mixing today for another kit and made up a creditable Russian Underside Blue in Tamiya paints, so I'm guessing the suggested ratios in kits like their FW 190 F-8 are probably pretty close.

The Tamiya 262 does not list RLM codes, simply Tamiya enamels 'AS' callouts. I'm doing Red 13 and it looks like a 74/75/76 scheme -- can anyone confirm that? If so, I can gather the necessary mixing shades to finally put this beast into colour.

I have also decided that I simply can't bear to fill the panel lines! What I can do is only accent the hatches and surface divisions to stand out, which should hopefully strike a balance between the reality of the smooth plane and the eye's expectation of seeing panel detail on a model.

Cheers, Mike/TB379