Prototype Aircraft GB

PaperPanzer got it no smoke circle decals! I do have some 1/48 scale Italian decals left from a Sm79 that I did'nt use ,if ya want 'em pm me your addy and I'll send them. I do some of the mottle schemes using that dry brush technique it works really well.

The 309's survived the decal session(barely)one was almost returned to kit form ! I'm going to do some very light weathering and some slight exhaust stains next and wrap it up

TREYZX10R: Maybe you misunderstood, I am planning an Italian Scheme for the Dornier, (speaking of which, all my spare decals are 1/72 scale, can anyone recommend a good set of 1/48 scale Italian markings?) The paint scheme in this photo is want I want to replicate, not the decals-

Sorry if there was any confusion!

Thanks Paper Panzer,The Do335 is really taking shape and glad to hear the fit is decent . I can deal with the flash its 1/4 gaps everywhere that drive me nuts! Looks like you've got a great clean primed surface to put down the smoke ring scheme,I've seen those decals available from Mike Grant decals. Might be some other sources out there as well.

I've got the gear done and the front doors are a real treat to deal with,not! Decals are simply a nightmare,very brittle and even with a precautionary spray of bonder some are still falling apart! Some lead shot has been glued in the nose and the spinners to keep it from tail sitting. Hope to save what I can of the decals ,we'll see.

Nice TREYZX10R! The kit is pretty decent, there's a lot of flash on mine, the tires don't have treads, but they are pre- bulged The fits overall are okay, but some filling is necessary. I've made some progress today myself, clamped the wings, made sure the dihedral was correct, filled gaps with putty, sanded, and laid down a base coat of Euro Grey.

Unfortunately, there are gaps in the wing roots, so I'll have to fill those as well.

Finally! With sanding complete it was time for paint.

Well, now I needed a scheme. "Smoke circles" would not work with these colors in my opinion, so I flipped through an issue of FSM and came across this reader picture. He says how he got the effect was to "use an old brush, dab as much paint off as possible on newspaper, then lightly touched the model."

Now that I have my heart set on a particular design scheme, I need some advice on how to achieve this effect.

More on the way!

I got the RLM76/74/75  on ,the rounded smaller tail version has a slightly different variation on the top cammo,the lines are more irregular. I'm not sure about accuracey but thats what the instructions show and I ca'nt find any other pics to dispute it

PaperPanzer Looking great,I've got this kit in the stash how is the fit so far? Italian scheme would sure be different on that airframe.

I'm making steady progress ,hope to have the paint complete over the long weekend

Thank bish! I had a difficult time coing up with an idea, but I think I have an eye- cathcing scheme. I was flipping through my book collection when I found a picture of a Ju87 Stuka in Italian markings, as well as a Me 109. I decided since the Italians recived some equipment from the germans in WW2, and the Regina Aerionautica had some nightfighter units, an Italian scheme would look cool. I have some extra decals I can use...

Probably a base coat of grey with "smoke circles" in dark green or dark grey. I will have to paint some markings in though, the white cross on the tail for example.

Great work paper. That one thing about these type of aircraft. You can paint it however you like, but you still want it to be realistic. I'll be interested to see what you decide. I'm always looking for ideas.

Okay, got some more things done tonight, I installed the cockpits, lower wing, front landing gear bay and applied squadron white putty to the (separate! ) wing flaps.

I decided to replace the poor, molded- on pitot tube with a piece of scrap styrene tube with some wire in it-

The wings are now installed! It's beginning to look more like a plane now-

Despite being a rather simple kit (remember, it's a Revell, skill model 2) I was happy to see that the flaps are molded as separate pieces!-

While the putty set on those I had to liberally sand the sides of the front landing gear bay in order for it to fit. I also filed the interior as well, eventually it fit, but after cementing it's trapped in there permanently.

Some dry- brushing should make those details pop, that's it for tonight . More pics on the way!

By the way, as I was wrapping up, I began to think about paint schemes. Obviously this is a nightfighter, but I didn't want to put it in a pedestrian German late war scheme...

Lets see where tomorrow takes my creative side!

Thanks hope to get in a few more before the G/B times out,got a few others in the stash that fit the bill!

Looking good TREYZX10R! Looks like your making more progress than me...

Bish thanks!

I've replaced the front gear actuator arm with some guitar string

The wings were set to the proper angle and then the seams smoothed over with some putty

.

Side intakes added and gear bays painted RLM 02

Bish

 

waynec:

i certainly have an eclectic stash. just got the old amt 1/25 GENERAL 4-4-0 civil war steam locomotive. already have all the 3 1/35 german locomotives, a LUSITANIA, HIKAWA MARU, all 4 bronco 1/350 sino-japanese warships, modern german, chinese, soviet tank transporters, wood picket boat, 1/24 HUNELY, BABYLON 5 space station and a bunch of seaplanes. will be starting this which is also in multi prop gb after i finish VRC, BARCHINO, and MD-500. may also join spa gb soing wither chinese sp or DANA.

 

 

 

 

Mines positively pedestrian compared to that.

waynec

i certainly have an eclectic stash. just got the old amt 1/25 GENERAL 4-4-0 civil war steam locomotive. already have all the 3 1/35 german locomotives, a LUSITANIA, HIKAWA MARU, all 4 bronco 1/350 sino-japanese warships, modern german, chinese, soviet tank transporters, wood picket boat, 1/24 HUNELY, BABYLON 5 space station and a bunch of seaplanes. will be starting this which is also in multi prop gb after i finish VRC, BARCHINO, and MD-500. may also join spa gb soing wither chinese sp or DANA.

Mines positively pedestrian compared to that.

Some great work there nice, lovely looking pits.

I do have that Unicraft Stuka on my to buy list, but it can be a bit of a wait getting hold of there stuff. But well worth it given some of the aircraft they do.

Thats one crazy looking Stuka,I'm geussing it was'nt a tail dragger lol

I've fitted the resin inner wheel wells and they required a ton of sanding the fit was'nt even close! Then the tail was lopped off and the smaller one added. No locating pins on anything but alignment was good and the seams not too terrible after a dose of tenax.

Next I'll join the wings and tail feathers

Speaking of variant tails, here's what I found on Google, a "Super Stuka"!

It was only a prototype conceived during the Battle of Britain to improve on the aging Ju87 Stuka. Unicraft has a 1/72 scale model, haven't found any others.

Just thought I'd show something different.

Paper Panzer the office is looking great!

I started my pair 'o' 9's build ,one will have the alternate proto tail. The resin goodies look good

The resin parts are pretty clean

the IP are not cleanly molded tho

Well closed canopy builds so should'nt hurt too much

Thanks Bish and RealG! I haven't made as much progress as I wanted to in the past week, but I did go down to the hobby shop. Meanwhile it's mainly been prepping the fuselage and cockpits.

First two views of the Do. 335 nachtjager variant-

Now the cockpits- I painted them with a base coat of flat black, despite the fact that the Do. 335 isn't a jet, the cockpit detail is still mostly lost in the "coal- hole" effect" -

But with a bit of model master Italian Dark brown for the seats and silver to bring details out, a toothpick and red/ yellow came out to bolster the effect.-

Well, that's it for now... more later!

Paper, here a link to the Lerche on Luft 46

http://www.luft46.com/heinkel/helerche.html

According to the sites list of model kits, Unicraft does a 72nd kit of the Wespe and there is a 48th kit of the Lerche. But no idera if these kits are still around.

Paper Panzer,

The Lerche is basically a jet aircraft drop tank with stubby wings and tail group.  I think the hardest part to scratch build would be the faceted wing.  The small castoring wheels and the exhaust stacks could be sourced from 1/72 BF-109s.   The props would require a twin engined donor kit with counter rotating props - a Do-335?  I'll see if the Fruitbat kit has a 3-veiw.  I can't see a plastic kit manufacturer doing the Lerche, but never say never.  Maybe Zoukei Mura will give us a 1/32 Triebflugel.  Now that would be crazy!

Thanks Real G- its the Lerche, I always wanted to build one of these... maybe if I find Fruitbat's model, though I'd rather look for a plastic one. I think trying to scratch an aircraft would be rather difficult- I'll look around. Thanks!

Paper Panzer,

There were two other tail sitter VTOL designs that I am aware of.  The Lerche was powered by tandem DB piston engines driving counter rotating propellers, while the Wespe was a turboprop with geared contraprops.  I think Fruitbat made a 1/72 resin Lerche, which was very nicely done, and had a pre-trimmed acylic nose cap.  I'll see if I can find mine and take a photo of the kit.  The only Wespe kit I know of is from Unicraft, again in 1/72.  Based on what I have seen of Unicraft products, it would be better to scratch build one yourself, as it would be less trouble.  I started one many moons ago, but a simple measurement error at the start of the build resulted in an undersized model.  I only became aware of the problem when I tried to fit a pilot figure into the cockpit, and found that he wouldn't fit;.  I started a second one that was properly sized, but the fire was already out in me, so I shelved it.  Again, I'll try digging out the corpses and take some photos this weekend.

Bish: Perfect! Better add you to the roster and change the rules...

By the way, there's another Luft' 46 bird that I'd like to know about... it looks like the Triebflugel but is prop powered and is also a vertical takeoff machine. What is it and has it been kitted? Thanks.

(It appears in IL2 Sturmovik 1946)

I've just remembered that i have a build entered into another GB that will fit the bill perfectly. So if you are happy with crossovers, put me down for the Huma 1/72nd Fw Triebflugel.

Thanks panzer, i will let you know what i will be building. I have quite a few Luft 46 kits in the stash.

Alright, I started work on the Dornier tonight. Limited progress so far, I have encountered the most flash on any kit I have built to date. First the box+ contents-

This is the amount of flash in most areas-

Next the cockpits- all glued up-

A few trusty clamps and rubber band solved the finicky fuselage-

So far this looks to be an interesting build... the amount of seams is minor compared to the Stuka I just built- but it remains to be seen.

Yes bish, this GB is for prototype aircraft- whether or not a prototype was built or not does not affect it. The He- 100 for example, that would be eligible. And if the prototype of something that was used widely differs from it enough... well, you get the general idea. 

waynec: To answer your question, yes, the prop- powered Ho. 229 was the initial prototype to see if the concept of a flying wing was viable. That's when the Horton brothers stumbled upon the fact that radio waves do not bounce off that kind of aircraft, so as a jet- powered bomber and fighter it would have enormous potential.