AIRCRAFT - "Prototypes and Paper Projects" Group Build - Still Open.

Here are a couple WIP pics of my Ta 183s, I had planned to be finished with these models be now but some unexpected problems at home and at my job really have taken a toll on me, the problems at work are being dealt with and I hope something positive comes out of all of this.

Now on to the models,





The Fw 190A in the pics is an old Testors kit that is being built as an aircraft that has been shot up in combat and made a forced landing.

Matrixone

Karl, superb work! Same to you Matrix

Thanks DJ!
Looking forward to getting those Ta 183s finished so I can start on the Revell Lippisch P13. I hope my conditions improve enough so I can concentrate on making models again, its difficult to try and do any modeling when you are under stress.

Karl,
Your Ta 183 is looking really good, not too much more to do on that one.

Two more pics of my current projects:






Not only is there problems at work and at home, two weeks ago my camera burnt out so these latest pics are taken with my new camera...a FujiFilm S3100, its OK but I liked the other camera better.


Matrixone

QUOTE: Originally posted by Lucien Harpress I got my hands on a bunch of RATO bottles yesterday. I got eight of them, complete with the mounting brackets. But now... where to put them? [image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/100_0449.jpg[/image] I've narrowed it down to either the left (one on each side of the wheel fairings), or the right (groups of two on each side of the fuselage). My question- which one would make more sense? Or, barring that, which looks better? Whatever I use will be translated to both sides.

lol Where will you put that thing after you finish it? That looks so cool and big.

wooverstone- That is yet to be seen! Hopefully I'll be getting some shelves soon, but after this I think I'll spend a looooooooong time concentrating on fighters!

matrixone- Geeze! The pics look great, but other than that things don't sound too good. Whatever's happening I hope you can get through it in more or less one piece. Good luck to ya!

I'm keeping an eye out for where I can put the contents of Condor's German Missile set (#2). I'm thinking Hs 293s on the extreme outer pylons, the Fritz Xs under the fuselages, and either the other Hs 293s or the crazy winged torpedoes on the extreme inner pylons. But, 'tis something for a much later date.

---edit---

My, how things change. Matrix, I appreciate your painting suggestions very much, and I can still use them. However, looking around the internet I found another paint sceme that I honestly like better than the one I've been planning, and besides, I think it just screams "night anti-shipping".

http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/axis/luft/bioll111.htm

If I can accomplish it, it could look really cool on a model this size. I think it just looks awesome. Whaddya think? Possible? (I know it's nonstandard, but the Ju 290Z is kind of nonstandard, anyway.)

Lucien,
That He 111 camouflage would look great on your Ju 290Z, the camouflage style seen on ''Alles Kaput'' would also look good but more difficult to paint, I have painted a few of those mottle paint schemes on some of my models and each time my hand was hurting and starting to cramp up when I was finished painting.

For painting your spinners maybe a wide spiral would be more visable when the props are turning, I have seen a couple pictures of some Bf 109s with the wide spirals painted on them and they look very cool.
On my RC airplanes the narrow style of spinner spiral did not work well even when the engine was at idle speed, the very wide painted spirals were very easy to see when the engine was at slower RPMs. When doing touch and goes at the flying field I got a lot of good comments about how eye catching my model was when making an approach towards the runway.

If there are any clear pictures of the He 111 Zwilling undersurfaces on the internet they might give you some ideas of good locations for mounting the RATO units on your Ju 290Z.
In one of my books I remember seeing a picture of a He 111Z that had some RATO units attached.


Matrixone

Matrixone- Thank's for all the suggestions. I've searched around the internet a bit, and I'm not sure I've ever seen an He 111Z pic with RATO units. There's really not that much out there about it, pics or otherwise. But I'll still keep an eye out.

I'll make sure and go back to the drawing board on the wider spirals. As I said before, this model being 1/72, even though overall it's huge, details (like the spinners) are exceedingly tiny. Total length is maybe 5 or 6 mm. (I'm assuming your RC spinners were a little larger). Not only does this leave less room for a wider spiral (mine were pretty wide to start off with), their diminutive size coupled with the fact I think the motors spin them a little fast does not make a good medium for a happy little spiral to prosper.

But, all this aside, I will try again. Something to keep me busy while the snow rages outside.

Karl:
Huckebein is looking fine !

matrixone:
those pix look sweet (as usual... great models & great photo work !)
best of luck with the rough spell, hopefully there will b blue skies ahead soon !

Lucien:
this is really a monster project u r doing & i am inspired by ur perseverance...
a lesser person would have probably given up on the whole idea by now &
stuck the kit away where they wouldn't have 2 look at it 4 awhile !
keep on keepin' on ! i like that paint scheme u found, too !

as 4 me, the 229's canopy now fits a lot better thanx 2 the styrene shims i added,
but i need 2 smooth out the putty more before i take a pic again...
i hate 2 sand, i really do...
the brake lines all dropped off during some heavy handling, i'll b putting those
back on again...
all my pix were deleted from host site,
hopefully i'll have updated pix soon !

frosty

frosty- Good to hear the canopy isn't driving you crazy. If I may recommend a possible solution for sanding:

-Get an old electric toothbrush that you don't want to use anymore.
-Cut off the bristles.
-Glue some foam rubber or get that foam tape that's sticky on both sides to the now bristleless head.
-Stick sandpaper as needed to the other end of the foam.

If you make sure and keep the sandpaper clean that sucker'll tear through anything. It's how I was able to finally get acceptable seams on previous projects.(I know it's keeping me sane for this one!)

I'm going to build a Fairy Rotordyne and finish it as a what if transport command aircraft with sand and stone camo and black under surface , Will this okay by you guys, And i'll even give gregers a prod to complete P1127.
Joanna.

Nice. The Rotodyne is one odd looking airplane. Helocopter? No, airplane. Airplane. Helo. Airplane. No, Helo! AIRPLANE! Bah!

Okay, I'm enjoying this too much. I'm sure the build will be an interesting one. Good luck with it, and to the fray!

The P1127 looks cool, too, if you can get him to start/finish it (however you may do that...). I'll be looking forward to it.

hi guys and galls, (and to Joanna who just phoned me and told me off for not finishing the kit, ) i'm sorry for being absent and will finish the group builds i'm in on.
Greg
btw, the P1127 is not far off done

Nice to have you back, Greg... Still have a few kits for you here!

Hi Domi, sorry i have been absent for ages. as i posted a few months ago things have gone a bit mental in my home lifs. me and bev are not together, i'll be moving soon ( i hope) and me and Joanna are, well, very good friends for now i have your kits in a pile in the loft. have not tuched them since the day we chatted on the phone. did dig out some aftermarket airliner decals for you too. i will be in touch soon via e-mail. and will e-mail you a pic i took of a wilga if your interested, i noticed your post on the vac build.
best regards.
Greg

That pic of the Wilga would be cool, Greg... Nice to see you back. Ned to meet up someday. Now that I have my driver's licence (!), should be easier! LOL

Hi Domi, i will dig out the disc with the wilga pic on, its one i took at sywell airshow this year (sept 26th) and either host and post here or e-mail it to you.
all the best.
Greg

Can I still come in ?... I just found a Blohm&Voss BV P-194 on my attic that had forgotten that I even had it.

DanCooper,

That Blohm&Voss P 194 would be an ideal model for this GB, welcome aboard!

What kit is your BV 194? The Revell or the Special Hobby?
I have both of those kits and that Revell kit is really well molded and looks like a winner, as for the Special Hobby kit...not so good, there is a lot of flash on most of the smaller parts and there might be some problems with the fit of the larger parts.


Matrixone

Thanks, Matrix.
The kit I have is the Revell-version, but to tell you the truth I don't even remember when or why I bought it, since 1/72 is normally not the scale I do.
But indeed it looks well moulded and I just started construction this evening, I dryfitted the two fuse-halves and I must say I have never seen two Revell fuse-halves fit like those before, a perfect match ; no filler required.
Unfortunately I couldn't get much done today, since this is kind of an unexpected project, I don't have the right paints for it, so I'll have to wait till tomorrow. Another setback is that I just can't find my cross refferencechart to see what Humbroll-paints I need.

DanCooper- Welcome to the Group Build! I'm not familier with the kit, so I was wondering if it comes with the huge cannon on the nose (I just Googled it and came up with some cool pics), and if you plan to build it that way. Either way it's a great looking aircraft. Amazing that it could fly......

After a slight debacle with the port fuselage roof (pieces cracked off where they shouldn't, new tabs had to be made- it wasn't pretty.) I think I got everything figured out. So, instead of the whole roof coming off (it wouldn't work anyway. The part is too warped and flimsy to sit straight as one piece.), the sections holding the turrets are now the only things removeable. There's nothing to see in the middle, anyway. Now just the cockpit and waist positions will be seen good, the only places there's any major detail.

Hopefully I can get a regulator and some interior paint in a few weeks, so the deadlock will hopefully soon be broken. Besides, I need to slow down and spend a while on the interior wash (the first time I've tried one.). Believe it or not, slowing down is a good thing. If I've had everything I needed, I'm notorious for getting ahead of myself and getting sloppy. This way I'm partially guarenteed better results.

Thanks Mike.
No, Revells BV P-194 doesn't come with the big canon, only a very well detailed bombbay.
This afternoon I'll get some new brushes and the required Revell-paint, although I prefer MM or Humbroll.
By this evening I should already have something to show, since this project will be OOB.
Actually I'm not really amazed that it could fly, since the bird would have had 3 engines (two piston-engines in line and a auxilary jet-engine for take-off).

Dan- Check this out-

http://www.luft46.com/bv/bvp19401.html

It has a lot of great info on this aircraft, including a pretty neat comparison digram Blohm & Voss drew up to compare the general characteristics of this and several other aircraft types, including single engined, twin in-line (aka, Do 335), twin with normal arrangement, enlarged Me 262, and others. There's also a couple colored drawings of possible operational paint scemes. Hope you like it!

I got an early Christmas present today, something a little different. It's an actual wood-and-fabric Fokker Triplane with 20" wingspan with rubber band "motor" and a provision for gas engine (something I'm not going to look in to.). I plan to save that for the summer, though.

Thanks for the advise Lucien, that link is already in my favourites

Anyway, first update :

- I assembled the cockpit (I really had forgotten how small 1/72 actually is !!!)
- the cockpit has been installed into the "pod",
- the mains fuselage has been assembled,
- wings have been assembled,

So far, only a very small amount of Mr Surfacer 500 has been needed to fill very tiny gaps in the leading edges of the wings.

I hope I will be able to post some pics tomorrow, but do keep in mind that this is some kind of "in-between" project for me

If I like the result, I might do a little dio with this little bird beeing towed out of a hangar somewhere during the automn of "46 on the Eastern Front.

BTW does Hasegawa still make a 1/72 Kettenkraft ???

PS, Lucien that Forkker, is it perhaps a Guillow kit ?

i know i've been MIA, but still at it...
latest pix of Ho229 w/ canopy shims & putty,
canopy dry fitted.


i will try 2 make it look a bit better...

frosty

Well, as promised ; the first pics of this little build.












Hey, by working on this little plane I've discovered that I like those weird Luftwaffe 46 - projects, maybe I'll do a collection of them

Anyway, these are the fruits of about 2 afternoons of "work".

QUOTE: Originally posted by DanCooper PS, Lucien that Forkker, is it perhaps a Guillow kit ?

That'd be the one! The Jury's still out on weither I'm going to make it acutally flyable (w/ rubber band) or just as a display model, cutaway. (Pro- won't have to fiddle with all that tissue paper! Con- would miss out on the actual scarlet finish, which I kind of like.) It looks like it's gonna be fun!

Nice job so far. I might just have to go out and get me one of those!

Frosty- The wing is shaping up nice! With the landing gear giving it that characteristic "squat" it really looks like a Horten! (That front wheel is crazy...)

Now, for my side for today- The last few days have been a little painful. (Single tear) Three of those beautiful engines that I've had to glue to the firewalls already I've been closing up with the cowling pieces. Now (especially with the cooling fans) you can barely see any of it at all! Ah, well. I do have eight of them, of course. One will definitely be opened for viewing. (Which will raise an interesiting issue when the motors are running. All eight engines running at their max speed- with some of the maintenence panels open? You know what the greatest thing is? I don't care!)

Frosty,
Your Horten is looking great! Can't wait to see it in its camouflage colors and markings.

DanCooper,
Very fast building is being done on your BV P-194, wish I could build even half as fast as that!


Matrixone

QUOTE: Originally posted by matrixone: DanCooper, Very fast building is being done on your BV P-194, wish I could build even half as fast as that!

Funny. I feel the same way. Only I might drop it down to a quarter as fast. Heck, an eighth. All would be improvements over my current pace!

Believe me, it's only because I have a few days off at work AND because I have so much fun on this little kit that it builds so fast.

Today I haven't been able to do much, we went to Antwerp today (about 60 miles from home) to a modelshop that is about the size of the three modelshops in my town put together.
I was hoping to pick up another Luft'46 kit, but my luck ran out , however I did pick up a nice little jem ; Dragon's 1/72 Do335A Pfeil (Golden Wing Series), including some PE-parts for the engine wiring, brake-lines and scoops.
Patricia bought herself a Tamiya Subaru Imprezza WRC 2002 for the upcoming Rally GB.
BTW They did have Revells Ju 290, but I really wouldn't know where to put that big bird.

Dan, great progress on that kit! Wow! Looks real good too! And yes, you should still be able to find the Kettenkraftrad in the Hasegawa range.

Frosty this is looking good! Looks like you had a major time with squadron putty on this beast! Do you know you can use Nail Polish Remover to help 'sanding' away, or rather smooth down any putty?