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

Mike Good to see you're making progress. The little parasite is looking great.

Frosty There's been alot going on lately, so you're not alone in going AWOL from this GB.

Ghettochild The Natter looks excellent, and should look really good on a dio in N.Africa.

As for me, the Ju287 is currently parked while I focus on my stalled Do217, and almost complete PZL24G. Hopefully things will resume once the above are complete, in a few weeks time.

Karl

Here's some more pics of what I've done in the last few days-

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/000_0576.jpg[/image]

Here's the landing gear (one of four sets) that I finished a few days ago. The camera flash made the gear legs look brown, but I assure it it's really a light olive!

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/000_0595.jpg[/image]

Here's most of the detail sub-assemblies I plan to add later. In the back are the four pilot/co-pilot seats (armor plated), in the center are the two finished gondolas, in the front is one of the waist guns, and on each side are two finished tail cones (with guns attached inside.)

The tail cones were very fun to build. Each piece consisted of three parts (excluding the MG 151s), and they were all clear. Each one had a right and left half, which had to be glued with the MG 151 sanwiched in between. Then the frames had to be painted, and then a clear "bubble" needed to be glued on top (to allow to gunner to sit upright.)! Somehow they both went together with little difficulty.

That's the one thing about acrylic paint- if it goes where it's not suppossed to, you can just scratch it off, without any real repercussions. Which, I did a lot!

My underwing ordinance finally arrived this afternoon. Squadron came through with two German missle sets, each containing a Fritz X, Bv L10, and two Hs 293s. The real treat for me, though, is the small fret of photoetched detail parts.

On first glance the Hs 293s are obviously the easiest to build, with the only PE being tiny control linkages and nozzle detail. The Bv L10 is next, with PE representing some of the major tail surfaces. By far the most difficult looks to be the Fritz X. There are a multitude of PE parts around the tail, and all control surfaces are PE. A little daunting for someone who's never worked with it before. We'll see how it goes.

Now, the only thing left to order are the motors...

(Oh yeah, and that blasted spinner...)

I was able to set the Ju 290Z up on its wheels, if only temporarily. I must say, I think it looks awesome! (No pics. Camera battery crapped out at the last minute.)

Another quick update. Here's half of my completed ordinance:

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/missiles.jpg[/image]

From left we have a Fritz X, a Hs 293, and finally a Bv L10. I'm looking for a way to make them a bit more intersting. They're a little blah as is.

no progress on the dio. ive bought the shep paine book, maybe that will shed some light on the process.

Lucien,

Instead of painting the ordinance black to match the undersurfaces of the a/c, try painting them RLM 65.
I have seen pictures of German bombers that operated in 1944 that had black undersurfaces but carried bombs painted in a light color such as RLM 02 or RLM 65.
It would be very easy to add some light weathering to the ordinance to make them look good.

Three of my models are ready for paint and I will start painting them Sunday morning.
Friday I started on my Fw 190A-9 conversion, the standard 190 tail was cut off and the same was done to the Ta 152 style tail so I could check how close the fit will be. The Ta 152 tail is slightly too narrow and will need a plastic shim near the front to make it wide enough to match the rear of the Fw 190 fuselage, a very easy fix.
Last night while reading one of my books about the Fw 190 I found out there WAS some Fw 190A-9s that were fitted with the wide Ta 152 tail unit.
I will probably finish the Li P13a, Do 335B, and Monogram Me 262 and stop further work on the Tamiya Me 262, and the two Hasegawa Bf 109s so I can get to work on the Hasegawa 1/32 Fw 190A-9, it is one of those models that is very hard to stop working on once it is started.
The 262 and 109s will just have to wait for their turn!
I hope to have some in-progress pics soon.

Matrixone

Matrixone- Thanks for the advice. It may be a little late, though, as three of them are already painted! We'll have to see.

In other news, I was able to get the port fuselage closed up, and it is actually drying as I type this. I have a few pics of the cockpit before I did, and I'll post them tomorrow. Perfect? No. Good enough? I think so. Better looking than anything I've done before? Oh yeah. There's little detail in the middle section, and the paint didn't cover well there (the problem of airbrushing in 34 Degree weather, I guess.), but it'll be covered up and not noticeable once the roof goes in. As for the one with batteries, they should do a good enough job covering that side up, so I'm happy. As I said, pics for all in a few days.

I'm also going crazy on how to do the underwing ordinance layout. It all comes down to the fact that if I only use two types of missiles, I want to use the one I didn't. I've figured a way to put it all on (two Fritz Xs, two Bv L10s, and four Hs 293s.), but then I worry that this probably wouldn't have been feasable, putting so much on. Then we have the fact that we could put the Hs 293s and Bv L10s (long range weapons) with the Fritz Xs, (short range weapons.), and I don't know how feasable this would be, owning to the fact that they might cancel out their advantages. But I want to use the Fritz's too, so...

Now you see why I'm so nuts? Can any of you make any sense of this and offer any suggestions?

Lucien,

Sorry to hear you have to paint your model in such poor conditions, hope it warms up in your part of the country soon.

I spent part of my day airbrushing my models, the Me 262 was sprayed gloss black over the entire airframe while the Do 335B was given a coat of gloss black on the undersurfaces only. By next weekend they will have the AlcladII sprayed on, the Me 262 will start out as a NMF airframe with a very thin coat of RLM 82 sprayed on the uppersurfaces with the underside left in NMF, just like the Me 262 ''Black X'' featured in Brett Greens book ''Stormbird Colors''.
The Do 335 will get AlcladII under the wings and parts of the fuselage while the uppersurfaces will get the RLM 82 and RLM 81 splinter pattern.
My Li P13a was given a primer coat today along with its take-off dolly.
The landing gear and flaps of the 1/32 Fw 190A scale were sprayed RLM 02 and then I tried doing some pre-shading with some of the gloss black on the parts and later sprayed thin coats of more RLM 02 over that. The flaps turned out very good while the landing gear legs will need some light dry-brushing to finish them up. I was so pleased with the results of the pre-shading effect I also did the landing gear doors of the Fw 190, Bf 109K, and the gear legs of the Do 335B. All of this takes a little more time to do but might result in more realistic looking models.
Many times I have seen very realistic looking weathered models that look great and while the paint chipping, sun fading, and engine exhaust stains are well done sometimes the wheels and landing gear legs are spotless and in factory fresh condition, this is something I want to avoid on my models.


Matrixone

As promised, here's a few pictures of the inside of the Ju 290:

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/int2.jpg[/image]
[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/int1.jpg[/image]

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/Ju290.jpg[/image]

I call this one, "Look ma, no tape!"

The outside contours are beginning to take shape, and it's starting to actually look like a Ju 290! The only things that worry me right now are the waist guns. Unfortuantly they have to be installed before I paint the outside, so once more I'm forced to be careful, lest I break them off. I think I'll also put some sort of styrene "wall" in the starboard (battery-carrying) fuselage to safeguard against the accidental breaking off from the inside by shifting batteries. So far the fuselages aren't offering any problems aside from the few annoying grumbles any kit will give you.

Turning to the wings, I should order the motors sometime this week. I've begun painting the spinners for some of the props, and yes, unfortunatly I caved and just went with a solid 1/3 white patch. I kind of interesting (and unseen) effect happens with this, though. Due to the speed of the spinning white and black and those wonderful words "optical illusion", you can almost catch a hint of color. Kinda cool, actually.

Lucien,

That cockpit and fuselage looks great so far, I think I will have to get one of those Revell Ju 290 kits to build for next year, it sounds like a very good kit. The only reason I have not purchased one yet is the limited choice in markings for those a/c, I had hoped aftermarket decals would become available by now but have not heard any news about them yet.


Matrixone

Mike You're making real progress there now. I hope you've got a shelf big enough for that monster.

Matrixone Like Mike you've been real busy. Am I detecting signs of a developing Alcad Habit? Can't wait to see the finished article.

As for me, I actually did some work on the Ta, I painted the scratchbuilt front wheel bay doors, they've just been sitting awaiting paint for 3 months!!!!

The Ju 287 is in the final stages of paint prep. I spent half the weekend trying to fill a series of tiny pin holes on the underside along one seam all to no avail, until finally I gouged out the seam to a depth of around 1 cm and filled it with super glue. Et voila, a gentle sanding and no seam! All the other applications of CA to the pin holes achieved nothing though. Go figure.

The undercarriage finally did what it has been threatening to do, I snapped off one of the main U/C legs while cleaning up the wheel cover seams. Tried CA'ing it back into position without joy, it just snapped again.

Ended up drilling out the leg and inserting a length of brass wire, then drilling a hole in the tyre and inserting a length of brass tube. The leg now slides securely into the tube, and is a lot stronger than ever it was before. Added to which the fix is totally invisible.

The big Ju should go into the paint shop this weekend for top coats.

Karl

Karl,

Sorry to hear of the problem with the landing gear on your Ju 287, glad you figured out a solution so it can go into the paint shop soon, looking forward to seeing the finished model.

I am very pleased with the AlcladII, it is very easy to use and looks great on the models (but not so good looking when spilled on my hair, clothing, and work table), if you get a chance to try it on one of your models you will see why I like it so much. On a model of a 1950s U.S. Airforce jet AlcladII would be stunning to say the least.

Working on these Tamiya and Hasegawa new mold kits has been very enjoyable so far, too bad for me my modeling time has been so limited as of late because of working overtime at my job.


Matrixone

I got the day off school yesterday, so I of course took the oportunity to finish up major work on the other fuselage. Right now they are both in pretty much the same place, the only addition being the installation of the middle roof section on the left fuselage and front roof section on the right. I was able to dry-fit my most completed version of the Zwilling to date, and was very impressed by the way things went together. The entire model is extremly solid, and I may even be able to mount the battery boxes permananty inside it. There's really nothing left to do on the fuselages except paint them. This, however, won't happen for quite a while.

The next major step will be the installation and wiring of the wing motors, which should take me up until the time I can paint and decal everything. Then the fuselages will join the wing, all the antennaes will go on, and it'll be finished!

Matrixone I've yet to try a new mold Hasegawa or Tamiya kit, though I've got Hasaegawa's MkI Hurricane to start on for the BoB GB.

Mike The Ju290 is looking good. You better tie that thing down good and proper before you fire up those motors!!!!

As for me, I've been busy with the Ju287. First task of the day was applying a coat of Gunze silver over all the patches where I'd corrected minor problems after the last lot of silver went on last week.



This was followed by the pre-shading. This took an age, and my hand was so cramped up, I kept having to take breaks. Still that was at least an excuse to watch the rugby.



Finally I got around to a coat or 3 of RLM65.



Now I just have to figure out the top camo. The painting instructions supplied by Huma are a nonsense, as I haven't found a single picture to support them!!!! So I've spent my evening working through a series of photos, trying to deduce a camo scheme that looks about right.

All I can say, is what I have ended up with might raise a few eyebrows, but it is a close as I'm likely to get.

Karl

Karl- The Ju 287 is coming along nicely. I've never got the concept of pre-shading, but if it works for you, then by all mean do so!

I was able to get my order for the motors (10 of 'em) this week, and am currently waiting for them.

I was also thinking about possible projects after this one. Until I get some permanent shelves this will be my last really big project for a while. I would like to do an XP-56 eventually (second prototype, with the high fin. Swanny's got a review of the 1/48 kit on his website.).

The challenge for that one? Try the motorization idea again, only this time with working contra-props. This is possibly more difficult than the Zwilling I'm doing right now! (The fact that it's tiny in 1/72 doesn't help any.)

Mike, I've only recently tried pre-shading, and although I can get it to work fine with the lighter colours, I still haven't developed the lightness of touch to get it to work as well with the darker shades.

The RLM 70 & 71 are on, in a somewhat bizarre pattern that I think is borne out by the reference photos that I've used.Like I said the pre-shading didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, but I'll lighten the centre of each upper panel slightly to give the same effect in reverse.

Unfortunately the painting showed up an unresolved seam line just aft of the cabin roof glazing, so I'll need to remedy that first.

Hopefully post some pictures next week.

Karl

Karl,
Your Ju 287 looks good so far, as for the pre-shading of the uppersurfaces on your model using gloss black to darken the panel lines on a model that has dark colors like RLM 70 and 71 seems to work good, using dark gray or even flat black does not allow enough contrast to get the pre-shading effect.
After painting the inside of the landing gear doors and gear legs RLM 02 on my current group of models I pre-shaded those parts with gloss black and later re-sprayed RLM 02 on top of that. Then I drybrushed some RLM 02 that had been lightened with some white paint. The pre-shading and drybrushing really helps these parts look good, it adds a little more time it takes to finish a model but will be worth the trouble of doing so.

Because of many extra hours spent at work lately almost no time is spent on building models, but I did get the Me 262 and Do 335B sprayed with AlcladII. I masked off a few panel lines and sprayed a darker shade of AlcladII on them and it turned out better than expected.
Sunday the Me 262 will get the dark gray putty painted on all the seam lines and will (I hope) look like Wrk. #111711 before it gets a thin coat of RLM 82 on its uppersurfaces.
I will try and post some pics soon.

Matrixone

Check out the Aircraft section for some new pics of the Zwilling.

Not much is going on with that while I wait for some primer. In the meantime I've been fritzing around with stuff to try and get a workable system to motorize contra-props. I actually acheived a working model (using bits and pieces found around the house), the only problem being vastly different speeds, due to an easily fixable difference in gear sizes. I actually got a picture of it before the cheap mounting broke, which I may or may not post on the boards.

Here is a couple in-progress pics of my models before they get their camouflage paint, the light gray on the nose and engine nacelles on the Me 262 is primer, the airframe will get a thin coat of RLM 82 paint on the upper surfaces while the nose and engine nacelles will get standard RLM 81/82 camouflage colors. I am trying to copy the late war camouflage paintwork seen on some of JV 44s Me 262s that were captured at wars end, they were poorly painted with the gray putty almost showing through the camouflage paint.

The Do 335B will have NMF undersurfaces and RLM 81/82 splinter pattern on top.





Next weekend these models should be almost finished with the camouflage paintwork, much depends on if I get enough time from work to get things done.


Matrixone

The Good- My motors arrived in the mail.

The Bad- They don't have enough torque to spin the props.

The Very Ugly- In trying to get them to work, I succeeded in destroying one of the prop shafts, which means one more thing I need to order from Germany. I also need to send the motors back, and find other motors small enough to fit, but strong enough to spin the propellers. Bah!

Nice looking models, matrixone. Sorry, I had to get my rant out first.

Would the He 111Z towing a Me 321 Gigant glider work. After all the engine version of the Me 321 (Me323) did actually see service carrying supplies on the Eastern front. Let me know. By the way, nice Ju 290 Zwilling.

About that one above, I saw the first page, and I wrote a reply for that. Sorry if I confused anyone with that non-sequitor.

I guess I'm okay with it. Does anybody else have a problem with it? I'm not sure of the specific number of He 111Zs built, but it wasn't many. I give the green light.

ok, just 2 prove i haven't given up, i did a little bit of work on the
Ho 229 flying wing, added a few little strips of styrene 2 the wheel bays
4 added detail & painted the wheel bays a medium grey...
just about done w/ the sanding of the nose / canopy join, it's looking
much better now...
will post updated pix asap...

frosty

frosty,

Looking forward to seeing the Horten finished.


Matrixone

I'll try my hand at that Multi-media kit, the Me 264 Amerika Bomber. It could be a while, though, I've some other stuff gong on.

modelingmonkey- That's great! I've had my eye on that kit for a while, but I'd like to wait a bit for my skills to get good enough to do it justice. For a whole bunch of information on it go to http://www.luft46.com and click on "Prototypes".

There's some better news for me. I recieved the correct motors in the mail a couple days ago. So, I decided to wire them up and try them out. After a bit of finagaling and lining up, I got me an old AA battery and some old wire and - kaching!

It was beautious. There was minimal to no vibration, and you could actually feel a bit of a prop wash off it. I can just imagine when I get all eight going...

If you can't tell, I'm a little bit happy becuase of this. I have a couple pictures (one without a flash, and one with. The one with a flash has an interesting unforseen effect that's kind of cool.), but I'll post them once we start a new page. Dial up and big pictures don't play well together.

Alright, just to liven this place up a bit I'll put some more progress of mine, small though it may be.

The last couple days I've been working on getting all the anti-shipping missiles finished up, painted, weathered, and polished. I've decied to forego the Fritz Xs (sorry!) just for the fact that they, being just drop weapons, kind of cancel out the long-range effectiveness of the Hs 293s. This is something the Bv L10 flying torps don't need to worry about, so I put those on instead.

I sent in for replacement parts today, and have no idea when they'll come in. Probably not for a while.

I'm trying right now to find some liquid solder for the motors so I don't need to mess with a soldering iron, especially in such close proximity to plastic.

And, finally, in addition to the XP-56 as a possible next project, I also have my eye on a 1/72 Bv 155 high-altitude prototype, a very ungainly aircrat with huge wing radiators, really long wings, big tail, and a long slim fuselage. And who knows, maybe I want to motorize that...

Lucien,

Not much modeling done lately on any of my models, extra hours at work and catching a cold has taken most of my time and all of my energy normally reserved for the models.
Feeling much better now and hope to get back to building this weekend for sure, last Sunday I did finish painting the splinter camo on the Do 335B and it looks good so far with the RLM 81/82 over the NMF. Almost want to leave it as is and finish it with no markings or weathering.
My Me 262 is also painted but the thinly applied paint over NMF did not show the putty lines as well as I had hoped. This was something I had never tried before and it almost worked, if the putty lines would have been a darker gray it would have worked good enough. I will try this again on a Luft'46 jet next year, probably on a 1/48 scale BV 212.

Hope you decide to build the BV 155, is it the Special Hobby kit or a resin kit from Planet Models? I have the Special Hobby kit and it looks like a good one, although I don't like the vac-form canopy at all. Not all that easy to get those vac-form canopies to fit well. On Special Hobbys other new kit the Fw 187, it has an injection molded canopy and says so very clearly on the box.
It might be difficult to motorize the BV 155, sort of a slender fuselage with not much room for an electric motor.



Matrixone

matrixone- Glad to hear some things are happening, despite a bunch of hurdles. I can't wait for some photos.

I don't have the Bv 155 right now, but would like to get one. More than likely the Special Hobby one, just for the fact I'm not that comfortable working with resin. Besides, they tend to get pricey (although the Special Hobby kit isn't that cheap!).

I've started work on the actual scratchbuilt bomb clamps, and using some sanded sprue and paper clips I've gotten a pretty good likeness. I'll get some pics of it soon enough.