1/32 Trumpeter Me 262A-1a "Yellow 3"

[SANCER]

Nothing unusual to what you have us accustomed, John, ... I really like the cleanliness of your work.
A question:, what does JB Quik Weld mean or what is it?

Saludos

 

[turbo]

That detail looks terrific John!

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking very nice. One prominent feature of the wheel well that I hope Aires gave you is the control stick extension and the attached push rods for the elevator and ailerons.

 

[JKim]

Thank you guys!

Nothing unusual to what you have us accustomed, John, ... I really like the cleanliness of your work.
A question:, what does JB Quik Weld mean or what is it?

Saludos

JB Quik Weld is a 2-part epoxy that comes in two tubes. It has the consistency of toothpaste and sets very fast for an epoxy. Starts to stiffen in about three minutes and is hard is by five minutes. It's stronger than CA glue and it gives you some time to adjust positioning of glued pieces.

Looking very nice. One prominent feature of the wheel well that I hope Aires gave you is the control stick extension and the attached push rods for the elevator and ailerons.

I'm not sure what those things are. The cruddy Aires instructions doesn't give names to any of the doo-dads that go into the wheel well. Since I've built it a bit out of order, I'll have to see what I can place into the wheel, if I can figure out the vague placement instructions. I'm pretty sure the Aires set has what you are talking about... there are some stick things that look like push rods.

A bit of the seam clean-up on the fuselage.

The engine nacelles are almost complete. I've been cleaning up the seams as I go... doing the main longitudinal seams first and then the joint between the rear cap and nacelle. Once the front cap is complete and glued into place, I will clean up that last seam.

You can barely make them out but I've added semi-circular pieces of plastic into the handholds on the engine nacelles. Trumpeter molded them as depressions but they should be flush with the surface.

I've added spreaders to the engine nacelles to help them fit the wing better.

 

[Crimea_River]

They are probably there John as they are quite prominent. Right under the control stick, one rod extends to the rear and another to starboard. Here's a drawing from the manual and I've highlighted the parts in yellow:

The one going to the rear sits within the trough at the bottom of the tub.

 

[Gnomey]

Looks great so far John!

 

[SANCER]

JB Quik Weld is a 2-part epoxy that comes in two tubes. It has the consistency of toothpaste and sets very fast for an epoxy. Starts to stiffen in about three minutes and is hard is by five minutes. It's stronger than CA glue and it gives you some time to adjust positioning of glued pieces.

Muchas gracias John!! Now I know

 

[JKim]

Thanks for the diagram, Andy! I'll print it out to see if it corresponds to the Aires instruction drawings.

Here is a picture of the JB Kwik Weld from a previous build...

 

[Crimea_River]

You`re welcom John. I also noticed a small trough in your tub emanating from the control column parallel to the spar. That would be for the other rod.

 

[Wayne Little]

Great work John, good idea on leaving all the extra engine stuff out saves time and a hassle or two.

That Nose area is a fitting nightmare I think when you choose to close it all up...the whole lot fits great when you have the gun bays open as you can easily allow for the small gaps......looking real good John.

 

[JKim]

You`re welcom John. I also noticed a small trough in your tub emanating from the control column parallel to the spar. That would be for the other rod.

Here are the Aires instructions...

I think RP28 is that longitudinal control linkage that you highlighted and RP27 is the lateral one. RP29 and RP30 also occupy that central trough area. My problem is that I've separated the forward wheel well spar (RP12) as part of the wing assembly, which muddled the placement of those long rod pieces. That diagram that you posted was very helpful and it gave me a clearer idea of what those pieces are supposed to represent and how they are oriented.

Great work John, good idea on leaving all the extra engine stuff out saves time and a hassle or two.

That Nose area is a fitting nightmare I think when you choose to close it all up...the whole lot fits great when you have the gun bays open as you can easily allow for the small gaps......looking real good John.

Thanks Wayne! It definitely takes some adjustments to get the nose covers to fit ok. Interestingly... I noticed that Trumpeter thinned the panel joints on the engine nacelles, presumably to allow modelers to cut open the engine hatches. I wish that they took the same approach to the nose... mold it as closed but thin the plastic along the panel lines.

 

[Crimea_River]

I think you're right John. As always, those instructions are pretty vague. I have a pic of this stuff on a real 262 in my Squadron Walkaround book but it's at home and I'm 2100km away!

 

[JKim]

Thanks Andy but I have a scan of that book so I can take a look!

After some seam clean-up, I shot the engine nacelles with primer (Mr Surfacer 1200).

There are some spots to clean up but largely, the engine pods are done. At this stage, I have all of the major components on hand to do a major dry-fitting.

The big reason that I wanted to do this is to determine whether or not the weight I put in the forward fuel tank was sufficient to keep this model from tail sitting. I've confirmed that I have more than enough weight up front so I'm going to attach the nose panels and clean up that area before attaching the wings to the fuselage.

One modification I performed was on the horizontal tail stabilizers. Trumpeter has tabs on the leading edge that causes them to be at a lowered angle. I wanted them in a neutral position, so I cut the tabs off and relocated to allow the neutral positioning.

One question I'm debating is whether to glue the engine pods on the wings while they are separate from the fuselage or glued them into place after the wings are attached. I'm leaning towards gluing them on before to make it easier to address the joint between the engines and the wings.

 

[JKim]

You probably noticed the dark shadow around the front edges of the engine nacelles... sink mark! Gotta fix that!

The repair of the sink marks around the front edge of the engine nacelles was done using an initial globbing of Mr Surfacer 500, followed up by some touch ups with Mr Surfacer 1000.

Here are the engine nacelles after a finishing coat of primer.

I've decided to cut off the molded trim tab actuators on the rudder and horizontal stabilizers and replace them with brass tubing. Not 100% accurate but they look better than the solid blobs that were there.

I've not yet glued the nose panels into place but the wing halves have been attached with Tamiya Extra Thin. I did a dry-fit of the wings to the fuselage... I think I'm going to have to add shims at the wing root to address the gaps there. Boo!

 

[fubar57]

Actuators look much better John. I have a bottle of Tamiya Extra Thin that's almost empty. The far from LHS has a bottle of Tamiya Thin. Do you know if there is any difference?

 

[JKim]

Is it the orange bottle, Geo? If so, YES, there is a big difference. Much thicker than TET. Closer to the OG Testors tube glue than the watery TET. No capillary action so you have to apply to the gluing surface BEFORE the parts go together. But that orange bottle stuff is called Tamiya Cement. Maybe the Thin that your local shop IS Extra Thin?

 

[vikingBerserker]

Beautiful work so far!

 

[Wurger]

 

[fubar57]

Pretty sure it said just Thin on a greenish label, we'll find out Monday

 

[JKim]

If you are going to see it in person, just shake the bottle. If it is like water, it's probably Extra Thin.