**** DONE: 1/48 Me262B-1a/U1 - The Jet Age.
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- Thread starter
- #62
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Thanks guys!
I make a dark gray for my rubber tires using a mix of Tamiya RLM Gray and Tamiya Black. My mixtures (approx. 1:1) are not exact or constant for this and it will vary from tire to tire.
On with the Nightfighter! The wiring in the wheel wells were capped off with a random rectangular piece from the spares box. On the other side, I used pieces of lead wire to dress up the fixtures a little bit. I get a little frustrated working with CA glue. Sometimes its hard to get things to stick, especially on painted surfaces. Is that why most people do their wiring prior to painting? Even then, I had some trouble getting some of the wires to lay down and I had to clean up some mess left over by the excess CA glue.
The wheel well was primed with gloss black and then shot with Alclad Dark Aluminum.
I've decided to show the wheels wells in a combination of natural metal and RLM 02 Gray so I masked off a portion of the wheel well and shot it with gray. I've also elected to show the electrical wiring as light gray instead of the yellow that the restored 262 at NASM shows. A pastel wash is applied to bring out the recessed detail and to dirty up the innards. As a finishing touch, I shot some super-thinned black along the rivet lines and seams.
Some components of the wheel well bulkheads were painted in RLM 02 Gray and given a pastel wash.
The rear wheel well bulkhead is cemented in place.
The forward wheel well bulkhead is secured. This closes off much of the wheel well but things will still be somewhat visible.
The upper wings have a bit of wheel well so they were sprayed with RLM 02 Gray with details picked out by handbrushing.
Deviating from the norm (but following the kit instructions) the lower wings were attached to the fuselage prior to the attachment of the upper wings. Fit was VERY tight and I had to do some minor trimming of the bulkheads to make sure the lower wing laid down properly.
Here is a closeup of the upper fuselage to show the removal of the top seam. The oval fuel fill ports were filled in with Mr Surfacer 1000 and rescribed using templates.
The nose cowling is comprised of multiple parts to allow the modeler to show the cannon bay. I prefit the panels to check alignment and it seem fairly good. Keep in mind that this is all held together by gravity and friction alone... no tape! The middle piece that represents the gun cowl hinges appears to be a little too narrow so I may need to replace it with some sheet.
It's almost impossible to gauge exactly what is needed with all of the loose parts so I am going to start by securing the best fitting panel first and working from there.
More prefitting with a piece of sheet styrene replacing the kit piece.
That piece of sheet is going to need some sculpting to make it fit properly so I decided to stop here for a while and take a break for lunch.
I make a dark gray for my rubber tires using a mix of Tamiya RLM Gray and Tamiya Black. My mixtures (approx. 1:1) are not exact or constant for this and it will vary from tire to tire.
On with the Nightfighter! The wiring in the wheel wells were capped off with a random rectangular piece from the spares box. On the other side, I used pieces of lead wire to dress up the fixtures a little bit. I get a little frustrated working with CA glue. Sometimes its hard to get things to stick, especially on painted surfaces. Is that why most people do their wiring prior to painting? Even then, I had some trouble getting some of the wires to lay down and I had to clean up some mess left over by the excess CA glue.
The wheel well was primed with gloss black and then shot with Alclad Dark Aluminum.
I've decided to show the wheels wells in a combination of natural metal and RLM 02 Gray so I masked off a portion of the wheel well and shot it with gray. I've also elected to show the electrical wiring as light gray instead of the yellow that the restored 262 at NASM shows. A pastel wash is applied to bring out the recessed detail and to dirty up the innards. As a finishing touch, I shot some super-thinned black along the rivet lines and seams.
Some components of the wheel well bulkheads were painted in RLM 02 Gray and given a pastel wash.
The rear wheel well bulkhead is cemented in place.
The forward wheel well bulkhead is secured. This closes off much of the wheel well but things will still be somewhat visible.
The upper wings have a bit of wheel well so they were sprayed with RLM 02 Gray with details picked out by handbrushing.
Deviating from the norm (but following the kit instructions) the lower wings were attached to the fuselage prior to the attachment of the upper wings. Fit was VERY tight and I had to do some minor trimming of the bulkheads to make sure the lower wing laid down properly.
Here is a closeup of the upper fuselage to show the removal of the top seam. The oval fuel fill ports were filled in with Mr Surfacer 1000 and rescribed using templates.
The nose cowling is comprised of multiple parts to allow the modeler to show the cannon bay. I prefit the panels to check alignment and it seem fairly good. Keep in mind that this is all held together by gravity and friction alone... no tape! The middle piece that represents the gun cowl hinges appears to be a little too narrow so I may need to replace it with some sheet.
It's almost impossible to gauge exactly what is needed with all of the loose parts so I am going to start by securing the best fitting panel first and working from there.
More prefitting with a piece of sheet styrene replacing the kit piece.
That piece of sheet is going to need some sculpting to make it fit properly so I decided to stop here for a while and take a break for lunch.
fubar57
General
Sweet looking wheel wells.
Geo
Geo
- Thread starter
- #65
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Rolling right along now! Today ended up being a cloudy/rainy day so I spent lots of time in the workshop. Before getting back to the nose cowlings, I gave the tires a pastel wash using lighter chalks to simulate mud/dirt in the treads. Not sure I'm completely happy with this effect but I can wipe it down if necessary.
I got my red "12" and WNR decals from Andy today... thanks so much! I've also saved the "12" masks from the 190D-9 build that I could also use. I am planning to use these masks for the crosses and swastika too but haven't verified the sizes yet.
Assembled and painted the Neptun radar panel that came with the kit.
Jumping back the nose, the cowling with the gun ports leaves a gap on either side. This side leave a more uniform gap so I'll do something on this side.
Using the piece as a template to replicate the curvature, I trim a piece of sheet styrene as a shim.
I'm going to glue it onto the cowling, finish it and then mount it on the fuselage to (hopefully) relieving me of having to scribe the joint.
The fit seems to be good now...
I got my red "12" and WNR decals from Andy today... thanks so much! I've also saved the "12" masks from the 190D-9 build that I could also use. I am planning to use these masks for the crosses and swastika too but haven't verified the sizes yet.
Assembled and painted the Neptun radar panel that came with the kit.
Jumping back the nose, the cowling with the gun ports leaves a gap on either side. This side leave a more uniform gap so I'll do something on this side.
Using the piece as a template to replicate the curvature, I trim a piece of sheet styrene as a shim.
I'm going to glue it onto the cowling, finish it and then mount it on the fuselage to (hopefully) relieving me of having to scribe the joint.
The fit seems to be good now...
Crimea_River
Marshal
Very productive couple of days there John. I got diddley done on mine. Weather was too nice to spend holed up in the dungeon.
I'll be doing things a bit differently in the wells. Yellow wires and no RLM 02.
I'll be doing things a bit differently in the wells. Yellow wires and no RLM 02.
Donivanp
Major
Great work there John love it.
Looks great so far!
Great work there John, that plasticard section on the Gun cowl hinge was the same way I fixed mine in GB 17 for my KG(J)6 262...
- Thread starter
- #71
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Thanks for watching guys!
Fit has been very good on this kit for the most part except for a couple of those nose cowl pieces.
Here's what the nose looks like after some sanding and polishing. I'll have to shoot some primer on this to check the seams.
Here is a collection of the small, delicate parts that have been modified for this kit including the gun sight, antenna array, pitot tube (fabricated from brass tube), DF loop antenna (scratched from a soda can strip), FuG antenna (whip end replaced with a piece of stretched sprue).
The landing gear doors have been painted in my normal way: black base coat, thinned RLM 02 over that and weathered with a dark pastel wash.
A view of the bottom showing the putty work on the seams. Like I said previously, part fit was very good.
Top wings are attached at this point. Some attention is required at the wing roots but I don't need perfection here since there will be a paint demarcation line here between the green wings and mottled fuselage... yes, I consider those things if it will save me some sanding effort!
The drop tanks and racks have been assembled and given a coat of black. Although the final color of the undersides IS black this is actually just the base coat for the tanks as I have more elaborate plans for them.
The tanks and racks are given a spray of Alclad Polished Aluminum. This will serve as the base for my set of chipped tanks. I will spray a couple coats of hairspray on these and set them off to the side to dry.
Checking the fit of the canopy... looks good except for a bit of overhang on the top fuselage edge, which is taken care of by some careful sanding.
After the wings seams are sanded, I attach the engine nacelles... fit is very good. The black paint on the nacelles was just a preliminary "check" on the glue seams after sanding.
The next step will be to clean up the wing root seam and then it will be time start painting!
Fit has been very good on this kit for the most part except for a couple of those nose cowl pieces.
Here's what the nose looks like after some sanding and polishing. I'll have to shoot some primer on this to check the seams.
Here is a collection of the small, delicate parts that have been modified for this kit including the gun sight, antenna array, pitot tube (fabricated from brass tube), DF loop antenna (scratched from a soda can strip), FuG antenna (whip end replaced with a piece of stretched sprue).
The landing gear doors have been painted in my normal way: black base coat, thinned RLM 02 over that and weathered with a dark pastel wash.
A view of the bottom showing the putty work on the seams. Like I said previously, part fit was very good.
Top wings are attached at this point. Some attention is required at the wing roots but I don't need perfection here since there will be a paint demarcation line here between the green wings and mottled fuselage... yes, I consider those things if it will save me some sanding effort!
The drop tanks and racks have been assembled and given a coat of black. Although the final color of the undersides IS black this is actually just the base coat for the tanks as I have more elaborate plans for them.
The tanks and racks are given a spray of Alclad Polished Aluminum. This will serve as the base for my set of chipped tanks. I will spray a couple coats of hairspray on these and set them off to the side to dry.
Checking the fit of the canopy... looks good except for a bit of overhang on the top fuselage edge, which is taken care of by some careful sanding.
After the wings seams are sanded, I attach the engine nacelles... fit is very good. The black paint on the nacelles was just a preliminary "check" on the glue seams after sanding.
The next step will be to clean up the wing root seam and then it will be time start painting!
fubar57
General
Looking good John.
Geo
Geo
I like it John, well done
Crimea_River
Marshal
Got similar plans for my drop tanks...
- Thread starter
- #76
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
I'm using my drop tanks as a test bed for the undersides. In addition to paint chipping using the hairspray technique, I am also going to play with different shades of dark gray/black to get some tonal variation on the black undersides. The tanks are a bit small for a proper test but it will give me an indication of whether I'm going in a positive direction (or not!).
nice work yet again John!
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Very nice work to date John.
meatloaf109
1st Lieutenant
You do very nice work, Sir!
Catch22
Major
Nice work John, looks like you've got your groove back!
