**** DONE: 1/48 Tamiya Heinkel He-219 WNr 290123 of 1/NJG 1 Nightfighter GB

[Lucky13]

Magic Andy, absolutely magic!

 

[B-17engineer]

You know its fantastic when Erich approves of it!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys.

Erich, here are some more pics as I close in on the finish. Like you, I'd be interested in seeing if there's anything new to come out of this paper as well. In the meantime, I'll just do my best to be as accurate as possible - or probable as is more likely the case here. By the way, I've now come to think that it is unlikley this plane had the rear radar coverage and am leaning toward your thinking that the double set of FuG220's in the R/O's position is probably wrong. Problem is, it's pretty tightly glued in now and I'm afraid I'm going to break something if I try to yank it out. However, I did carve off the rear antenna mount as can be seen in the first pic below.

Anyway, here goes with the progress shots. Since the last update, the decals have been set and another coat of Future was shot on at lunch time today. I'm now allowing the Future to cure fully before I shoot a flat coat on.

Overall shot:

Underside is next. The one reference shot of this plane has a very high contrast and the underside of the wings are completely in shadow and don't show these crosses, so it's possible these were not carried on the real aircraft. If evidence point to their omission, these can be easily sprayed over as I still have some of the mixed faded black paint. Also just visible are the aileron mass balances and the two little antennae for the FuG101 electronic altimeter set on the starboard wing nearest the camera.

Here's a close-up of the engine area. The exhaust stacks only needed paint close to the engine as the rest of the stacks will be hidden under the flame arrestors which are yet to go on.

Here's an updated shot of the rear fuselage showing how the aircraft code "T" now fits into the painted patch shown in the earlier post. The gloss coat has darkened everything so the variation in shades of black is no longer visible but this should come back once the flat coat goes on this weekend.

Finally, here are the SN-2 antennae all painted up and ready to be installed. The white/red striped ones are at the lowest points and were so that ground crew would not become shishkabob.

There's a fair amount to do yet and it will be tight to finish this weekend. Yet to do is to finish the canopy outside and inside and glue the pieces to the fuselage, add the SN-2 array, paint and install the flame arrestors, do some final work in the wheel wells, add the main gear doors, add the retractable crew ladder if I decide to do so (Tamiya cheated here a bit and molded the ladder in the retracted position, not leaving a hollow bay if you want to model it extended), add the readio mast and wires, and of course, spray the final flat coat and do some final weathering.

Thanks everyone for your compliments. As always, any constructive criticism is most welcome. Cheers for now.

 

[T Bolt]

Excellent Andy!!!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Still can't come to terms with that camo, simply stunning.

 

[Wayne Little]

damn fine effort Andy!

 

[magnu]

An absolute stunner Andy

 

[Maximowitz]

Yeah, not bad.

*weeps*

 

[rochie]

i thought Vic had the members choice sewn up but i'm not sure now !

amazing job Andy

 

[Florence]

Awesome. Just awesome. Great job.

 

[Crimea_River]

I appreciate the comments gentlemen. Thanks.

 

[imalko]

With all here. Great work Andy.

 

[Catch22]

Fantastic!

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Absolutely fantastic Andy. You did a wonderful job on her.

 

[Airframes]

I say old chap, stunning, what! Excellent job Andy, it's going to be a cracker with the final bits are added.

 

[Erich]

Andy

again hard to say of a Rückwart was installed or not until we have a closer photographic view of the tail surfaces of this bird, we do know a tail pole for the radio antennae was a standard fit.

impressive model will be a joy to behold when completed

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks again everyone.

.... we do know a tail pole for the radio antennae was a standard fit....

Erich, are you talking about the single rear SN-2 antenna mount or the trailing radio antenna that poked out of the glazed tail cone? I cut off the mount for the rear SN-2 and hope you didn't mean that, although the museum piece at the NASM has it on but without the antenna.

Remp says very few Uhu's had the rear facing radar so I bet my money on it not being installed on this rig.

 

[Erich]

yes the rear warning radar and single antenna-for the radio would be in place. yes as I mentioned earlier the rear warning was not standard on the UHU though it should of been this was the case of the crate having it's pants down when chased by Mossie intruders

 

[vikingBerserker]

What a stunner!

 

[Crimea_River]

Well, let's see if I can post some shots I took while the site was down.

Here are two shots of the some of the highlighting on the panel lines. It was done with acrylic wash thinned with water and dishsoap. They've been toned down and are actually a gray colour as opposed to black. Even so, they stand out a bit more than I wanted but look better now that the flat coat has been applied (not yet in these pictures - more updates tomorrow)

Next we have a before and after of the wing root cannons. Tamiya didn't supply bareres which you can see on photos of the real aircraft. So I fabricated my own with round plastic rod with the ends drilled out. Obvioulsy not yet painted in this pic.

Next pic shows the canopy dry fitted. Too bad it's not hinged as the fit is really good. I'll display it in the open position. The V1 decal broke up with the solvaset and needs to be touched up. The red ladder marks were added with felt pen and ran a bit so this will be touched up as well. Decals for these were black and would not have shown up whereas you can see distinct lines on the photo of the real plane.

More tomorrow - almost done.