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

[Lucky13]

Good start mate, I really enjoyed the '219 kit, a pleasure to build!

 

[Crimea_River]

Good stuff Andy. I seem to recall that one of the seat headrests is moulded the wrong way round. I sent Jan some info on it ages ago, so I'll try to find it and post it here.

I read that in one (and only one)of the reviews of this kit on line but I didn't understand what the guy was talking about. He said that he had to cut and turn the pilot's headrest 180 degrees so it would lean forward like it's supposed to. Well, it does lean forward without having to do anything so I don't get it.

One guy did say though that the foot rests only appeared on the A-0 variant and were then replaced with a different style on later models.

If you do find this info Terry, let me know.

 

[T Bolt]

Very cool Andy. And the way they engineered that nose weight IS ingenious.

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

I like that nose weight too. Good start Andy.

 

[Airframes]

I'll get the stuff posted by tomorrow Andy. Went to do so on Saturday, but couldn't seem to get anything to post, and then of the course the forum went on holiday .....

 

[Maximowitz]

...and while Terry gets his act together I'll post this well known image and add a few details.

This is a He 219 A-0 of I./NJG 1 at Munster-Handorf, the gentleman on the left is Hptm. Paul Forster, Gruppenkomandeur of I./NJG 1. He was one of the few Luftwaffe officers who saw combat in both World Wars, beginning the second with three abschusse with ZG 26 and later five at night with NJG 1. He was killed on October 1st 1944 while testing a new blind landing system which failed on approach.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Paul and Terry.

Paul, can you confirm the info on the foot rests? There are claims that the rests provided by Tamiya were only fitted on the A-0. Do you know if that's true and if they were replaced by another style or simply omitted? I would imagine that they needed to do something for the ejection seat.

 

[Maximowitz]

I don't have that information, but I've just posted a thread about it over on the Luftwaffe Experten Message Board - if they don't know no one does!

I'll let you know!

 

[Airframes]

Andy, I've found the article detailing the seat head rest. I'll e-mail it to you, as the magazine it came from has recently been publishing dire warnings about copyright infringement, including Internet use. I'll also e-mail the other stuff, as some will be too big, and not good enough to be useful on the forum's screen format when re-sized.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Terry. I got your PM.

 

[Crimea_River]

So, Tamiya call for the wheel struts and various appendages to be RLM 66 but wheel wells to be RLM 02. Other references point to 02 on the struts and link arms.

Any thoughts?

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Flying start Andy and as already mentioned, ingenious weight method. Be careful though, each time I've had a weight provided, the weight sometimes was not quite enough, so if you have room, I'd play safe and add a pellet or two.

 

[Maximowitz]

I got a big fat zero on the foot rests - zilch. Checking other sources I can find no reference to it either.

I shall delve deeper.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Paul, no worries. Have seen it mentioned on one or two reviews and I note that the Eduard PE detail sheet instructs to cut off the pilot's rests and replace with some that are U-shaped. I'll likely take their advice and do this.

Still interested in anyone having info on the colour of the landing gear struts.

 

[Airframes]

I'd go for the RLM 02 for the struts Andy, judging by the tones seen in most pics.

 

[Wayne Little]

I'd go with Terry on the 02...

 

[Crimea_River]

Yeah, I was thinking that too. Not sure why they would have switched.

 

[Crimea_River]

Back at it. BTW Paul, great new sig!

Today I finished the instrument panel. This thing is tiny as can be seen by the centimeter marks on my cutting pad.

The decals have been individualy cut out from the Tamiya decal sheet and applied with Microsol. After that, I carefully painted some of the red and yellow dial edges. I wasn't completely happy with the register of the decals as the white areas were quite "loud" and not very fine. I toned these down by touching up some of the dials with a 0.2mm black felt pen. While still wet, I dabbed Future on the dial and swirled the dab to pick up some of the ink and take the "pop" out of the white. Turned out better I think.

To the far right can be seen the compass which is a scratch built piece made from sprue. The compass on the real deal stuck out from the inst panel as does this scratch built one. After I glued the sprue to the panel, I used a hot knife to put a put of a mushroom on it for the actual dial. (see detail shot of actual panel).

Next up is the radar panel for the backseater. Thanks for checking in.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Holy <bleep>!

I really wish somebody would come out with decals of just instruments already cut to size.

 

[Maximowitz]

Microscopic attention to detail - nice work sir!