Westfield Charlie
Airman 1st Class
He162 A-2, 1/48, Tamiya model
Back in February, inspired by Klaus H's amazing 1/32 He-162, I decided to take advantage of the Lake Effect snow and heat up the basement workroom sufficiently to tackle the Tamiya 1/48 kit. It was way too cold outside for a rattle can, and I don't use an airbrush, so everything was going to be hand painted. I read through Airframes' Brush Painting treatise twice, and kept a hard copy next to me as I went along. I was amazed at how much difference doing things the "right way" made.
Long story short, much intervened, and I finally completed the model about a week ago. Took photos (again old fashioned celluloid 33mm that I had to send out for development)--you may be getting the impression I'm a retrogrouch--and I have four decent photos to display. I built Staffelkapitan Oberleutnant Karl-Emil Demuth's Staffel 3, Jagdeshwader 1, He-162 A-2 as it appeared in May, 1945, in Leck, near the Danish border, shortly before the field and aircraft was captured by the British.
It's pretty much an out of the box build, I was working on improving my painting techniques, but I couldn't resist adding some tubular additions to the engine, using red and blue plastic-coated electrical wire. I know it's nowhere in the same league as most of the incredible models I've seen on this site, but I thought that showing it, warts and all, might inspire other newbie builders to improve their own skills and attempt something new themselves. One important note for anyone wanting to build this kit with the engine installed and showing in the aircraft as I did--the weight provided by Tamiya will not balance the bird if you do, and you will need to add additional weight forward.
Back in February, inspired by Klaus H's amazing 1/32 He-162, I decided to take advantage of the Lake Effect snow and heat up the basement workroom sufficiently to tackle the Tamiya 1/48 kit. It was way too cold outside for a rattle can, and I don't use an airbrush, so everything was going to be hand painted. I read through Airframes' Brush Painting treatise twice, and kept a hard copy next to me as I went along. I was amazed at how much difference doing things the "right way" made.
Long story short, much intervened, and I finally completed the model about a week ago. Took photos (again old fashioned celluloid 33mm that I had to send out for development)--you may be getting the impression I'm a retrogrouch--and I have four decent photos to display. I built Staffelkapitan Oberleutnant Karl-Emil Demuth's Staffel 3, Jagdeshwader 1, He-162 A-2 as it appeared in May, 1945, in Leck, near the Danish border, shortly before the field and aircraft was captured by the British.
It's pretty much an out of the box build, I was working on improving my painting techniques, but I couldn't resist adding some tubular additions to the engine, using red and blue plastic-coated electrical wire. I know it's nowhere in the same league as most of the incredible models I've seen on this site, but I thought that showing it, warts and all, might inspire other newbie builders to improve their own skills and attempt something new themselves. One important note for anyone wanting to build this kit with the engine installed and showing in the aircraft as I did--the weight provided by Tamiya will not balance the bird if you do, and you will need to add additional weight forward.
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