Revell Heinkel He 219

[spitfire]

The first thing to note is that I do not do German stuff at all but was intrigued by Mike's review of the Revell 1/32 scale Heinkel, it's my normal scale but for twin engined aircraft I normally drop down to 1/48 scale as they can be a bit large in 1/32 scale, here's Mike's review http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234929128-heinkel-he-219a-7-uhu-132-revell/ just to further wet my appetite Iain decided to do a quick build of the same kit http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234929148-revells-new-132-he-219-uhu/#entry1162026, and there were further reviews on other modelling websites which were very favourable.

I thought no more of it until people started to contribute to the 2012 yearbook, when I looked back I found that I had completed just one kit in 2012, it wasn't a case of starting several kits and finishing only one, I had only started 2 kits.

Drastic action was called for, I needed a subject that I had minimal interest in so that I would not agonise over accuracy issues, either of the kit or it's painting, something that was mainstream and would actually fit together without a fight, and something that I could build straight from the box fairly rapidly, the big Heinkel seemed the perfect answer and one was duly purchased.

I have been saving up progress photographs until I was sure that it would not end up in the bin, so this could seem like faster build than it really is, the start date was just after Christmas.

I'm sure everyone has seen the box but here it is again.

And the contents

The very comprehensive instructions that I had to colour code with a highlighter to find parts, there are a lot of them!

More soon

Cheers

Dennis

[spitfire]

While not losing any sleep over this one I wanted it to be as accurate as possible so I consulted my reference material, I did build up quite a few reference books on German subjects before I retired but the He 219 was not on my agenda then, even though I do have a nice 1/48 scale Tamiya kit in the loft.
No luck with my copy of “German Aircraft Interiors Vol 1” by Merrick as it covers day fighters( what happened to Vol 2), my “Luftwaffe Colours 1935-1945” has a couple of diagrams but that is it really.

So I searched the web and found some nice build articles by Ted Taylor, Dieter Weigmann, and Brett Green (plus Iain's build here on Britmodeller) but I wanted more information than these could provide, so I sent away for these.

I just wish NASM would get their fingers out and complete the restoration of their 219 !

Checking through my paints I had everything but matt RLM 02 so I sent away for a couple of tins from Hannants (Xtracolor X409)

Then I started to cut off and clean up all the parts that required to be painted with RLM 66, which was quite a few, this is were I started to colour code the instructions to help me find where the parts where on the sprues.

Then it was out with the trusty Badger 200 and a 50:50 mix of RLM 66 (Xtracolor X203) and away we went

Cheers

Dennis

[spitfire]

Revell have been dead clever and moulded one of the side walls in the cockpit in clear plastic, so before everything was airbrushed with RLM 66 I painted the inside of this part white, the white paint filled the little rows of switches, the excess white was scraped off and then a coat of black was applied, this was very effective when viewed from the cockpit side, all I had to do then was mask off the rows on the cockpit side and airbrush the RLM 66.

Then all the parts that needed to be painted with RLM 02 were cut off, cleaned up and mounted ready to be painted again there are lots of these parts, to make it easier the main undercarriage units where built up first, these went together really well and yes I did notice that they were in the extended position.

And more

Cheers

Dennis

Edited February 1, 2013 by spitfire

[ice35]

Good luck i will be following your build as i have this kit and those books just waiting to be built.

Richard

[spitfire]

Thanks for that it's a very nice kit and is going together really well.

Time to start work on the cockpit, at this point you really need to identify which aircraft you are building as there are alternative parts for the different aircraft that can be modelled, I chose the first one on the instruction sheet. Heinkel He 219A-7 of 3./NJG 3 at Grove, Denmark, April 1945, so some surgery was required on the radar fit.

All the various knobs, switches and where necessary instrument dial surrounds were painted, for this I use a cocktail stick instead of a paint brush, I find this a lot easier and more accurate.

Then on with applying all the instrument dial decals to the instrument panel and the cockpit side panels, as I do this anyway it was no great hardship. But beware the instructions have got this bit wrong so I followed Brett Green’s build and applied them in the order that they are in on the decal sheet. As normal I put a spot of Klear on the spot where the decal was going on, applied the decal, pressed it down with a cotton bud, and then applied a spot of Klear on top of the decal. The photos of the real aircraft interior show a range of other placards dotted around the cockpit, so I wanted to replicate them as much as possible without getting too serious. I remembered Mike doing a review of some Luftwaffe cockpit placards from airscale and thought that they would be really handy, I remembered buying some but when I checked I had only bought the Allied ones (of course), so there was a bit of a delay while I waited for these to arrive.

The crew seats have moulded on seat belts which look pretty naff, so I decided to remove them and cobble together some seat belts from the remains of the various PE sets that I have in my little “seatbelts” box, but for some reason I did not
have any suitable ones at all, so some Eduard belts were ordered. Not quite OOB but not over the top.

The kit decals.

Seat belts, these went together really well, not normally my favourite job but these were easy

Cheers

Dennis

Edited February 1, 2013 by spitfire

[spitfire]

The kit seat belts were scraped off and the seat back and headrests painted with Humbrol 133 Satin Brown, though I did find a photo on the web of some seats with what looked like canvas padding, so this was
changed, the headrests are now satin black (H85) and the padding on the pilots seat is now canvas (H93). The seats at this point are not glued in, as I want to fit the seatbelts and fit the seats when the fuselage halves are joined.

The wings were then assembled after airbrushing all that could be seen with RLM 02, for this job lots of tape and clamps are required to hold everything together, once dry (24 hours) it was on with the boring task of sanding, filling and sanding the seams, this was done with my usual CA method, apply the CA let it dry for a while (around 20 minutes) then sand straight away, the idea is to sand before the CA cures and goes rock hard.

The rudders were then assembled, this is a bit fiddly (three hands required) as the rudders halves are glued together with the two fin halves, one fitted well but the other one is a bit loose, this was down to my sausage fingers damaging the hinge pin.

The instructions call for 70 grams of nose weight so I dug around and found some lead that I had liberated from work. This was from some heavy duty cabling and is a 2 cm strip that is 2mm thick, just to make sure I glued 80 grams in the compartment behind the cockpit and 30 gram in each of the engine nacelles, the instructions call for 25 gram in each.

The engine nacelles were then fitted to the wings and it took a, lot of sanding and polishing to blend them together, some detail was lost but for once I'm not getting the scriber out.

Cheers

Dennis

Edited February 1, 2013 by spitfire

[KLP Publishing]

Nice work Den! I'm dying to get hold of one of these kits myself, as I'm not too concerned about its perceived accuracy issues (Iain's doing his build thread over on LSP too). I also have the old I.D. Models vac kit, and fully intend to build it too!

Looking forward to your continued progress mate.

Kev

[spitfire]

Hi Kev, I can thoroughly recommend this one, some of the construction stages are a bit quirky but it goes together nicely, it's a nice change from short run or ancient Revell kits, you are definately a braver man than I to attempt a vac kit never mind a vac kit this size.

Cheers

Den

[spitfire]

And on with the build, back to the wings. time to attach the ailerons and flaps to the wings, I was very wary of this as the instructions show this as joining the two halves of together over the wing hinges. I was a bit concerned that this would make it very difficult to sand the seam between the two halves of each flap and aileron but it worked like a dream as the parts fitted so well. Unfortunaley after lots of handling the hinges on one of the ailerons gave up the ghost and I had to resort to using a blob of CA to fix it in place.

As a distraction I then started on the exhausts, these were cut from their sprues, glued together and the resultant seams cleaned up.

Once they had set they were give a coat of H113 matt rust, once this was dry a dusting of pencil lead was applied, giving this rather nice (to me) result.

Getting back to the main event I joined the two fuselage sides together, I nearly forgot the wing spars but I remembered before CA was applied to the mating surfaces !

This was a mammoth job, lots of CA, but it went well, it was left overnight to dry and then it was time to sand the seams and add the separate fuselage top section. This worked well and required very little clean up as the seams were on panel lines on the side of the fuselage, prior to attaching this section the insert for the “schrage music” installation was affixed.

For the gun installation on the belly pack I chose to go with two guns in the outboard positions on “my” aircraft so the two inboard holes were plugged off using the supplied plugs, these were then smoothed off and the gun section
was attached. Then the long dorsal section was added this fitted well and the seam lines required very little clean up.

The various wing inserts were then installed, the landing lights were painted and attached, and the clear light cover masked and attached using Formula 560 canopy glue.

The radiators blocks were painted matt black and dry brushed with silver then attached to the engine cowlings this was very fiddly and took a while as they kept falling out, the cowlings were then attached to the nacelles.

The tail planes were then glued on to the fuselage, this was very fiddly (three handed job) and it took some patience to achieve a good fit, once dry there was a noticeable step which had to be sanded back, this took some time.

The extreme top of the tail did not look right, it has a flat top section with a nasty seam down the middle, looking at the photos of the NASM machine this is section is flat, but the seam would have been a pain to smooth down so a very
thin section of plastic sheet was cut out and glued on and sanded smooth.

Cheers

Dennis

[spitfire]

On to my not so favourite part, the clear sections, these were cut from the sprues, sanded down and the resultant rough bits polished, then they were dipped in Klear and left alone in my lettuce saver for a couple of days.

Before continuing with the clear parts the seat belts were fitted to the seats and the seats fitted into the cockpit, the pilots seat with the belts attached was a tight squeeze and I had to trim the belts to get it in.

Once clear parts were dry they were dry fitted and fettled, the centre hinged section was not a perfect fit, it required some delicate sanding, this was done at the front as the rear part has a step which locks with the rear fixed section. Once I was happy with the fit the gun sight, solid folding type part and what looks like a section of armour glass were all fitted, the armour glass needed some light sanding to get it to fit inside the front cockpit “arch”.

With all these bits fitted the front clear section was masked, cleaned and fitted, for this I used CA, then filled in the seam with Formula 560, wiping off any excess with a cotton bud.

The aft section has a plastic insert which represents the flare chute, this was fitted with CA and left to dry, once this was dry masking was applied, getting a good fit required some careful sanding of the aft cockpit bulkhead, but in the end it fitted well. The cockpit framing was then painted with RLM 66, not forgetting the bulkhead inside the clear part, once the paint was dry the section was glued in using CA and Formula 560 as a filler.

Cheers

Dennis

[Viking]

I need a bigger house. When I see builds like this I want one......

Nice job Dennis

Cheers

John

[spitfire]

I need a bigger house. When I see builds like this I want one......

Nice job Dennis

Cheers

John

It's a monster for sure, I think it will have to live on top of my display cabinets as I don't think that it will fit inside !

Cheers

Dennis

[spitfire]

Thinking ahead a bit I decided to have a practice doing the final finish, I've seen a couple of beautiful paint jobs where RLM 76 "squiggles" (technical term) have been airbrushed over RLM 75, it looks so easy so I thought that I would have a go, I decided to practice different finishes using some black plastic card and an airbrush (Badger 200-20 Detail) loaded with RLM 76. I could get the lines very thin but I kept getting tied up in knots ! I just am not patient enough.

I was not impressed with the "squiggles" so I dug into my etched brass box and came up with a mottle mask, so I gave that a try, first with the mask held against the plastic, then with the mask kept a couple of millimeters away from the plastic, again I was not impressed. Then I tried mottling freehand, the results can be seen at the bottom, and I liked the finish the best so I will do some mottling in RLM 75 on an overall RLM 76 finish. With the size of the model I could be at it for a while !

The time had come to mate the wings to the fuselage and boy once this is done you can really see just how big this thing is, and with all the lead it is pretty heavy.

The wings were left to cure overnight then the seams were filled with CA using a cocktail stick, the excess being wiped away with a cotton bud, when that had dried the same operation was repeated with some Mr Surfacer 1200, leaving a nice smooth joint. I did not want to risk getting paint into the cockpit so the clear centre section was masked and mounted on a cocktail stick to be airbrushed separately and the resultant hole was masked off with Tamiya tape.

Cheers

Dennis

[ice35]

Its coming along very nice im looking forward to your next post.

Richard

[spitfire]

Glad you like it Richard, we are nearly up to date now so things could slow down a tad, I'm still trying to figure out how to airbrush the all over coat of RLM 76 without doing it in 2 or 3 sessions.

Next it is final preparations for paint, Tamiya tape for the wheel wells.

Three discs for the fronts of the engine cowlings and one for the pit on the top of the fuselage.

The central clear section all ready for its RLM 76.

And all the other bits that need airbrushing at the same time as the airframe.

Cheers

Dennis

[stringbag]

Hi Den.

Cracking job on the go here Matey. Better get a bigger cabinet if it won't go in the ones you have.

All the best.

Chris.

[colin]

Got a Tamiya one of these to do, and every time I look at the front of it I keep thinking about the Alien Predator movie

I know I need to seek help

[spitfire]

Got a Tamiya one of these to do, and every time I look at the front of it I keep thinking about the Alien Predator movie

I know I need to seek help

Strange as it seems the bare fuselage sitting on my desk looked like a very sad fish to me !

Cheers

Dennis

[spitfire]

Hi Den.

Cracking job on the go here Matey. Better get a bigger cabinet if it won't go in the ones you have.

All the best.

Chris.

Thank you kindly Chris, I will find somewhere to display it even if it is on an extension to my AFV shelf !

Cheers

Dennis

[Miggers]

I saw this article t'other month on how to achieve a perfect mottle finish.

It's called "the reverse mottle technique".

Basically,it involves painting the entire upper airframe in the darker shade,covering the upper

surface in tiny spots of "Blue-Tac",masking out where required and then applying the

lighter shade.

The results are superb.

http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/mottleshl_1.htm

[Mike]

Nice work Den. Very well organised too - I can't get over how many clips you've got!

[spitfire]

I saw this article t'other month on how to achieve a perfect mottle finish.

It's called "the reverse mottle technique".

Basically,it involves painting the entire upper airframe in the darker shade,covering the upper

surface in tiny spots of "Blue-Tac",masking out where required and then applying the

lighter shade.

The results are superb.

http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/mottleshl_1.htm

Yes I found that one, and it looked very interesting, it would also be good for getting the demarcation line straight as well, have to ponder on it for a while.

Cheers

Dennis

[spitfire]

Nice work Den. Very well organised too - I can't get over how many clips you've got!

Hi Mike, thank you for the kind words and yes I have loads of clamps, they are one of my favourite tools but when I started to build this kit and saw the amount of parts I realised that I would need a few more so off I went to eBay and got some more.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-Small-Spring-Clamp-Set-6-Piece-50mm-2-Firm-Gripping-NEW-/270908355613?ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:GB:3160

Cheers

Den

[spitfire]

Well no messing about on this one, last minute pre painting preparations, I fitted the small fairings that go over the inner wing flaps, these have to be lined up to the flaps and glued to the fuselage sides.

The flaps still sort of flapped about so I fitted a small fairing over the location slot under the wing to hold them in place, they should have been a bit longer but never mind.

Then I checked the fit of the wing tip lights, and they fit great as they have locating lugs and fit well so I that will fit them after I have put the paint on, so a quick dab of red/green paint was all that was required at the moment.

Then it was out with a nail buffer and a polish and inspection session, I found that elusive CA thumbprint under the tail, there's bound to be another one somewhere, the other thing that I found was a slight misalignment of one of the engine cowlings, the more I looked at it the worst it looked. So off it came, but those pesky radiator blocks fell out, so I did what I should have done in the first place, I cut off the too small locating pins drilled some holes, fitted some longer plastic pins and they fitted a treat, so it was back on with the cowling and carry on with the polish/inspection.

Cheers

Dennis

Edited February 3, 2013 by spitfire

[spitfire]

Last minute masking, using discs for the front of the engine cowlings.

All the other parts ready for painting.

I like to airbrush my models standing up, I like to see the light across the surface that I am painting so I usually make up a stand so that I can hold the model while I'm airbrushing, with this kit it was a little bit more demanding, but with some Blu Tac, Tamiya tape and some old bent coat hangers I came up with this.

And away we went, this was a mammoth job, it's huge, normally I mix up 3ml of paint/thinners for a WW2 size 1/32 scale fighter uppers or undersides, for this I used up 12ml, OK that was for an all over finish but I still did not complete the paint job, I was left with one wing outboard of the engine nacelle to paint. And god was it fun, catching parts of the model on my desk, on the lamp, on the airbrush hose, spilling the paint on the floor from the colour cup, I even managed to spill some paint onto the tail ! and in the end I am not that happy with the finish, I'll leave it now for a few days for the paint to fully cure before I start sanding back the rough bits. It's even difficult to make out which parts have been painted.

Cheers

Dennis

Edited February 8, 2013 by spitfire