Emil's Distant Cousin. Trumpeter 1/48 Me 509

[Gorby]

 

I've always had a fascination for experimental aircraft or those than never left the drawing board. If there were more 1/48 kits of experimental aircraft of other nations, I would happily build those. As the Me 509 and Ta 183 would share many paints, I thought I might as well try doing a double bill.

 

My Ta 183 thread:

 

As with my AM Tech Ta 183 build, this thread is mainly because I couldn't find a Britmodeller post on this kit that runs to the end of the build. I haven't gone overboard with detailing, but I've tried to add a little extra realism. As I'm only an average modeller, it isn't intended to be the definitive build review, it's just intended to help you avoid the pitfalls I fell into. I hope it helps someone.

 

The Trumpeter 'clear' parts were some of least clear parts I have ever seen. They were so cloudy I was concerned that just a dip in the floor polish wouldn't be up to the job, so I polished the canopy with toilet paper and white toothpaste before they became anywhere near acceptable. The photo etch on the other hand is excellent, very thin and easy to shape, even the seatbelt was easy to drape in a natural position. One build review I read elsewhere online said that the rudder peddles are unusable because you can't bend the circular heal bit. Simple solution, just cut each side leaving it just attached in the centre.

 

I replaced the gun barrels with Albion Alloys 1mm tube. As you can see from the photo, the kit parts are only expected to embed into the leading edge by about 1mm, which is a bit silly. So I glued a short length of sprue inside the wing and when the top of the wing was fitted, drilled the openings into the sprue to give the barrels more support. If you do this, make sure the size of the sprue (or whatever you use) doesn’t interfere with the fit of the wing or the wheel well. Two of the barrels have an additional cuff at the business end, which I replicated with 1mm wide masking tape. If you intend to open the shell chutes under the wing, probably better to do it now. I forgot until the wing was zipped up and it's never as easy.

 

 

The panel lines are quite lightly engraved, but the control surfaces are just as light, so I scribed them deeper as I though it looked, well, better – personal preference really. Normally I'd cut them off, reposition them blah, blah, blah, but this time I didn't want the hassle as this is supposed to be a quickish build.

 

It's always the case that a plastic kit can't replicate the scale thickness of panels etc. of the real aircraft, but for some reason the undercarriage doors looked particularly thick. I should have replace them all, but I really couldn't be bothered, so I just did the easiest ones.

 

And added some detailing to the insides.

 

I'm not sure if the wheel cover would only have been attached at the top of the leg? Of course, as this aircraft never really existed, you can do pretty much what you want to and lift two fingers in the general direction of the the rivet counters, which is always a pleasure, so I decided that it was attached at the bottom as well. In which case it needed to be articulated to give the impression of it allowing some movement. I simply used a razor saw to cut part way through then carefully bend in place. Finally, a little stretched sprue was glued into the cuts.

 

Even though this shortens the cover, it still fits the tabs at the top and bottom of the undercarriage leg, which I thought was a little odd.

 

This just seemed to be butt jointed, so I strengthened it with a couple of wire 'hinges'.

 

While I'm talking about the undercarriage, always think it adds a teeny little extra realism when the nose wheel is off centre….

 

I thought the retractable belly radiator looked a bit boring, so I had a bit of a play – it didn't really exist, so you can't say it's wrong. I prefer it anyway.

The original:

Nearly done:

 

Done:

 

Thanks for looking – comments welcome.

 

Gorby

 

[Martian]

A great start on what should prove to be an intriguing project.

 

Martian

[Johnny1000]

What Martian said. Really nice work on an interesting subject.

 

-J

[Gorby]

Thanks for the comments and 'likes'.

 

This may look like I work like the clappers, but I started this build over a month ago and I'm adding stuff here when I get time…..

 

For the fist time ever I tried using some Airscale instrument panel decals that didn't know existed until @snapper_city mentioned them in one of his posts – thanks Snapper. Now before you say that all the dials are wrong I have something to say in my defence (apart from being an idiot). The Airscale decals are great and probably scaled correctly to real Luftwaffe dials, but unfortunately most of them on the tiny sheet are too big to fit in the spaces on the kits instrument panels. So bear in mind that in reality you can hardly see them, I just had to chose ones that fit, rather than the correct ones. As I have said many times before, I'm not that concerned about absolute accuracy, I just want it to look the part.

There is a problem when you come to fit the instrument panel. Part of the side-wall on either side not only hides part of the instruments, but also the sticky out instruments stop the panel fitting into the slots.

 

Rather than mess around, I just cut off the offending part of the sides, then it fitted well.

 

When the wingy things were attached, the rear of the nose-wheel well wouldn't sit in the correct place and it's a bloody awkward thing to clamp, so I had to wedge it in place with a bit of wood while it dried.

 

I thought that space to put nose weight was limited in my Ta 183 build, but this is about as awkward as it gets. The top of the nose-wheel well is the cockpit floor so no space there, and there is only a small 6mm deep gap before the spinner. Of course the further forward the weight is, the less you need, so I even managed to pack 2g of lead into the front of the spinner. Fortunately I have a sheet of 1.5mm thick lead that would last me a lifetime of modelling nose-sitters, but fashioning it into odd spaces can be a pain in the rear end. So the total weight I managed to fit in front of the cockpit (including spinner) was 12 grams.

 

That left a bit of space behind the pilots seat, so I cut and glued in five pieces, but still wasn't enough.

 

One more larger piece was fitted and it was just about balancing in the right place – but I don't have the horizontal tail surfaces on yet, so as you may have seen from an earlier photo, I crammed another 9g more into the front of the belly radiator. So all the weight together added up to 40 grams. The cardboard in the bottom right of the photo is the template I used to get the shape of the lead correct.

 

I don't want all this lead breaking free at a later date and running wild around the air-frame, so I glued a plastic bulkhead type thing to keep it locked it. It's also much easier to paint than lead. It's not very neat, but it is going to be almost completely hidden when the belly radiator is fitted.

 

Thanks for taking the time to look – comments are always welcome.

Don't forget, if you are really bored, there is also my Ta 183 build.

 

Gorby

[snapper_city]

Looking good. With the dials I have seen others use a punch and die set on them if they are too big. A tip for the future. I still need a punch set for my tool collection.  

[Gorby]

59 minutes ago, snapper_city said:

Looking good. With the dials I have seen others use a punch and die set on them if they are too big. A tip for the future. I still need a punch set for my tool collection.  

That's a damn good idea and gives me an excuse to buy more tools.

Thanks for commenting and thanks again for the heads-up about the decals.

Any more progress on your 163 build?

[snapper_city]

On 03/02/2018 at 8:31 AM, Gorby said:

That's a damn good idea and gives me an excuse to buy more tools.

Thanks for commenting and thanks again for the heads-up about the decals.

Any more progress on your 163 build?

 

Not yet. The 163 is on hold at the moment while I work on another build for a GB on another forum. I'll pick it back up after.

[Gorby]

I had hoped that just painting the inside space (above the belly radiator) black would be enough, but an determined, pedantic, exploratory peer showed that it isn't. This lump (made in about two minutes, from a spare part from the Ta183 and a quarter of a drop-tank each side) isn't intended to be an accurate representation of a Daimler-Benz DB 605, you can barley see into this space, so there just needs to be something that looks bulky in there, so the echoy cavernous emptiness isn't too apparent.

 

It wasn't until I came to fit the spinner that I realised that there is a protuberance behind it that allows the prop to spin. I used a 5mm drill to open a 5mm deep hole – probably removing no more than about a gram of the precious nose weight.

 

No one knows how camouflage would have evolved if the war had lasted longer, so together with my Ta 183, I thought I would have a bit of a play. I think we have ascertained that I'm not exactly a natural with airbrushing, so I used top and side views of each aircraft to experiment with various designs, on a graphics package called 'Gimp'. It took me a couple of days, and the camo design I eventually went for on the 509 is quite similar to a profile I found online, but whereas they use green I used all grey and I mottled the sides. The Ta 183 is a variation on a similar theme.

The camo is a variation of the third scheme shown here:

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VAkP0M03I68/WC6zUBkLnwI/AAAAAAAAYPI/LvLSFbj0GTIV3dXkn803I8FIGSJwTEPLACLcB/s640/alfb0uuili_large.jpg

 

 

I often find that when I am trying to copy the camo pattern from the instructions onto the model that things don't quite work, so to avoid this I created paper masks using 'Inkscape' and very lightly pencilled the edges onto the model.

 

Back soon(ish) with the painting bit.

 

Thanks for taking the time to look – comments are always welcome.

 

Gorby

[clive_t]

Wow that's a lot of lead! Looks like an interesting project on the go here 

[Gorby]

23 minutes ago, clive_t said:

Wow that's a lot of lead!

And it only turned out to be just enough. The model is nearly done, and it doesn't take much weight to tip it off its nose wheel.

Nothing in the instructions mentions how much weight is required and I couldn't find the info online either – that's one of the main reasons for doing this WIP, to give others who do this kit an idea of how much to use.

 

Thanks for commenting Clive.

[Gorby]

I've never been comfortable with the painting stage, but as my models would look a little odd without it, here goes.

 

After marking the camo design lightly using a soft pencil and pre-shading, I sprayed the under side and the snaky lines on the side and top with Tamiya XF80. I've mentioned before that I usually use the nearest Tamiya equivalent, or more often than not, colours that I like the look of. I'm not really fussed about accuracy in colours or details.

 

I rolled long thin worms of Blu-Tac to cover the light grey lines – getting the Blu-Tac to a consistent width took some time to perfect. After the mid grey (XF75) I used something that @hairystick suggested and rather than waste masking tape, I used bits of plastic bag, roughly cut to shape and pushed into the Blu-Tac with a curved scalpel blade. It's a quick, easy and free method that I will be using on many future occasions.

 

On the Ta 183 I faded the edges of the light grey lines, but after spraying the dark grey (XF63) I quite liked the sharper edges on this scheme. To blend it all together, I thinned the light grey down more and sprayed over the whole top-side.

 

Up next – stencilling and decals.

 

Thanks for taking the time to look – comments are always welcome.

 

Gorby

[clive_t]

56 minutes ago, Gorby said:

And it only turned out to be just enough. The model is nearly done, and it doesn't take much weight to tip it off its nose wheel.

Nothing in the instructions mentions how much weight is required and I couldn't find the info online either – that's one of the main reasons for doing this WIP, to give others who do this kit an idea of how much to use.

 

Thanks for commenting Clive.

Probably a bit late now, but I wonder if it would have been possible to pack some suitably shaped lead strips into the inside of the wings, say, along the leading edge. I guess as long as it was forward of the rear wheels, it would maybe have helped to edge the centre of gravity further forward?

 

I was speaking to a guy at a recent Portsmouth IPMS meet, who had brought a Sabre - an absolute beauty to be fair. He was saying that even though the kit instructions stated the required weight of lead to stop it tail sitting, in the end he had to more than double it!

[Gorby]

1 hour ago, clive_t said:

Probably a bit late now, but I wonder if it would have been possible to pack some suitably shaped lead strips into the inside of the wings, say, along the leading edge. I guess as long as it was forward of the rear wheels, it would maybe have helped to edge the centre of gravity further forward?

Good Idea Clive.

Although there isn't much space for weight in front of the cockpit, just behind the pilots seat there is a bit of a void, so it turned out OK in the end. If you were using something lighter than lead, then the leading edge of the wings would be about the only other option.

[Gorby]

Usually at this point I'm wondering how I'm going to manage to screw up the decals again. My relationship with decals isn't good, so I'm always looking for ways of reducing the evil little things. So on both this and my Ta 183 build, I've tried to reduce them as much as possible. Using a combination of scanning the kit decals, looking online and messing around on my graphic package, I printed off some stencil templates. These were then taped behind some clear plastic and as you can see, even with the Tamiya tape on the top, the stencil is clearly visible. Normally at this stage, people usually say “with a new blade”, but I just give the knife with the sharpest scalpel blade a few passes on 1000 grit sandpaper and it as sharp as it was when it was new. This is the best sharpening method I've found for my carpentry tools and it works just as well for scalpel blades.

 

This is the first time I've used stencils for anything other than national markings, so I chose numbers and shapes that I thought would be easier to cut out. On a previous Luftwaffe build I mentioned that I wasn't demented enough to cut swastika stencils, but it looks like madness descends on all off us eventually. Fortunately these are the single colour swastikas, the ones with black and white boarders will be a bit more of a challenge.

 

Balkenkreuz (German cross insignia) and swastika masked up ready for spraying black, or more precisely XF69 (NATO black).

 

The most complicated stencil to cut and fit was the spiral for the spinner, on the left shown before cutting and on the right: part way through peeling away from the clear plastic backing.

 

After a bit of a struggle, I finally managed to get it in place but couldn't stop it crinkling around the edges in some places which fortunately didn't affect the end result too much – although it did need a bit of a touch up.

 

This is the result of the stencil work, before the decalling. The result of the Ta 183 stencilling is shown as well.

 

The final assembly was relatively straight forward. I added a pneumatic cylinder to the small undercarriage doors made from 1mm and 0.5mm brass tubes. If you look at the photo below, the angled strut on the undercarriage (bottom right), the position for the top on the main gear leg is obvious, but I couldn't find a logical location for the other end. Only a minor point, but it seemed odd.

 

Some photos (of models) and diagrams online have a variety of ideas about the possibility of aerials or antennas. I decided to go with a wire, but I thought that showing you a photo of a wire would be more excitement that you could take for one day.

 

One final thing to mention before the final reveal. I mentioned that I would say how much nose weight is required. It took 9 grams on the tail to tip it from its nose wheel, so I think that anything over 31 grams would have prevented it being a tail sitter.

 

The RFI will be along in a few days when I get time to sort out the pics.

 

Thanks for taking the time to look – comments are always welcome.

 

Gorby

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

I really like the grey on grey stripes youve done with this. It would look great as a night fighter or night attack 👍

[Gorby]

18 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

I really like the grey on grey stripes youve done with this. It would look great as a night fighter or night attack 👍

Thanks Dennis!

I didn't stop to think what role this aircraft would have done, I just thought 'Ooooh, I like that – looks lovely in grey stripes'. I'm probably not cut out to be an aviation historian. 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

None of us short of the few Doctorate holders are. We’re all amateur historians. It just made sense that it looked like a nightfighter camouflage. 

[Martian]

This is looking every bit as good as the TA 183- very nice.

 

Martian

[Gorby]

I forgot to add the RIP RFI: