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Hello again, This kit is simple assembly-wise and there aren't significant fit problems. The horizontal seam between the two hull-halves was almost completely eliminated with sanding and polishing sticks. I had to use bits of thin plasticard sheet to fill in a few gaps I myself created when carving out the slots for the fins. The only gap due the kit parts was in the join between one of the tail planes and the hull: IMAG7359 IMAG7362 The narrower gaps and seams were taken care of with PPP: IMAG7363 The few PE parts were, then, dealt with. There's one for the propellers of the piggy-backed sub. Here is a comparison with the plastic version: IMAG7360 IMAG7360 There are PE parts for the hatch on the sail: IMAG7364 And there's a pair of PE parts for the sub propellers. I guess they should be glued together for increased strength. So, I cut one off the frame and CA-glued it to the other: IMAG7365 Here's the end result: IMAG7366 The smaller parts were cleaned of moulding marks and glued to toothpicks for painting: IMAG7367 The sub and the smaller parts were all primed with Alclad's Black Primer and Microfiller: IMAG7374 PPP was used again to tackle small seams along the hull joins. This wasn't very successful and in the end these seams were made to vanish with thin layers of primer: IMAG7376 IMAG7382 The propellers were painted brass: IMAG7383 The same for the holders of the stand: IMAG7384 Next, I used Gunze's Rousset to paint the hull: IMAG7385 The hull was masked using a combination of masking tape and kitchen cling-film: IMAG7386 The rest of the sub should be black but a real sub is never like that. I used several pictures of the real thing for inspiration for the choice of colours. This was especially interesting for showing several tones of grey on the hull, walkways and sail: I chose RLM66 for the lighter grey tones on the sail, Gunze's ocean grey for the walkways and Tamiya's NATO Black for the hull. I initially chose Gunze's Tire Black for the darker greys of the sail but it proved too dark for my likings and was painted NATO Black as well. Here's the application of the RLM66 grey on the sail and ocean grey on the walkways: IMAG7391 Next, I masked these areas before applying the NATO Black to the hull: IMAG7392 IMAG7393 The Tire Black intended for the sail proved to be too dark but I used it to cover the oversprays of rousset and greys before proceeding: IMAG7394 That's all for now. Thanks for looking. Jaime

Dear All, While building my He 178 V1, which fought me every step of the build, I decided to build something really simple to have some breaks from the fight. I opted for a submarine. So, here is the build thread of my first modern submarine: the Hobby Boss 1/350 USS Greeneville. For starters, here are the mandatory pictures of the box art and box contents: IMAG7236 Apart from the hull halves and stand, there are only two sprues: IMAG7237 There's also a small PE fret: IMAG7238 Finally, a small decal sheet. However, according to the painting and decal instructions, decals 1, 6 and 7 are not used. IMAG7399 The build started with the sail and the horizontal tailplanes: IMAG7267 It was necessary to carve out indents for the foreplane. I overdid it, as only the curved indents were needed: IMAG7268 The foreplane was glued in place: IMAG7269 Indents were also carved out for the horizontal tailplanes: IMAG7270 The small submarine that piggybacked on the bigger sub was glued together: IMAG7271 A few holes had to be drilled out on the top hull half. These holes are for installing the pads on which the small submarine is installed: IMAG7272 The hull halves were glued together: IMAG7273 There are a few spots demanding attention. For instance, this rectangular depression near the horizontal fin of the small sub needs a piece of plasticard: IMAG7274 The areas around the foreplane also need attention, due to the excessive carving out: IMAG7291 IMAG7292 The sail was glued in place: IMAG7302 The pads for the small sub were then installed, as well as the mooring bollards : IMAG7303 IMAG7305 Finally, the tailplanes were glued in place: IMAG7310 That's all for now. Thanks for looking. Jaime

Thank you for the explanation. I wasn't aware of these details and followed the pictures of the cockpit which I inserted in my first post of this thread. In the museum aircraft, the handles are positioned vertically and so did I in my scratch building. I'm afraid the fuselage was already closed when I read your explanation, and there was no way to modify the position of the handles (I still have to post those pictures, though). Cheers Jaime

Indeed Thank you very much!

Hello @Shalako, thanks for your interest. I did progress a bit but didn't have the time to update the thread yet. I still have to solve the problem of how to create acceptable intake tubing. Cheers Jaime

Thank you very much for the very kind comments! Cheers Jaime

Hello, This is my rendition of Special Hobby's reboxing of MPM's Heinkel He 178 V1. This was the first jet aircraft to fly in the History of Aviation, in August 1939, a few days before the beginning of WWII. This kit is a short-run affair and presented all kinds of challenges. In fact, it fought me back in every step of the build. Anyway, I learned a few tricks but it isn't a "quick build", as I expected from the small number of parts. The WIP can be found here. Some notable points of the build: The kit comes with a small PE fret with the instrument panel and a few other external details but no seat belts I added seat belts from Eduard's WWII Luftwaffe Fighter seat belt PE set Panel lines had to be completely rescribed, as they weren't aligned when joining the two halves of the fuselage Metallic colours are Alclad's Aluminium, Polished Aluminium and Burnt Iron I used a black base technique (Alclad's Black Primer) and pre-shading with Gunze's Acrylic Sky The main colour is Gunze's Acrylic RLM02 Weathering was kept light: I used a dark brown acrylic wash and removed most of it (Vallejo's Greased Earth) Panel lines were enhanced using the same wash Here are the final pictures. IMAG7343 IMAG7344 IMAG7346 IMAG7347 IMAG7348 IMAG7354 IMAG7349 IMAG7350 IMAG7351 IMAG7352 IMAG7353 IMAG7355 IMAG7356 IMAG7357 IMAG7358 Thanks for looking. Jaime

Thank you very much!

Hi again, This will be the last update of the WIP. The last step to complete the build was glueing the landing gear and tail wheel in place. This was a last hurdle, since there was no positive location points or tabs for the landing gear legs. On the other hand, the instructions suggested a location for the legs (top of the rectangular panels of the polished metal area) which would result in too much lateral spread for the legs. Therefore, I decided to locate the legs on the lower part of the rectangular panels. To allow for more adjustment time, I glued the legs with 5 minute-Araldite instead of CA. Here's what I got: IMAG7333 IMAG7334 IMAG7335 IMAG7336 As can be seen, the fit of the parts is deplorable. After allowing the Araldite to cure, I applied a drop o CA to reinforce the joins. The tail wheel was also glued in place: IMAG7337 Here's the model before the final step of glueing the main wheels: IMAG7338 The following pictures show the finalised model: IMAG7339 IMAG7340 I'll post better pictures in the RFI area. I'll post the link here later. Thanks for looking and for all the comments. Jaime EDIT: the RFI post can be found here.

Hi again, With the painting and weathering done with, I removed the masking, being extra careful not to damage the metal painted areas: IMAG7320 IMAG7321 Unfortunately, there was some damage to the more fragile Alclad Polished Aluminium-coated area of the landing gear: IMAG7322 The canopy, on the other hand, was reasonably clear and distortion free, allowing a view of the seatbelts: IMAG7323 and of the instrument panel: IMAG7324 The metal areas near the nose turned out ok. The tone difference between the Aluminium around the air intake and the Polished Aluminium on the panels to the right can be clearly seen: IMAG7325 The blemishes to the landing gear area were repaired by brush. Alclad is not really intended to be used by brush but it works for very small spots: IMAG7326 To enhance the panel lines on the metal areas, I applied the same brown wash used before directly along the panel lines. Here's the set-up: IMAG7327 The following pictures show the results: IMAG7328 IMAG7330 IMAG7331 IMAG7332 It's nearly finished now. Thanks for looking. Jaime

Thanks! Just one or two posts more and it will be

Hello, Continuing with painting, I applied RLM02 to the model. However, when I cut the masking tape around the panels where the landing gear legs will be installed (I used a nº 11 blade for that), I made some damages to the surrounding area's primer, which were now very noticeable after a coat of paint. In this picture I had already started to sand the blemishes away: IMAG7298 After sanding and polishing, I got back to primer/plastic: IMAG7299 On the opposite side the blemishes were no so bad: IMAG7300 A seam on the tail fin's leading edge was also apparent and was filled in with PPP: IMAG7301 After painting, I got this: IMAG7306 IMAG7207 It's not perfect but I'm pretty sure it won't be noticeable after a coat of flat varnish. The tail fin's leading edge looks better: IMAG7308 Then, it was time for some weathering. Since this was a prototype and didn't go into war operations, I decided to give it a light weathering treatment: just a light coat of dark brown wash. For that, I used Vallejo's acrylic "greased earth" wash. Here's the set-up, after applying a gloss coat to the model: IMAG7311 I applied the wash and let it dry for less than 10 minutes: IMAG7312 The wash was almost completely removed using damp cotton buds, in the direction of the air flow: IMAG7314 Then, a coat of Alclad's Flat Kote was applied: IMAG7315 IMAG7316 As expected, the remaining blemishes around the landing gear area were reasonably masked by the flat coat: IMAG7317 IMAG7318 Thanks for looking. Jaime

Hi again, I bit more progress, now in the painting phase. The model should be painted in two tones of aluminium (natural metal and polished metal) in certain areas but most of the fuselage and wings is RLM02. I started with the natural metal areas, using Alclad Aluminium. For some reason (too low pressure?) I got a grainy finish. So, I sanded off and polished the metal painted areas, before applying a new layer of Aluminium: IMAG7285 The new layer of Alclad Aluminium turned out very well, as usual with Alclad: IMAG7286 IMAG7287 Next, I masked the Aluminium areas before applying Polished Aluminum. The masking of the wing to fuselage joins was very rough for the moment: IMAG7288 IMAG7289 Alclad Polished Aluminium is a High-Shine metal colour and should be applied over a gloss black primer. So, I applied first Alclad Gloss Black Base on the areas to be painted: the panels aft of the air intake ring and the panels where the main landing gear legs will be installed: IMAG7290 Then, Alclad Polished Aluminium was applied. After allowing for drying time, the masking of the metal joins between wings, stabilisers, tail fain and fuselage was corrected: IMAG7293 IMAG7294 Polished Aluminium, like all High-Shine Alclad colours is very sensitive to masking. In order to strengthen it a bit, I applied a coat of Aqua Gloss before masking those areas: IMAG7295 Before painting RLM02, I applied a pre-shade layer by mottling Sky on the centres of the panels: IMAG7296 IMAG7297 Thanks for looking Jaime

Thanks! I still have a few more steps to post, before showing the final result. Cheers Jaime

Hi again, I repainted the area around the cockpit opening. When I removed the masking tape, the seat was grabbed out with it: IMAG7253 The finishing was still unsatisfactory: IMAG7254 However, a dry fit of the canopy showed that there was a big gap between the back of the canopy and the fuselage: IMAG7255 IMAG7256 This could be sorted out by inserting a piece of 0.5 mm (IIRC) plasticard: IMAG7257 First, I removed the paint and primer from the area: IMAG7258 Next, the piece of plasticard was glued in place: IMAG7259 Then, the excess plastic was removed and adjusted to the shape of the fuselage: IMAG7266 Primer was applied only to the plasticard: IMAG7275 While the RLM02 repainted area dried, I reapplied the missing seatbelt to the seat: IMAG7276 Latter, I glued the instrument panel in place. Again, there are no positive location tabs or markings, therefore it was placed in a way it held to the surrounding edges: IMAG7277 The coaming of the instrument panel was glued on top: IMAG7278 IMAG7279 I used CA glue for glueing these parts without damaging (much...) the paint work. The blemishes were taken care of by applying highly diluted paint by brush. Next, the seat and seatbelts were glued in place: IMAG7280 The canopy was glued with Revell's Contacta Clear: IMAG7281 I used Squadron's grey putty mixed with RLM02 to fill in the gaps around the canopy. A few other surface defects were also taken care of with putty: IMAG7282 While the putty cured, I brushpainted the main landing gear hubs gloss black. The tires had already been painted tire black: IMAG7283 Finally, a new layer of black primer was applied and the model was ready for painting: IMAG7284 Thanks for looking. Jaime

Thank you for your interest. I hope this build can help you when you start yours.

Thanks for the link. Looks very tempting!

Thank you very much. I hope the 1/48 version is easier to build than this 1/72 version. I wasn't aware of the Gloster Whittle. Is there a 1/72 version? Cheers Jaime

Thank you very much, Richard. To scribe panel lines I use the UMM-02 scriber. As a guide for scribing I use Dymo tape. However, for joining lines from the fuselage halves I just do it free hand many times, using the long blade of the scriber itself as a guide. Thank you very much Adam, Terry and Bill. Indeed, it wasn't easy and, at times, it was even dispiriting. In the end, I managed to tame it by a combination of filling gaps with palsticard and putty, followed by filing, sanding and polishing the plastic plus multiple layers of primer and more sanding and polishing. Thank you very much, Giampiero! You're probably right. However, by 1943 development of other jet aircraft was well under way in several countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_aircraft Cheers Jaime

Thank you for the kind words. According to the Wikipedia article on the He 178, the V1 prototype was placed on display at the Berlin Aviation Museum, where it was destroyed in an air raid in 1943. So, what we see now in museums are reproductions. Cheers Jaime

Thanks a lot for your interest! Regarding your question, I don't think the kit gives a faithful representation of the air intake. It probably went under the cockpit, as suggested by the following diagram found on the net (I'm not sure if it is faithful, but makes sense): Cheers Jaime

Hi again, Some more progress on the build. The canopy comes in one piece. After some thought I decided to keep it as it was, instead of cutting it in two parts. Since the cockpit is very basic, there was no point in having the extra work and running the risk of breaking the piece. I just gave it a bath of Aqua Gloss to increase brilliance and transparency: IMAG7228 Then, I masked it: IMAG7229 The cockpit opening was masked in order to repaint the surrounding surfaces. The first painting attempt had to be sanded off since the joins of the fuselage halves were visible through the paint: IMAG7230 I didn't use primer and applied the paint directly on plastic. The results were not good: IMAG7231 IMAG7232 I didn't try to repaint it right away. Instead, I moved to the fuselage. I glued in place the PE parts were the main gear legs will be installed: IMAG7233 IMAG7233 There's also a PE part that goes on the vertical fin's leading edge: IMAG7234 Then, I sanded off the paint around the cockpit opening. I also managed to unglue one of the seatbelts: IMAG7235 Next, I applied Perfect Plastic Putty on the gaps of the joins, on seams and panel line errors: IMAG7244 IMAG7246 The cockpit opening was masked again: IMAG7247 Next, the model was primed with Alclad Black Primer. While priming I also polished a few spots using 400- and 600-grit sanding sticks until a smooth surface was obtained: IMAG7248 IMAG7249 I managed to completely eliminate the bottom join along the two fuselage halves, as well as a the most obvious panel line errors: IMAG7250 I also managed to correct the problematic joins and steps between the wing and top fuselage: IMAG7251 Thanks for looking Jaime

Hi again, Continuing with the build, the fuselage was closed: IMAG7183 IMAG7184 The fit was bad and left pronounced steps both along the top and the bottom of the fuselage: IMAG7185 IMAG7186 In the previous picture it is evident that all panel lines are also misaligned and will have to be completely re-scribed. Next, the wing was glued to the fuselage after a lot of filing and sanding of the matting surfaces, in order to minimise misalignments: IMAG7187 Despite off that, huge gaps and misalignments couldn't be avoided: IMAG7191 IMAG7192 IMAG7193 The gaps were filled in with plasticard: IMAG7212 The steps between the parts are smoothed out by a combination of pieces of plasticard, glued to bridged the steps, and filing, sanding and polishing: IMAG7213 IMAG7216 IMAG7217 Then, the panel lines were re-scribed: IMAG7223 IMAG7224 To finish with the fuselage, the horizontal stabilisers remained to be glued in place. Since there were no locating tabs, I decided to use a piece of copper wire to provide some strength to the joins: IMAG7226 End result: IMAG7227 Thanks for looking Jaime

Thank you both for your kind words and interest. The kit is indeed a short run kit and nothing fits properly. In some areas one must test fit a lot, in order to find the best way to glue the parts together. Cheers Jaime

Hi all, I've been very absent from contributing to BM since mid-January but I've been doing some modelling. One of my efforts was Special Hobby's rebox of MPM's Heinkel He 178 V1 in 1/72. I've started it in mid-January as a "quick build" while I was thinking about the best way to scratch build the air intake tubing for my build of Academy's F2H-3, but it soon turned out to be a bad choice for a "quick build". Being a short-run kit nothing fits and a lot of effort was needed to get an acceptable-looking result. Anyway, it's finished since mid-April but only now did I find a bit of time to start the WIP thread, which I'll finish before publishing the final pictures in the RFI area. Here's the box and contents of the kit: it consists of only one sprue, a transparent part for the canopy and comes with a small PE fret: IMAG7140 The PE fret contains parts for the instrument panel, ruder pedals and the main landing gear: IMAG7141 Since there are no seatbelts, I decided to use seatbelts from Eduard's PE set of WWII Luftwaffe Fighter Seatbelts: IMAG7142 The build started with the cockpit. Here are the parts: IMAG7143 There are no positioning tabs or holes, neither on these parts nor on the inside of the fuselage. Therefore, I had to find out the best way of fitting all the parts in the fuselage. The parts were positioned using blu-tack and pencil markings were done on the inside walls of the fuselage: IMAG7144 The wing comes in one piece top part and two lower parts. These were cut off the sprue and glued together: IMAG7145 The cockpit parts were glued together: IMAG7146 There are PE parts for improving the rudder pedals. Here's one ready: IMAG7147 The PE pedals were glued in place: IMAG7148 There is also a PE part for the instrument panel cowling, which must be bent using the cylindrical bending tool: IMAG7149 Resulting in this: IMAG7150 There are also PE parts for the main landing gear. Here is one of the legs and corresponding PE: IMAG7151 The landing gear parts and tail wheel were removed from the sprue: IMAG7152 The wheels: IMAG7153 The landing gear parts and tail wheel were primed with Alclad Balck Primer and painted Alclad Aluminium: IMAG7167 The inner walls of the fuselage halves were also primed with Alclad Black Primer. Next the cockpit area was painted RLM02, the air intake area was painted Alclad Aluminium and the exhaust area was painted Alclad Burnt Iron: IMAG7169 The cockpit parts were painted RLM02: IMAG7170 The PE instrument panel was painted flat black and the back of acetate with the instruments was painted flat white: IMAG7172 I glued the PE part to the acetate using Alclad Aqua Gloss, which also provides the glass effect over the instrument dials: IMAG7173 There are no seatbelts in the kit. I used seatbelts from Eduard's WWII Luftwaffe fighter seatbelts set: IMAG7177 IMAG7178 Seatbelts glued in place: IMAG7179 Cockpit installed: IMAG7182 Thanks for looking. Jaime