Kov1985

Does anybody happen to know for certain if there was a seam running along the top of the fuselage of the me 262? specifically between the cockpit and the vertical stabilizer? I can't seem to find anything definitive on it. I'm making a youtube video of this build, so I hope i don't screw it up with something dumb like that...

Bump for my own reference

I’d have to agree with this. That’s clearly a protective coating or something on the panel itself.

Thanks mate, His build looks phenomenal, exactly what I want to pursue with my own. I’d love to know how he achieved this effect over the NMF, so of course I can’t find it anywhere. Which is typical.

I’m leaning towards it being light anti-corrosion tarnishing the stock alloy. Here’s a couple screenshots for the movie. Particularly the image from the bird’s 6 o’clock you can see it still has a mirror polish under the black cross on the port side, suggesting it’s still NMF. hopefully these images will be useful to someone who’s building this one like myself.

and a couple more of 711

Thanks Aleksander Sorry I’m a bit confused by the first thing you said, are you saying the parts I’ve circled here are NMF of darker tone? Or puttied and sanded with the grey? I’m not talking about the panel lines, but the every second panels themselves here’s a few more pics of the one itself I’m modelling… obviously 02 and light grey putty for the nose with bits of what looks like rlm81, but it has the odd darker fuselage panels like the first pic as well.

Hello everyone. I’m out fishing for information again. What I need this time is some insight into what colours these last ditch me-262s were based on some aircraft anatomy I’m not familiar with. I understand the grey putty over the panel joins, but what’s going on between every 2nd join along the fuselage. Is that putty? Primer? Light grey? Rlm02? I doubt this is an actual colour photo from the time, but one edited post war. Someone correct me if that’s wrong. here’s some more pics… I am assuming that the nose and tail vertical is 02 grey green, with light grey primer along the joins, but that’s just an assumption. if anyone has more detailed insight into any of this, please enlighten me. I’m doing werk no 712 (second image) like someone did but in 48th scale. I have a few ideas how to pull it off convincingly but just need to know which colours to go with. once I finish my trio of 48th tamiya corsairs that is (I’ll post them when I’m done), it’ll be this next so I’ve got some time to research. thanks all in advance.

Hello everyone. I just rolled another one, thought I’d share it. Without further ado, here is HK models rendition of the Dornier DO-335 B-6 night fighter. The model itself was decent enough and quite capable of turning out a great build. The detail of rivets and panel lines are superb. I did have a few issues with panels lining up though as the model does give you the option of open access panels all over it, using the same parts. Fitting the top of fuselage over the cockpit bulkheads and engines was a nightmare. Luckily I didn’t want to show off engine (interesting enough subject without all that), because I ground the hell out of it/ didn’t add pieces to make it fit. Another problem I encountered was the instructions really needed proof reading before they were published. It had me drilling holes that I had to fill in because they shouldn’t have been there, a few things like that, but all in all a good kit compared to some others I’ve slogged through. Now for the colour scheme choice. Because this aircraft didn’t actually go into production, it gave me the freedom to do what I wanted with the scheme. I do every time really, but no one can say it’s inaccurate. For this I chose the standard night fighter scheme seen on the 262s at the time. They left the factory with all 76 underneath, with 75 upper. Ground crews then squiggled 76 all over the upper sides and blacked out the underside for night operations. So that’s exactly what I did. But like all models, I start with the black base. Then I used rlm75 to fill in panels. Then proceeded with the rest of the scheme. Decals were from the kit and a few added from the Aims sheet I used for my 109k a while back. for the underside, I also used the grey to pre shade. A little unorthodox to black base black, and the result was a bit bold for my liking to be honest, but my oil paint weathering over it dialled it all back a bit, and tones sat nicely in the end… another thing I discovered while building this kit was the use of aluminium tape (from electrical shop for insulation) for the chrome on landing gear. So much better than silver paint. Insanely easy to use. Anyway like I said it was a mongrel of a kit some places, but still turned out a good result. I intend on entering it in next comp just to see how well it does being such an unusual piece. We’ll see how it does…

Are you able to say if the 1/48 109k-4 will be available this year? I’ve been waiting for that one for a while…

That is a fantastic build. Very good job on the engine, those brassin fw190 engines are very fiddly. You did well. And the camo is very interesting and unique, you don’t see camo schemes like that too often on late war fighters.

Cheers mate, the key is to put the tape along the edge of a steel ruler and crease it first, then rip it little bit a a time.

I got a little bit sidetracked with a few other projects, but finally got stuck into it again and finished. Here it is… After some time tormenting myself on exactly what colour should be used (the whole 357th fg US or RAF colours argument), I landed on both. AK real colours Dark OD 41 with 10% Tamiya buff for top, and tamiya raf medium sea grey unlighted for underneath. I used montex vinyl masks and decals. A fantastic product, but I didn’t see the funny side to it not having the subject’s serial number in the decals - the project number tag thing below cockpit. I used a tamiya decal instead. So serial numbers wrong but whatever. You’ll need a magnifying glass to notice it. for the invasion stripes on the fuselage I ripped the masking tape in the straight line so that the edge would resemble it being crudely painted on like they were. Happy with result. according to my research and pics I’ve found these things leaked like a Land Drover on the underside. Simple oils paints were used to replicate this. Surprisingly the ammo wasn’t too hard to paint. I use citadel base gold paint and dry brushed it on so it didn’t foul the colour underneath. barracuda placards and a few lead wires to spruce things up. The Eduard “look” dashboard was a nice addition too. Not too fussed about painted dashboards so it definitely made life easier. very happy with the kit, outstanding engineering. The I very much appreciate the clever use of magnets and screws for things like landing gear. Nothing worse than botching a glue job right at the end when attaching landing gear etc. it was one less headache. Highly recommend this kit.

Having a bad day…

Only on the starboard side. I can see an outer cannon on port.

It definitely does. I haven’t seen any of those pics before, and I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of time looking at Corsair photos. That makes a bit more sense taping them up for transit. that last pic is good one of a C, Okinawa no doubt. And it’s good to see the 8 rocket stubs there. Opens up my build options a bit. thanks for the reply, cheers

Cheers everyone. I think I might just make mine without the tape. Now I do see the chain link ports in that one behind. Thanks for pointing that out. The tape still doesn’t make sense to me though. I get protecting the mechanism from salt spray (can’t imagine anything else affecting it on a carrier deck) for a long term maintenance routine, but what if some one forgets to remove the tape before flight? That tape was put over panel joins over fuel tanks to stop it from leaking all over the windscreen in flight, from what I can gather it was adhesive medical tape. That’s not popping off from the weight of a lousy brass shell, that’s gonna jam that cannon up 100% of the time. Why would they do it? I’ll have to “wing” it for size and position of those ports. thanks again for your help everyone.

Hello everyone. I’ve got a double build in the pipeline of 2 1/48 Tamiya corsairs. I’ll do a -1D, and a 1C. One landing on a deck, one on the catapult all loaded up. Anyway, the question… Does anyone have any insight on some of the features of an -1C’s underwing? Look at this image. #41 behind has two cannon ejection ports naturally, but #55 in front has what seems like a retrofitted -1D under wing panel with the cannon holes cut. But they’ve gone an taped them over?? Seems like a great way to jam up the cannons if the empties have nowhere to go?? Taping them seems idiotic at first glance, and I haven’t progressed passed that stage in understanding why that is. Also, these birds have only 2 rocket stubs per wing. Was that a standard feature of the 1C, or just this unit? I can’t find any resources or images of 1Cs with 8 rocket stubs. Thanks in advance.

Wow. I hated building this kit, you’re doing a really excellent job with it.

Hello everyone. I recently started work on my 1/32 mustang by tamiya. It’s painfully obvious that the engineering of this kit surpasses almost everything else I’ve built. The only thing that’s comparable to it’s perfect fit and detail are other modern tamiya 1/32 kits. It’ll be a while before any manufacturer tops this for renditions of mustangs in my opinion. obviously I didn’t bother posting anything here until I had a bit of work to show for it. The first couple pages of the instructions entail the engine, cockpit, sidewalls and underside radiator assembly. Usually when I do a plane like this, it’s at this point I discover that I must then hack cockpit floors with a hobby knife here, or apply putty with a shovel there to fill a void of doom with. This kit fit perfectly. And that doesn’t ever happen for me. So kudos to tamiya. I used HGW belts that came with a resin dingy (yellow chair mattress thing). I was putting together the torment of the fabric seatbelts until the dreaded PE “ping” promptly crushed my dreams. I assume you’ve all had the “ping” experience, which was even more awesome when there’s only one copy of that particular buckle. lucky for me I also put an Eduard “look“ instrument panel toward the build, and it came with a pre painted PE seatbelt. So it got used instead of the pinged fabric one. I had to dirty it up a bit with some oil paint but It works. For the floor I sprayed it wood deck tan (tamiya) and then spread a bit of burnt umber oil paint across it with a little piece of packing foam to achieve the plywood look. A few dabs and twists to simulate timber knots, and I was happy with the result. So happy in fact I wasn’t too keen to go and cover it up with black paint for the non stick they had. I reckon a few, particularly the earlier ones like this wouldn’t have had it, but I’m perfectly happy being wrong about that. I like the looks so I left it. Like on the battery box behind the seat, I added a few lead wires here and there to spruce things up a bit. I’m happy with the result, I don’t normally do things like this but the quality of the kit demanded I go the extra mile. for painting, like always I black base with mr surfacer 1500. Then with SMS’s interior green I sprayed lightly with an angle from above to achieve shadowing effects, until I reached an appropriate opacity. For scratches and wear I dry brushed with a light green citadel base paint (“ogre” something or rather). It complements the interior green perfectly. Blast the tamiya clear gloss on for the barracuda stencil decals, enemal panel washes then a hit with Gunze flat coat. quite happy with the result so far and can’t recommend the barracuda placards enough. The whole thing pops and looks awesome with them in place. Worth the time to do. As for the engine I didn’t really go too overboard with it as I don’t really intend on showing it off. But it got mostly the same treatment. hope you enjoy my saga with this build, I’ll post a do things worth posting. Been a top notch kit so far

Haha. Rest assured, I’d rather poke my eyes with blunt sticks than do that.

Hey mate, I did this a couple years ago. Since then I’ve gotten more confident with my airbrush. I use tamiya red brown, then black. It’s very thinned. I use 2 drops of colour, then 1.5ml of methylated spirits as thinner. In fact I only use metho for thinner unless it’s a lacquer obviously.

Now that’s a well done kit. I like the chipping on the underside. Subtle but still very noticeable- just right, a hard balance to reach. I have their -5 in my stash, Might have to add one of these as well to my ridiculous to do list.

This was the first real 1/32 kit I built. The engineering and detail tamiya put into their 1/32 series kits is amazing. The only drama I had was attaching the landing gear right at the end. I’m of the opinion it was completely my fault although I have heard a couple other people comment on the same thing. I used the following aftermarket goodies… HGW belts HGW wet transfers (bit of drama with that, I’ll explain later) Eduard Brassin wheels barracuda placards Kit engine. The engine details though are scratchbuilt with copper wire. obviously took a huge amount inspiration from someone’s work on his and copied his double layer chipping process to the letter. Very happy with result. Also did a sick amount of research into primer colours used on these early gulls, and sprayed accordingly salmon colour along bolts and panel joins, yellow zinc chromate on rivets and in between. And after all that you can barely see it under the very subtle chipping in did. These things didn’t chip that badly compared toJapanesemachines etc. For the tape around the panel joins at the fuel tank I used the kit’s thick stupid decals and didn’t use any solvents. It’s tape, it’s meant to cover the panel lines, not show them off. So luckily the kits decals got used somewhere. barracuda cockpit placards in action. tried pigment for the exhaust smoke. This is the result. Not a fan. At least I know now. scored a win with this one in its category last comp. very happy about that. When using HGW wet transfers, I found out the hard way that best way to go about it is to promptly ignore the instructions where it says, “use mr mark setter or mr mark solvent”. When it came time to remove the film off the decals, I found that the solvent had melted the thing into the clear coat. And film wouldn’t remove. I had to gently and carefully carve off a corner with the scalpel to remove the film. Use water. Remove film and then maybe decal solvent. for the base I took a panel of hard insulating foam (wall and door interiors) from hardware shop, cut out a chunk and surrounded it in balsa panels. I used mig ammo acrylic terrains light earth, and a 1/35 scale field repair shop from a brand I don’t remember for the various items featured. A bit of black oil paint for the oil leak, and burnt umber thinned to stain the balsa. A couple rocks from my driveway for the tire chocks and that was a wrap. highly highly recommended this kit. I’ve got the 1A and the 1D sitting there now it was that good. And they aren’t cheap kits. Completely worth it though.

Hello everyone. once upon a time I stumbled on this image. I decided I had to get involved and allowed it to torment my mortal soul. So finally I bought Eduard’a new tool 190 in A4 plus a few extra goodies such as bronze legs and a resin engine. this was going to be a mission. the kit came to together very well and is evidently very well engineered. A credit to Eduard. The resin engine put up a little more fight, but inevitably succumbed to my mad skills. I highly recommend the bronze legs as well. So now it came time to painting. Obviously this one was a whole new ball game. So I poured over some old photos… I kept reading that these fighters had green and brown camos to start with, had winter white for winter and in spring had the white partially removed to reveal the green and brown beneath. This theory is crap. Obviously they arrive at the front standard 74/75/76, cop with white in winter, and in spring the ground crew come along with green and brown, blast it on as quickly and unlovingly as possible, and that’s the result. So that’s what I did with the process. now the actual colours. Requires test mules. I don’t buy that they were captured Russian colours. Luftwaffe airfields hosted bombers and fighters, and crews to service both. They had repair paints to service everything, and I doubt the ruskies left paint for them to use against them. So I narrowed the options down to rlm 70,71,02 or 70,71,79 sand gelb. I chose the latter. And got to work. 74,75,76, hairspray, white, chipping work, then the extra colours. for this I tore bits of paper (not cut, tear) in all sorts of shapes for masks. I looped little bits of masking tape to hold the mask a couple mm above the surface to achieve the slightly feathered demarcation. happy with that, I proceeded to weather it, final assemble and build a simple base out of a bamboo cutting board, balsa planks, static grass and tamiya fake snow. I gave the diorama a quick shoot of flat white to make it look a little frosty, and I’m done. I added a few lead wires into the engine bay. Inspiration from plasmos YouTube vids full credit. a few splatter marks with a stiff brush and oil paints. That and a few other things and I’m done