Jump to content

stevesoutar

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    153

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by stevesoutar

  1. stevesoutar
    Before knuckling down to the fine brass work, I have also applied national markings, then tried my hand at another wellenmuster (literally 'wave pattern') camo scheme I have deviated a bit from the tight, fine pattern on d5 + CL in my book ... I am 100% happy with the fuselage, but only about 90% convinced about the look of the wings (the 2nd wing is better than the first, as I got more used to using the soft fibre tip acrylic pen (I think this was one a 1mm Pentel soft edge tip - but I threw the packet away ! ) I am sticking with the late war RLM 76 colour from AK - which is a match for the He-219 which has been restored at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Dallas Those wing roots are looking ugly now that I don't have a single colour, so they will be filled & reworked, otherwise it will annoy me every time I look at this model. what seemed to be a small panel line at first is really quite deep happiest with the fuselage & cockpit sides Now that have fie brass tubes & rods, I am also going to replace the delicate plastic hinge pins in the ailerons - all main control surfaces on this kit are fully mobile (I like that)
  2. stevesoutar
    I have not made much time for modelling lately, life has been getting in the way a little, but I have found some materials to try to scratch a FuG 202 antenna from wire tubing Albion Alloys sells a range of brass rod, tube & flat sections - amazingly I found some brass rod, 1mm OD x 0.8mm ID - which gives me just enough space to fit 4 x 0.3mm rods or tubes inside I decided to order some of the 0.3mm rod (0.1mm ID) figuring that a tube might bend at 90° more readily than a solid rod will This is the result of my first test piece, featuring the Mk1 FuG 202 array bending jig(tm) This is the material - stiffer than 2mm silver rod (which is unusably soft for this job) and my first effort - aided by a little UV activated glue to give myself time to arrange the 4 cross members Hopefully this will be close enough at this scale, but a mkII FuG 202 bender may invent itself soon, if I am not happy with this prototype
  3. stevesoutar
    light overspray with another coat of RLM77, cockpit masked, and National markings added over the base finish And some light weathering, sealed over with some Vallejo acrylic matt varnish - the canopy rails need a coat of RLM77 grey A little bit of rescribing on the engine inspection panels (shhh ... I haven't finished the crew yet, so the cockpit isn't finally fixed in place yet - I am impatient to see some progress on the airframe before I go back to fiddling with crew & seat belts and all that ... ) This photo looks like I have wrinkles in the cross on the port wing, but I checked - this is just where my matt coat hasn't completely coated the glossy decal (small crosses & tiny swastika taken from Xtradecal sheet X72118)
  4. stevesoutar
    Experiments with colours - 1st go
  5. stevesoutar
    This is the base coat for the upper surfaces finished - a reasonable match for RLM77 I think I'm going to try adding a little grey to the RLM76 to take the edge off that yellow tone a little for the sides & lower surfaces
  6. stevesoutar
    Adding some heavy handed panel lines using a citadel wash, after more filling and sanding to get the engine pods free of seam lines ~Same treatment below I have corrected the shape of the ailerons by cutting the wing, and adding small fillets to the inside end of each aileron
  7. stevesoutar
    This shows what the wings should look like from in front
  8. stevesoutar
    Filling, rubbing down, 1st coat of paint, then more sanding, plus some filler to restore the curve to the engine pods, which weren't 100% perfect fit. I am going to try out AK's late war RLM76 Lichtblau variant as my base coat for this one, so that is the zinc primer tone you see here - not sure if I like it yet, but it's going to be a different finish from the last couple of nachtjager that I built last year On the starboard wing I have also blanked out the unwanted extra landing lights, and moulded a fairing around the air intake next to the engine. there are a couple more openings (not sure what they are) which were square in the kit leading edges, but are distinctly rounded slots in the drawings & photos (gun camera slots, or ventilation of some sort?) - so I will drill the correct shape out of the milliput once it has cured. I also need to remember to drill into the wing roots - I think these may be an extra pair of Mg151 cannon, but I will need to check that
  9. stevesoutar
    The fuselage is being sealed up with my tatty wiring tucked inside - I had to fiddle with the battery contacts when I clamped the two halves, but now I have cemented it with the motors running - both sides operational ! Checking the canopy fits all along ...
  10. stevesoutar
    Testing the new cockpit floor fits in among the details along the sides and with the radar displays added
  11. stevesoutar
    Thats a nice idea - I have some super tiny magnets tucked away
  12. stevesoutar
    That is a neat solution, I am thinking about possible ways to display an aircraft coming in to land at an airfield, and I have been considering fine brass rod - combined with a clear perspex stand like you have shown here might be a good option - thanks for the suggestion
  13. stevesoutar
    The prop spinners in the kit are awful, so I found some resin ju-88 props to replace them - I should have trimmed the stems of the blades, but now I will need to cut them off, and drill so they sit with the blades closed to the spinner covers (a job for my mate Ron, Later Ron) And then the fun with the wiring begins. I didn't take any picture of the surgery I did to get the motors to fit inside. They are held in place by blobs of milliput, which should be heat resistant enough to cope running for minutes or more at a time. I had already done some work adding detail to the cockpit area in parallel with the bf-110 cockpit. that is a panel of wiring from a spare Mosquito cockpit. The battery - a rechargable AAA cell with a USB2 changing port on one side - brilliant, just what I needed. To get the battery where I need it to sit, it's hard to fit a commercial battery box inside a skinny fuselage like this - so it's plasticard, milliput & superglue for the battery & terminals And here's the on-off switch, mounted behind the cockpit And here is one of the motors - the motor was too long to any further back, so the poorly etched radiators had to be hacked away to allow everything to fit
  14. stevesoutar
    These are the first stages of my attempt to motorise the Frog he-219. I already fitted a beaufighter with a pair Frog spin-a-prop motors, but I think the magnets have become unpolarised, after about 10 minutes of running, spread over the weeks of building & testing the battery fitting, they are now almost impossible to start up. So I set about sourcing different motors on the internet. Most motors will need a switch in the circuit, so I also found a relatively small microswitch, & bought a pack of 10 for about £3.00 This project took a bit of a back seat to my two Ju-88's and the Bf-110 seen here, as my soldering skills were pretty poor. But I have a new iron now, so it's time to crack on ... I started the Bf-110 & the UHU at the same time, but the Heinkel project was delayed by difficulties with the engines (ironically), so production of my bf-110 took priority, followed by my Ju-88R I've always been fascinated by the UHU ever since I built this same kit when I was 10 years old. I recently obtained this fabulous reference book online, with scale drawings in 1/72nd, 1/48th & 1/32nd scales
  15. stevesoutar
    I have really enjoyed this group build with you guys, and I picked up a good few tips along the way from seeing how others do things. I did rush a little bit to meet the deadline, but i will revisit mine once I have plotted a better way of making those damned tiny antenna !! So many different finishes for the same type - it was fun seeing each one develop Count me in for the next group build 👍
  16. stevesoutar
    Finished .... kind of I'm happy, this will do until I can solve the radar array thing
  17. stevesoutar
    Ju-88R-2 Finished - kind of I have abandoned the the radar array for now - I'm wondering if I could cast the cross tree in white metal, instead of using fragile plastic or these delicate PE brass filaments But that is a project for another time - If I succeed in building something I will come back & fit a set to this kit
  18. stevesoutar
    first time attempting to create a stencil from scratch .... 99% happy with it - I can minor adjustments with a fine brush I have fam,ily stuff to do during the day, but I still aim to submit this to the gallery by tonight .... final details will probably NOT include radar antenna ....
  19. stevesoutar
    Sitrep: FuG202 antennae will end up in the bin, or the spares box ... I have decided I am not a watchmaker or jeweller, and never want to be !! My ambition clearly exceeds my talent & abilities. (that old chestnut again) 🤪 this brass is way too flimsy, and I don't have the fine motor skills to bend these at 90 degrees, trim all the ariels to exactly the right length, THEN rotate the ends through 45 degrees so they sit parallel - these brass kits for the FuG202 in 1/72 scale are made for borrowers & faery folk only I suspect
  20. stevesoutar
    This is the job I have avoiding for days while I puzzled out how to approach it I have soldered all 4 x FuG202 antenna stalks & arrays - this may have been the easy bit ! Now, I "just" need to bend each stalk through 90 degrees, about 2mm from the post, consistently, in a corner, not a curve. I'm gonna have a short break while I think about the best approach So I think I need to make two jigs - a square block of plastic card, 4mm wide, with two cuts at right angles, and a hole drilled through the centre (a little over 1mm, maybe 1.5mm) to get past the solder joint and able to get some stability from the post. I should be able to use this to then bend the antennea into position and a plastic card flat plate, with pilot holes to guide me in marking the location for the 4 post holes - it will need some kind of cutout in the centre to allow it to sit over the nose. I want the posts mounted square, so guesswork will probably leave me unhappy on this complex curved surface Time for a coffee and a think before I start fabricating my gizmos
  21. stevesoutar
    on the final stretch now - I am hoping to use silver solder to fix these worryingly delicate FuG202 antennae onto 1mm brass posts The ariels are bending every time I breath on them - if I can get them assembled I think I will coat them in a layer of cyanoacrylate glue to give them some more rigidity (I hope!) This is on the border between scale accuracy and insanity I think
  22. stevesoutar
    Thanks Nick - I am planning a little oil & fuel staining as well - using a wet brush these pigment powders behave differently, so this is another small experiment to come 🙂
  23. stevesoutar
    Now the stage I've been itching to get started - the weathering and staining from those filthy rich running BMW 801 radial engines. Step 1 - first attempt at the carbon build up on the wings, wheel bays and tailplanes - plus some light weathering on the uppersurfaces and above ...
  24. stevesoutar
    Small adjustment to the line of the HellBlau lower colour, as it was overlapping where the fuselage crosses sit
  25. stevesoutar
    That looks great @Walter - very nice indeed
×
×
  • Create New...