V2 Vergeltungswaffe 2 - a bit of a change from the usual

[Mike]

I saw Don's post about rocketry and the A-9 ICBM, and that tickled my fancy to get a V2. I've stood next to the beaten up one in Cosford a few times, and always fancied a kit to put in the cabinet, so I picked up the snap-together Pegasus kit in my favourite scale 1:48.

It's a very simple kit for obvious reasons, and fit is excellent, I have to say All it took was trimming off the sprue gates, and scraping the central ring that joins the top to the bottom to get a better fit. Tamiya Extra Thin along all the joints, and an elastic band round the middle to tease a slightly popping seam into submission. The base/launchpad took a little more work because of some tooling marks and ejector pins on the visible parts, as well as a slight difference in height between the little legs that hold the launch ring off the ground. A little sanding hither and thither soon sorted that out, whilst testing the height with calipers in between times.

Here's where we stood when I broke for tea. Probably 30 minutes' work?

It's surprisingly tall, and only an inch or two from the top of my photo-booth. Next job is to sort out the seams and re-scribe the panel lines that run down those seamlines, and then tidy up the fairings at the base of the fins. They were pretty rough on the real thing, but these ones need a little TLC. Then it'll be on to the painting unless anyone's aware of any inaccuracies with the kit that I can still fix at this stage?

[Mike]

I've been looking at some pics on t'internet, and it would appear that the fairings were actually quite smooth, so it looks like the putty is going to have to come out at some point. Will do a little more research before I do though, just in case I've been looking at photos of propaganda mock-ups

[The wooksta V2.0]

Little bit of cut and shut, some slight rearranging and some plastic card wings and fins and you could have a Miles M52 from that...

[bigh827]

I bought one of these back around 08/09, it is a nice little kit.

[Mike]

I'd agree with that, and I really enjoyed slapping it together Looks like the cool-air steering vanes need a little work, as it seems they're often flappin' about a little bit. Should be easy to mobilise them and offset them a little. Couple of sink marks (I know!!!! Shock horror!!! ) to deal with too, but nothing to have an aneurysm about

Little bit of cut and shut, some slight rearranging and some plastic card wings and fins and you could have a Miles M52 from that...

I was actually tempted to do the manned A-9, but bottled it at the thought of all the plastic dust

[Mike]

Here's where we stand at present:

I've already filled the horizontal panel lines that extend onto the outer edges of the fins, and you'll notice a couple of dark lines around the main body of the missile. Here's what I plan to do:

1. Mobilise the cool air flaps and offset them a little
2. detail the exhaust outlet & graphite hot steering vanes
3. rivet the bands around the missile body
4. simulate oil-canning on the main body and fins, as this was present even when new
5. Add the decals that were sometimes painted on the fins, and the white band around a top access panel
6. Add sundry lumps on the aft end of the missile
7. Add the raised lips around the break in the missile body just above the fins

Then I'll paint the thing You never know - I might even put it on a bit of a base and add some scorched ground and grass around it

[Mike]

Just found some rather interesting and inspiring material on the Tube of Yous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-b94Ibhx54

Will have to get some work done on this and the V-1 I'm butchering to get a more accurate beastie

[Brad]

Or if you have a spare 1/48 Midway;