1/72 Revell Messerschmitt P1099 B/I Heavy Armor

[Nigel Heath]

Having completed my current builds I have selected this as my next project, acquired at Telford three years ago :

Ced B built one of these earlier in the year and that partially inspired my choice.

There are three grey and one clear sprues:

And a nice looking set of decals of course:

I think I will go with this scheme of the two offered - its the one depicted on the box art and has an attractive white tail:

Starting in the cockpit - I detest moulded in belts, these will have to go to be replaced by PE ones:

Much sanding and filing later they were gone, finished off with a dab of liquid poly to help smooth things out:

A mockup of the cockpit shows that the back of the instruments will be highly visible so that needs some detailing:

There was a sink mark on the back which while not very visible was worth plating over with a scrap of card:

Here is that finished ready for some paint:

I will add coloured wires to the instruments after paint.

The pilot's seat looked very squat so I have packed it out and added 1mm square seat rails:

That's as far as I've got today.

Bye for now,

Nigel

[Bordfunker]

Looking forward to seeing what you do with this one.

Karl

[Jake Moon]

Oh boy it keeps getting better and better! Definitely will be following this closely.

[CedB]

"Ced B built one of these earlier in the year and that partially inspired my choice." I am humbled Obe Wan

Watching with interest and looking forward to seeing what you do with this beast... I shan't review my WiP, I'll just enjoy 'the ride'

[Nigel Heath]

Watching with interest and looking forward to seeing what you do with this beast... I shan't review my WiP, I'll just enjoy 'the ride'

I hope I can do it justice to your build.

[Nigel Heath]

Today I selected some suitable PE belts and bent them up ready for painting:

Next the gunner's periscope was cleaned up and liquid masking added to the lens:

The inside of the canopy needs painting so I masked that up:

For this version these shaded areas need removing so I did that as well as filling some ejector marks that would be visible even with the cockpit floor in place:

Then I turned my attention to the front gun turret. Painting wise it will be much easier to add the gun after assembly and painting so I removed the pivot pins and cut off the barrel for replacement with 0.7mm brass tube:

I elected to use the detailing on the barrel so that got drilled out:

The final bit of detailing was reinstated with a strip of Bare Metal Foil wrapped round:

The inside of this ball turret is visible so it needs painting before assembly, I masked the mating surfaces ready for that job:

Studying the instructions revealed that in the last assembly stage there is a cowling for the instruments. This would hide my detailing efforts and it looks rather chunky so I decided to replace it with a scratch build item:

Here's that done, this will also allow me to angle the instrument panel back slightly:

I just have to add a gun sight base to it now.

Bye for now,

Nigel

[wyverns4]

and ready!

Christian, exiled to the armpit of the globe

[rob85]

Very nice indeed nigel! Looking forward to where you take this one

Rob

[Greif]

Very nice beginning Nigel!

More!!

[jrlx]

Hi Nigel,

I have one of these in the stash. I'll be following your build with interest.

Great start and some nice ideas already. I'm always impressed with your precise and clean builds.

Cheers

Jaime

[Nigel Heath]

I found a suitable small part in my spares box to use as a base for the gun sight:

These rear gun turrets are subtly handed so I marked them accordingly:

I think those are best painted internally before assembly and its the same storey for the front turret which would have some difficult recesses to paint after assembly so I masked the mating surfaces ready for that:

The rear guns got the same treatments as the front one:

Nearly ready for some paint I also masked up the mating surfaces on the fuselage:

After some white and grey primer I got these top coats applied:

After that I could do some detail painting on the belts, stick and instrument coaming:

Unmasked the fuselage:

Then I spent a while applying Mike Grant decals to the blank instruments as well as a little more detail painting:

The IP could then be glued on along with some wires at the back:

The last job of the day was to mask up the rear bulkhead using just scraps off my cutting mat:

Bye for now,

Nigel

[prowler0000]

I'm enjoying this one, Nigel!

Roll on the next update....

[Greif]

Nice job Nigel, a pleasure to follow your progress!

[Jake Moon]

Looking great so far! It's amazing how much difference little things like the back of the instrument panel makes!

[Nigel Heath]

Wings assembled:

In the end I brush painted the black boxes and then gave the wiring a black wash:

Cockpit assembled (apart from the periscope):

With the cockpit installed I had to think about the required nose weight. The instructions recommend 9g, here is 8g of lead ready to go in:

The black Milliput used to fix the lead in place will more than easily make up the rest of the weight:

When all the lead was fixed I balled up the remaining Milliput and bunged it behind the cockpit bulkhead:

Job done, now I could close up the fuselage:

I just thought I'd do an update while that hardened up.

Bye for now,

Nigel

[CedB]

Nice cockpit Nigel, very smart

[Spookytooth]

Nice work as per norm Nigel.

All looking good mate.

Simon.

[jrlx]

Hi Nigel,

Great detail work on the cockpit and nice clean work overall. Shaping up nicely.

Cheers

Jaime

[philp]

Looking good Nigel though I have never been one to trust the recommended weight given in the instructions (when they even bother to do that). I always put the major bits together (with some tape or rubber bands if I have to) and start sticking weights in it until I finally get them leaning more to the front balanced at the main wheel point. The Islander I have been working on has had quit a bit added and the P-38 I did also was well above the recommended amount before they decided to play right.

[Martian]

I'm rather liking the way this is coming along. Better make sure the Hood doesn't get to hear about it!

Martin

[Hockeyboy76]

Blimey, the start of another cracker!

Would love a look round your stash, judging by you latest builds it would be like Aladins cave.

[Nigel Heath]

I have never been one to trust the recommended weight given in the instructions (when they even bother to do that).

Me neither, I have checked the C of G of the fuselage and its well forward of the main wheels.

With the fuselage together I could add the front wheel well:

This is for my reference as much as anything - before I do too much more sanding and details like the ejector chutes are lost:

Next I glued together the nose turret with added Blu Tack to stop the clamp slipping off:

Next - the engines. I masked up the mating faces ready for some paint:

I gave all the engine parts a coat of grey primer and also a coat of matt varnish inside the canopy as the RLM 66 on it was rather glossy for some reason:

Next a coat of Burnt Iron on the rear parts and some Aluminium on the fronts:

Now I could start to assemble the engines:

I think I'll let them set overnight before removing the clamps.

The final job of the day was to unmask the canopy:

I made the internal masks slightly oversize so the external masking should hide the internal framing a bit.

Bye for now,

Nigel

[prowler0000]

I made the internal masks slightly oversize so the external masking should hide the internal framing a bit.

GENIUS!!!!!

[CedB]

Lovely canopy Nigel. I'm not sure I'll be masking the insides any day soon, but you never know!

[jrlx]

Great progress, Nigel. The canopy masking resulted very well. Nice tip regarding the masking!

Cheers

Jaime