Brengun Messerschmitt P.1103b Volkjager Candidate 1:48

[Mike]

I saw a new member (I think?) showing off his finished example the other day, and you know what a sucker for silly and unusual things I am.  I picked one in 1:48 up from Brengun off eBay for as cheap as Cheapo McChips, and treated it to a PE set from the same brand because that cockpit with be SO visible won't it? Anyway - I thought I could use some of the paints from my Triebflugel build here to speed the process along, and as it's tiny weeny, it shouldn't take long to get done (famous last words!).

 

I've put the cockpit together with its PE frippery, and scribed a set of lines in the cannon feed to give it a bit more detail.  I've also lopped off the rocket exhaust pipe, as it was a bit soft, so I hollowed it out and fitted a length of aluminium tubing to replace it.  I've added a backstop inside from strips of styrene, and will perfect the shape of the aft fuselage once it's together.  I've also got a Master barrels Mk.108 barrel on the way too, as the kit barrel is a bit... stick-like.

 

here's a quick shot of the parts laid out ready for primer on the cockpit and fuselage interior.  Don't worry, I'm not abandoning the Spinny-thing just yet

 

 

 

[2Step]

I think you're referring to me

 

I probably don't have to tell you, but : dry fit!!!

 

I had a hard time fitting the cockpit in. (Also, you doing a way better job of detailing, but I decided with a closed canopy, you really don' see much, so I just had added the seat belts and also replaced the gun barrel...

 

Oh, one other thing I just remembered, tell me how you fit the temporary undercarriage. For mine, the scate seemed always to be in the way of the axle, so I finally just glued the wheels to the outside of the frame

[Mike]

26 minutes ago, 2Step said:

I think you're referring to me

Now I've seen your avatar pic, I think you're right

 

26 minutes ago, 2Step said:

I had a hard time fitting the cockpit in.

I have done a brief test-fit, but I just did another to be on the safe side.  After 10 minutes of very aggressive sanding of the fuel tank, the outer edge of the floor panel and the cannon feed, plus a bit of adzing of the location points in the side of the fuselage, it now fits with the fuselage seams tight against each other - thanks to you    it's a bit dusty in here now

 

27 minutes ago, 2Step said:

Oh, one other thing I just remembered, tell me how you fit the temporary undercarriage.

I think someone made a mistake with the parts, as the diagram shows the cut-outs for the axle on the bottom edge, but in plastic they're on the top side, so the axle baulks the fuselage.  I'm going to deploy my skid, so I won't fit the sled to the fuselage, but I might cut off and turn the end-parts over to make them look like the plans.

[Martian]

7 hours ago, Mike said:

you know what a sucker for silly and unusual things I am. 

Ah! So that's why you let me join Britnodeller all those years ago.

 

Enlightened of Mars 👽

[Mike]

I managed to get a bit of painting done over the weekend after taking what amounted to a serious chunk out of the fuel tank behind the pilot.  The PE set was well worth the extra money, providing seatbelts, rudders and instrument panel, and it's now getting nearer to closing up the 'pit so it can catch up with the Triebflugel.  The RLM02 probably isn't right, but that's what the instructions give you and I used the rest of the paint on the interior of the wheel bays on the 'Flugel, so it was a bonus   Here's where she's at now:

 

 

Hopefully you can see the big grooves I made in the fuselage sides to accommodate the cockpit floor, and the volume of material off that tank.  You'll also note I completely removed the three aftmost ribs on the port side of the cockpit.  I could have got away with leaving the bits that would be seen under the ammo chute, but as the seat covers that area I just scraped the whole lot out.  The scratches on the tank look like weathering but they're not.  They're real damage caused during the adjustment, but I'm going to leave it as it looks accidental, which I suppose it was.

[Martian]

Looks like I will be scratch building the interior of mine then, seems like it will be easier.

 

Martian 👽

[Mike]

2 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Looks like I will be scratch building the interior of mine then, seems like it will be easier.

 

Martian 👽

I wouldn't waste your time if you're doing it canopy down, which I intend to.  The fuselage sides are just really thick, so unless you're planning on thinning them it's not worth the effort, as then you'd also be thinking about crash-moulding a new closer-to-scale canopy, which just starts to get long-winded.

[Mike]

I've just been mucking about getting the fuselage together after test-fitting the IP.  Annoyingly, it interferes, or rather it is interfered with by the control column, so I bent that a little aft to allow the two to coexist.  The IP also needs tilting back slightly to accommodate the canopy, which is a bit annoying too.  it's in the slots, so it looks like the thickness of the glazing hasn't been taken into account :shrug:  Anyway, I decided to close it up there and then, so leaving the tape in place on the main body, I ran some CA around the joints in sections using an old #11 blade, which is my preferred way of closing up short-run or poorly fitting fuselages.  After a couple of minutes I began sanding down the joins then brought them back to profiles, following up with a test spray of some primer I had in the airbrush.  I also re-cut the panel lines with my UMM scriber (it's good at that), and smoothed the edges with a cocktail stick.  This is how it stands now with the wings tacked down by some small blobs of CA to get a feel for the fit of the canopy.

 

 

It looks ok on first inspection, but I'll let it set up overnight and check it again tomorrow.  You might notice I've cut the control surfaces with a razor saw and rounded off the leading edges a little to give them more of a 3D feel, and first test of the canopy looks like it might need a small fillet in the vertical part of the rear corners to fill a small gap that's present between it and the fuselage.  Again, I'll double-check it tomorrow if I get time.

 

I didn't bother going to the trouble of adding wiring to the back of the IP, and it looks like it's a good job as there isn't room.  I've also not done any weathering other than a few scratches on the tank, and I can confirm that those lovely rudder pedals are completely out of sight, as is the Mk.108 cannon breech that's moulded into the floor of the cockpit.  Not to worry eh?  The set's probably worth it just for the seatbelts and IP, as you can just see the little dials, plus of course the prop that retracts and deploys the skid on the underside.  As it was essentially a paper project I've got no idea whether it would have been fitted with wingtip lights as it's a one-use float back to the ground on a parachute at the end of the mission (assuming you survive).  What think you?

[Martian]

That's it then; the whole thing gets ground out and stuff that actually fits gets scratched. I have the Brengun canopy and etch sets so I might as well go the whole hog.

 

Martian 👽

[Mike]

15 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

That's it then; the whole thing gets ground out and stuff that actually fits gets scratched. I have the Brengun canopy and etch sets so I might as well go the whole hog.

Please don't show me up with your superior workmanship!

[gingerbob]

I can't imagine them bothering to fit wingtip lights, at least until the 2-person night fighter version 😉

[Mike]

5 minutes ago, gingerbob said:

I can't imagine them bothering to fit wingtip lights, at least until the 2-person night fighter version 😉

I was erring on that side too.  They may have put a bit of a beacon on it once their own people started colliding with them, but in truth I doubt they'd have gotten into service with a flight profile like that.  Makes one wonder why it was fitted with a skid, doesn't it?  Unless it's there for ground-handling of the surviving airframes that made it down in one piece.

[Martian]

8 hours ago, Mike said:

Please don't show me up with your superior workmanship!

That would take some doing! All I'm likely to be displaying is my superior bloody mindedness!

 

Martian 👽

[Mike]

4 minutes ago, Martian Hale said:

All I'm likely to be displaying is my superior bloody mindedness!

that reminds me of when I was doing my art A level.  Someone would say "that looks good", but they didn't see all the erasers that had bitten the dust getting there

[Martian]

I have been thinking about this skid business and did a bit of research which I think explains where the confusion comes from. The initial design for the P.1103 was quite different to the one we have in the kit. Here:

 

 

As first designed the aircraft was indeed meant to descend by parachute, clearly there would have been very few other options. The re-design seems to have exchanged this capability for a more conventional gliding landing. Here:

 

 

Clarifying the Conundrums of Mars 👽

[Mike]

That makes more sense.  The Wiki article mainly deals with the a, IIRC which is where I probably got that from.  I still wouldn't fancy a combat trip in one though

 

I notice the head armour is pressing right up against the back of the pilot's bonce in that pic.  It's not entirely clear how to fit the part from the instructions, just a vague arrow.  I also have to manage the feat of actually remembering to put it in before I add the canopy

[Mike]

A little more progress to report.  The canopy fitted pretty well despite my previous concerns, so with a little fettling and a quick removal of the Klear from the mating surfaces, I glued it on with some GS-Hypo cement.  I remembered to add the head armour and the gunsight glazing too, which is nothing short of a miracle! The elevators suffered from some fairly indistinct slots in the fuselage, so I drilled and scraped those until I could fit the parts well enough, and the seam was reduced with a bit of Vallejo plastic putty.  I also glued in the Mk.108 barrel, which required a slight widening and tidying up of the hole, which was far too wee, as was the kit barrel/stick.  At the moment I've just a dusting of primer over the remaining seams, and masked up the canopy with a bit of Tamiya tape.  She's not far off primer, and then I can catch up with the Triebflugel and put some underside blue on, after which both should proceed hand-in-hand

 

[Mike]

Got the primer on y'day and finished off the underside painting today by adding the slightly lighter shade, which will be toned down a little by the time I've finished.  Now I'm level with the Triebflugel, I can carry on using the same paint for both, which is nice

 

 

[Mike]

I've begun the painting of the upper colours, although granted it's just the basic tone so far.  I did the initial mottle with my usual airbrush, but wasn't happy with it, so overpainted with some more underside colour.  I used my awesome Gunze PS-770 to redo it, and with a few mis-steps on the way, came out with this:

 

 

I've still got to modulate the tone a little bit, then decide what other colours to put on it.  Looking at the pic, a couple of this blotches looks a bit heavy, but under the naked eye this isn't the case and should disappear under gloss then matt coats.  I might have a go at reducing any spitting that's visible, but remember that portion of the fuselage is barely the length of your thumb... well my thumb at least - your thumb might be unusually short or long.

[Mike]

Is anyone else having a problem with that anti-glare panel free nose cone?  it's bugging me a bit.  might make a mask up later and spray in some really dark grey

[Martian]

3 hours ago, Mike said:

Is anyone else having a problem with that anti-glare panel free nose cone?  it's bugging me a bit.  might make a mask up later and spray in some really dark grey

Not really, Heinkel he162 aircraft where the underside colour continues up over the nose don't seem to have had anti-glare panels so one has to assume that they managed OK.

 

Martian 👽

[Mike]

6 minutes ago, Martian Hale said:

Not really, Heinkel he162 aircraft where the underside colour continues up over the nose don't seem to have had anti-glare panels so one has to assume that they managed OK.

Quote

Don't listen to him, he's mental!

I don't know who said that, but they might be onto something!

[SafetyDad]

I'm really impressed by your mottling! Please leave as is

 

SD

[Mike]

On 10/09/2019 at 18:09, Martian Hale said:

Looks like I will be scratch building the interior of mine then, seems like it will be easier.

I found out that Brengun do a vacform canopy - probably would have got one if I'd known beforehand

 

4 hours ago, SafetyDad said:

I'm really impressed by your mottling! Please leave as is

Thanks - my son was also quite complementary about it

[Martian]

3 hours ago, Mike said:

I found out that Brengun do a vacform canopy - probably would have got one if I'd known beforehand

If you haven't already glued yours in place or can get it off without damaging the paintwork, you can have my spare.

 

Martian 👽