What If... Horten Ho 229 (Gotha Go 299) 1/72 Revell Kit

[Scargsy]

So with 2 group builds just finished I figured I needed some more styrene on the workbench.

I had this in the stash and figured hopefully it will fit into the GB as what if/speculative, since there were only 3 prototypes ever built, the first an engine less glider (which crashed on landing), the second crashing due to engine failure on a test flight and the third prototype being captured at the end of WWII whilst still in construction.

None were ever fitted with weaponry and probably never had camouflage markings.

More information here on wikipedia.

I'll be doing a camo scheme of my own devising, also building the kit as in flight as it looks a bit goofy with the over-sized tricycle undercarriage and without the sensor (pitot?) that the kit has underneath, so keeping the clean lines.

7

All the parts (including clear) come in one sealed plastic bag.

There's very few sprues / parts - one sprue being entirely taken up by the wings.

Instructions are typical of Revell at the time, just 2 sheets of A3 printed in monochrome, folded together.

The decals don't look great, the transparent parts being particularly bad - maybe I'll be able to find something in my bits box to replace them?

 

[Scargsy]

So after my first session, I've managed to make quite a bit of progress since there's a small part count and a lot are the undercarriage (which I'll be deleting).

The undercarriage doors for the rear wheels seem to fit fairly well (on the side I've so far fitted).

The kit has quite a bit of detail on the insides (structure and machine guns), though they won't be visible in my build but I put them in and painted them for fun anyhow.

I also built up the cockpit, wings and painted the engine parts.

The front undercarriage doors didn't seem such a good fit so I removed them again, it's hard to judge what needs changing without the front door to line up against - so I removed them before the glue set.

I fitted the engine parts - you can probably see I was a little premature as the paint hadn't quite dried and there's some fingerprints in the silver paint but it won't be visible.

I also had to paint the interior of the nose part and the lower fuselage as they will potentially be visible (the latter via the exhaust openings).

Here's the sub-assemblies laid out after a first session, I'll let the glue and paint dry before doing some more work on it, hopefully this will be a quick build.

 

 

Edited November 24, 2019 by Scargsy

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Welcome back to the build with another grand choice. 

[Scargsy]

Update:

 

So I managed to fit the undercarriage doors fairly well, the front wheel well I added a small piece of plasticard to help align the height, the another small piece attached to the front door to fit across between this and the other doors to help align them (and stop the pieces falling in). The rear two doors did need a little sanding to get them to align nicely but in the end it fitted well.

 

So the rear wheel well doors, one I didn't fit as well as the other but hopefully once finished it won't be as noticeable (or just add character).

I added some small bits of filler where needed, then primed in Zero Paints Light Grey Primer (lacquer).

For the paint scheme my plan was to do a scifi style scheme similar to the Gallente style from Eve online, which is a metallic green and gunmetal type colour scheme (but in a camo style pattern).

To start with I airbrushed on some Alclad airframe aluminium, my first time using it and it went on amazingly, though from tips online I put it on in very thin layers with a low pressure (15 psi). I did have a couple of errors as seen below but that's due to my general impatience flipping it over to do the other side.

I then added a coat of Zero Paints clear lacquer over the top.

 

 So I added some blutac 'squiggles' for the camo pattern,

then sprayed it with a coat of Tamiya clear green, thinned with Tamiya thinners, but things didn't go well at all...

Some seriously weird reactions occurring - I think the surface was just too smooth, the paint was just running off - I ended up putting too much on and it pooling as seen. Maybe there were other factors (not fully mixed with the thinners or too much thinners, too cold (it was close to freezing where I was painting), etc. but most of it wiped off, after a few minutes sat on it, with just a bit of thinners wiping it off, I then ran it through some water and what I was left with was below...

 

Annoyingly my masking came off with the washing and I really dislike masking canopies

Ho-hum, you live and learn.

I hadn't given up on the metallic green though and got myself some Vallejo Mecha metallic green, I keyed back the paint using some 1000 grit, to hopefully help with adhesion this time! 

My first time with this paint and it went on great, with only a couple of drops of thinners. I added it in a couple of thin coats, first coat...

 

second coat after leaving the first to dry for a day...

So that's where it's up to, I need to mask up the camo pattern then I might give it a coat of Alclad again, take off the masks then attempt a coat of Tamiya smoke (black clear) over the whole topside - hopefully it won't run again if I don't clear lacquer it, fingers crossed.

Edited December 12, 2019 by Scargsy

[Scargsy]

Update time, I was rushing to finish for the deadline, though it's now been extended a week - although I have plenty of other kits awaiting attention for the other GBs.

 

So I masked up the Horten some more for the splinter camo, the idea was to do a silver overcoat on top, then several layers of smoke to pull back the green and silver.

I was spraying Vallejo 'Plate Mail' primer, I had a few issues laying it down too thick then wiping it off any trying again in the end I managed to lay down a good coat but all that wiping had left excess along the masking lines so I had some raised paint edges.

The Tamiya smoke I'd thinned rather a lot on the second coat I tried to go a bit heavier but it ended up with some pooling that can be seen on the green wing tip, however it did kind of do some panel lining.

Then onto decals and a final clear coat after painting the nose underside yellow...

The supplied decals went on OK, I was worried about the walkway marking (with huge clear section that didn't look 100% clear), given the size I did have some issues fitting it and part of it snapped, but I think I placed it reasonably well, there were also lots of other tiny warning decals around the flaps etc.

So that's where I was going to leave it but hopefully if I get some time with the extended deadline I'll do some weathering.

The green colour didn't turn out how I expected (I was wanting a metallic dark green like the box art but maybe I can do some oil based shading on it to add a bit of filtering.

Edited January 19, 2020 by Scargsy

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

She looks good sorry to hear its been fighting you. I hope you can get some finishing touches on this. If not she does look good. 

Edited January 19, 2020 by Corsairfoxfouruncle