Tamiya 262A 1-a 1/48

[shortCummins]

that last photo really shows the IP wiring to good effect

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[James G]

Looking great

[Kitchen Modeller]

On 4/14/2020 at 12:47 AM, shortCummins said:

that last photo really shows the IP wiring to good effect

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

 

On 4/14/2020 at 1:16 AM, James G said:

Looking great

Thanks guys

 

I've been working away at this over the past week - progress seems to be slow - but I think that's more the stage I'm at - the sanding and filling stage always seems to drag - not my favorite part of the build but possibly the most important for me - get things right here and I'll get a semi presentable model - even if the paint job isn't top notch. This is traditionally my weakest skill so it's something that I've consciously tried to improve. My methods have gradually improved but they can always be better.  It's a fairly time consuming process - every time I finish something, I see another area that needs attention. My strategy is to get as perfect as I can before primer - re-priming a model 3-4 times is not uncommon for me due the issues the primer highlights - I'm trying to get that number down. 

 

So the easy areas first - I say easy as these can be dealt with using Perfect Plastic putty. 

 

The resin section on the wing was quite gappy still so applied the PPP: 

 

 

And after clean up: 

 

 

Still not perfect - they should really remove that word from the product title. 

 

The resin on the upperside of the wing was proving more problematic - 

 

 

I had filled the gaps with Tamiya white putty so this is after sanding it back and rescribing - it was looking quite good but I think I removed too much of the putty when I was re-scribing the panel lines back in. I reapplied some more putting, this time thinning it down slightly with lacquer thinner - this makes it more liquid and it seems to go into those smaller gaps more easily. 

 

 

Second attempt - again this is after sanding it back and re-scribing - hopefully this holds up after primer. 

 

The cockpit backplate was painted and installed - I did some chipping with the usual toothpick method. 

 

 

I also painted along the top of the cockpit which meant I could start installing the canopy sections. 

 

 

The eduard masks where put in place and the 3 sections were painted with German Grey as per the interior colour - I've had some mixed results with Eduards painting masks recently but they were 100% spot on here. I was able to mask the whole canopy in about 20 minutes which must be a new personal record. The bullet proof glass for the front section for example: 

 

 

It took no time at all to do. Worth the extra cash for these things? Yes. 

 

The canopy fits pretty well... 

 

 

The front section has part of the fuselage attached so you get a perfect join in theory - however it actually sat slightly high in my case and I had a tiny step on the port side. 

 

 

Granted, it's small but it would probably stand out once paint was applied. So more putty. 

 

 

Overkill maybe - But then sanded back and re-sribed: 

 

 

The tail sections were installed: 

 

You have to love tamiya - these went in without any problem - I love these little moments - when you get a near perfect result with no stress. 

 

The engine nacelle was constructed and the seams filled: 

 

 

Again the fit is excellent - anyone who's done engine nacelles from other fits will testify what a pain these can be. Not here, 

 

 

I gave the engine a wee wash with tamiya panel line black just so you can see the details: 

 

 

Finally I added some rivet detail - the main reason for that was just to add some more detail to this section which otherwise would be completely blank: 

 

 

This will allow me to be a little more creative when it comes to the paint. I did play with riveting the entire model - however it would have been difficult as for the most part the fuselage has very little in the way of "landmarks" which would force me to guesstimate where alot of the line should go - lastly, the scheme I'm using will be quite dark overall so the rivet detail would struggle to be seen - so no rivets on this occasion, 

 

 

So that's where we stand at this point - next up is masking off the cockpit and wheel bays and I can put down the first coat of primer. Then the fun begins - paint

 

Hope you have a great weekend everyone...!
 

Cheers

 

John

[RadMax8]

Nice update. I must confess, filling and sanding is one area I dislike and struggle so much with. I’m slowly learning that different tools work for different jobs. An example, it seems to me PPP is best when it can be wiped away rather than sanded, such as in wing roots or other small gaps. A solvent-based putty works for areas in need of heavy sanding, since they bite into the plastic and won’t flake away. And areas that need rescribed benefit from something harder like CA, or even “sprue goo”, which scribes like plastic because, well, it is plastic!

 

One final comment, I think it’s best you didn’t rivet the whole fuselage, I think the Germans went pretty nuts with the putty and the surface was actually quite smooth. Hmm, I wonder what type they used?? Maybe some PPP smoked with water and a cotton bud...🤦‍♂️

[Kitchen Modeller]

Thanks Max. 
 

1 hour ago, RadMax8 said:

An example, it seems to me PPP is best when it can be wiped away rather than sanded, such as in wing roots or other small gaps. A solvent-based putty works for areas in need of heavy sanding, since they bite into the plastic and won’t flake away. And areas that need rescribed benefit from something harder like CA, or even “sprue goo”, which scribes like plastic because, well, it is plastic!

Agreed on the ppp - never tried sanding it down - I just use it if I can wipe it off with a wet cotton bud. My main go to putty is Tamiya white putty - if left to dry it’s pretty resilient and I can usually scribe into it easily enough - I’ve tried using CA but found it difficult to sand - the plastic around it goes down faster than the CA so you end up with a bump. Maybe I was doing something wrong. Never tried sprue goo - though I’ve heard it can take a long time to dry - but my bottle of Tamiya extra thin is almost gone so maybe I could try making some. 
 

1 hour ago, RadMax8 said:

I think the Germans went pretty nuts with the putty and the surface was actually quite smooth.

Yep you’re correct, however the paint on top of the putty would often be discolored compared to the rest of the finish - the same effect can be seen on the wings of P-51s - so having rivets in the model can serve as a guide for recreating that effect. But in this case I’m happy enough going with the smooth finish😎

 

1 hour ago, RadMax8 said:

Maybe some PPP smoked with water and a cotton bud...🤦‍♂️

😂 

[The Spadgent]

Brilliant update. Looking grand. 

[Ale85]

Brillant work so far!

ciao

Ale

[RadMax8]

KM, you’ll have to forgive me for my ramblings and typos... it was 2am local when I posted that. Not that today’s much better, it’s 1am here now. And I’ve had the benefit of a couple pints (of the low test American swill, but I’m a lightweight these days). Might as well quit while I’m ahead...

 

But don’t you stop! I’m enjoying watching this one develop.

[Kitchen Modeller]

On 4/18/2020 at 4:24 AM, The Spadgent said:

Brilliant update. Looking grand. 

 

On 4/18/2020 at 7:58 AM, Ale85 said:

Brillant work so far!

ciao

Ale

Thanks guys😊

 

On 4/18/2020 at 5:19 PM, RadMax8 said:

KM, you’ll have to forgive me for my ramblings and typos... it was 2am local when I posted that. Not that today’s much better, it’s 1am here now. And I’ve had the benefit of a couple pints (of the low test American swill, but I’m a lightweight these days). Might as well quit while I’m ahead...

 

But don’t you stop! I’m enjoying watching this one develop.

Lol - you’re very welcome to ramble all you like here Max - I like to ramble after a few beers too but these days it’s only my wife who has to endure it. My drinking buddies will have to wait a little longer before they get to listen to my stupid opinions on everything. I’m positive they really miss it. 
 

Things have been progressing on the 262. After all the filling and sanding, I masked off the cockpit and wheel bays - the gun sight was in a tricky position- it protrudes out of the front forward section so I was forced to mask around it. Then used some liquid mask on the sight itself. 
 

 

 

I used Tamiya masking tape and then seal it off with more liquid mask. This method seems to work well for me. With that done I was finally able to put down some primer. 
 

 

This is mr surfacer 1500 light grey - I usually use the black version but ran out on the last build so it’s my first time using this. It’s as nice as the black stuff and levels out nicely- it’s thinned 50/50 with mr leveling thinner. I usually like to black base my models so it will be interesting taking a new approach. So how did my my sanding filling efforts fare? 
 

Not too bad. A few problem areas were revealed but nothing major. 
 

I was quite happy with this join:

 

 

The nacelle wing join came out nicely too: 

 

 

The 2 areas that needed more work was the wing fuselage join on the underside and the resin section join on the wing:

 

 

Almost got this right just the panel Line on the right is messy - this and the line on the underside were puttied, sanded, rescribed and reprimed. 
 

 

 

So I’m pretty pleased with that - only one forced redo and I’m ready for paint. Happy I was able to avoid the usual 15 redos that I’ve done in the past. 
 

Starting with paint - I’ve been mulling over the colour scheme - the colours seem to be quite different depending on the source - some say RLM 65 on the underside - some say bare metal finish and some say a mix of both. I’ve tried looking for a definitive answer but decided in the end to go with a mix of both - so the forward and rear sections of the fuselage will be RLM 65, along with the control surfaces and the engine nacelles. The wings and tail will be bare aluminum. This was quite common on late war fighters and I think it’s quite interesting so that’s what I decided on. 
 

First some preshading - for this I made a mix of German grey and xf 23 light blue. This was sprayed along the panel lines...

 

 

To create some variations I used some stencils - holding them about a cm away from the model to get feathered edges. 
 

 

Once this was done, I made up the blending layer mix / 30% xf-23 To 70% flat white - this was heavily thinned and sprayed over everything. 
 

 

This looked okay but I felt the overall color was a little too light - almost like a very light grey.

 

I wanted it to look visibly blue so I went in again this time with slightly more light blue in the mix - 

 

 

 

So I’m happier with this - it’s still quite light but more obviously light blue. 
 

Next up will be masking all of this off in prep for the metal finish. 
 

More to follow shortly. 
 

Cheers

 

John

 

[The Spadgent]

Nice paint work. Those mottle masks look handy. I could have done with those while I was doing my 262. 🤗

[RadMax8]

Pretty nice progress there, KM! Nicely done on all the seams, usually I’m not that lucky. 

[Kitchen Modeller]

On 4/20/2020 at 8:38 PM, The Spadgent said:

Nice paint work. Those mottle masks look handy. I could have done with those while I was doing my 262. 🤗

Thanks Johnny - I’ve found myself using these more and more - they’re a great and quick way to get some random patterns into the paint work. Highly recommended. 
 

On 4/21/2020 at 4:27 PM, RadMax8 said:

Pretty nice progress there, KM! Nicely done on all the seams, usually I’m not that lucky. 

Thanks Max - I feel like I’m slowly improving my seams or just getting better at the filling and sanding side of things. It should be noted that I find this process alot easier at this scale - much easier to see what you’re doing! 
 

So I’ve continued with the paint job - easily my favorite part of the build though I do love me some weathering too😊

 

Next up was doing the nmf on the underside. First off was a reasonably complicated masking job which took a couple of nights. I go slowly with these fun jobs. 
 

 

I then put down a coat of mr color gx2 gloss black. 
 

 

This stuff goes down very nicely - thinned about 40/60 paint to thinner. Then before the last coat dried, I mixed in pure mr leveling thinner and put a coat of that over everything. This helps level out the surface and brings up the shine. 
 

This dries quite quickly but gave it a night to harden up. Then I put down a couple of coats of Alclad airframe aluminum. One of my favorite shades. Then I started some post shading with alclad steel which is quite dark - some of this was sprayed along the panel lines to create dirt stains - then some more was sprayed through the stencils to create more staining. 
 

 

 

 

It’s a difficult effect to photograph properly but this is pretty much what I was after - however it is quite full on - so I then went over everything again with a blending coat with aircraft aluminum - this toned things down. 
 

 

 

So quite happy with this / it’s a pretty worn looking nmf effect - this will get weathered later which will hopefully make it look even more beat up but realistic. We’ll see when I get there. 
 

After a night, I removed the masking.

 

 

 

It’s looking a little stark but I’m hoping weathering and clear coats will bring it together. 
 

Topside - I’ve recently bought a few mr color lacquer paints so this was going to be my first time using them. I’ve used lacquer paints before in the form of alclad and some other metallics but never actual colors. As this is going to be a RLM 82/83 scheme, I got the corresponding colors - I really like the tone of this paint - Tamiya doesn’t have the equivalent colours really - easy enough to mix up but these look really good out of the pot. 
 

 

But first I mixed up a very thinned down mix of Tamiya XF1 and did a little preshading. 
 

 

Then the first colour coat went on - RLM 82. I mixed it about 40/60 with mr leveling thinner. 
 

 

First impressions... ‘wow’ - it’s a very different experience to using Tamiya acrylics- paint goes on super smooth and I found the degree of control you get is vastly improved. This was after a couple of light coats. 
 

I then did a little post shading by mixing the color with a little Tamiya xf1 - the 2 brands work well together. So just added some shadows and variations. 
 

 

This was followed up with a blending coat to remove any stark lines. 

Then the RLM 83 was blocked out. 
 

 

I just eye balled the camo pattern and freehanded the pattern on  - the decal sheet doesn’t provide any guidance as per the painting so this was taken from the kit instructions. 
 

So this was followed by some post shading to the RLM 83 - again just making some variations and shadows. 
 

 

 

So I’m pretty happy with that. Very impressed with my first go with mr color - and looking forward to trying out more colours. Next up will be a gloss coat in prep for decals. So here’s a few shots off the bench. 
 

 

 

 

 

So that’s it for now. Thanks for looking in😊

 

Cheers

 

John

[SaminCam]

Gorgeous! Love the nmf especially, looking forward to more of this!

Edited April 23, 2020 by SaminCam

[shortCummins]

very nice paint

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[Uncle Uncool]

Hi John!

Such an epic build. It's already looking impressive.

I take it that the Aires set brings two engines, yeh? I still remember this same build on ARC almost eight years ago by a modeller going by the screen name of Honza K, who used the same kit (same scale) and same aftermarket set.

His build looked superb with both engines stripped down; kind of fancied building one just the same 'cause the Me-262 looked impressive that way. I sort of like the Schwalbe in flight the better, but with both engines stripped down looks awesome on her legs.

So, what are you doing with the spare engine?

Cheers,

 

Unc₂ 

[bbudde]

Gorgeous!!!

[Kitchen Modeller]

17 hours ago, SaminCam said:

Gorgeous! Love the nmf especially, looking forward to more of this!

Thanks Sam - I was pretty happy with how the NMF came out - it was a new technique I "borrowed" from a modeler friend of mine - it was quite easy in the end and I think I'll be using this technique again. 

 

17 hours ago, shortCummins said:

very nice paint

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

Thanks John

 

5 hours ago, Uncle Uncool said:

Hi John!

Such an epic build. It's already looking impressive.

I take it that the Aires set brings two engines, yeh? I still remember this same build on ARC almost eight years ago by a modeller going by the screen name of Honza K, who used the same kit (same scale) and same aftermarket set.

His build looked superb with both engines stripped down; kind of fancied building one just the same 'cause the Me-262 looked impressive that way. I sort of like the Schwalbe in flight the better, but with both engines stripped down looks awesome on her legs.

So, what are you doing with the spare engine?

Cheers,

 

Unc₂ 

Thanks Unc2 - I checked out that build by Honza K Is this the one you mean?  It looks like a very similar scheme to what I'm doing - If you go to the start of this thread, you can see all of the aftermarket I'm using - You're correct in that I did get 2 engines in the set from Aires - I'm going to do this kit again with a different scheme and the spare engine will get used on that one -the Aires set was quite pricey but it is a lovely rendition so I think it was worth the cost. Other versions I've seen don't have quite the same amount of detail. 

 

4 hours ago, bbudde said:

Gorgeous!!!

Thanks bbudde

[Uncle Uncool]

13 hours ago, Kitchen Modeller said:

Thanks Unc2 - I checked out that build by Honza K Is this the one you mean?  It looks like a very similar scheme to what I'm doing - If you go to the start of this thread, you can see all of the aftermarket I'm using - You're correct in that I did get 2 engines in the set from Aires - I'm going to do this kit again with a different scheme and the spare engine will get used on that one -the Aires set was quite pricey but it is a lovely rendition so I think it was worth the cost. Other versions I've seen don't have quite the same amount of detail. 

Hi John.

Yeh, that's the one. Nice find! Lousy memory; I thought Honza had used both aftermarket engines on his build.

If I ever build the Tamiya 1/48 Schwalbe kit, I'll get the Aires set. It's a must for me ever since I watched Honza K's build.

The Me-262 looks even more like a futuristic rocketship that way.  

Cheers,

 

Unc₂

[The Spadgent]

On 4/23/2020 at 7:27 AM, Kitchen Modeller said:

Thanks Johnny - I’ve found myself using these more and more - they’re a great and quick way to get some random patterns into the paint work. Highly recommended. 

Ordered!! 🙌👍 Lovely paintwork . Mr hobby is great isn’t it. I only used it once for the “earth” on my lancaster build. It was a joy. 🤩

 

Thanks for the stencil tip. I’ll use them on my Venom. 🖤

 

Johnny

[Kitchen Modeller]

On 4/25/2020 at 2:08 AM, Uncle Uncool said:

If I ever build the Tamiya 1/48 Schwalbe kit, I'll get the Aires set. It's a must for me ever since I watched Honza K's build.

The Me-262 looks even more like a futuristic rocketship that way.

I'd second that - this is my first time using a resin engine and I think it was a good one to use first time out - the assembly was quite easy - just the wing section was tricky but nothing sanding and filler wouldn't fix. 

 

On 4/25/2020 at 7:01 PM, The Spadgent said:

Thanks for the stencil tip. I’ll use them on my Venom. 🖤

You're welcome - one word of advice is to spray gently though the stencil - as its PE, the paint can drip down onto your subject if you flood the stencil with paint (ask me how I know) You can get card stencils that don't have the same problem. 

 

So I've been progressing slowly - my job work has been very busy over this period and everything takes longer to do when working from home - by the time I can get to the bench I'm pretty knackered - but if I can get an hour in here and there and make some progress - this keeps me happy. 

 

After putting on a coat of Aquagloss, I could start putting on some stickers - I'm using the decal set from EagleCals - and they're pretty comprehensive - there was quite a few decals to put on - last few models have been pretty minimal so this took me a few nights. 

 

 

The decals themselves are quite nice - thin but strong and they all went on without too much fuss. The only tricky bit was the walkway lines - they come as one big strip so you need to measure them up before cutting them to size - this was a pain but probably easier than trying to put them on as one big snake like decal. 

 

 

 

So no decal hassles - nicely avoided by not using tamiya decals Once they were all on, the model got another clear coat of Aquagloss - I then sanded around the decals with high grit sanding sponges to level out any hard edges or bumps which would show up under the washes. 

 

Once this was dry I could put on the first wash - I went with Tamiya Panel line wash dark brown as I really just wanted highlight some of the panel lines so did a pin wash... 

 

 

This was allowed to dry and wiped clean with cotton buds moistened with Tamiya Enamel thinner - 

 

 

The problem I have with these kinds of washes is that it's quite difficult to get the wash to stay in the places you want it - its too easy to wipe the wash out of the panel lines - especially when they're quite shallow like on this model. 

 

So I reverted to the tried and tested method of an oil wash - so a little oil paint, and some oderless thinner and splash that on to the model - dry it with a hair dryer - then wipe it off with a dry paper towel. 

 

 

The underside after applying the wash: 

 

 

 

And after wiping it clean: 

 

 

This method is pretty foolproof and always seems to work a treat. I left this to dry off for a couple of nights - a clear coat was then applied - this time tamiya semi gloss lacquer - this was done in prep for some oil paint weathering. 

 

When I got to do this I ended up using some darker tones than I usually would as the model was quite light in tone - so I wanted to bring in some darker variations. 

 

 

Lighter tones were used as well - bringing in more colors and trying the vary the colours on the fuselage and wings - as well as dirty things up more. Black smoke, Industrial brown, yellow sand, olive drab and pale grey from the Abteilung oil paint range was used. 

 

 

 

 

The process for this is putting pure oil paint in very small areas and then blending the color in with a dry blending brush - it takes time to build up the paint - but it's a very relaxing process - and it's one of my favorite parts of the hobby. I'll leave this to dry for a few days - then put a matt coat on it - some more oils might go over this as you can get some very different effects going on a matt surface - but I'll judge it when the time comes. But happy with it so far so might not doing anything further. I'll give the underside the same treatment when this is sorted. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that's it for now - have a great weekend and thanks for dropping by:) 

 

John

[Pete in Lincs]

Just did an early morning catch up. A great way to start the day. It's looking pretty awesome..

[The Spadgent]

That's some nice painting going on.   The stencils arrived.  I haven't  used them yet but I wondered if you clean them after use? Wonder if paint build up will ever be an issue.

Johnny

[Aerofix]

Outstanding!

[Kitchen Modeller]

17 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Just did an early morning catch up. A great way to start the day. It's looking pretty awesome..

V nice of you to say Pete - It is nice to see cool things on the interweb while having that first cup of coffee 

 

12 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

That's some nice painting going on.   The stencils arrived.  I haven't  used them yet but I wondered if you clean them after use? Wonder if paint build up will ever be an issue.

Johnny

Thanks Johnny - I haven't cleaned them yet - that issue never occurred to me. I tend to use very thin paint when using them so the paint build up is quite minimum - but a few wipes with a cloth with thinner would take care of it I'd imagine. 

 

11 hours ago, Aerofix said:

Outstanding!

Thanks Aerofix! 

[Kitchen Modeller]

Greetings all - on the downhill stretch now. Getting close to the end. But still plenty of opportunities to muck things up which is why I’m trying to take my time. My time is pretty limited so trying to make the time I do have productive. It’s a slow pace to the finish line. But getting there so have some pictures to show. 
 

While waiting for the oil paint weathering to dry, I tackled the various bits for the undercarriage. 
 

 

The struts were painted with mr color rlm2 . Then given some highlights with a lighter shade -by adding some white and this was brush painted on to the raised detail. Then some washes were applied with AK enamels. The hydraulics were filled with the molitow liquid chrome pen. The insides of the wheel bay covers were painted the same colour as the wheel bays - mr color silver 8 - with the outsides painted with alclad aircraft aluminum. I’ll dirty these up with some oils later on. 
 

After a few days the oil paint on the topside seemed to have cured so put down a flat clear coat using Tamiya xf 86. 
 

 

I removed the gun bay cover - this acted as a good mask and everything looked good. 
 

Before going to work on the underside weathering I applied a Flat clear coat to the RLM 65 sections - leaving the semi gloss finish in the aluminum parts. I used mig oil brusher starship grime mixed with oil brusher buff which was thinned and then applied in certain places. I then blended in the hard edges and streaked some parts to create staining. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

So this was more like a render as opposed to the technique I used on the top side. By getting the blending brush just a touch moist with odorless thinner, I could blend the oil paint without wiping it off completely. I still have a ways to go using this technique but it’s an improvement on my previous efforts. 
 

With all of the clear coats on I was able to remove the canopy masking. 
 

 

 

The masking held up okay - there was some dust in places but I was able to wipe it off easily enough with cotton bud. I also installed the little aerial hoop on the back of the fuselage. I had a pe part for this but this flew into the deep blue yonder as I was about to attach it. I then broke the kit part removing it from the sprue. So I just used a bit of copper wire to replace it. 
 

 

The resin engine was attached with a gel type super glue. 
 

 

It’s nice to get a good idea of how the final model will look - just a few more bits to add and I’ll be just about there. I’ll hopefully get everything wrapped up in the next few days. 
 

Thanks for looking in...! 

 

Cheers

 

John