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1/72 captured Luftwaffe Lioré et Olivier LeO 451T (Heller) ** RETIRED HURT **


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1 hour ago, TonyOD said:

@JWM Although my Falcon nose canopy is ruined I still have the pilot's canopy cut to size, it's a good fit. If it's any use for your build I'd be happy to send it to you.

Tony, thank you, this is a great offert. I will appreciate because of this bubble of air inside mine canopy... I will be happy not to use original one.  If you will sending me it may  ask you for one more favor? In mine decals of mine  SMER kit of Leo the blue on tail national colors bands is a deep navy blue, more like on RAF roundels should be. An the type informing inscription SNCA-SE/LeO 451 is printed  on it, so since I want to replace blue by painted strip in lighter hue I will loose part of inscription . On original Heller decals there are three pairs of those small lettering. Please would send me one pair of this inscription if you do not need it for something else.  What will you  like to get in return?  I will PM you with my postal address and we can talk on other details there....

I went now through your whole thread and I noticed the question of German codes on bottom sides. Of course the bottom is yellow. Luftwaffe was painting yellow bottoms of all captured airplanes to help German AA not to shot it by "friendly fire"... Two of many examples from net:

latest?cb=20131218213843

625158d1389099939-captured-german-aircra

 

So I am a bit surprised that the other scheme of German Leo has RLM 65 (light blue) underside. 

45006.jpg

 

I think the  German Leo's as phased to transport sorties  did not have the ventral gondola replaced by a hatch

 

Here is another German LeOs:

http://www.airwar.ru/image/idop/bww2/leo45/leo45-c6.jpg

 

That one looks to have only partially overpainted French camo. BTW - what is it just before the tail wheel?

vwFotXFxElByyirTxRGk9f8OtyWt2OXwD1RJR88V

 

Regards

J-W

 

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@JWM I've sent you a PM Jerzy, I can help you with those decals.

 

Those are some great pics of German LeOs. The one at the SNCASE plant is particularly interesting. Early in this build I assumed (wrongly, as is usually the case) that this captured LeO that I'm building was a one-off, just a random plane that the Luftwaffe grabbed somewhere and pressed into service. Not so! The story is that in May 1943 the SNCASE factory near Lyon was captured by the Italians, who found a stock of 39 LeO 451, presumably at different stages of production. the Luftwaffe took one look at their sleek lines and said "we'll have those, danke vielmals", and actually claimed that they had bought and paid for the planes. the Italians kicked up a stink, so the Germans threw in a lot of 30 Dewoitine D.520s to sweeten the deal. Adapted LeOs were used by the Luftwaffe as a fast transport in various theatres, as many as 50 being used in this role. 

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After buying a whole new kit just to use the canopy to rescue this project, I realised that maybe the best thing to do would have been to end those nice people at Heller a message and ask for a new one!

 

 

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Edited by TonyOD
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Tony, 

If I may suggest - if the problem is with alignment of surfaces of ailerons/flaps with rest of top wing can be solved by  additional construction - one can glue a strip of thin (0.5 mm) plastic sheet, 1 cm wide, to the bottom side of the upper wing, just going out for some 3 mm perhaps. This makes enough  support on which the aileron/flap can just lie down.  After allowing it to dry you can very precisely trim the thickness of aileron/flap  by sanding it to desired level. You my try the fit and finally glue already when you are happy with look of it.  I did in my Leo that way, the construction is strong,

Regards

J-W

 

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So I finally get some primer on it. My favourite bit because it means the end is on sight.

 

And drop the model.

 

😳🤯🤬🤬🤬😭

 

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3 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

Hope it’s salvageable Tony 

It is, just a pain in the rear end. This build seems to be fighting me every inch of the way.

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48 minutes ago, JWM said:

The Tamiya low viscosity cement is the best in such case (87038) tamiya-extra-thin-cement-wbrush-40ml-300

Regards

J-W

 

I’m going to have to get some of that. I used regular cement but I’m going to have to sand the join smooth. Might lose some bits of panel line.

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Dropping the model onto a hard floor from a height of three feet cost me a couple of days and a few quid in the swear box. Fuselage joins top and bottom had to be redone. As well as reattaching the pilot’s canopy and some restorative work on the modified dorsal aperture. Now I feel I’m getting there. Paint next! Woo!

 

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White fuselage band painted and masked, and the underside rattlecannned a fetching shade of “bitte erschieß mich nicht” yellow. Like @JOCKNEY elsewhere with his Simoun, I am struck by how much else I’ve painted yellow.

 

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Tony it looks fab. A classic kit in many ways, and it’s coming together really nicely now. It is a fascinating aeroplane.
 

Don’t forget a lot of us did the Trainers GB last year so we know all about the joy of painting yellow!

 

Regards,

Adrian

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7 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Tony it looks fab. A classic kit in many ways, and it’s coming together really nicely now. It is a fascinating aeroplane.

 

It's a fine looking aircraft alright. Far as I know if you want to build a LeO the Heller kit is the only game in town, which amazes me.

 

7 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Don’t forget a lot of us did the Trainers GB last year so we know all about the joy of painting yellow!

 

The joys... in an effort to bring some life to that vast expanse of eye-searing yellow I've had a go at a "preshading" effect with an 8B pencil, some cotton buds and very thin layers of yelow enamel. There's a little bit of work to do on it but with some grey wash in the panel lines and a final oil wash and matt finish it should look ok.

 

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On the subject of yellow, I've floated the idea of a "Captured" GB and yellow undersides seem to feature quite heavily in WW2 captured aircraft!

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I've just realised with horror that it's only 14 days til the end of this build. I reckon I have 11 steps to get it over the line, almost all of which will need 24 hours of drying time. I'd better pull my finger out.

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With a heavy heart I’ve decided to pull this one from the GB, sorry folks. It’s been absolutely brutal from the start and I want to enjoy my modelling during my break rather than carry on a war of attrition against a ticking clock. In hindsight it was silly to pick such a challenging build for my first ever GB. Right now I’m brush painting using Humbrol enamels (the RLM matched ones) that seem to be simultaneously poor at providing coverage and still sticky days after application, which isn’t helpful. 
 

It’ll probably turn up in the main RFI section at some point but for now I’m going to concentrate on my Amiot (tons of fun!), maybe do a little Spitfire and just possibly start a jet.

 

Thanks for having me, I’ll keep an eye on (and applaud) everyone’s amazing  submissions 😁


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  • TonyOD changed the title to 1/72 captured Luftwaffe Lioré et Olivier LeO 451T (Heller) ** RETIRED HURT **

Thanks No worries Tony, it’s definitely about the enjoyment of the build, even though it’s fort you all the way she’s looking good. If you would like the thread moved to the aircraft WIP,  I can do that for you.

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10 hours ago, Ozzy said:

If you would like the thread moved to the aircraft WIP,  I can do that for you.


Nah, leave it for posterity. 😁

 

Funnily enough now I’ve taken away the pressure of the deadline I feel much better about it!

 

 

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Just caught up with this Tony.

Such a shame, but just carry on with the build thread which will run for a while yet then post the end result in the RFI in the aircraft section.

Trying to get my Do-22 done before the deadline, which is doable, mainly just painting and decals then gluing on the main wing...... he says hopefully!

 

Davey.

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@DaveyGair I've actually scrapped it and started again Davey. Too nice a plane not to get a result, but there are so many things I could have done better with this build so it seemed like the way to go.

Edited by TonyOD
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