+++ Finished! +++ Heinkel He 178 V1 - first jet aircraft in History (Special Hobby/MPM 1/72)

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

I repainted the area around the cockpit opening. When I removed the masking tape, the seat was grabbed out with it:

IMAG7253

 

The finishing was still unsatisfactory:

IMAG7254

 

However, a dry fit of the canopy showed that there was a big gap between the back of the canopy and the fuselage:

IMAG7255

 

IMAG7256

 

This could be sorted out by inserting a piece of 0.5 mm (IIRC) plasticard:

IMAG7257

 

First, I removed the paint and primer from the area:

IMAG7258

 

Next, the piece of plasticard was glued in place:

IMAG7259

 

Then, the excess plastic was removed and adjusted to the shape of the fuselage:

IMAG7266

 

Primer was applied only to the plasticard:

IMAG7275

 

While the RLM02 repainted area dried, I reapplied the missing seatbelt to the seat:

IMAG7276

 

Latter, I glued the instrument panel in place. Again, there are no positive location tabs or markings, therefore it was placed in a way it held to the surrounding edges:

IMAG7277

 

The coaming of the instrument panel was glued on top:

IMAG7278

 

IMAG7279

 

I used CA glue for glueing these parts without damaging (much...) the paint work. The blemishes were taken care of by applying highly diluted paint by brush.

 

Next, the seat and seatbelts were glued in place:

IMAG7280

 

The canopy was glued with Revell's Contacta Clear:

IMAG7281

 

I used Squadron's grey putty mixed with RLM02 to fill in the gaps around the canopy. A few other surface defects were also taken care of with putty:

IMAG7282

 

While the putty cured, I brushpainted the main landing gear hubs gloss black. The tires had already been painted tire black:

IMAG7283

 

Finally, a new layer of black primer was applied and the model was ready for painting:

IMAG7284

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

 

 

 

 

[billn53]

Great save on the canopy fit. I can't wait to see how this looks once you are finished.

[jrlx]

1 hour ago, billn53 said:

Great save on the canopy fit. I can't wait to see how this looks once you are finished.

 

Thanks! I still have a few more steps to post, before showing the final result.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

I bit more progress, now in the painting phase.

 

The model should be painted in two tones of aluminium (natural metal and polished metal) in certain areas but most of the fuselage and wings is RLM02.

 

I started with the natural metal areas, using Alclad Aluminium. For some reason (too low pressure?) I got a grainy finish. So, I sanded off and polished the metal painted areas, before applying a new layer of Aluminium:

IMAG7285

 

The new layer of Alclad Aluminium turned out very well, as usual with Alclad:

IMAG7286

 

IMAG7287

 

Next, I masked the Aluminium areas before applying Polished Aluminum. The masking of the wing to fuselage joins was very rough for the moment:

IMAG7288

 

IMAG7289

 

Alclad Polished Aluminium is a High-Shine metal colour and should be applied over a gloss black primer. So, I applied first Alclad Gloss Black Base on the areas to be painted: the panels aft of the air intake ring and the panels where the main landing gear legs will be installed:

IMAG7290

 

Then, Alclad Polished Aluminium was applied. After allowing for drying time, the masking of the metal joins between wings, stabilisers, tail fain and fuselage was corrected:

IMAG7293

 

IMAG7294

 

Polished Aluminium, like all High-Shine Alclad colours is very sensitive to masking. In order to strengthen it a bit, I applied a coat of Aqua Gloss before masking those areas:

IMAG7295

 

Before painting RLM02, I applied a pre-shade layer by mottling Sky on the centres of the panels:

IMAG7296

 

IMAG7297

 

Thanks for looking

 

Jaime

 

[jrlx]

Hello,

 

Continuing with painting, I applied RLM02 to the model. However, when I cut the masking tape around the panels where the landing gear legs will be installed (I used a nº 11 blade for that), I made some damages to the surrounding area's primer, which were now very noticeable after a coat of paint. In this picture I had already started to sand the blemishes away:

IMAG7298

 

After sanding and polishing,  I got back to primer/plastic:

IMAG7299

 

On the opposite side the blemishes were no so bad:

IMAG7300

 

A seam on the tail fin's leading edge was also apparent and was filled in with PPP:

IMAG7301

 

After painting, I got this:

IMAG7306

 

IMAG7207

 

It's not perfect but I'm pretty sure it won't be noticeable after a coat of flat varnish.

 

The tail fin's leading edge looks better:

IMAG7308

 

Then, it was time for some weathering. Since this was a prototype and didn't go into war operations, I decided to give it a light weathering treatment: just a light coat of dark brown wash. For that, I used Vallejo's acrylic "greased earth" wash. Here's the set-up, after applying a gloss coat to the model:

IMAG7311

 

I applied the wash and let it dry for less than 10 minutes:

IMAG7312

 

The wash was almost completely removed using damp cotton buds, in the direction of the air flow:

IMAG7314

 

Then, a coat of Alclad's Flat Kote was applied:

IMAG7315

 

IMAG7316

 

As expected, the remaining blemishes around the landing gear area were reasonably masked by the flat coat:

IMAG7317

 

IMAG7318

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

 

 

[Shalako]

Can't wait to see it finished!!!!

[jrlx]

7 minutes ago, Shalako said:

Can't wait to see it finished!!!!

 

Thanks! Just one or two posts more and it will be

 

 

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

With the painting and weathering done with, I removed the masking, being extra careful not to damage the metal painted areas:

IMAG7320

 

IMAG7321

 

Unfortunately, there was some damage to the more fragile Alclad Polished Aluminium-coated area of the landing gear:

IMAG7322

 

The canopy, on the other hand, was reasonably clear and distortion free, allowing a view of the seatbelts:

IMAG7323

 

and of the instrument panel:

IMAG7324

 

The metal areas near the nose turned out ok. The tone difference between the Aluminium around the air intake and the Polished Aluminium on the panels to the right can be clearly seen:

IMAG7325

 

The blemishes to the landing gear area were repaired by brush. Alclad is not really intended to be used by brush but it works for very small spots:

IMAG7326

 

To enhance the panel lines on the metal areas, I applied the same brown wash used before directly along the panel lines. Here's the set-up:

IMAG7327

 

The following pictures show the results:

IMAG7328

 

IMAG7330

 

IMAG7331

 

IMAG7332

 

It's nearly finished now.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

This will be the last update of the WIP.

 

The last step to complete the build was glueing the landing gear and tail wheel in place. This was a last hurdle, since there was no positive location points or tabs for the landing gear legs. On the other hand, the instructions suggested a location for the legs (top of the rectangular panels of the polished metal area) which would result in too much lateral spread for the legs. Therefore, I decided to locate the legs on the lower part of the rectangular panels. To allow for more adjustment time, I glued the legs with 5 minute-Araldite instead of CA.

 

Here's what I got:

IMAG7333

 

IMAG7334

 

IMAG7335

 

IMAG7336

 

As can be seen, the fit of the parts is deplorable. After allowing the Araldite to cure, I applied a drop o CA to reinforce the joins.

 

The tail wheel was also glued in place:

IMAG7337

 

Here's the model before the final step of glueing the main wheels:

IMAG7338

 

The following pictures show the finalised model:

IMAG7339

 

IMAG7340

 

I'll post better pictures in the RFI area. I'll post the link here later.

 

Thanks for looking and for all the comments.

 

Jaime

 

 

EDIT: the RFI post can be found here.

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by jrlx
RFI link inserted

[Shalako]

Beautiful work mate! Simply beautiful!!!

[Neil Lambess]

Stunning

[Back in the Saddle]

Well worth the effort, that looks great.👍

[jrlx]

3 hours ago, Shalako said:

Beautiful work mate! Simply beautiful!!!

 

34 minutes ago, Neil Lambess said:

Stunning

 

Just now, Back in the Saddle said:

Well worth the effort, that looks great.👍

 

Thank you very much!