TonyW Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 An attempt to follow the rebuild of my Tempest from rather humble beginnings, see's this Me262 get it's shot at fame and glory. Or the bin. We shall see. Here's what I'm starting with, a stripped down previous build badly in need of help. The build came about while working on my Victor project. The 262 was in a storage box above the bench and during a bit of Victor down time I decided to fill the gaps with another build. The parts all needed a bit of a clean up but there weren't many of them so that didn't take long. The engine inner parts were glued in wonky so they got removed, sanded down a bit, and refixed. The fuselage halves were glued, along with the lower centre section and one wing added. So far so good. The second wing top got added and things levelled up and allowed to dry: While things were drying, I dug out an early Airfix version to compare. The Matchbox kit is quite a bit more refined than the early sixties Airfix effort. The Matchbox version is slightly bigger all round. I don't know who's right here and won't be worrying too much about it anyway. The canopies are very different, with the Airfix one quite a bit taller. Once the tail parts and engines were added, the airframe got a few coats of white primer. There's quite a bit to be done underneath! Topside, things look a lot better. I'll be filling the wheel bays on this one and finishing it gear up, sat on a Matchbox stand. "Follow the path of least resistance, Grasshopper..." 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackroadkill Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 Excellent stuff! I'll enjoy watching this - I'm on a real 262 kick at the moment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 Great stuff Tony Brilliant seeing these old build restored to such a high standard. Best of luck. Cheers Pat 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike romeo Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 I do like the shape of the Matchbox 262, although I think the canopy looks slightly squashed. The FROG canopy is a bit higher, and it fits, too! Ask me how I know . . . Looking forward to seeing what you do with this. Rgds Martin 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 I built the original Airfix kit but always thought it was a bit too fat and the bombs and racks spoiled the impression as I recall (should have left them off I guess) - the Frog version which seems to be a downscaled copy of the Hasegawa biggie looked better, and I have a much later Revell moulding to build some time. It will be interesting to see how the Matchbox one comes out Tony. Pete. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimJ Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 Off to a good start giving this a new lease of life. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 Where's that 'Shaking Head' emoji ?? Honestly Tony, talk about not throwing anything away, this is Model Kit Rescue 101. Great stuff mate! Cheers, welcome aboard and best of luck.. Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted January 28, 2022 Author Share Posted January 28, 2022 Sand, fill, prime. I'm doing a lot of that at the moment. The 262 is right there, in the thick of it. A couple of base coats of finish colours have gone on this afternoon. They both look a bit loud at the moment, they may well get changed. I'm after something that resembles the first box top scheme. I don't have any Matchbox decals for the rebuild, but a couple of spare Airfix and FROG sheets should give me enough crosses and numbers to make up a decent copy set. More over the weekend. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted January 29, 2022 Author Share Posted January 29, 2022 Yesterday I sprayed a bit of Tamiya grey primer over the top of the fuselage to try to soften the sides a bit. It worked, but the tones of the blue and the grey are very similar. It hardly shows in the picture, but it is there. Bringing the plane back indoors this evening saw a second green added, it's an old tin of Gloy Authentic Aircraft Colour RLM 25 light green. The splinter pattern was taken loosely from the Matchbox box scheme, masked and brush painted. The mottle was stippled on. I've gone a bit overboard on the mottle and will take it back a bit tomorrow. The colours look rather vivid in this picture, the desk lamps indoors are responsible for that. Things should look different in daylight. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinxman Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 That looks great, and I love the Gloy paint as well - still got quite a lot in the drawer, though they are mostly the railway colours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 Not far from completion now. Revell Aquacolour dark green added as a top mottle over the spine of the fuselage and the front uppers on the engines. A scrubbing with a metallic polishing powder for the front of the engine cowls followed by the yellow fuselage band and a coat of gloss varnish for the decal base. They were cobbled together from a combination of old FROG ones and aftermarket generic sheets. The number 10 came from an Airfix USN sheet and was the closest I could find to the kit number and style. A pilot came from the spares box, got decapitated, and had his head fixed looking left. To see if I'm on the right track, I sat the semi finished model on a bit of plastic pipe in front of a sky background and took a few shots... And a bit of photoshop got me here. Too glossy as it is, that's being sorted. There's flat clear drying on the build overnight, along with a framed and fixed canopy. It might need another coat of clear in the morning as the plane was very glossy for the decal application. A stand will be sorted out for the plane as it's a gear up restoration. I'll also be building a backdrop or two, with some kind of model holding device fixed to it. I'm enjoying posing models in front of backdrops at the moment but too much Photoshop seems like cheating to me. I removed the stand and used a couple of filters in the pictures above. It's early days with this sort of thing and it will be interesting to see how things unfold. . 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted February 1, 2022 Author Share Posted February 1, 2022 I'm calling this one done now. A basic, no frills restoration that pushes all the right buttons for me. I even used Luftwaffe colours on it! Various paint manufacturers used, all claiming to be Luftwaffe ready. It looks about right to me, and that will do nicely. And a before and after couple, one with added Photoshop... 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREG DESTEC Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 Great result Tony, That looks just right to me 😁 Love the in flight photo Cheers Greg 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 Nice rebuild . always better than binning it . Martin H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 Once again an excellent restoration that has turned out so wonderfully well. You are making a good habit of this, may it continue for years to come. Cheers and well modelled.. Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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