Revell 1/72 Messerschmitt Me 262 A-1a

[81-er]

Another project? “Haven’t you already got too many projects on the go?” I hear you ask. Probably, but this is Britmodeller and so do all of you. “Let he is without sin cast the first stone” and all that. Any takers? Thought not…

 

Anyway, this is one I got really cheaply recently as part of a package deal on some other interesting kits (which will have to wait for another time). For some reason this one has been nagging away at me since I got it, probably because I want to do something a little different with the paint job (and no, I’m not going to tell you what, you’ll have to wait and see). As such, I decided if I’m going to do it now then it has to follow certain rules:

 

• No aftermarket other than a set of canopy masks
• I’m only allowed to work on it during my lunch breaks, any modelling outside that needs to be on my main builds
• The only caveat to the above is paintwork, which is allowed to be fitted into an airbrushing session outside of lunch if that session is primarily for painting one of my main builds.

 

Those rules aside, here’s the box/sprue shot:

 

 

First tooled in 1997 (which it appears I have the original boxing of) it’s nicely detailed to the standard we’d expect of Revell in that time period. Oddly, this one has quite a lot of flash around some parts, whereas others are absolutely flash free. Very unusual. Having said that, the detail is very nice on the cockpit tub, both inside and outside. All of this detailing here is absolutely invisible in the finished model, it’s all covered over by other parts:

 

 

Moving to the inside of the tub, this detail will be visible (well, as visible as any detail in an RLM66 cockpit at 1/72):

 

 

Remember I mentioned the flash?

 

 

There’s also these two odd marks (that the scalpels are pointing to) on the top surface of the starboard wing:

 

 

A bit of re-scribing should sort the panel line and the lump should go with some sanding. Those aside however, the trailing edges of the wings are beautifully thin and fit with almost no gaps when I dry fitted the halves together.

 

There’s a couple of sink marks in the fronts of the starter covers to the inlets, so they’ll need some filler:

 

 

So how much did I get done in a lunchtime then? This much:

 

 

That’s the two fuselage halves, the main wing components, the cockpit tub, cover for the rear cockpit well (as this is only a single seater), the pilot’s seat, front wheel well and nose underside all cleaned up. I even managed to stick the end panel on the cockpit tub as well. I’m not bothering with filling any pin marks that won’t be visible in the end product. Other than the wings and the underside of the nose, I think the rest of it is probably ready for some primer whenever I next get the airbrush out.

 

Until next time

 

James

[Marklo]

Funny I’ve found quite a few Revell kits to be nicely molded but with large amounts of flash I built four Me109 G10s last year and they all had this. Not a biggie but strange.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Marklo

[81-er]

Interesting. I've got 8 Revell kits in the stash and this one appears to be the only one that's got lots of flash (although there are a couple I've not opened). As you say, not a big deal, but not something you expect from Revell. Maybe they're the "Friday afternoon" examples?

 

James

[81-er]

I managed a small amount of progress yesterday, I just didn’t get an opportunity to photograph it until this morning:

 

 

That’s the wings glued together, engine intakes removed from the sprues & cleaned up, as well as the restrictive bodies.

 

The restrictive bodies have some ejector pin marks and sink holes which I’m going to leave as the internals of the engine will be a burnt metal colour, so I don’t expect they’ll be visible:

 

 

Cleaning up the intakes provided a new surprise; as well as the sink marks on the starter covers there’s some lovely sink marks on the side walls to deal with:

 

 

This shot shows it a little better:

 

 

I can foresee that being a job for a very careful application of PPP and then cleaned up with a damp cotton bud.

 

Lastly, I got rid of the hump on the flap and re-scribed the panel line on the starboard wing. It looks fine in reality, even if it still looks rough here:

 

 

Until next time

 

James

[81-er]

After what seems like an age (apparently almost 2 months!), I’ve finally come back to this. One thing that definitely hasn’t helped the speed this is progressing is that my work has got me back in the office 3 days a week, so with my self-imposed constraints on when I’m allowed to work on this, it really takes a big chunk out. I can’t complain though, I got 2 years of solely working at home. I may have to review my “rules” on this build.

 

Anyway, what I have achieved is getting some paint on some of the components whilst spraying bits for some of my other builds. I’ve sprayed Vallejo 72.740 Leather Brown onto the seat, next stop for that is some RLM66 for the frame and some highlighting of the belts. The cockpit tub is somewhat coalhole like, so to try and combat that I’ve sprayed it with Mr Hobby H301 Grey, as I saw this mentioned in another build as a “lighter” RLM 66:

 

 

I’ve painted the IP and the rear of the cockpit fairing with AK11820 RLM 66 (1941), with the plan being that this should be darker than the H301 used on the cockpit tub. Unfortunately, it’s turned out the other way around! Lesson learned here, if I try this trick again, I’ll reverse the colour order. I may just leave these “in reverse” as it’s a fun build rather than serious, but I have ordered some Mr Hobby RLM66 (which is darker than H301) as I’ve sprayed far too much of my Heinkel’s interior in H301 to want to redo all of that! The IP and cockpit fairing currently look like this:

 

 

 

Lastly, I’ve got some primer on the insides of the engines and the main gear bay as well:

 

 

Until next time

 

James