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Messerschmitt Me.262 HG.III from Amusing Hobby in 1:48


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I've been waiting for this one to arrive for a while, so after talking to the good folks at Albion Alloys I was kind of excited :yahoo: After doing the review here, I couldn't resist pulling a few bits off the sprues to have a look at it.  One thing led to another, and before the day was over I'd been gluing things together and adding filler here and there.  It's a simple kit because of the shape of the airframe, incorporating the wings and engine nacelles into the fuselage, so it didn't take too long for me to get some things done.

 

I put the engines in their buried nacelles together loosely first, so I could see how it all went together, to give me an idea of how they would look inside the main gear bays, and which parts would need painting.  it's a weird-looking thing, and I'm not going to complain about the shape of the engines, trunking and so forth because I just can't bring myself to, as it was never meant to be 100% historically accurate inside :) Here it all is in the lower fuselage:

 

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I did decide that the roof of the bay would be a bit bland by the time it was together, so I decided I was going to put some ribbing that mirrored the rivet-lines on the outside of the skin, so I did a little measuring up and drew a rough sketch on the upper fuselage interior:

 

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I broke out the styrene strip. This time some 0.1mm x 0.25mm from Evergreen, and hasn't that stuff gone expensive lately? :shocked: A couple of minutes later (maybe an hour or so) we ended up with this:

 

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It'll need a little tidying up once the glue is fully dry, as I glued my finger to it at one point :blush:   Still, it should look OK through the keyhole shapes of the gear bay apertures though, so I'm not going to worry unduly.  This is meant to be a fast build... yeah, so why did I do all that ribbing? :rolleyes:

 

I'd also already decided that I was going to add a skin to the nose gear bay, as there are a pair of ejector-pin marks there, and it would be more trouble to try to fill and make good.  Using a bit of tape as a template, I cut a piece out of some 0.25mm sheet, and then cut some notches for the ribs and sanded it until it fitted neatly.  After I'd taken the pics, I glued it in with some CA instead of liquid glue, so it didn't melt if a pool of glue formed underneath, which was likely thanks to the depressions that led to the process.  I also added some ribs going across, just because I felt like it, and it helps to distract the eye from the notches. :ninja:

 

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There weren't two bays, I just PhotoShopped the two picks together.  you can see the feather in the middle if you look hard ;)

 

What else?  I glued together the intakes and filled them, then used some custom sanders I made from wooden rods with sand paper glued round it, as well as some of my Galaxy Tools stainless tongue sanders.  I put together the weird-looking engine-ish parts and smoothed them off, and also smoothed out the exterior of the intakes too, as they'll just about be visible through the bays.  I'm not going to worry about the location pegs, as life's too short, and I also disappeared a couple of ejector-pin marks on the bulkheads while I had the filler out.  The cockpit had a few underneath, and that too will be visible after, so I filled those and primed both sides to check for lumps.  I took a quick pic of the cockpit put together while I was testing it, and it looks pretty good! :yes:

 

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Here's another pic of the assemblies before the primer.

 

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There's an outside chance I may have to put this on the back-burner shortly, but I'm going to press on while I can, in between another cluster of migraines I seem to be having again :dull:

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I thought it'd be a good idea to do a test-fit to make sure I've done enough to detail the gear bays, and I'm glad I did.  There are a few bits that need lengthening under the engine trunking, and some more could be added toward the rear of the bay.  There's a strut that goes from front to rear on the diagonal that will busy it up a little bit, but I think I might also put a few greeblies on the forward bulkhead, as it's a bit bland.

 

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Phone camera pics, so excuse the differences in colours between them.

 

The ribbing shows up some slight undulations in the inner surface, but I can live with that.  I might also put a few Archer rivet decals on the cockpit tub after I've checked it against my references of the real one.  With the legs and the bay doors in situ, I think I can get away with after that, so I'll be moving toward painting it.  RLM02 or metallic? :hmmm:

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I managed to get a little bit of bench-time after taking those pics, so have extended the ribbing a bit, bringing the grand total used to about 1.5 strips in total.  It's still not far enough in some places, so once that's dry I'll slap a few more bits in to see whether I can satisfy myself.

 

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I made up some details for the forward bulkhead that was a bit like that seen in the front of the stock 262, which involved nipping off one of the triangular projections to replace it with a long double curved piece I'd made from sheet styrene.  I half-drilled some holed in the bulkhead to replicate the lightening holes, and added a few bits of strip styrene to complete the job.  I also added some strip on-edge to the central bisector, which will make it look more structural than it otherwise would.  I didn't worry unduly about them being super-level with the top, because you won't be able to see it once it's inside.

 

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I gave everything a coat of primer after tidying up some of the ribbing to remove glue-marks and areas where the strips weren't quite level, then did a quick tape-up to see how it looked.  I was quite happy with it, but still added a flange around the intake trunks just to busy them up.  The cockpit is missing from these shots because they'd been covered with Archer rivets and were a bit fragile at the time.

 

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I doubt it would win a medal for accuracy, but who's gonna say otherwise?  It didn't exist! :wicked:

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On 7/9/2022 at 4:12 PM, Mike said:

RLM02 or metallic?

Primer/filler to fill in all those stupid countersunk flush rivets! On a real aircraft that means they're pulling through the skin, so need to be replaced.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just to let you know, I've not stopped working on this one, it's just slowed down a lot for various reasons.  I've got much of the paint on the interior, so am in the process of detail-painting and weathering it all.  I put some Airscale instrument dials on the panel last night, and will post up a few pics later on when it's worthwhile and the progress is visible :yes:

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As promised.  Almost a month later than my last post :blink:  I got some silver paint on the main internal parts, using some MRP silver again, followed by some Klear, Ultimate Dark Dirt, rubbing with cotton buds and kitchen roll, more Klear, and a quick tape together to see how it looks.

 

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I fiddled with the brightness in the wheel bays so you could see some of the detail.  I'm quite pleased with how it came out, especially my scratch building of the front bulkhead and all that ribbing.  It makes for a more interesting bay, although I could have made a tidier job of it.  A few different shades of metallic and grey were squirted on the intakes and "engines", which also adds a bit of interest, but it's quite dark in there IRL, so the little detail I put in there is enough.  I'm looking forward to closing it up shortly, after I do a few more checks & measures to ensure I've not forgotten anything and so forth :)

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The cockpit's finished now too.  I used some Quinta seatbelts from their Me.262 set, as they were nearby and I wanted to know how they worked.  Turns out they work great, and look good too :yes:

 

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The instrument bezels were painted and had some Airscale dials added to the centres, with a couple of coats of Klear to give them a shine.  I've test-fitted the canopy, and there's enough detail in there to give the impression of a cockpit through the glazing, so I just need to paint the sill and rear deck, then I can close it up.

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I finally managed to get the fuselage together after adding some lead sheet to the nose area, putting plenty in to give it some forward heft.  No-one likes a tail-sitter ;) I meant to weigh the lead before I glued it into place, but forgot so you're on your own.  Just remember that you need to take the tail section into account before you decide you've put in enough.  The fuselage was fairly easy to close up, although I'll need to do a little remedial work here and there, but I'll leave that until the glue has gone off fully.  The tail fits nicely too, although I did have to shave off a little bit of moulding seam around the bottom where the wing root fairing meets the fuselage.  That improved the fit quite a bit, and I just had to look hard to see the join when I glanced over a moment ago.  The nose looks to be the seam with the most work to do, but I'll check it over properly after blowing a bit of primer on it.

 

Much tape was used to hold it together:

 

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I made up some masks for the canopy, and really couldn't be bothered opening it up with a razor saw because I only have one, and the cockpit is fairly average.  A coat of RLM66 should make it look grey inside if it's visible, and I glued it in place with some GS-Hypo as usual, after scraping off the Klear from the mating surfaces.  More nonsense when I have time. :)

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Tape off for the lads! This was what she looked like until a few minutes ago after I attacked it with some primer.

 

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I'm not sure what that smudge on the wing is, but it's been sprayed over.  Looking at the seams now after priming it, the nose is definitely going to need some work, as is the front seam of the canopy.  I wish I'd noticed that before gluing it on, as I could have reduced the lip of the cockpit to compensate, but it's too late now, so out come the sanding sticks :D

 

 

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37 minutes ago, Hook said:

Pints, anyone? 

Might make the sanding a bit wobbly :unsure: Speaking of which, I've done the first round of sanding of the seams, and got the steps dealt with.  I've got a few panel lines that need deepening now, and a few rivets to re-do, but it shouldn't take too long in between feinting dead away from the heat, sleeping and having migraines.  Yes.  They're back :(

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I managed to do a little re-scribing and riveting on the exterior today, so drifted a bit more primer over the results to check if they blended in.  There is also a very short L-shaped seam at the rear of the wing-root fairing, which I'd put some Tamiya basic into last night, so I sanded that back, and that's been hidden well enough, so one less task to do.  Here's a pair of photos of it covered in grey.

 

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I'll leave it overnight and have another look tomorrow to see if I'm happy with it, then I'll decide what colour I'm going to paint it and start prepping things for that. :hmmm:

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14 hours ago, Mike said:

then I'll decide what colour I'm going to paint it

 I bet she'd look good in a Tobruk '46 desert scheme - RLM79 with RLM80 splotches over RLM78? ;)

 

I do 1/72nd almost exclusively, your work has me eying this stash item.

Cheers,

 

Andre

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  • 1 month later...

Just in case anyone thought I'd forgotten about this one, I've just done a teeny bit of work on it, after turning it over in my hands earlier today, checking if the primer coat was still good enough to apply paint to.  I hacked out the wingtip lights with my motor tool, and added a couple of bits of clear acrylic sheet that I'd drilled a small hole in, applying a dot of paint before I glued it in place.  I put them in the wrong place initially, which will be why you can see a slightly larger coloured hole on the front face of the clear chunk.  It's since been abraded away to hide my shame :blush:

 

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Here's a bit of a grainy close-up that shows the error of my ways:

 

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