Focke Wulf Triebflügel

[Eivind Lunde]

Since I'm a serial starter but only occasional finisher (mental note: buy new shelf of doom), I have dragged a new kit out of the medium sized stash I keep. This time I went for something that I hoped to be able to finish, since it has few parts and no rigging. 
The Focke Wulf Triebflügel is most definitely a Luft '46 Luft '50 project, even if it proceeded from a sketch on the back of a napkin and into wind tunnel testing by wars end. While I can understand peoples fascination with the advanced projects the Nazis left behind I do think most people don't think about the amount of development and resources needed to make most of them happen. Time and resources the 3rd Reich did not have.

And it's not like the Allies didn't have plenty of fantastic secret projects as well, the Northrop XB-35/YB-49 is pretty sci-fi if you ask me, and that DID fly. 

 

But anyho, Amusing Hobby's Triebflügel is on the bench.
The kit looks good, plenty of fine detail on the fuselage, and the fit is supposedly very good. Which it should be since the Triebflügel is basically an elliptic shape with a propeller in the middle (poor pilot), so no difficult curves. 

 

A not so amusing part of this hobby is the cleaning of the sprue attachment points, and in this kit they are all on the mating surfaces. 

The cockpit is pretty disappointing, with very basic detail indeed. 

But one of the reasons I picked this kit is so I can practise my scratch building, as it sure could be improved. So better get to work on that cockpit, even if it will be almost invisible once closed up.  

[billn53]

You’ve got my attention!!!

[Eivind Lunde]

Well, the cockpit is finished now, but I forgot to take in-progress pictures. 

First I thought about what I should do with the seat, as I just have one spare set of photo etched seat belts that I'd rather reserve for something else. And as I wanted to use this "what if" kit to learn new things, why not try to make the seat belts myself?

So I found a way to do it on YouTube, by using masking tape and simple home made buckles made from metal. I decided to use lead wire as it is way easier to cut, but you have to be very careful as not to bend the buckles out of shape afterwards. It was quickly done and with an acceptable result after a wash of burnt sienna, even if I regret not making the buckles smaller.

I just thought "nah, it'll be fine" and called it a day.

If you think the seat belts are somehow defying gravity, remember that the seat will be rotated 90 degrees when in the cockpit.

While the home made seat belts may not be up to close scrutiny, the rest of the cockpit is not at risk of that since it will be basically invisible after the front part of the fuselage is glued together. I replaced Lego Duplo like instrument panel with a photo etched spare from an Eduard Bell X1 kit, added some levers from an aborted ICM Do-17 kit and made some buttons, switches and stuff using my punch & die set, and added some wire and a primitive TV screen for the pilot to use when he tries to land the damned thing.

Next part of the job will bring a whiff of Tamiya Extra Thin glue as I start gluing the parts together. 

[Eivind Lunde]

Nothing much interesting going on as I have started gluing the parts together now. Fit is fine, but as I said, all the sprue gates are on the mating surfaces which makes for busywork I feel I can do very well without. 

I have spent a lot of time thinking about what finish to choose. An overall splinter camouflaged one would make sense since allied planes would roam the country side looking for things to shoot up, so being invisible while on the ground would be very important.

On the other hand, the mottled one looks much more menacing to me, and I have never mottled anything with my airbrush before, so that would teach me something new. 

In the end I have chosen to do something entirely different and go with a natural metal test scheme idea I found on the net.

My theory is that the late war paint shortage would not be any better in 1946, and they could hide them using camouflage nets while on the ground anyway. Oh, and I really need to learn to do natural metal finishes as that would open up a whole new area of planes, with colourful P-51's and P-47's, in addition to 50's jets.

But to make it easy on myself I have ordered some metal powder from Uschi van der Rosten products. I have done a bit of experimenting with MIG metal pigments and it seems quite possible to spray the entire airframe in aluminium and then polish it with powder afterwards to bring out a realistic shine. Or perhaps spray it with aluminium metal powder before polishing?

Seems to be plenty of ways to achieve a quite realistic end product using these pigments.

 

So I'm really excited by this, hope this turns out to be as easy as rigging and creating natural wood effects on WWI airplanes was, something that kept me away from even trying for many years. I know I need to have a perfect surface for this, so I guess my cat needs to be either vacuumed or shipped away to a cat hotel before I spray the primer coat.
I'm sure he will forgive me in time. 🐱
 

 

[Marklo]

Great work so far. For all the fancy metal paint my systems out there my go to metal finish is actually a Lidl rattle can and MIG pigment if I want to dull it down a bit.

[Eivind Lunde]

It may seem like nothing has happened for a long while, but behind the scenes there have been some activity. I got the products I ordered from Uschi van der Rosten, but due to a mistake on their part the one thing lacking was the aluminium colour, which is what I needed the most. 

So while I waited I did some experimenting with the colours I got, and while they are a paste and not powder as I thought, they spray easily thinned with isopropanol and gives a realistic metal sheen.

But as a compensation for the mistake they did, giving me gold instead of aluminium, they sent me three jars of Mr. Color Metal in Aluminium, Steel and Silver.

Now that's good customer service! 😍

 

I immediately went to work hand painting my mule, which had been prepared with Vallejo black primer polished to a semi gloss shine with 3000 grit, and the results were fantastic. 

My camera struggles to replicate the metal shine I got after polishing the hand painted areas, so this will get even better when sprayed on.

 

Never mind the leftmost part, the silver had unfortunately dried out it seems, so not sure if I can save it. But trust me when I say that there is really no comparison between acrylic and enamels/lacquers when it comes to metal colours.

So tomorrow I will get some Levelling Thinner (I may pick up a P-51 as well) for these colours, and then I can spray the primer on the prepared parts. 

Edited August 30, 2022 by Eivind Lunde

[amos brierley]

6 hours ago, Eivind Lunde said:

It may seem like nothing has happened for a long while, but behind the scenes there have been some activity.

I’ll buy that, but my excuse is that it’s my sad severn, seven days at work 12hr 20 mins ,tough going , that’s my excuse tomoz with my own post.    ………

 

6 hours ago, Eivind Lunde said:

So tomorrow I will get some Levelling Thinner (I may pick up a P-51 as well)

😄   I like your style.

 

 I’m liking your latest plan,     but, I’d go with RLM 75 for the leading edges as that would take the glint off the leading edges when going into a head to head dog fight.  

[Eivind Lunde]

Lots of time spent sanding and filling gaps with putty, followed by even more sanding, has ended with the model getting its first shot of Vallejo primer. It looks like a supervillain's space ship now.

 

 

It will need yet more filling and sanding to remove every faint trace of a seam, and then quite a bit of polishing to get a pretty smooth surface for the metal paint. I started this kit as a way to get away from busywork, but the plan to try out a natural metal finish for the first time since some hand painted F-86 in the mid 80's put paid to that. 

 

I'm going to leave the rotor blades in black as Amos sort of suggested in the post above, since it both makes sense and will make a nice visual contrast to all the bare metal. 

[Eivind Lunde]

The mid part is basically done now. I hand painted it steel since I thought that it could have been that since it rotates and also that there are some important parts behind it that may not take lightly to a stray 0.5" bullet.

And also because it makes for a nice contrast to all the aluminium that will cover the rest of the aircraft. 
The reason I hand painted it instead of using an airbrush is that I read some horror stories about spray painting Mr. Metal Color . Seems it always clogs up your airbrush and sets your house on fire, or something like that, and I don't want either of those things to happen.

 

But it IS supposed to be air brushable so I think I may give it a try, even if the mid part came out very well just hand painted. Should probably have gone for a third layer though.

 

Shines in the sun as well, what more could you ask from a metal colour?

 

Both painting and polishing in the same direction gives a very nice structure to the metal, just as you can see on the real thing.

The pictures are after a thin coat of acrylic floor polish. It's not the magical Future, just something I picked up in a hardware store and that has served me well. It does dull the shine slightly, but the Metal Color is pretty soft and needs some protection, and I hope it got some now. 

 

Little known fact: There are 3 short tubes to reinforce the rotor to hub assembly in the kit, but their use is not listed in the instructions so they are easy to miss if your not one of those guys who looks through everything and plan ahead before starting your build.
Using them you can just push the rotor blades into the hub without having to use glue. 

Edited September 17, 2022 by Eivind Lunde
Added a useful tip