Hasegawa Me-262

[Rato]

All right boys. After long months kinda out of the scene, I guess I'm seriuously back to the hobby (and will resume working more actively with LSP staff, too). Besides some tuff personal issues, I must confess that I've been envolved with many 1/72 projects. I also spent some flight time preparing masters for resin accessories.

The first thing I had to sort out is "what to do next?". For you who don't recall, years ago I started to work heavily on a P-40B. Then Trumpeter dropped water in my whiskey. Ok, move on. I decided to built the old Hasegawa Me-262. "Nobody will make a new 262 in 1/32", I thought. Well, you know the rest of the story. This project has been halted for about a year now. Should I resume it or simply buying the Trumpeter one? I decided to continue with it, pretty much in the same way that Sazo and Brian's works inspired it. I'm convinced it is possible to make a very accurate 262 with the Hasegawa kit. And after examining (and measuring) the Trumpeter's kit, I realized that they have some issues, too (some of them impossible to solve).

Sooooooooooooooo, I'll try to keep you posted from now on, even though I have only a couple of hours/week to work on it. I'll start by re-posting the firts steps (apologies to those who have seen it before) and keep everything in the same thread.

[Rato]

Ok guys. I managed to do some work on the Hasegawa Me-262. Don´t expect this to be a fast project, since I´m having only a couple of hours per week to work on the workbench. I´m trying to stick with plastics for everything, avoiding resin and metal whenever possible.

Well, work started with the cockpit. The pilot´s area is relatively simple (in comparison to other WWII fighters), but the bottom of the tub was visible from the wheel bays, so there´s a lot of hydraulics, plumbing, tanks, electrical circuits etc... to be added.

The seat was made in three parts: bottom, backrest and cushion. The first was made with the heat-and-smash technique over a wood master and the details glued. The backrest is made of simple plastic stripes and the cushion was carved from a thick piece of styrene:

 

 

Here is the cockpit tub so far:

 

 

And here my attempt to make a control panel entirely from styrene. Well, the turn & bank indicator will be resin copied from the Me-109 kit, but apart from that, it is just plastic card and stretched sprue:

 

 

Now Brian, if you are reading, what´s the best approach to scratchbuild the slats of this bird?

I´ll keep you posted whenever possible. Thanks for looking...

[Rato]

By request, here´s how I did the instrument panel.

First off, what sucks in scratchbuilding German instruments is that they aren´t just round or square, but a superposition of both. The idea is to use a bit of optical illusion: by superimposing a slightly oversized round bezel atop a square plate, you get the visual effect we´re looking for (at least is what I hope):

 

 

If you have them PE, that´s it. If not, here´s the recipe to fake them. Start cutting the squares. A ´chopper´ is a must here:

 

 

Now on to the bezels. Make a good length of stretched sprue - not too thin, not too thick. The thickness has to be balanced to the instrument size. Coil it around a metal pin. I generally use pins with 1.0, 1.3, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 mm diameter for most cases (the squares are cut accordingly, but a bit undersized):

 

 

Cook it. About a minute in boiling water is more than enough:

 

 

Now the coil is permanently shaped:

 

 

Take a fresh blade and cut longitudinally all the way through the plastic:

 

 

 

In a matter of minutes you get bezels for many models:

 

 

Finally, glue the bezels on the corresponding squares:

 

]

[Rato]

Here´s the final result. Not sharp as a PE item, but I did it before Vincent came to help. Anyway, seems better than the original kit part:

 

 

The ammo counters are missing in the instrument panel. I will modify the Waldron ammo counters for the Fw-190 (after painting is done).

Meanwhile, I made the rudder pedals assembly. Again, I didn´t have any PE item for the pedals, so I copied them from the Me-109:

 

 

I can´t help the pros, but I hope this can be of use for scratchbuilding beginners and those recently afflicted by AMS.

[Rato]

... and slowly I go. Folks, I managed to add some bits more to the cockpit. Here´s the result.

There are some items still missing, but the hard work is done. Now I have to move on to the wheel bays.

And Vincent (MDC), thank you very much for your help, eh?

 

 

 

 

And here´s the rudder pedals...

 

 

Don´t save ammo.

[Rato]

Ok boys, I confess I´ve been a bit out of touch lately. Chris/Hannover pissed me off for not waiting me in the 262 race . So I decided to invest a bit more in details...

Talking serious now, I´m slooooowly working on the nose landing gear area, in preparation to attack the main wheel bays (that will be a headache...) and close the fuselage, when I´ll have to finish off the cockpit area.

I started with the wheel bay walls. I used plastic card and aluminum sheet. I spent some time drooling with my riveter:

 

 

The roof of the wheel bay had a curved area to make room for the wheel. This area goes between the cannons layout. Surprisingly, it came out very easily:

 

 

The wheel leg was made of plastic and brass tubing. I sanded where necessary to make the smooth transitions between different diameters. I used my drill as a lathe:

 

 

The retraction arm was the most difficult part to do. Again, I used a drill to machine the ends of the master (oleo) cylinder from brass, and glued them to a piece of plastic tubing. It seems ok, but the nut at the end of the master cylinder seems a bit oversized when compared to photos. Some you win, some you loose, I guess:

 

 

The whole assembly is telescoping, so I can adjust the landing gear angle it before glueing the components:

 

 

The wheel yoke received some treatment, too. I drilled the holes in the wheel axle and prepared the yoke to accept a polished aluminum rod to simulate the oleo cylinder (the torque link attachment is still missing - my bird won´t have one, but the attachments should be there):

 

 

And finally, I also corrected the yoke angle as per photos. The kit part is perpendicular to the ground, but it should be slighly cambered:

 

 

Well boys, that´s it for now. I´m having a lot of fun, but it´s been really tuff to find time to work on this project lately (too many professional commitments).

As usual, fire at will.

[Klaus H]

good scratch will always beat the best new injection kit. at least today.

would you mind telling me the flaws of the trumpeter kit that you mentioned above? i already have the kit and then i dont need to find out about them "the hard way". i was tempted to do the old hasegawa 262, too. but then fortunately my dora came in between and then trumpeter announced the new kit. guess what... i nearly bought an old ju 86 kit. and i am very sure, that when i start working on my BF 110......

yours klaus

[Chris Hannover - Germany]

Hi Rato,

 

great to have you back at the bench mate! You are doing an amazing job there! Thanks for sharing this with us. There are a lot of good tips for scratchbuilding...

 

Well, about my Hasegawa 262.... hmm... ok it is now an experimental model, never finished and i´m not going to finish it. So, the race is not lost Rato!!... But i should mention, i have the Trumpeter 262 now Not on the bench, but it is already on the "to do" pile... Watch your back mate...

 

 

Cheers,

Chris

[Jens]

superb work!!!!

[Cleveland Model Resins]

Outstanding work .. you should become a master pattern maker Mr LSP Rato!

 

Come work for us and make loads of bits, so we can visit the pub more often!

 

In all seriousness, the standard of the items you are producing is amongst the best I have ever seen. I really want to see your '262 completed.

[LSP_Matt]

 

Awesome. Oh Rato...Grrrreat idea for making bezels. I'll need to go make another coffee just to sit and absorb all the detail you are putting in here. wow.

 

cheers Matty

[Spaced Marine]

Oh my dear goodness...

 

I must book mark this thread and use the pics of the cockpit goodies as inspiration. I have the Trumpeter kit, but I think I will use your masterful work as a guide, instead of buying mass quantities of resin!

[seanrgb]

Excelent work Rato

I just wished i had the paticience to do this

keep up the good work

[AceofClubs]

Hi Rato, simply superlative work. When I saw such work... well I'd better to come back to my Tiger and Panther! Many thanks for sharing and I'm looking for more wip pics.

All the best

Fil

[AngoMango]

Rato, that is just fantastic stuff! The techniques you use are so convincing and effective, yet you've explained them so well that we less gifted can actually use them ourselves!

 

I'm loving that bezel technique, as well as the drill/lathe method, which I'd never thought of using with plastic rod. It all seems obvious now. Top stuff mate, I can't wait to see more of your work!

 

Cheers,

Ango.