curiouslysophie

Here is my rendition of the ‘bent-wing bird’. I used the Eduard cockpit (never again) & propeller, HGW belts & stencils, Barracuda Wheels, and a load of scratchbuilding! I did some super-detailing on the engine, cowl flaps, canopy fittings, and wheel bays.
It is a fictional scheme from a Guadalcanal based unit, flown by the fictional Lt M. W. Hendrik. 
I hope you enjoy my build, I had great fun with the weathering on this one. I have come to love dirty aircraft and learned a good deal of new techniques for this plane (still not so great at them!).
 
On to the pictures!
 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you, I didn’t spot that one. I’m guessing the gun ejects the shell casing directly down then? I’ll go with that then and design the ejection shoots and ammo boxes for it.
Thanks for your help!  

I don't know if you'll be able to see it but 85 (directly below the gun (behind 86 in the image) is for the spent shells and 86 is for the spent links and is at the bottom of the weapon.  Unfortunately, I don't have any photographs that clearly show the link or shell ejection chutes and many, if not all of the drawings in my reference were done by Bentley.

Just a quick question about how the shell casings are ejected from the MK 103 cannons. In some mountings and the Bentley drawings it seems like the casings ejected straight down from the gun? It also appears the links for the ammo belts are often ejected through a separate port.
 
Im just wondering if anyone has any details or good pictures I could use for reference.
 
Cheers,
sophie

@dmthamade and TonyT - have either of you guys actually built the Tamiya Mosquito?   I have and your comments about being way too complex and having way too many open panels are totally off base.   Assembling the Mossie is as easy as it gets.  Just follow the instructions and everything clicks into place.  Compare to lower end kits, with a lower parts count but nothing fits without filling, sanding and forcing parts together.  Also - if you don’t like the open panels on the Mossie, simply glue them in the closed position.   Those parts actually fit perfectly, unlike other lower end kits that force you to leave the panels open since it’s nearly impossible to get them properly glued in place.  
 

Looking great Micheal! It’s coming together nicely. 
I haven’t had much time to get to the bench recently, but I have been working on modifying the superchargers and doing some other little (i.e. completely unnoticeable) modifications.
 
I’m enjoying your build, can’t wait to see the bird with wings!

Here is my rendition of the ‘bent-wing bird’. I used the Eduard cockpit (never again) & propeller, HGW belts & stencils, Barracuda Wheels, and a load of scratchbuilding! I did some super-detailing on the engine, cowl flaps, canopy fittings, and wheel bays.
It is a fictional scheme from a Guadalcanal based unit, flown by the fictional Lt M. W. Hendrik. 
I hope you enjoy my build, I had great fun with the weathering on this one. I have come to love dirty aircraft and learned a good deal of new techniques for this plane (still not so great at them!).
 
On to the pictures!
 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think this kit dates from a time when Z-M molded all exterior pieces in clear so that you could show off the insides to full effect, or paint one side and leave the other clear, or just paint the lot.  If I recall correctly, their TA-152's were the same.  Someone please let me know if I'm wrong on this.  Either way, it's part of the Z-M philosophy of modelling the entire plane and not just the obvious bits, as they like to show the workings.  Personally, I like this way of doing things.
 
This authentic look was also a feature of the Z-M Henschel HS-129 I built a while back.  Same style of instructions, which are as detailed as the model itself.  They also give the modeller pictures of how each stage should look after you complete those stages, which is a great help and another nice feature of these kits.
 
Thanks for joining me on this journey.
 
 
It's all just a part of how Z-M do things, but it does have a purpose in holding the heads onto the block and aligning them properly.  Glue is only applied to the outer edge of each head, and the con rods interconnect so you glue that connection too which gives the assembly a better bond.  Tamiya do it a little differently, but both give you a better result than most others who offer an engine in their kit as the parts have a more detailed look.
 
Yes, I like HKM's offering a weight in their kits.  Their Gloster Meteor has the same feature and I do wish Z-M had thought of a way to install a weight.  I'll be using Liquid Gravity on mine, but it would be nice not to have to spend more money mail ordering stuff.....  Which the postal pixies STILL have in their clutches...    They're late on their promised delivery date too...    But perhaps the way Z-M have done it here, I'll end up with a better model anyway with Z-M detail and a nose sitter.  Time, and whatever skills I can bring to bear, will tell on that, though.  However, it must be said that many other kit manufacturers also don't provide a nose weight for their tricycle undercarriage'd models either.  I'd agree that more should.
 
                       __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 
So after the last installment I'd started work on the rear engine.  The next stage was to add the kit's spark plug wires and some of the plumbing.  Here's the outer ignition harness, magneto and supercharger in place.  All this was sprayed with Tamiya rattle can AS12, then some details picked out, and the flexible plug leads were painted a slightly darker metallic gray.
 

 
The flash on my camera has caused a blurring of the silver colours against the black engine.  It's not actually like that "in the plastic".
 

 
Here's the other twelve plug leads.  As I mentioned in my earlier update, I'd already put the fuel injection distributor and inlet manifold on before I gave any thought to the lower ignition harness, which meant I couldn't clean out the plug holes to firmly glue the parts in place.  So I cleaned out what I could then glued what I could.  The remaining unattached leads were glued in place with some Tamiya super thin glue.  This seems to have worked as after all the handing during building this motor, they're still in place.
 

 
If I get really ambitious with the front motor, I might make the fuel lines.  Or not, if I regain my sanity....
 
In the next pictures, the exhausts have been added, along with some of the engines cooling system.  The header tanks are interconnected and the pipe leading out of the bottom of the tank connects with the same tank on the other side, and also with a pipe yet to the added to the underside of the engine.  The exhausts, however, go on first and the header tanks glue to the exhaust shields.  As the plane I'm building was very new when the war ended, I'm building it with little wear, so the exhausts themselves were painted steel, then aged slightly with a dry brush of rust.  Also, note the orientation of the exhausts - they're facing towards the front of the engine.
 

 

 
Here we have the engine finished.  First, the front engine mount goes on around the reduction gear housing, then the mounts to the mounting frame.  Then the rear engine mounts go on and the whole lot is placed in that frame.  The last bits to go on are the pumps in front of the header tanks on each side, which connect to one pipe underneath the engine.  Then a third pipe is attached underneath the engine.  I assume that these will connect with the radiator at a later stage.  Here's some shots from each angle.
 
Right side.
 

 
Left side.
 

 
Rear.
 

 
Front.
 

 
Underneath.
 

 
Lastly, placed into the front bulkhead and into the fuselage, so that I can work out what part of the fuselage will need painting RLM02.
 

 
Did I mention that the postal pixies still have my two week old order of Liquid Gravity?????  I know I ordered from Melbourne, 3,420km away from my home on the other side of the country, so I'm guessing said pixies have placed it in a little red wagon and are walking it across the country.  .  This means I can't finish the front cockpit area.  So I think I'll do a bit more on the middle cockpit and maybe the bits behind the rear engine.  I guess all these sub assemblies have got to be done anyway, before I can glue the fuselage halves together.  On the bright side, it may help me get a better handle on just how much weight I need to add to the nose when I finally get my parcel.  You may have noticed in earlier pictures how I've crossed out those instructions that I have completed, which may help me figure out this enforced haphazard construction plan of mine.
 
Until next time.
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

I’ll be following this one Michael! The two seater is a cool looking plane. How are the metal landing gear? Are they white metal? Is the casting good? I may stump for a set if I can find them anywhere.

Progress has been slow on this one, in part due to life intruding.  After the last update, the first thing was to paint some RLM02 about the place, as this was needed to put the cockpit together.  The lower part of cockpit sides are the inner walls of the nose wheel bay, and some of the inner fuselage also needs to be RLM02.  Here's the undersides of the cockpit floor.
 

 
Here's the left side cockpit wall.  You may notice that I've cut off the pilot's oxygen hose which is abbreviated, and I've replaced it with a length of old guitar string.  I don't play a guitar, btw.  My son makes them for a hobby.
 

 
Next up was to attach a black box to the cockpit floor.  This was duly stuffed with wine bottle lead.  I've also painted the rear cockpit floor in RLM66.
 

 
Both cockpit sides now in place, along with the control column.
 

 

 
Then the side consoles go in, followed by the seat ejector lever (red handle).  I've deliberately left off the levers and knobs that go on the left console, along with the right canopy release lever, as I'm quite sure I'll knock these off before finishing the floor assembly.  You can also see the pilot's oxygen hose now installed, which went in before the consoles.  This hose matches the drawings I have of the DO-335 cockpit.  And when I take a picture of the left console, I'll try and get that in focus.......
 

 
The last bit to go in was the pilot's seat.  This takes quite a while to assemble and paint thanks to the arm rests and foot supports.  I built these foot supports first, then cut the seat back cushion from the kit seat belt piece and glued it in place.  I've painted mine in flat brown leather. along with the head rest, just to make them stand out a little more.  Then the photo etch seat belts were added followed by the box at the top of the seat and the head rest.  I rubbed both the brown leather pieces with my finger to give them that leather sheen.  Lastly, the ejector rails were fitted to the back of the seat.
 

 
The seat could then be slid down the rails cast into the rear bulkhead.
 

 
My next step will be to start adding weight around the cockpit and the gun assembly to go in front of this, but I can't at present because my supply of Liquid Gravity is still in the clutches of the postal pixies .
 
So rather than do nothing, I've started work on the rear engine.  As I started this, I became very glad I had done so, and not started on the front engine yet, as this has given me some ideas as to the pitfalls of adding weight to the front engine.  Here's the basics of the engine.
 

 
In this picture, I've assembled both cylinder heads, attached them to the crank case, then glued on the reduction gear to the front of the engine.  The first thing you can see is all those pistons and con rods in the way.  For the front engine, I'll be removing all  pistons except the front and rear of each head.  This is purely to help locate each half of each head together.  This should help get a little more weight into the nose of the model.  The second thing that occurred to me is that if I fill the engine with Liquid Gravity, it's going to spill over the front of the crank case and interfere with the working of the prop shaft which will be in the front engine reduction gear.  This one will have no such filling obviously, and a long extension shaft is added to the front (actually rear) of this engine.  So I'll be building a wall up to the top of the crank case to keep the Liquid Gravity away from the reduction gear housing/prop shaft on the front engine.
 
Here's the engine all painted.  I've put most of the engine ancillaries onto the back of the engine, then painted the lot with Tamiya rattle can semi gloss black.
 

 
This is the bottom of the engine, before the fuel pump/distributor and inlet manifold are added.
 

 
Since  took this pic, I've added that fuel distributor and manifold and realised I've shot myself in the foot.  I should have cleaned out the holes for the spark plug leads, but the inlet manifold in particular gets in the way of any such clean up.  Watch this pace to see how I deal with that.  Yeah, I have no idea either .
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

I’ll be following this one Michael! The two seater is a cool looking plane. How are the metal landing gear? Are they white metal? Is the casting good? I may stump for a set if I can find them anywhere.

I am slowly plugging away at this kit. I have pretty much finished the cockpit for now, and I have been working on the plumbing for the main fuel tank.
 
The cockpit was upgraded with the Eduard set provided through Zoukei Mura, some ANYZ toggles and switches, the obligatory HGW Seatbelts, some Airscale Luftwaffe placards, and the odd bit of scratchbuilding.
 

 

 
I did some reworking of the seat. I redid the cushions with some Tamiya epoxy putty. I’m not too happy with the leather painting and I feel I may do a few more mods to the seat to make it look a bit more like a later version.
 

 

 
The fuel tank has had some pipe work added, though it isn’t fully finished yet. I plan on making the panel over it removable so it will have some more details passing through this section.
 

 
That is all I have done so far. Today I am mostly working on the front engine, so hopefully I’ll have more to show soon. I have a few other projects in the pipeline, my what-if Fw-190 should be started soon. I am also working on non-LSP models too!
 
I hope you all like my work so far! Please let me know what you think, I’m hoping I can get much better as I still feel my skills are limited (you don’t want to see what I’ve done to 1/35 figures trying to paint them!).
 
Cheers,
Sophie

Here is my rendition of the ‘bent-wing bird’. I used the Eduard cockpit (never again) & propeller, HGW belts & stencils, Barracuda Wheels, and a load of scratchbuilding! I did some super-detailing on the engine, cowl flaps, canopy fittings, and wheel bays.
It is a fictional scheme from a Guadalcanal based unit, flown by the fictional Lt M. W. Hendrik. 
I hope you enjoy my build, I had great fun with the weathering on this one. I have come to love dirty aircraft and learned a good deal of new techniques for this plane (still not so great at them!).
 
On to the pictures!
 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my rendition of the ‘bent-wing bird’. I used the Eduard cockpit (never again) & propeller, HGW belts & stencils, Barracuda Wheels, and a load of scratchbuilding! I did some super-detailing on the engine, cowl flaps, canopy fittings, and wheel bays.
It is a fictional scheme from a Guadalcanal based unit, flown by the fictional Lt M. W. Hendrik. 
I hope you enjoy my build, I had great fun with the weathering on this one. I have come to love dirty aircraft and learned a good deal of new techniques for this plane (still not so great at them!).
 
On to the pictures!
 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my rendition of the ‘bent-wing bird’. I used the Eduard cockpit (never again) & propeller, HGW belts & stencils, Barracuda Wheels, and a load of scratchbuilding! I did some super-detailing on the engine, cowl flaps, canopy fittings, and wheel bays.
It is a fictional scheme from a Guadalcanal based unit, flown by the fictional Lt M. W. Hendrik. 
I hope you enjoy my build, I had great fun with the weathering on this one. I have come to love dirty aircraft and learned a good deal of new techniques for this plane (still not so great at them!).
 
On to the pictures!
 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my rendition of the ‘bent-wing bird’. I used the Eduard cockpit (never again) & propeller, HGW belts & stencils, Barracuda Wheels, and a load of scratchbuilding! I did some super-detailing on the engine, cowl flaps, canopy fittings, and wheel bays.
It is a fictional scheme from a Guadalcanal based unit, flown by the fictional Lt M. W. Hendrik. 
I hope you enjoy my build, I had great fun with the weathering on this one. I have come to love dirty aircraft and learned a good deal of new techniques for this plane (still not so great at them!).
 
On to the pictures!
 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am slowly plugging away at this kit. I have pretty much finished the cockpit for now, and I have been working on the plumbing for the main fuel tank.
 
The cockpit was upgraded with the Eduard set provided through Zoukei Mura, some ANYZ toggles and switches, the obligatory HGW Seatbelts, some Airscale Luftwaffe placards, and the odd bit of scratchbuilding.
 

 

 
I did some reworking of the seat. I redid the cushions with some Tamiya epoxy putty. I’m not too happy with the leather painting and I feel I may do a few more mods to the seat to make it look a bit more like a later version.
 

 

 
The fuel tank has had some pipe work added, though it isn’t fully finished yet. I plan on making the panel over it removable so it will have some more details passing through this section.
 

 
That is all I have done so far. Today I am mostly working on the front engine, so hopefully I’ll have more to show soon. I have a few other projects in the pipeline, my what-if Fw-190 should be started soon. I am also working on non-LSP models too!
 
I hope you all like my work so far! Please let me know what you think, I’m hoping I can get much better as I still feel my skills are limited (you don’t want to see what I’ve done to 1/35 figures trying to paint them!).
 
Cheers,
Sophie

Beautifully done! Best down and dirty birdcage Corsair I have ever seen! You have encouraged me to explore AK Interactive products now. I also love the subject you have chosen. Nose art is cool, and with an unpainted propeller hub, which really adds interest and color.  Where was reference for the subject you chose found? Again, this is one astounding piece of art!

Exquisite work!!! Wow! 

You are very talented girl beautiful work 

The model was designed in such a way that it can be built with one side complete and one side without “skins” in order to show the skeleton. The interior (as well as the exterior) was designed as accurately as possible, using factory drawings and measurements of the real thing, of course all within the tooling limitations. The internal structure is not superfluous, it is still very visible from outside. For example the wing structure, apart from giving extra strength, also contains the wheel wells, radiators, the operating mechanism for the leading edge slats. If built carefully, the leading edge slats will be “operational/movable” and can be set in either position, which should please all “purists” who insist that they were always open/closed. 
The interior of the fuselage is very visible if the radio hatch is open and the model was designed in such a way that you do not need to glue the radio hatch, you can easily remove it to show the interior. 
The Zoukei Mura approach to models should be well-known by now. In a world of pop, they produce symphonies. It may not please everyone, but their models always sell out.
This is not “yet another 109” because there has never been a 109 like this before. 
Radu

Here is my rendition of the ‘bent-wing bird’. I used the Eduard cockpit (never again) & propeller, HGW belts & stencils, Barracuda Wheels, and a load of scratchbuilding! I did some super-detailing on the engine, cowl flaps, canopy fittings, and wheel bays.
It is a fictional scheme from a Guadalcanal based unit, flown by the fictional Lt M. W. Hendrik. 
I hope you enjoy my build, I had great fun with the weathering on this one. I have come to love dirty aircraft and learned a good deal of new techniques for this plane (still not so great at them!).
 
On to the pictures!
 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will check out your thread! I have been looking at hinging the cowlings too. Not sure how to go about it yet.
 
Thanks for the picture and info on the landing gear! I might give it a go if I can find it anywhere. I think they might be out of production?
I only asked about them because I had the set for the He-219 and the casting was a bit rough and bent.
 
I will be modifying the front gear to take the later style larger nose wheel, at least I will once Reskit release their set!

Here is my rendition of the ‘bent-wing bird’. I used the Eduard cockpit (never again) & propeller, HGW belts & stencils, Barracuda Wheels, and a load of scratchbuilding! I did some super-detailing on the engine, cowl flaps, canopy fittings, and wheel bays.
It is a fictional scheme from a Guadalcanal based unit, flown by the fictional Lt M. W. Hendrik. 
I hope you enjoy my build, I had great fun with the weathering on this one. I have come to love dirty aircraft and learned a good deal of new techniques for this plane (still not so great at them!).
 
On to the pictures!
 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my rendition of the ‘bent-wing bird’. I used the Eduard cockpit (never again) & propeller, HGW belts & stencils, Barracuda Wheels, and a load of scratchbuilding! I did some super-detailing on the engine, cowl flaps, canopy fittings, and wheel bays.
It is a fictional scheme from a Guadalcanal based unit, flown by the fictional Lt M. W. Hendrik. 
I hope you enjoy my build, I had great fun with the weathering on this one. I have come to love dirty aircraft and learned a good deal of new techniques for this plane (still not so great at them!).
 
On to the pictures!