Trumpy ME 262 A1 Heavy Armanent

[smudger]

This kit has been in the stash for a while & I saw a TV program on the History channel the other day about the history of jet aircraft. I guess it must have kindled my interest plus I'd heard this was a nice kit & its such a shame to see all these unbuilt kits lying in my closet away from the wifes prying eyes.

I've just finished the cockpit area & I'll try & put regular updates in as I move along.

 

Regards, Martin

[mz826]

Looks great so far!

[stevegallacci]

As an FYI, the instructions don't show it, but the upper ends of the pilot's shoulder harness ought to have been nipped to set around the top of the seat pips to suggest the hardware is looped through the top of the seat mounting loops. A little lapse in the kit design. Built four of the beasts so far, with another couple in progress and more waiting on the shelves. Yours is looking fine so far.

A couple build warnings - the wing to fuselage fit is fussy, test fit, test fit, test fit. The gun hatches are not really designed to be closed and the whole nose assembly is a bit gappy, so expect some putty work.

For accuracy/appearence sake, the main gear could profit from having the olio-stuts shortened by about half, as they are in the fully extended position and the machine usually sat a bit lower. The flaps and slats have steps that ought to be filled. There are two little cut-outs in the cockpit sill for a nasty looking method of having the canopy open, the hood actually hinges off the front and rear canopy sections, and fill in the notches. Only some of the very early prototype/development machines had a scissor link on the nose strut, so it should be removed for operational types, especially as the kit is a late war production version. The little round patches on the fuselage sides for the fuel tank lift points(?) were actually either tape and doped over or simply open, but were not the round riveted things on the kit and ought to be simply sanded out.

[smudger]

Thx for the tips Steve, much appreciated.

My intention is to display the gun area open so no problem there.

My main problem is wheel bay colour, most of my refernce pics show the main gear area silver but would the actual fuselage sides still be RLM02?

I havent any pictures of the nose gear bay so I'm guessing, as per instructions, this area would be RLM02.

Regards, Martin.

[LSP_Kevin]

My main problem is wheel bay colour, most of my refernce pics show the main gear area silver but would the actual fuselage sides still be RLM02?

 

Martin, I painted mine natural metal throughout, as did Brian Cauchi when he built his. (Disclaimer: the linked builds feature the Hasegawa kit, not the Trumpeter).

 

Kev

[JRutman]

Nic estart dude. Clean painting work in that pit,

J

[stevegallacci]

The nose gear well would definately be painted, as the nose is a steel assembly, but more likely in either Messerschmitt primer light grey or RLM76, instead of RLM02. The main gear wells were unpainted. The main fuselage interiour would be unpainted, except for the cockpit, of course, but the gun bay would be painted, either in 02 or primer grey. The gun bay door not painted. Note that all the gear doors would be painted RLM76 inside and out, and even if you do the underwings as unpainted, fairly typical for later machines, all the control surfaces, including the slats, would be also painted in 76.

[Guest Nigelr32]

This is a great Thread!! Great looking model in the making, and some great reference info!!

 

Thanks to all who pass on their knowledge on this one...

[kdeuser]

...and put some weight in the nose!!! I found out the hard way and had to cut a panel open, insert some weight, then glue-sand-scribe the panel! I also thought it was a nice kit, but all of the nose panels were fussy. Other than that, a lot of fun and it looks great with a big red "13" on my shelf!!! (Plus it was my first ever German a/c!)

 

[dodgem37]

Sweet. That scheme is just great. Is Heinz Bar Red 13?

 

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mark

[kdeuser]

Sweet. That scheme is just great. Is Heinz Bar Red 13?

 

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mark

 

Mark - Yes it is sweet and it is Bar's plane! The color scheme is theoretically possible for an earlier production Me262 and was pointed out as such in a book on colors and markings for this particular plane. Even if the reference was wrong, this is without a doubt my favorite color scheme on a German plane from WWII. I think there are pictures of other planes in his unit with the green/green scheme, but I conveniently already had stocks of paint for the gray/green scheme!

 

Martin, the colors for the interior of the fuselage will vary depending on when and where it was built. Pictures are rare, but those I could find showed natural metal with only the rivet lines sprayed with a gray (rlm02 I think) primer. The "heavily armed" versions were later-production IIRC from my reading, so silver is probably right. The tub itself I think was primed? BTW, those tabs on the tub and the sockets on the fuselage sides to mount the cockpit were not on the real thing. I removed them since they aren't really necessary and I found it easier to mount the cockpit without them. The cockpit attaches to bulkheads fore and aft, so I never understood why they are there to begin with? You'll see what I mean when you get there. No biggie as I don't exactly spend my nights peering into the wheel wells and openings of my completed kits (and don't do contests).

 

I look forward to following your build as I've thought about building another one myself!