Revell HE-162 OOB! FINISHED.

[ericg]

With the Lightning literally within sight of the finish line, I felt that I needed to clear my head in order to apply the finishing touches so that I don't mess it up. I wanted a basic build that would potentially enable me to enter the `single media' category at our local show, but without going down the overly well trodden path of a Hasegawa kit and still keep within my lesser known aircraft taste. A close examination of my stash led me towards the Revell HE-162 and without further ado I present the last couple of days of work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This model needs a Crap Load of weight in the nose area to keep it from sitting on its tail, in fact I have loaded weight in pretty well every area that I could forward of the main landing gear. I use the schwarf generated from a lead fishing sinker turned in a lathe. I have found that this gives me small granules of lead that is good for packing into very small areas.

 

Inside the nose gear bay, and behind the cockpit bulkhead

 

 

It was at this point I closed up the two fuselage halves and realised that more (lots more) weight was still needed to even come close to getting this to sit on its nose gear

 

Under the instrument panel

 

 

Inside the intake ring

 

 

And more weight was still needed, so I packed it inside the cockpit on the nose gear bay bulkhead.

Edited May 18, 2015 by ericg

[ericg]

The progress so far..... It is quite a nice kit actually.

 

[scvrobeson]

Great progress so far!  You're really flying through this build Eric, looks like another of your masterpieces.

 

 

 

Matt 

[LSP_Kevin]

Wow, such fast work mate! I recently acquired one of these too, and am looking forward to building it some day (even if I only bought it so I'd have a 3D reference for the vac kit I have...).

 

Kev

[Simmo.b]

Looking good mate, might have to hire a trailer for the drive to Melbourne!!

[Starfighter]

Great job, Eric!

[Out2gtcha]

Looks great Eric. Ive got the V-tail conversion for this baby, and am just waiting for the gumption to make some forward swept wings...............or for someone to make a set for me.

 

Looking forward to more of this one

[skiner]

It's perfect OOB.... very good job!

[ericg]

I have a bit more progress on this model.

 

The kit has some prominent sink marks on the engine cowl that I have decided to to leave as is. They actually look like oil canning and suit the area that they are located. It is very hard to see in this pic but you can just make them out.

 

 

Primed. The kit went together so well it barely needed any attention to seams or the like to bring it to the painting stage.

 

 

I preshaded the outlines of the puttied panel lines and will make them just visible under the paint surface. I have also painted the nose cone white, and the cannon access panels in a grey colour to break up the paint a bit more.

 

 

Some rough outlines under the wings and the control surfaces dark brown.

 

 

With the light blue painted on the fuse and undersurfaces.

 

 

[Piprm]

Wow!..

So Quick!…. It's like you're sneezing them out -  Eric!

phil

[Simmo.b]

Out of the box is made to seem redundent these days, it's refreshing to see pure modelling. I tend to go for all the am these days, and considering the archaic "single media" rules that we have in our local (qld, aus) I tend to think why not spend the cash as most out of the box kits contain "AM" parts.

Good for you Eric for forging ahead and building this one!!

[levier]

The idea came to me here... we need to cast some 1/32 pilots in lead.

[ericg]

Onto the painting of this nice little bird.

 

I almost shelved it at this stage due to the lack of references to pinpoint how this aeroplane was actually painted. There are a few builds that are painted in my chosen scheme plus some side profiles etc that I was able to dig up from the net which all have varying interpretations of the way it was painted. I also have the MBI book which has two black and white photos, all of which are open to interpretation.

 

This particular aircraft was in the lineup of aircraft that were surrendered to the allies at Leck airfield and features one of the more unique applications of the camouflage colours. I have used Gunze Sangyo RLM paints throughout. I have tried to get it as right as I could but as before, it is simply a best guess using a number of different sources as a guide.

 

For instance, the intake ring of the engine is either bare metal or painted red depending where you look. I decided that the colour of the ring seemed to match the tone of the red nose arrows in the black and white photo that exists of it so went with that.

 

Here it is painted with a small amount of weathering applied.

 

 

 

I used the excellent Montex Masks for all markings.

 

 

I experimented with AK Interactive worn effect chipping fluid under the red and some areas to good effect.

 

 

I also used the fluid on the leading edges of the wings. Once again, I have used a bit of creativity here and kept the leading edge light blue but allowed it to show through abrasion and chipping of the overlying cam colour rather that a hard edge.

 

 

I have applied weathering effects with a lighter variation of the base colour plus shadowing with thinned clear smoke.

 

 

It is pretty close to how I want it now, just a few more little bits to attend to and then onto the finishing stages.

 

 

 

Would have had a bit more done today, but last night went to see this guy and my neck hurts from too much headbanging, making hard to look down onto the workbench! The flip side is that my hearing is shot, so I don't hear any nagging...

 

Edited May 15, 2015 by ericg

[Adam]

Sehr gutter Herr Flugkapitan! Have your read Capt "Winkle" Browns book about his experiences flying captured Luftwaffe aircraft (Wings of the Luftwaffe)? Fascinating stuff. He said that once he was used to the very sensitive rudder(s), it was a pretty good machine. Pretty poor thrust of course for t/o, but once up to speed, quite a delight. I was quite surprised given all that has been written about this machine - no doubt by those who never flew it. Experienced fighter pilots may have done well in this bird - hence the first lot going to JG1. I think the only sensible idea in a very crazy time. Great build of a fascinating subject.

[Loic]

Very nice