1/32 Trumpeter Me 262A-1a "Yellow 3"

[TimHepplestone]

Been following quietly and am really impressed with your work. Pardon my ignorance but what did you use to create the circular fasteners? I’m questing some kind of punch?

 

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  Sorry for the lack of action on this one but like I said, I'm trying to finish another project.  The circles were made using a tool called a diamond setting tool.  Very useful tool and very cheap for a set... around $10 US.  You can find them at Amazon or Ebay.

 

[Thunnus]

A minor update to Yellow 3... I've glued the front windshield into place.  Prior to that I fit the Revi gunsight into place.  During the gluing process, the dang armor glass came off and knocked one of the pieces of reflector glass off of the Revi.  It was tricky enough to get the armor glass back into place but now I am confronted with an even fiddlier task of replacing the rear reflector glass.  I think it can be done but I'll have to scratch another reflector.

 

 

[VintageEagle]

Hi John,

 

Late war Revi 16B did not have the sun shade glass anymore. First ones retained the screw holes for the bracket, but in the last production version even the screw holes were not drilled nto the cast casing anymore. See for example the photo below.

 

It would therefore even be more realistic not to install the sun shade glass, but in that case, more often than not, the bracket was also not installed. If the bracket was a separate piece on your model, you could consider removing it instead of adding the sun shade glass back to its previous position. 

 

 

Cheers, Roger

[CANicoll]

Not sure if any of these help, but check out the link to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum's ME-262:

 

https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/messerschmitt-me-262-1a-schwalbe-swallow

 

 

[VintageEagle]

The Revi 16B in the NASM Me 262 is a replacement as the original was no longer present when they restored it. They went with the manual, which showed one with sun shade glass, but most likely it did have a late production Revi 16B.

[Thunnus]

Very interesting information!  Roger, what you are saying is that the random mishap I experienced may have made the model MORE accurate???  I like the sound of that!  For the sake of accuracy, I am not obligated to replace the 2nd sun shade reflector.  However, the gun sight is already in position under the windscreen and it would be difficult to reinstall it correctly without tearing out the windscreen.  So removing the bracket would be very difficult and I'm leaning towards leaving the situation as it is.

 

Thanks for comments!  I love posting here... I learn so much with each build!

[MikeA]

What an absolutely gorgeous build of my favourite aircraft type. The painting is sublime. The attention to detail in getting the parts to fit perfectly with just the right surface detail is amazing and very inspiring. 

 

Great stuff!

cheers

Mike

[VintageEagle]

OK, I checked my wartime photos of a few captured jets and found the following:

 

W.Nr. 500071 (German museum aircraft) without glass and bracket

W.Nr. 500453 (NASM aircraft) most likely with glass and bracket

W.Nr. 111711 without glass and bracket

 

I think David Brown narrowed down the W.Nr. block of Yellow 3 to 110xxx, which was not a very late war production. So, it may well have had the bracket and glass, but it may as well not have had the bracket or even a bracket without the glass installed.

 

They installed whatever was available and it may well be that earlier production Revis were fitted to late war production Me 262s.

Edited January 15, 2019 by VintageEagle

[Thunnus]

7 hours ago, MikeA said:

What an absolutely gorgeous build of my favourite aircraft type. The painting is sublime. The attention to detail in getting the parts to fit perfectly with just the right surface detail is amazing and very inspiring. 

 

Great stuff!

cheers

Mike

 

Thanks Mike!  I took a long break from modeling and am finally getting some momentum back into this build after the delay.  But... unfortunately, I will be traveling internationally for a couple of weeks and that will introduce another delay.  I really like the color scheme and am really looking forward to tackling this paint work on this one. 

 

 

5 hours ago, VintageEagle said:

OK, I checked my wartime photos of a few captured jets and found the following:

 

W.Nr. 500071 (German museum aircraft) without glass and bracket

W.Nr. 500453 (NASM aircraft) most likely with glass and bracket

W.Nr. 111711 without glass and bracket

 

I think David Brown narrowed down the W.Nr. block of Yellow 3 to 110xxx, which was not a very late war production. So, it may well have had the bracket and glass, but it may as well not have had the bracket or even a bracket without the glass installed.

 

They installed whatever was available and it may well be that earlier production Revis were fitted to late war production Me 262s.

 

Thank you so much for that information.  It is good to know that the single reflector configuration was at least POSSIBLE on Yellow 3.

[Out2gtcha]

This is looking terrif John!  Looking forward to more when you return from the international trip. 

[Thunnus]

Thanks Brian!  I'm just tinkering around with the small bits since I don't want to embark on the painting until after I return.  Still lots to keep me busy until then.  One of the things I can do is to prepare the clear parts.  I've decided to shut the canopy to maximize the sleek lines of this jet fighter.  I'm trying to add the wire that keeps the canopy from flopping all the way onto the fuselage when open.

 

Obviously, a canopy restraint system should be attached to the part that opens but I couldn't figure out a way to do that.  So I just put the terminating end on the same frame as the spring end when in reality, it should be on the adjacent frame.  The painted canopy frames and the headrest armor should provide enough distraction from this inaccuracy.

 

 

Now that I've decided to close the canopy, I need to cover up the two notches on cockpit sill.

 

Instead of filling with putty, I decided to use a section of folded brass.  It does not extend all the way to the fuselage surface so as not to impede the canopy from sitting flush.

 

 

I've added brake lines (lead wire) to the nose gear as well as the main gear legs.

 

[D.B. Andrus]

Masterful work, John.  Looking forward to more.

 

Cheers,

 

D.B.

[Gazzas]

Looks great, John!  Love the folded brass filler.

 

Gaz

[Thunnus]

This particular joint was a real headache for me.  I should've used shims right off to counteract the thin-ness of the slat edges.  But I didn't.  Once glued into place, it was hard to get a solid connection along this joint.  That plus a nasty step AND gap at the wing root leading edge resulted in bunch of rounds of filling and sanding.  The last resort was gouging out the gap between the slat and the wing with my scriber and using black CA to fill.

 

A shot of primer to verify the patch job.  There will be a mismatch between the restored rivets and the molded rivets but I'm hoping it won't be too noticeable after weathering.

 

The rest of clear parts have been glued into place.

 

 

As you can see, I am just about ready to paint.  The horizontal tail planes will remain removable... the fit is good and it will be more convenient to deal with the hard mottle pattern on the tail without the horizontal stabilizers in place.

 

 

 

I still need to mask the wheel wells.  I'll probably use packing foam

 

I sprayed the canopy area with RLM 66 Dark Grey.  This will give the interior of the canopy frames the correct color and it also provides a way to evaluate the glue joints which are hard to distinguish on clear parts.  Fit of the clear parts is very good.  The very small gaps were filled in with Milliput.  

 

 

 

I've got a few days before my trip abroad.  I may or may not do some more work on the 262 before I leave.