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"The Star of Africa" - Hans-Joachim Marseille's Do-335 A-2/Trop - Yellow 14 - FINISHED!


Out2gtcha

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Thanks again guys, the kind comments are very appreciated.    Lee, thankfully those are parts for 6 compete X-4 missiles!  If one or two had that many parts, I would probably have forgone them.

As it sits I've had to do a bit of actual modeling on this kit!  Its all down to the pylons for the X-4s, as Mikkel had mentioned they were quite shallow, to cope with the lack of room under the He-162s wings which his X-4s were designed for. 

 

I added X3 thin strips of styrene to get them a bit close to the depth of the normal Do-335 B pylons.   Im going to put mine back a bit further from the leading edge than some manufactures do, as it came down to me not liking the looks of the pylons snuggled up so close to the leading edges of the wings.

 

Pics in a min......................

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I started things off by getting the rear fuselage band, rudders and under wing tips painted white. I so SO love MRP! This stuff lays down SO smooth, and for how utterly thin it is, lays down SUPER opaque.   Its the nicest paint I've ever worked with for the airbrush, bar none, and I've shot most ALL the major paint brands, save some of the new fangled specialty paint brands. 

 

The stuff lays down like magic. Its amazing, and UNLIKE most other acrylics, with MRPs acrylic lacquer, there is no tip clogging, and NO need for any retarder:

 

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Next up were the mods to the pylons (that actually should have been done before pre-shading, but Im lucky I remembered before paint!)

Basically what I did was to add the 3 thin strips of styrene to each pylon, and after that stack had dried using some CA, I slathered it all in some Mr Surfacer 500 to fill in any gaps. After that dried, I lopped off the alignment nubs on the top of the pylons that normally would attach to the He-162 wings, and drilled some holes in two pre-marked locations and inserted two pieces of thin very stiff piano wire. 

I then taped a length of  slightly thicker piano wire to each pylon so I could gather what AOA I was dealing with on the pylons, and how it would eventually look mounted. There is NO compensation for the angle of the wings on the mounting surface of the pylons................yet:

 

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Next, I marked where on the airframe I wanted the pylons to sit, and taped and then drilled two corresponding holes to accept the piano wire pegs I inserted in the pylons earlier:

You can see in these next shots how the pylons will sit on the airframe, and how much space they actually need under the front of the pylon to get more level as the front of the pylon sets on the more extreme part of the leading edge curve of the wing:

 

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Now it was time for the slightly more difficult part, as this is where I had to use my noggin a bit. I had to figure out how to get the pylons to set at a specific angle relative to the airframe side to side, to stay perpendicular with the ground, yet maintain a close fit to the wings.

 

This is what I came up with..............

 

What I did was take some of the same styrene strip I used to bulk up the pylons with, and used some MS foil glue to glue down the strip to the underside of the wing, after drilling matching holes in the strip that lined up with the holes drilled in the wing. I temporarily set the pylons on the strips to see how it appeared:

 

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After the strips dried and I got what angle I needed the pylons at, I cut a piece of left over missile pylon from the spares box that happened to be the right thickness, and drilled a hole in it too, and glued that to the pylon in the front around the front piano wire peg and sanded it smooth on the sides ( I later re-glued down the leading edge of the strip to capture the curve correctly):

 

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After that, I layered some thick CA mixed with MicroBalloons to fill in the spaces around the pylon front between the strip on the wing and the top of the pylon:

 

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Later this all was filled in with more CA and set aside to dry. Then some 70% alcohol seeped in around the edges of the strip attached with MS foil glue to the wing and set aside again. After the alcohol had soaked into the glue, it released from the wing, and I was left with a mounting surface that matched perfectly to the lower wing surface, and keeps the pylons in perfect angle to the wing. 

 Mr Surfacer 500 was then applied to the base of the pylon, then sanded smooth,  and the whole thing blended in:

 

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In the end, with just very slight finger pressure (no pressure here and a minuscule gap) the pylons fit very well now, and will only require some slight further filling and sanding to finish it off:

 

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All for now boys, I'm back at it tonight,  and will work on the arms on the pylons that will attach the airframe end of the wire guide for the X-4 control wires.

 

Cheers! 

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4 hours ago, themongoose said:

Cool application of the foil glue. Can’t tell where it was on you final pics!

 

 

Thanks!  Thats because I put some very minor scratches in the surface with my Exacto prying things up before the alcohol took effect and had to sand the area with some polishing clothes.    :oops:   Not that big of a deal, as I may have a tiny bit of filling to do after I glue down the pylons, but I still now have the hardest part to do, which is putting on the guided wire arms without them breaking off every 2 seconds!  :lol: 

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Thanks boys! I know its not the most glamorous of updates, but if I want the X-4s on, its necessary. Im now figuring out how to make the arms on each pylon. Its becoming a challenge to make them like I want them to look, and still be strong enough not to break when looked at funny. 

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Thanks Shawn, I *was* almost at the fun part!  Now that Ive gotten wrapped up in the pylons (which is absolutely necessary now rather than later IMHO) the main paint will be a little bit further off.

 

However,

we are expecting a lot of snow this weekend in Nebraska, so Im going to get a needed review done, and hopefully  be able to knock out the pylons so I can move on to my favorite part, paint

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The first update is on the pylons.

 

These are pylons V1. In the V1 version I drilled two small holes in the pylons, and bent some thin piano wire to shape, then drilled a second hole at an angle to it, and threaded a second thin piece of wire through it, then soldered things together employing a heat sync in the form of some super industrial and chunky forceps.

This did get the guided wire arms at the correct angle, but as you can see after I got done, the top part of the arms that come straight off of the pylons should come straight out, perpendicular with the fuselage, and not at the same  downward angle as the arms themselves on V1:

 

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This was a problem, because the real deal (I think, as there are no actual pics I can find of the wire guide arms on the pylons) shows the arms directly off of the pylons at the same angle as the fuse:

 

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The plan is to cover these in plastic card for the arm parts, and then join and blend everything together with Milliput. So................as Wile E. Coyote might say, back to the drawing board! 

 

 

 

 

So then on to wire guide arms V2.

V2 saw me de-solder all of that mess, then remove and fill the upper hole that had teh secondary piece of wire through it.  After that 2nd hole was filled and smoothed out on both pylons., I went back to the drawing board and came up with this.....

 

Instead of a straight piece across at the same angle as the wires, I measure and drilled holes that were exactly level, in line with, and  behind the original holes, Then I took and bent up two pieces of piano wire that had two 90deg bends at each end and roughly matched the angles of the long wires:

 

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As you can see above, the stiff wire coming directly off of the pylons is now level and even with the flat part of the bottom of the pylon as it should be. Now it was time to add the first part, which was some styrene sheet cut out to resemble the flat arms of the wire guides.

I cut a groove down the center of each of the styrene arm parts, so the piano wire would settle in it, and all arms would be at the same angle and depth. I also glued a tiny 3mm Bobs Buckles cut tube at the end of each styrene arm so that the guided wire can eventually be inserted there:

 

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This all looks a bit rough atm, but it will all be worth it in the end, as I think without the hardened steel wire, the arms would break off about every 2 seconds!

Since these pics I have slathered this all with fine white Milliput and set it off to the side to cure for a day or two, then I will shape things. 

 

 

MORE.......................

 

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