Revell 1/32 Heinkel He 162

[Kahunaminor]

That is coming along nicely. Taking notes and saving photos! 
 

Regards,

 

[Troy Molitor]

Looking fantastic Grunticus,

 

Jan mentioned another build with some added details?   I think he might be referring to Eric's great build?  

 

A couple concerns. With all that weight in the nose I added the G-FACTOR brass landing gear legs.  I snapped my original Revell legs off but Im sure it had more to do with moving from the USA to Singapore and then back. Hmmmmmm! The  S.O.W (Damians awesome company) I thought was producing a set that was coming out soon?  I could be wrong on that one.   

 

The engine inlets only came in three colors.  Natural aluminum, RLM 02 or in the entire engine nacelle color; RLM 81 or 82.  The colorful red and yellow inlet rings are 

fictional, I'm afraid.  

 

Below is my reproduction wooden panel with all period Instruments installed.  The only replica is the elusive fuel gage which has a yellow ring applied.  There are some panel numbering that is painted directly on the wooden, however  I've haven't gotten that far yet.  I'm also reluctant to paint the warning rings on the actual instruments.  The tach on the Upper RH has a white and red warning markings applied but I'm not sure I want to add them to my panel.   I'm also researching the small individual Sauerstoff instrument in the lower right which was mounted just off the main panel to the lower right.  You will see a lot of pictures with the hole in the lower panel in-between the compass and fuel gauge missing.  This is the 8 day clock and was usually liberated and you'll see it missing in almost all post war period photos.  The two vertical rectangle indicators lwr RH panel are gun firing lights.  These indicators were usually ammunition counters on the Bf's and Fw's but on this little fighter they were just blinking lights.

 

Hope this might help on your fabulous build.   

  

 

 

[Grunticus]

Did a bit of work today. I will be using the Aires IP.

 

 

Compared to the Eduard one. I don't like the grainy look of the Eduard IP. 

 

 

Installed in the Aires dash.

 

 

I started masking the canopy and windscreen inside and out. While I was at it, I left the Eduard masking set alone and did it all with Tamiya tape. The Eduard set will be used with the remaining AM stuff on another 162. On this photo it looks like the tape is not snug against the frame, but that is optical illusion.

 

 

The (Aires) wheels are done. Some weathering to do. Today I also removed the moulded-on hydraulic lines on the main gear legs, I will replace them with wire ones.I wondered about the Revell wheel and wether or not the thin lines across the tyres would wear off in use. They do as the wear shows in period photos, so I am not going to restore them, and use the Aires wheels.

 

 

Part fit on this kit is exceptional. I wonder if Revell kept the team that designed this and cut the molds... they should have gotten a raise and Revell should have let them do all their kits. This is by far the best quality Revell molding I ever worked with. Period. This is after glue, before any sanding:

 

 

My "opt-in" bottom seam is closed up and it gets the works to make it dissappear.

 

 

I enhance-scribed the seams of the ailerons and elevators. A safe and easy way to practice scribing. Only screwed up twice 

 

 

I tested if there is enough lead to prevent tail-sitting. Revell recommend 45gs in the nose cone in the instructions. In order to get 45gs in that small cone you would need Plutonium so good luck  with that. Luckily there is ample space behind the cockpit.

 

 

Some drawings, might be of use for someone when aligning tail and gear and such.

 

 

She will be finished as this one. Note the remark about the Werksnummer. I will put 122230 on her.

 

 

Below still with the original tail section.

 

 

I didn't want to keep this one from you guys and gals. I have never seen this one colorised before. Mesmerising image to me, it makes me wonder about those hectic times, and what remains to be discovered.

 

 

Thanks for watching!

 

 

 

Edited June 24, 2020 by Grunticus
Grammar

[Grunticus]

Little time, but I made some progress. I removed the gunsight which I will re-add after the windscreen is in place. The transarencies have been painted on the inside. All the panel lines that suffered from sanding have been restored, mostly using a micro saw. I'd say with about 90% success rate

 

While building this my admiration for the advanced yet simple design and good looks of the little Spatz has grown considerably. The same goes for Revell, due to the design, exceptional detail (matching the simplicity of the design),  and fit of the kit itself.

 

 

The wheel and gun bay are complete and painted. The wheel bay is weathered, still have to start on the gun bay. The protruding guns will be made from brass rod.

 

 

Cheers!

[Troy Molitor]

Lovely efforts going on here.  The Smithsonian He 162 example mimics the French, Gelb 21 restoration whereby the wing was actually a subcontractor built wing assembly and painted in RLM 65 undersurfaces of RLM 70 or 71 I recall.   The Simthsoian wings were the same subcontractor and painted the same way however the outer wing panels were sawn off post war and hinges applied to fold up and down for transportation edict to display city to city.  Such a shame.  

The He is camouflage is also quite different from one contractor to the next.   

 

Lovely efforts going on here.  

 

Troy 

[Sabre F-86]

Got a package in the mail yesterday. About $800 worth of Eduard bits including the Big Ed for the 162. I also picked up the CMK resin sets for interior and armament. I look forward to getting going on this one. I plan on retiring soon, and since I am making a good buck working and not spending anything because of this COVID mess, Kitlinx and Spruebrothers are making a lot of money off of me. My last credit card bill was over $1600 USD. All model related. I figure on sailing in the summer and building models all winter.

[Thunnus]

Great work on the Salamander!  It is definitely an interesting aircraft and you are doing a wonderful job with the model and the enhancements.

[Grunticus]

I was working on the main gear doors. As is well reported the lower edge should be straight, not curved.

 

 

One straightened and compared to unmodified kit part. I'm not too content with the results as now the door is too narrow at the front end. No one would notice right?

 

 

Since I had a lot of fun making a gun bay door cover for the Me 262 I decided to try and make new gear doors from scratch. More work, but who cares. I cut out two new doors from an empty beer can, production of which has been exceptionally good lately. The things I do for modelling...

 

 

This basic shape will be laminated with very thin stock card, and then I will cut the inner details with the Silhouette from the same stock and dress them inner surface up a bit. We'll see...

 

This is where the little Spatz is at now. All primed and lower surfaces have been painted MRP RLM 76. The wings are still loosely attached as I want to spray the cammo pattern under the wing roots first and this area is much more accassible this way. The wingroot-to-fuselage fit is again excellent! More than that. Design of the parts is such that glueing them in place enforces them to assume the  correct anhedral.

 

 

[Sabre F-86]

Grunticus, I'm curious about that jig stand in the last photo. Is that something you whipped up yourself or is it a commercial set up?

[Grunticus]

2 hours ago, Sabre F-86 said:

Grunticus, I'm curious about that jig stand in the last photo. Is that something you whipped up yourself or is it a commercial set up?

 

I made that as a one-off 'temporary' stand, and it already lasts for four or so models so far. Very easy to make from corrogurated cardboard. Pretty practical in use. I think it was Kitty Hawk's 1/32 F-86K's box I made it from.

[Grunticus]

The laminated aluminium/styrene gear door did not make it, the two materials did not bond with epoxy. Since, I have made several attempts to make all-stryrene new doors but I'm not happy with my accomplishments. Cold-bending them into shape is quite difficult, and the in the oven they just curled up. I will use the kit doors after all. I will order new even thinner styrene sheets and practice some more.

 

 

I added new brake lines to the main gear. Original vs modified:

 

 

I did some more painting, and the wings are attached. I didn't paint the engine pod pure RLM 82, but added quite a bit of RLM 81 to it to make it less green to match the color photos.

 

 

Does anyone now what the color of the triangular blast plate on top of the fuselage under the exhaust should be? Was there a seam in the middle? I can't find a clear enough photograph unfortunately.

 

I am also in doubt whether on Wnr. 122230  the original stabilizers were aprtially RLM 81, or all RLM 76 like the tail of Wnr. 120222 that was later attached to this machine.

Edited July 14, 2020 by Grunticus

[MikeMaben]

Shaping up nicely  

[Thunnus]

Looks wonderful with some paint on her!

[Shiba]

Hi,  Most (maybe all) of He162 have recycle landing gear from Bf109 G and K.

 

Here is interesting video of He162 landing gear test.

Regards,

Matsu.

[Grunticus]

1 hour ago, reserve_22 said:

Here is original camouflage scheme.You have fuselage and engine in bad colors

 

Thank you! I am not disputing this guide, but some photos, especially the first color photo in my June 24th post suggest something else for this particular example (engine pod greener than fuselage, i.e. pod is RLM 82). Also in some photos the aileron is visible and it's RLM 76 in those photos, or at least not dark. Late-war discrepancies? Was it repainted in the U.S.?