1/32 Revell Me 262B-1/U1 Nachtjager

[abbadur]

Alan,

please, no criticism: in German it is called "Riedel-Anlasser" see http://mep1112.de/?page_id=33 for example.

John,

I like your building so much.

Cheers Alfons

 

 

[Troy Molitor]

The updates just get better and better.  I love them all.  Usually at this stage you sneak in another project.....any hints for us John?  Perhaps its tucked away in the non LSP area.   I'll have a look there as well.  

 

Well done as always!!

 

Troy  

[AlanG]

5 hours ago, johnie hopper said:

Please, does anyone know Johnson&Johnson's European equivalent of mentioned floor polish?

 

 

 

J&J Pledge Multi Surface Floor Wax (formally known as Klear)

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys! A smattering of small details to share today while the main job of cleaning up the nose continues.

The landing gear has been painted.  I've put some wiring on to simulate the brake lines.  Nothing too earth-shattering here.  Will probably perform some more weathering on these but for the most part, they are complete.

 

 

I drilled out holes in the nose cones of the jet engines.  These are exhausts from the Riedel starter motor, of which the pull rings also belong.

 

 

These nose cones have been painted in RLM 02 Grey Green.  The instructions call out some sort of bright green but I think this looks better.  Since these will be viewed from a frontal angle, I wanted to hide the thickness of the plastic so I've painted the inside of the drilled holes in black.

 

 

The engine bodies have been glued together.  These will not be painted as there is a limit to my obsessive compulsive behavior.

 

 

As Johnie Hopper observed, the armor glass behind the windshield exhibits some distortion due to surface imperfections.

 

 

Both faces were sanded flat and then given the same polishing routine I gave the windscreen.

 

 

The rudder trim tab actuator was enhanced using the Eduard PE set.

 

 

The Eduard actuators for the horizontal trim tabs are looking too delicate.  I'll have to either augment them with sturdier bases or come up with something else.

 

 

The starboard side of the nose is closer to completion than the port.  We are getting there slowly!

 

[alaninaustria]

Awesome work John! 

Very nice attention to detail and skilled execution!

Cheers

Alan

[scvrobeson]

How'd you keep the chrome from being stripped off by the tape?  I've had issues with that in the past.

 

 

 

Matt

[Gazzas]

John,

    I've really enjoyed reading your thread from beginning to its current point.  I feel like I've learned a lot.  Hopefully I can apply some of it to my next build.   It was refreshing to see your mistakes in scribing.  I have the same problem that my scriber tends to veer from the path intended.  I use the UMM scriber as well, but have reduced it's use in favor of a fine saw blade held between my fingers. 

 

Sadly.not even my best or most-often-rescribed line ever looks as good as a factory seam.

 

 

Keep on rocking!  Love your builds.

 

 

[Thunnus]

Thanks for the comments everyone!

 

On 12/12/2020 at 5:10 PM, MikeA said:

Looking very swish in those wheel wells. The work on the radar mounting is certainly also something to keep in mind.

 

Not sure if its just the angle of the photos, but I wonder if the edges of the panels extending over the wells need thinning a bit.

 

Cheers,

 

Thanks MIke!  It might be the photos.  The wheel well openings have a depressed flange that gives the impression of thickness from a distance.

 

 

On 12/12/2020 at 6:16 PM, LSP_Kevin said:

Nice work on that windscreen, John! I have the UMM-USA scriber too, but have never actually used it. I keep forgetting I have it. I generally use my JLC razor saw for a lot of scribing tasks these days.

 

Kev

 

Thank you Kevin!  I'm not a good judge if scribing tools but the UMM-USA scribers works pretty well.  It's actually quite useful... I also use it to remove the bit of mold seams that gets left in corners and recesses.

 

 

On 12/13/2020 at 6:57 AM, Troy Molitor said:

The updates just get better and better.  I love them all.  Usually at this stage you sneak in another project.....any hints for us John?  Perhaps its tucked away in the non LSP area.   I'll have a look there as well.  

 

Well done as always!!

 

Troy  

 

Thanks Troy! Nothing secret cooking other than what I've already posted here!  A Fw190D-13 that needs to be re-started after sculpting the bulges.  The giant robot model I have languishing over at the Non-LSP area.

 

 

13 hours ago, scvrobeson said:

How'd you keep the chrome from being stripped off by the tape?  I've had issues with that in the past.

 

 

 

Matt

 

Alclad Chrome over Tamiya Gloss Black has been very stable for me if I let it dry for at least 12 hours.  Just to be safe, I usually let it sit overnight before applying any tape to it.

 

 

9 hours ago, Gazzas said:

John,

    I've really enjoyed reading your thread from beginning to its current point.  I feel like I've learned a lot.  Hopefully I can apply some of it to my next build.   It was refreshing to see your mistakes in scribing.  I have the same problem that my scriber tends to veer from the path intended.  I use the UMM scriber as well, but have reduced it's use in favor of a fine saw blade held between my fingers. 

 

Sadly.not even my best or most-often-rescribed line ever looks as good as a factory seam.

 

 

Keep on rocking!  Love your builds.

 

 

 

Thanks Gaz!  My work, like everyone elses, is full of warts!  My main problem here is trying to drag that scriber through a mishmash of materials (plastic, putty, CA glue).  But I do admit that I sometimes have problems even rescribing existing panel lines.  You'll notice little black marks all over my 262 which indicate the scribing scratches I'v'e had to repair with black CA after the scriber jumped out of place.  I hate when that happens.  Maybe I'll look into the razor saw as a scriber.

[Thunnus]

Work on the 262B went a little sideways today as I popped some glue seams while scribing one of the fuel ports in front of the windscreen.  Which means the work I spent on some of the bigger seams went out the window.  :bye:  But the good news is... I didn't really like said work on the bigger seams anyway!  So good riddance!  Half joking and half serious.  It sets me back a bit but maybe I CAN get some of those seams to turn out a little better.  I always try to look at these types of events as opportunities and not setbacks.

 

I'm trying to re-fuse the glue seams with the help of Tamiya Extra Thin.  We'll know more about the status of these joints tomorrow.

 

[Thunnus]

A small update that I forgot to post...

 

The twin drop tanks are molded in halves (top and bottom).  There is a rib or flange that goes all the way around the tank which will hide the glue seam.  But the position and size of the sprue attachment is awkward and requires very carefully trimming to keep the flange uniform.

 

 

Since the sprue gate extends beyond the flange and onto the tank body itself, a series of stair-step cuts need to be made to remove the sprue but leave the flange intact.  New sandpaper, which can be folded to a sharp edge, and my scribing tool helps to smooth things out and re-establish the continuity of the flange/tank joint.

 

 

Other than that issue, the tank parts fit very well together.

 

[Thunnus]

I finally made some progress on the nose of the 262.  After the joint pop, I gouged out the seam a little bit and applied plastic sprue goop to (a) establish a better bond and (b) give me a more consistent base for re-scribing.  I let that dry for a couple of days before sanding.

 

 

After that repaired joint was re-scribed, I was just about ready to call the clean-up work finished.

 

 

Far from perfect, the panel lines have some unevenness due to the scriber having trouble going through hard CA glue and soft putty with the same consistency.  But I'm ready to apply the rivets.

 

 

A plastic straight edge, even a flexible one, is pretty useless when applied to his much curvature.  And Dymo tape is too stiff.  White Tamiya flexible tape fills the gap between the two very nicely, especially for the concentric rows of rivets around the cross-section.

 

 

Cognizant of possible weak joints between the nose cowlings, I riveted very carefully but still heard some joints pop open.  In particular, the joint between the gun barrel openings and the removable gun cowling came loose but the results weren't too visible.

 

 

The pencil marks were wiped off using Windex and the nose area was sanded down to remove the raised dimples around all of the new rivets.  The nose was then given a temporary brown pastel wash to check the scribing and riveting work.  I was generally pleased with the result.  Lines that didn't hold the wash were lightly re-scribed and some missing fasteners and larger rivets were added.

 

 

Things were going smoothly until I started to replace the larger rivets along the newly-popped joint. I knew the edges of this part were very thin and I had originally applied the rivets set back from the edge to avoid the thinner plastic.  The sanding to fair this panel into the nose eradicated these rivets and they had to be re-applied.  I skirted too close to the edge where the plastic was thin AND where the joint was compromised... and I punched a hole right through!

 

 

Other than that hole, I like how the nose looks overall.  The stress of riveting is over so I used some Tamiya Extra Thin cement to re-establish the glue join and stuck a piece of sprue into the hole, welded into place with more Tamiya Extra Thin.

 

[Thunnus]

Here's my tire repair approach to the hole I've created.  

 

 

With the repair work constrained to a small area, I thought I'd go ahead and add the nose cap on at this time.  First I loaded it up with a few more lead weights... just in case!

 

 

After the sprue patch was sanded down, I coated the area with sprue goo.

 

 

A quick check to make sure the radar antenna posts can be inserted without issue.

 

 

The hole repair after sanding down the layer of Mr Surfacer 1000 that was placed after the sprue goo.  It looks messy but I think we are good here and I'm going to move on to the nose cap, which has also been given a dose of sprue goo.

 

[scvrobeson]

It's sure putting up a fight, but you're winning John.  Keep it up!

 

 

 

Matt 

[Troy Molitor]

Enjoying this one.   

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  Spent the weekend up in San Francisco so no updates in the past few days.  I've finally wrapped up the putty work on the nose.

 

 

The wash will be cleaned off from the rivets and panel lines as much as possible as I move toward more assembly.  The wheel well walls have been glued into the wing bottom.