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

[Grunticus]

On 12/27/2020 at 9:30 AM, Thunnus said:

Thanks Matt!  I know not everyone agrees with my decision to apply rivets to the model but I feel like this surface detail adds to the visual interest and also helps give a better impression of complexity/mass.  Plus it is relatively subtle compared to the molded rivets found on the Trumpeter model, which I elected not to remove.  Just a personal choice and I totally understand the modeler that doesn't add rivets to the Revell Me262 model.
 

 

Good decision to add rivets if you ask me. Compared to yours my single seater looks somewhat bare and plasticky due to lack of rivets. Indeed, a matter of choice. On my Kingfisher I have treaded my first serious steps at rescribing and riveting (a bit). I shall continue this on my 262B when it gets it’s turn on the bench. Very nice work indeed 

[scvrobeson]

I seem to recall that the early 262s had that sort of enclosed tail light at the base of the rudder.  At least the fighters did, not sure if the same concepts applied to the night-fighters. 

 

 

 

 

Matt 

[Guest Vincent]

Yes, it had the enclosed tail light, you are correct on that. It is not an isolated case, for example single seater WkNr. 500443 is also having this early style of rudder :

 

 

My theory is that a small batch of them got produced just at the start of production and then it was quickly decided to switch to the cabochon style. And of course each and everyone of these rudders got installed

 

Another example :

 

To make things even murkier, there are pictures of both of these a/c with normal production rudders as well and pictures of the nightfighters in captured markings without a rudder on. So could it be that these rudders got installed by the british and american to fix broken production ones (?)

 

For ex, T-2-4012 with the same livery in the USA but with normal production rudder :

 

And then we have the in flight picture of white 10 with the enclosed light as well :

 

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by Vincent

[Guest Vincent]

Hey, look what i just found :

 

 

No more guessing

[Thunnus]

Thanks for the valuable insights, Vincent!  That is a great photo of Red 10 that you just posted.  It is the enclosed tail light right?  The relative darkness of it is confusing me.

[jeroen_R90S]

Great looking build so far -I see only one problem with it, like many other of those great builds here I had zero interest in the Me262 and this makes me want to build one -I especially like that last one, look at those roundels....

Neat stuff!

 

Jeroen

[Guest Vincent]

2 hours ago, Thunnus said:

Thanks for the valuable insights, Vincent!  That is a great photo of Red 10 that you just posted.  It is the enclosed tail light right?  The relative darkness of it is confusing me.

 

Enclosed light indeed

 

And regarding the rivets, they are usually still visible on most of the surfaces on the 262. Usually the issue was more the panel junctions more than the rivets and it is important to remember that there was 2 distincts build phases for the 262. The latter phase in dispersed facilities by slave workers were the one heavily puttied but the earlier airframes were quite OK and did not require that much putty

 

For ex, here i clearly see rivets :

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by Vincent

[Thunnus]

What is interesting is that the aircraft next to Red 10 seems to have a rudder from another aircraft with a scheme similar to other nightfighters.

 

3 hours ago, Vincent said:

Hey, look what i just found :

 

 

No more guessing

 

And here is a photo of Red 10 with the rudder removed.  Opening the possibility that the rudder shown mounted on Red 10 may or may not have originally belonged to Red 10.

 

[Guest Vincent]

I have a theory for why the rudders are moving around so much on a given a/c with captured markings

 

When the May 8th surrender took place, the Luftwaffe was given an order to render all aircraft non flyable, presumably to avoid any rogue pilot or high ranking nazi escape. The instructions given to the ground crews called for a easily visible way to verify that

 

On piston engined aircraft, it was done primarily by removing the propellers but how do you achieve that result on a Me262 ? You remove the rudder, it's easy (4 bolts if i recall correctly) and the a/c is not damaged. I have no proof but the amount of pictures of Me 262 post 8th May 1945 with mismatched rudders is too high to be a coincidence

 

But when it comes to Red 10, the rudder with enclosed light seems to match pretty well the rest of the camo so I think you are safe going with that one

Edited December 29, 2020 by Vincent

[turbo]

Just catching up on this build John - up to your usual standards and attention to detail. I particularly love the detail in the wheel well - exceptionally well done!

[alaninaustria]

On 12/29/2020 at 10:38 PM, Vincent said:

I have a theory for why the rudders are moving around so much on a given a/c with captured markings

 

When the May 8th surrender took place, the Luftwaffe was given an order to render all aircraft non flyable, presumably to avoid any rogue pilot or high ranking nazi escape. The instructions given to the ground crews called for a easily visible way to verify that

 

On piston engined aircraft, it was done primarily by removing the propellers but how do you achieve that result on a Me262 ? You remove the rudder, it's easy (4 bolts if i recall correctly) and the a/c is not damaged. I have no proof but the amount of pictures of Me 262 post 8th May 1945 with mismatched rudders is too high to be a coincidence

 

But when it comes to Red 10, the rudder with enclosed light seems to match pretty well the rest of the camo so I think you are safe going with that one

Vincent, I agree with you - however, I always assumed the rudders were removed to have them cast in resin as wall mounts for pilots post WWII? 

Thanks for clarifying that! I guess I was wrong...

Ha! A little humor this year goes a long ways!

Cheers

Alan

[alaninaustria]

Hi John, she really is coming along nicely!

Are you going for Red 10? I had masks cut for this bird at DN Models, here you can see how they worked out for me: 

 

If you are interested, I am sure Nushi and Mitko at DN Models could get you sorted with a set.

Hope that helps!

Cheers

Alan

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  I really enjoy the conversations!

On 12/29/2020 at 1:38 PM, Vincent said:

I have a theory for why the rudders are moving around so much on a given a/c with captured markings

 

When the May 8th surrender took place, the Luftwaffe was given an order to render all aircraft non flyable, presumably to avoid any rogue pilot or high ranking nazi escape. The instructions given to the ground crews called for a easily visible way to verify that

 

On piston engined aircraft, it was done primarily by removing the propellers but how do you achieve that result on a Me262 ? You remove the rudder, it's easy (4 bolts if i recall correctly) and the a/c is not damaged. I have no proof but the amount of pictures of Me 262 post 8th May 1945 with mismatched rudders is too high to be a coincidence

 

But when it comes to Red 10, the rudder with enclosed light seems to match pretty well the rest of the camo so I think you are safe going with that one

 

Thanks Vincent!  That makes total sense to me!

 

 

18 hours ago, turbo said:

Just catching up on this build John - up to your usual standards and attention to detail. I particularly love the detail in the wheel well - exceptionally well done!

 

Thanks Kirby!  References are key and I was lucky to have had lots of references thrown my way during this build!

 

 

3 hours ago, alaninaustria said:

Hi John, she really is coming along nicely!

Are you going for Red 10? I had masks cut for this bird at DN Models, here you can see how they worked out for me: 

 

If you are interested, I am sure Nushi and Mitko at DN Models could get you sorted with a set.

Hope that helps!

Cheers

Alan

 

Thanks Alan!  I love your rendition of Red 10!  Since I have a Silhouette Portrait, I make my own masks.  I've already designed a set for this build and have tested them out on my paint mule when I was trying a light-on-dark mottle technique.

 

[alaninaustria]

Awesome stuff mate! Those masks look great!

Cheers

Alan

[Thunnus]

I've been working to smooth out the glue joints on the engine nacelles this week.  It's been a tedious process and honestly, I've been staying out of the hobby room because of it.  But slowly, the layers of Mr Surfacer 1000 have been leveling off and I've gotten to a point where I could start re-scribing.

 

 

Riveting was next.  The rivet lines were sketched on using flexible white Tamiya tape.

 

 

During the riveting, I could hear many a seam pop and crack.  :headbang: I felt I had no choice but to seep some Tamiya Extra Thin cement into the seams to re-establish some structural integrity to the nacelles.  So the primer with the pastel wash routine to check the scribing and riveting work will have to wait.