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1/48 Tamiya Me 262 A-1a from III./JG 7 flown by Major Rudolf Sinner


Basilisk

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I haven't been here for a while and when seeing Thunnus' excellent Me 262 build, I thought a comparison of building the Tamiya kit using Aires resin detail set is maybe of interest to some.

 

I started this build three weeks ago, so progress is still moderate. I know I shouldn't comence a new build as I still have so much to finish ....

 

The aircraft I chose is one of the two mounts from Major Rudolf Sinner, Gruppenkommandeur (CO), III./JG 7 in its attractive striped camouflage.

Sinner16.jpg

Sinner11.jpg

 

Sinner12.jpg

 

All drawings of this aircraft show the stripes in a diagonal pattern across the whole aircraft. I couldn't find out from what information this originated, but based on the picture below, I paint the stripes in a V pattern.

Sinner13.jpg

With the exception of the nose, all other stripes do line up reasonably well.

 

Of course it could be a third aircraft in this camouflage, but I find this rather unlikely as III./JG 7 had only six aircraft on its strength. And if it is a third aircraft, my model will represent two aircraft - one on each side. default_smile.png

 

If someone knows more about the origin of the "diagonal" stripes I would love to hear it.

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Here is the comparison between the Aires and the kit parts which is maybe of use for others.

Tamiya-262-2.jpg

 

Tamiya-262-3.jpg

 

Tamiya-262-4.jpg

 

Tamiya-262-5.jpg

 

Tamiya-262-6.jpg

 

Tamiya-262-6b.jpg

 

Tamiya-262-7.jpg

 

Tamiya-262-8.jpg

I do ask myself if the resin parts are a worthwhile addition. most of the additional stuff is the cabling, so will be interesting to see how it all looks with some paint on.

 

One challenge with Aires resin are the instructions. They show how all the resin parts go together.

Tamiya-262-9.jpg

But unfortunately no information at all how it all fits into the Tamiya kit default_wall.gif

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Had to start somewhere and chopping the wing apart to accommodate the slats was as good as any.

Tamiya-262-10.jpg

Used a razor saw for the vertical cuts.

 

And a scriber for the horizontal cut.

Tamiya-262-11.jpg

 

Next was thinning the wheel bay surrounds.

Tamiya-262-12.jpg

Right side is done.

 

And all done here.

Tamiya-262-13.jpg

 

The Aires outer wheel bay parts fit nicely.

Tamiya-262-14.jpg

 

And the front part of the wheel bay fits well too.

Tamiya-262-15.jpg

 

Also attached the PE stuff to the cockpit.

Tamiya-262-16.jpg

I am not a great fan of that cream coloured resin as details are so hard to see.

 

What I noticed on the Tamiya kit are rather thick trailing edges on the main wing and one thing I HATE are trailing edges out of scale. default_sad.png

 

So had to do something about this.

Tamiya-262-18.jpg

The wing on the top of the two pictures is how the trailing edge looks on the kit and the wing below that is the one I sanded down.

 

Next in line was a coat of black primer and the base coats of some of the internal parts.

Tamiya-262-19.jpg

 

Detail painting of these parts is next.

 

Thanks for watching. Any comments and suggestions are welcome.

Cheers, Peter

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Good to see you back, Peter! And great work as always.

 

Kev

Thanks Kev. It's nice to be back and my two LSP builds are not forgotten.

 

Always good to see another 262 here, regardless of scale.

Indeed Kevin, but it is my first since I built the old Airfix kit in the sixties.

 

Did try something new with this build and it will be interesting to see how it work out at the end.

Tamiya-262-20.jpg

Stressed skin effect  :hmmm:  After I got this far I thought I better buy a new kit as this doesn't look too good.

 

But then I thought just get on with it and see how it works out.

Tamiya-262-21.jpg

Here I thought maybe not everything is lost :)

 

I used the round chisel in the top of the picture to scrape the "dents" in the plastic. After several trials to polish the surface I found a 600 grid sanding sponge is working wonders.

 

After progressively using finer sponges up to 4000 grid the wing was ready to once more mark the lines where the rivets go.

Tamiya-262-22.jpg

I then used above five Rosie the Riveters to add the rivets. The riveters with the red dot on it are double row riveters which ensure a constant width of double row rivets :D

 

After another work-out with some sanding sponges the wings didn't look bad at all.

Tamiya-262-23.jpg

But where is my stressed skin effect gone?

 

Well, here it is.

Tamiya-262-24.jpg

Have to lower the light to create shadows to make them visible.

 

The question is, will the effect be visible on the painted model? I guess only under certain lighting conditions - as with a real aircraft.

 

Did also some of the detail painting on the internal parts. This is still work in progress and the parts still need the final semi-gloss varnish to seal everything in.

Tamiya-262-27.jpg

 

Tamiya-262-26.jpg

For the undercarriage bay I will airbrush some translucent yellow paint first as most of the pictures I have seen the aluminium  has a kind of yellowish hue to it.

 

And the cockpit tub is also done.

Tamiya-262-25.jpg

Will finish it off after the tub is incorporated into the undercarriage bay.

 

Thanks for watching. Any comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Cheers, Peter

Edited by Basilisk
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Hi,

 

Nice work so far!

 

I have one in 1/32 in the WIP thread and I opted for the same plane, eventually. I'll try to post pictures later if I can fix my camera.

 

I also hesitated with the "V" camo but chose the parallel pattern eventually. I did so because painting a camo in a V pattern would be against a basic rule of camouflage, which is to break the shape of the plane (the "V" pattern rather accentuate it).

 

Personally, I wouldn't have gone neither for a stressed skin effect nor with riveting since ME-262s were (partially) puttied and sanded smooth on the fuselage, engine nacelle and wings.

 

 

I painted mine rlm82/70/76. The contrast is to high to be 81/82 and 82/70 was an authorised combination.

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Much appreciate your reply.

 

I painted mine rlm82/70/76. The contrast is to high to be 81/82 and 82/70 was an authorised combination.

I came to the same conclusion and intend to paint mine also in 82/70/76 due to the high contrast on the pictures of the original. Would love to see your model painted with these colours.

 

I also hesitated with the "V" camo but chose the parallel pattern eventually. I did so because painting a camo in a V pattern would be against a basic rule of camouflage, which is to break the shape of the plane (the "V" pattern rather accentuate it).

I am still undecided which way to go. The purpose of the late war camouflage was mainly to disguise the aircraft on the ground and a parallel pattern does make more sense than a V shaped pattern which wouldn't blend well with the background when seen from above.

 

Personally, I wouldn't have gone neither for a stressed skin effect nor with riveting since ME-262s were (partially) puttied and sanded smooth on the fuselage, engine nacelle and wings.

I did a lot of reading and looked through many photos and what you say is correct, but I see it different. The Me 262 was built to a large part with the use of (unskilled) forced labor and the quality of the finished airframe wasn't the best. And as the aircraft was urgently needed in Squadron use, the finish was rushed.

 

Yes the rivet lines had been covered by putty, but only at spots where it didn't meet the RLM guidelines for surface finish, which meant that the application of putty varied from airframe to airframe.

 

Here are two pictures from a post at Large Scale Planes which makes some interesting reading.

post-901-1246333601.jpg

Putty in place in front of the cockpit, but not below the cockpit.

 

And here the Aircraft at Hendon.

post-683-1246276777.jpg

 

And the wing surface of the Hendon aircraft.

Tamiya-262-28.jpg

 

At the end it is a personal choice to rivet or not to rivet.

Cheers, Peter

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All drawings of this aircraft show the stripes in a diagonal pattern across the whole aircraft. I couldn't find out from what information this originated, but based on the picture below, I paint the stripes in a V pattern.

Sinner13.jpg

With the exception of the nose, all other stripes do line up reasonably well.

 

Of course it could be a third aircraft in this camouflage, but I find this rather unlikely as III./JG 7 had only six aircraft on its strength. And if it is a third aircraft, my model will represent two aircraft - one on each side. default_smile.png

 

If someone knows more about the origin of the "diagonal" stripes I would love to hear it.

 

Well the last picture is the other Sinners ME 262. He had them painted both in diagonal stripes but in opposite pattern. So there os no V pattern style.

 

iCcPIhB.png

 

fZYmM6Z.jpg

Shot on the same occasion as your third picture but from the other side, the upper one is just a crop of this one

 

EXE4sUw.jpg

And this is profile form I believe a Kagero book

 

I hope this solves your problems with paint schemes. 

Edited by Lud13
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Hi Lud13

 

Actually this is a bit more complex than that, because these pictures show that there are 3 nose stripes on the starboard nose vs only 2 on the port nose.

 

So if we consider that the 3 nose stripes aircrafts are the same, then it' s a V pattern. But the front stripe doesn't match, hence the 3rd aircraft theory...

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Wow, great work Peter, lots and LOTS of work! 

Thanks Brian. Yes, as soon as you add resin into a build things can get a bit complicated.

 

Well the last picture is the other Sinners ME 262. He had them painted both in diagonal stripes but in opposite pattern. So there os no V pattern style.

I hope this solves your problems with paint schemes. 

 

Hi Lud13

 

Actually this is a bit more complex than that, because these pictures show that there are 3 nose stripes on the starboard nose vs only 2 on the port nose.

 

So if we consider that the 3 nose stripes aircrafts are the same, then it' s a V pattern. But the front stripe doesn't match, hence the 3rd aircraft theory...

Lud, Warbird explained it nicely.

 

Peter,

    Great work and great photos.  I love the 262.

Thanks Gaz, so do I.

 

Worked on the wings this week. I totally forgot to prepare the lower wing to accommodate the Aires parts for the slats. So some more scraping was in order. default_wall.gif

Tamiya-262-33.jpg

 

The outer undercarriage bays and the inner base for the slats in place.

Tamiya-262-36.jpg

 

And the outer bases for the slats.

Tamiya-262-35.jpg

 

Tamiya-262-34.jpg

As you can see, some rails for the slats are missing. No I didn't brake them, I received the parts with them broken. Fortunately they still where in the bag so that I can repair it later.

 

The fitted parts of the undercarriage bay are a bit of an enhancement over the Tamiya rendition.

Tamiya-262-31.jpg

 

Tamiya-262-32.jpg

 

The upper wing needed to be modified to accommodate the resin part. First the Tamiya representation of the undercarriage bay had to be removed.

Tamiya-262-29.jpg

Then some more grinding was needed to make the wing fit without any interference.

Tamiya-262-30.jpg

Looks ok now.

Tamiya-262-37.jpg

But there are some gaps on the outer slat bases next to the engine mount which needs to be corrected before I glue the wings together.

 

Thanks for watching. Any comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Cheers, Peter

Edited by Basilisk
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Man can I ever identify with the "guessing how it all goes together" for aftermarket resin pits and engines. I can't tell you how many times I've buried my head in my hands wondering why in the hell I ever chose the modified path instead of sticking to the kit parts. All the hard work will pay off but it's one heckuva journey getting to that point. Rock on brutha.........you're gonna do swell with this one.

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