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My little Spatz!


Adam

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Almost finished my little He-162 Spatz. This is the Tamiya kit which I think is excellent and more accurate than the 1/32 Revell offering - there's something about the Revell 162's nose that looks wrong to me - anyhoo, on with my build. 

 

Tamiya I think get it just right in regard to detail. What they do, they do well leaving plenty of scope for scratch building and AM stuff to jazz up the build. I've chosen to reproduce "Red 1" flown by Lt. Gerhard Hanf of 2.JG1 at Leck. This 162 had "Nervenklau" painted on the LHS by ground crews meaning nerve claw. So the story goes, Hanf used to roar off to the airfield early in the morning on his motorbike rattling the nerves of the still sleeping ground crews. Red 1 ended up in USA and was flown by the legendary Bob Hoover and a major reason for building this particular bird. 

 

Some plumbing in the wheel bay.

 

27662889319_49d8f667d4_k.jpgDSC_1608 by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

 

27662884429_174d0080d7_k.jpgDSC_1619 by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

 

Some extra details and plumbing added to the cockpit.

 

24573665957_cdf4dd65ff_k.jpgDSC_1621 by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

 

24573666707_97693ffc4a_k.jpgDSC_1620 by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

 

Slowly and painstakingly adding plumbing to the BMW engine.

 

28061476667_95570d179c_h.jpg20180620_170844 by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

 

Painted & grimed/oiled.I don't believe I went overboard here in reference to photos. They were not flown that much, but they would have leaked like sieves and were largely kept outdoors - fuel + oil + dust = grim. 

 

28061477187_af9d8ab709_b.jpg20180620_170806_resized[3741] by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

 

28061477777_eb55e458d8_h.jpg20180620_170719_resized[3740] by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

 

28895900028_151855957b_h.jpg20180613_160708_resized by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

 

Plenty of jobs left to do. Finishing up scratch building the canopy lock - 7 separate parts to far! Master Models gun barrels and nose wheel position indicator added with pitot tube, loop radio antennae plus Revi gun sight to follow at end. Final matt "dust" coat to come. A few more wires and tubes to add to the engine as well. 

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Terrific work - the details are amazing.

Keep ‘em comin

Peter

 

Thanks Peter! I've put in far more effort into this little kit than I thought I would - it was supposed to be a quick mojo improving build. The BMW engine on the stand is a separate model in itself and requires more scratch building than the 162 itself. As a scale, I prefer 1/32 but build 1/48 when I believe the model in this scale is better than the offering in 1/32, or it simply does not exist in 1/32. Thanks again for your comments and I'll keep the posts coming! 

Edited by Adam
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Adam - wrong Peter!

 

Great work, though.

 

Kev

 

Whoops - edited accordingly!  :doh: Stiil, detail work is inspired by Peter the Great and I will press on with more tube/pipework!  :BANGHEAD2:

Edited by Adam
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I keep finding more and more real estate to populate with detail on this little engine and the more I do it, the better my skills become. Some of my first attempts are a little crude compared to where I'm at now. It's more about working with the materials I have - brass tube, bits of wire I've collected over the years, etc. I have some thin stainless wire I can't remember where I got it from - off some instrument I think. It's pretty springy and hard to bend. So how to fix this I thought to myself as it's the perfect gauge for some fuel lines on the engine. I thought why not heat it, so I found a trusty BIC lighter and turned the wire red hot and bingo = perfect colour and easier to bend - yay! I'll have to repeat this process for the Airfix Meatbox Mk.8 I attempt down the track as this kit as two beautiful little engines to detail - I'd only do the one as two would surely kill me!

Plumbing is now mostly done. I have the electrics (yellow) and what looks to be a air line (blue) to add finally, then paint and grime.

 

42446202964_183ea80e3c_b.jpg20180703_114932_resized by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

 

42446202334_0d6321a9b6_b.jpg20180703_114959_resized by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

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Revi gun sight fitted and I wanted to show the brilliant Yahu instrument panel which are just jewels in my opinion. The kit comes with a decal for the instruments, so well worthy of a upgrade in my opinion. The instrument panel was the only AM part I purchased, as I did want to minimise AM purchases as much as possible on this build. The seat beats I found in my etch spares. 

 

28295367137_a77ed33147_z.jpg20180703_124023_resized[3851] by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

 

42446937454_370c0ddd67_b.jpg20180703_123917_resized[3853] by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

Edited by Adam
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  • 2 weeks later...

As I just can't find anything else more to do on Spatz and reached a point of diminishing returns should I try, it's done - PHEW! First model finished in two years. This was supposed to be a simple mojo enhancer as Tamiya builds usually are, but it ended up being a epic super-detailing build, particularly in regard to the engine. I added over 70+ individual pieces to the engine - just lost count in the end. So, at least I have something for Model Expo next year finished! 

 

43624766651_4ed3ecc2c4_k.jpg20180725_133654[4017] by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

 

43624769441_3c799c9f8e_k.jpg20180725_133531[4018] by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

 

43624771031_9e06a4af80_k.jpg20180725_133438[4019] by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

 

41816789190_6bd3aac91d_k.jpg20180725_133232[4021] by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

 

41816793240_ad6db0d873_k.jpg20180725_133156[4022] by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

 

41816796440_05268a1832_k.jpg20180725_133132[4023] by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

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  • 2 weeks later...

Spent a little time mucking around with the camera on Spatz this morning. I like trying to reproduce images similar to how the real thing appeared at the surrender and beyond at Leck airfield in May 45. One thing I've learnt is by comparing colour and B/W images, it gives a good clue as to whether one has achieved the right tonal effects with a colours. There is a decent enough difference between RLM 81 (brown) and RLM 82 (green) in colour, but it's hard to make out the two in the original B/W images. The key is ensuring in particular the RLM 82 is not too light and this is easily verified by some existing He-162s that still sport the original paint. There were no doubt substantial variations in these paints during wartime, so in effect everyone is right and wrong. Throw into this paint fade and lighting/film effects so it's all very much guess work. Photos taken without a flash using long exposure and small aperture. 

 43847601092_e5809326be_b.jpgHe-162 BW (1024x698) by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

30026252908_8fa3ff55f4_b.jpgDSC_2451 Colour (1024x728) by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

30026254878_3c1ff00b11_b.jpgDSC_2449 (1024x610) by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

43847599992_a4b2608526_b.jpgHe-162 Colour RHS BMW (1024x610) (1024x610) by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

30026253598_42aa749dfc_b.jpgDSC_2450 (1024x583) by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

28959003797_406897c630_k.jpgDSC_2448 by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

28959004057_9a48817019_b.jpgDSC_2446 (1024x723) by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

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