1/32 Revell Me262B-1/U1 Nachtjager

[jkim]

Thanks guys!

I added detail to the other wheel bay wall. The clear box is from the Trumpeter kit, which is a clear version of the same box I used on the other side. The Trumpeter 262 kit included extra parts in clear in case you wanted to show the engine off without removing panels.


Just to make sure the extra bits don't get in the way of the insertion of the cockpit tub into the fuselage.


Added some plumbing to the tube.


The wheel bay parts were painted in gloss black as a base for the metal color to come.


The fuselage sides were sprayed with Alclad Duraluminum, which didn't go on that well. This particular shade produced webs as I sprayed as if the paint was drying in mid-air. I've experienced it a few times. It's usually removable with careful brushing afterwards but the finish can be a little rough. Not too worried about it since these interior parts will be weathered. I switched to AK Extreme Metal Polished Aluminum for the tube part.


While I let that metal paint dry, I took a look at the landing gear well walls. This is a modular assembly comprised of seven main parts, which allows for some nice detail on the well walls. Interestingly, the landing gear mounts are separate pieces.


Fit is pretty good although I had to trim down the center spar to get it to fit right.




I'm just checking fit and scoping out opportunities for wiring in the landing gear bays.

[Floki]

Looks great John! Duraluminum is the alclad color I use the most have never had it or any alclad color spray bad.

[speedgraflex]

An excellent walkaround of the last surviving Me 262B-1a/U1 in Johannesburg, shot on a rare day spent outside in the sun.

[jkim]

Thanks guys! Excellent photos Bruce!

Looks great John! Duraluminum is the alclad color I use the most have never had it or any alclad color spray bad.

I don't think it is color specific but maybe an eventual drying out of certain ingredients over time. I've never had this happen to a new bottle but occasionally it will develop with the older bottles.

The wheel bay side panels have been painted. It's too late to remove any erroneous components so I'm going to leave it as is.


The central tube has been painted as well.


Got careless after one of the clear coats and left this big ole thumb print. I don't think it will be visible so I'll leave it as a signature.


I performed another round of dry-fitting to see how the added details look from the outside. With special attention to see the terminal ends of the wiring runs.




This photo below shows one area where I'll have to hide the ends of the wiring better.


Fit is still cautiously very good as far as I can tell. Remember, this is without the trimming or adjustment of any of the interior bulkhead parts.



A view from the top side to remind us to be careful with the cockpit components when doing this dry-fitting. The tiny anchors for the seat belts are especially vulnerable.

[Floki]

Some great looking progress John! The wire work looks outstanding. Lucky that thumb print will be hidden I never get that lucky. The fit looks to be good I would still be cautious going forward.

[Stuart]

Wonderful work as ever John, the detailing is fantastic and your wiring really raises it up a notch.

[tempestjohnny]

If it wasn't for the tape I'd swear I was looking at the real thing

[BlackSheep214]

Stunning detail work....

[jkim]

Thanks guys! I'm always cautious about fitting multiple panels together so I will be taking things forward very carefully.

The landing gear well wall components have been painted. The metal color used was AK Extreme Metal Polished Aluminum and it came out really shiny but that will get knocked down by the subsequent wash, post-shading and flat coat.


There are a number of control rods and linkages that get glued into the wheel bay. BE VERY CAREFUL in cutting these off the sprue and trimming the sprue gates off of these parts. Revell plastic is on the soft side and it is very easy to break these delicate pieces.


The gun bay/nose gear well has been assembled. The gun bay is unpainted and I think it will remain so since I will be gluing the covers shut. I elected to paint the interior of the nose gear well in RLM 02 Grey Green (Mr Hobby Aqueous). The nose gear well is narrow and deep with limited visibility so the only enhancement here is some wiring along the ceiling.



Once the gun bay/nose gear well has been completed, the fuselage halves may be glued together. But I'm quite ready to do that yet. Another round of dry-fitting is necessary to check how the glued together nose gear assembly fits within the fuselage. There seems to be a slight resistance for the tip of fuselage halves from coming together.


Taping on the remaining nose panels reveals pretty good fit with just a few exceptions.



This mold deficiency in the starboard fuselage half continues to create a gap. I am leaning towards addressing the gap after attachment with stretched sprue.


The other issue seems to be the nose gear well being a tad too wide and not allowing the fuselage halve to close at the front. I think this can be easily addressed by a little bit of trimming.


I've chosen to highlight some parts of the landing gear wells with RLM 02 Grey Green. These parts will be dirtied up a bit before they are glued together. I have a concern about adding wiring to these painted parts... I would have to be very careful to avoid marring the paint with excess CA glue.

[Stikpusher]

All those sub assemblies are looking great so far John. I’m surprised that the wheel wells are in bare metal and not having some sort of protective paint coating.