1/48 Tamiya Me-262a1 "White 3"
Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2021 10:44 am
Been out of pocket for a couple of weeks. Some of you know but I lost a very good friend and it's been slow getting back to some state of normalcy. I know he'd want me to get back at it as he always liked to see my builds so ....here I am with a finish.
I've been wanting to build this aircraft for a very long time and have had two in my stash. I really wished I wouldn't have gotten rid of my Dragon Me-262A-1a Nachtjager version but this Tamiya A-1 kit was a good kit to build. I had set out to build Franz Stigler's plane from JV-44 late in the war. I read Adam Makos' book , A Higher Call several years ago and he was one of the main people that the story centered around. Long story short....he was going to shoot down a severely shot up B-17 and decided to lead them out of Germany instead. Afterwards he was assigned to JV-44 (pretty much Germany's last remaining fully operational air defense unit which was made up of the very best remaining fighter pilots) where he flew this aircraft. If you haven't read this book I won't give anything away but I'll just say that is a very powerful read.
There are a couple of schemes that could've been his bird but this is the one here that I went with as it just looks so dang cool....
I used Vallejo acrylics to replicate the paint and went with Eagle Cals for 95% of the markings and Peddinghaus for the #3 numerals on the side. Note.....never use the Peddinhaus offerings. Other than the #3 the stencils and other markings were just way out of scale. I had some trouble with the windscreen an may yet source another one and work it into the paint job so a cleaner fit can be achieved so that part is merely glued on my a tiny bit of clear parts cement. Looks like I might get another shot at a better fit for that part************************UPDATE********************************** Got the issue resolved by removing the windscreen and sanding the fuselage and windscreen joint. Made it ALOT better. Updated pictures now posted in this post.
After 6+ months...here is the completed build:
I've been wanting to build this aircraft for a very long time and have had two in my stash. I really wished I wouldn't have gotten rid of my Dragon Me-262A-1a Nachtjager version but this Tamiya A-1 kit was a good kit to build. I had set out to build Franz Stigler's plane from JV-44 late in the war. I read Adam Makos' book , A Higher Call several years ago and he was one of the main people that the story centered around. Long story short....he was going to shoot down a severely shot up B-17 and decided to lead them out of Germany instead. Afterwards he was assigned to JV-44 (pretty much Germany's last remaining fully operational air defense unit which was made up of the very best remaining fighter pilots) where he flew this aircraft. If you haven't read this book I won't give anything away but I'll just say that is a very powerful read.
There are a couple of schemes that could've been his bird but this is the one here that I went with as it just looks so dang cool....
I used Vallejo acrylics to replicate the paint and went with Eagle Cals for 95% of the markings and Peddinghaus for the #3 numerals on the side. Note.....never use the Peddinhaus offerings. Other than the #3 the stencils and other markings were just way out of scale. I had some trouble with the windscreen an may yet source another one and work it into the paint job so a cleaner fit can be achieved so that part is merely glued on my a tiny bit of clear parts cement. Looks like I might get another shot at a better fit for that part************************UPDATE********************************** Got the issue resolved by removing the windscreen and sanding the fuselage and windscreen joint. Made it ALOT better. Updated pictures now posted in this post.
After 6+ months...here is the completed build:
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