Italeri 1:48 Me 262 B-1a/U1

[MarkVerploeg]

hello guys
this is my entry for this sig
it is the italeri re-release of the night fighting me 262 i'll show what i mean with re-release later
this is the twin seater version wich was used by the luftwaffe (german airforce during WWII)
there was a single seat version aswell but i found no kit for it and i haven't found information that this got beyond the testing stage (but i didn't search that long so it could be i'm wrong)

specifications (these are based on the A-1 version)
name : Me 262 B-1a/U1
lenght : 10.58 meters
height :3.83 meters
wingspan : 12.50 meters
wing surface : 21.73 square meters
weight empty : 4413kg
weight max. : 6387kg
engines : Junkers Jumo 004B1,2,3 turbojets
power output:2x8.8 KN
speed :870 kph
range :1050 km
rate of climb : 20 m per second
role : air supremacy fighter , attack fighter and recon plane
maiden flight : 18th of April 1941
numbers build : 1433
weapons : 4x 30mm mk108 cannons

history
the me 262 was the brain child of the messerschmidt company
it was designed as a contender to the heinkel jet fighter
but mr Heinkel had some problems with the way the german system worked
Messerschmidt didn't have this problem and the 262 became a reality
the v1 (the first) was fitted with bmw engines but the first flight was with a piston engine
but after testing the junkers engines proved to be better then the bmw offer
the first pilots where trained in just 4 days but these where the elite of the luftwaffe
the twin seater was not build at that time
but after some time more planes where build and more pilots where needed
so the twin seater was developed and build

after some time it became clear that the luftwaffe needed more and faster night fighters
so the 262 was needed for this task
the instructors position was fitted with radar equipment
and the nose was used for the placement of radar antenna's
on a number of the planes the top 2 cannons where removed or the muzzles where covered with a piece of metal
this was done because the flash of the firing guns would blind the pilot
there was a option for 2 guns placed in a angle but this was not done with all the planes


and here is the kit


the paint scheme's


the suprise of the kit











and that is all there is
i will make a update when i get started on this build
cheers Mark

[Rob]

It's a ME 262 festival! Lovely looking kit. That will test the airbrush! Looking forward to seeing more of this.

[patrickroos]

This SIG gets better by the 262...
Nice!!

Good luck!

[MikeyKb]

you're right Mark, it looks very similar to my DML kit.

Let's see how they each build, shall we?

I'll be keeping my eyes on this one

Have fun!

[MarkVerploeg]

hi there
and so it is time for a update
i found out that this kit is not only a dragon kit but an old one aswell
i never seen this much flash on a dragon kit before and in some area's could have been better
but this is a kit that retails for about 20 euro's so you can't expect the same quality as with the newest armor kits they make
but on the other hand the hobby boss kits of the 262 cost about the same just a few euro's more then this kit
and these are much newer and in my opinion better but i made just 1 of them
but it is no inpossible kit just a some what older kit
but that is enough ranting for now
here is the progress


here we have the seats with that good old way too thick silver photo etch
it is much stiffer than the yellow pe but the detail is good


the cockpit tub
1 thing that i would change here , some levers are pe wich could have been made with styrene as the heads of these levers are flat and supossed to be round


the interior of the main landing gear bay
and again some pe parts but these fit great and i found noting wrong actually


the engine parts where painted before i started the assembly
just to make it a bit easyer



the cockpit after painting
it is painted with dark grey by Vallejo as a primary color this is from the modelair range
some parts where painted black like some of the control panels and the instrument panel
some buttons are painted with mr hobby #3-4 Yellow (can't remember the number)
and some Vallejo red from the model color range
then the instruments where dry brushed with some Vallejo gunmetal grey and some places around the cockpit had the same treatment to resemble worn spots
as for the wash because it is a dark interior i have chosen mig productions winter white wash
this really pops the instruments thanks to the contrast i makes


the fuselage halfs are painted with Vallejo rlm02
and had a dark wash by mig
this was mostly whiped of with some thinner and kitchen towel
so it only remains in the hard to reach places
this photo is before that last step


the instructions warn you about the fact that this is a tailsitter
they advice 20 grams of added weight
this is a bit more and it is sheet lead from a angling store
this is much cheaper then lead foil and it has the same properties but it is thicker


and the 2 fuselage halfs are glued together
i forgot to paint the topside of the interior
this is no real problem but is makes painting a bit harder down the road
as i have to mask the interior to prevent spills on my finished cockpit

and that is all i have done for now
cheers guys

[chief5437]

Great progress, the cockpit looks very nice.

With those PE levers, you can put a small blob of pva or thick ca on them to give a round handle. A bit late after you've already painted I know! Lol!

[UKguyInUSA]

Nice progress with the cockpit, Mark....love those PE seatbelts.

Cheers,

Martin

[MarkVerploeg]

Great progress, the cockpit looks very nice.

With those PE levers, you can put a small blob of pva or thick ca on them to give a round handle. A bit late after you've already painted I know! Lol!

thanks Chief
i rounded them with some thick paint
that works aswell

[MarkVerploeg]

Nice progress with the cockpit, Mark....love those PE seatbelts.

Cheers,

Martin

thanks Martin
one tough job done now on to the next
the dredded camo and i don't have one of the colors needed
so i will have to look at some other models and mix my own
cheers Mark

[MikeyKb]

Great progress, the cockpit looks very nice.

With those PE levers, you can put a small blob of pva or thick ca on them to give a round handle. A bit late after you've already painted I know! Lol!

Great idea! Gonna try this on my Me262 cockpit with the same P.E pieces... Mark, I like the paint idea too, though.

Looking good!!! Hope my cockpit and fuselage come out as good as yours.

Cheers!

[MarkVerploeg]

thank you
the cockpit is not that hard to do
i just want to know how the overall fit is
the exhaust pieces need some sanding as i found out

[patrickroos]

Great work on the cockpit!

[MarkVerploeg]

thank you
now just the rest of the plane huh
but i think it will turn out okay
it is a pretty good kit for the price just not the latest issue
altough i am qurious to see how a flat black lower section will turn out
i never done that and pre shading would.be meaningless
i have a wash for it so that is no problem and the build doesn't have that many steps so i think it will be a kind of fast build but i could be wrong
but i'll know that soon enough
cheers Mark

[Pabbi]

great work on the cockpit

[MarkVerploeg]

great work on the cockpit

thank you

[MarkVerploeg]

hi guys
so i have found some time to work on this build
mainly because i worked on my marder builds most of the time
and as i found out this kit needs some filling
not a big problem but i overlooked some area's the first time so i had to do another run with the putty
but a picture says more then a 1000 words so here are the picture's

i started with the cowelling of the cannons

i did some research and most of the me 262 night fighters had 4 nose cannons just like the regular 262's
but the kit part is made with just 2 so i decided i would change this

to end up with this


here is the inside of the part and it is clear to see that this is a easy step
i just drilled them out with a small drill bit


i made the engines and the fuselage over a couple of days just to give the glue time to set and because i couldn't make more progress it took a while
i have seen that some modellers use pieces of sponge to cover the internal parts of the cockpit ,so i thought i would give it a try


then i made the radar antenna's as you can see the ends are bend but because the ca glue was not completely set at this point i had to wait
i will straighten them out with some wide flat nosed pliers and then they will be straight again


here you can see where i had to use putty but it is sanded already so it is ready for primer now
i will use ak grey primer for this


and the pieces that are painted seperate like the landing gear and drop tanks

and that is all i have for now
next time i will do the painting wich should provide me with a bit of a challenge as i never did a camo like this
but i just have to try
so let me know what you think and thanks for watching
cheers Mark

[eoinfinnegan]

Looking good

[MarkVerploeg]

Looking good

thanks
i just hope i'll do a good job on the paint as that looks a bit hard to do

[MarkVerploeg]

hi guys
i was hoping for some advice on painting
first there are some pe parts that go on the inside of the cockpit roof

but is it.the best way to paint the lower strip of this part because the glasspart doesn't have any detail on the inside

and second

this is the scheme i want to do
and this mightsound silly but wich color should be done first
the pre shading and then the light grey or do i start.at the black bottom
thanks in advance
cheers Mark

[T3hGuppy]

Great work so far dude.

As far as paint order goes it is always easiest to start with the lightest colour with the darkest being the last on.

[MarkVerploeg]

thanks buddy
i'll keep that in mind

[Thumboy]

very nice cockpit, looking forward to seeing the rest of the paint job come together

I have a stalled Me 262 build and this makes me want to dig it out again.

Keep up the good work

[MarkVerploeg]

thanks Andrew
just dig up your 262 it is one of the best looking jets ever
and there are some real cool camo schemes for them too

[robertw]

Nice to see someone building the same kit as me. It's my first time working with pe and that silver photo etch is tough.

[MarkVerploeg]

Nice to see someone building the same kit as me. It's my first time working with pe and that silver photo etch is tough.

yep the silver colored pe is tough and much more rigid then the yellow stuff
but the pe in this kit is thick to
except for the antenna's as i keep bumping in on them and then they bend again
but if you're making the same i should have a look to see what you are doing with it
cheers Mark

[MarkVerploeg]

hi guys
so it is time for a update
last time i had build the main parts and had some parts like the landinggear seperate and prepared for paint


i used ammo primer grey for the entire plane


i then pre shaded the upper parts as there is no use to do so on the lower part because this will be painted flat black
as you can see i'm not very good at straight lines


then came the base coat of rlm 76 i used vallejo model air for this


then came the bottom ,this is sprayed with tamiya flat black and after a huge tip i had from mr. Patrickroos i filled in the panels with a lighter color
so it looks like it is faded a bit and looks much better then the black wich looks out of scale and just ugly really


then it was time for the spots made with rlm 75
i applied them after i had a training session on a piece of paper and was sure i could get a result i am happy with
i again used vallejo model air ,the only thing slowing me down was the tip drying that had to be cleaned about every couple of minutes but i got a pinch tip nozzle for my airbrush so this is easy now


the full view of the bottom
as you can see i did some touch-ups just before i made the photo (paint is still wet)


a front view with the drop tanks in place


here are the canopy parts
they will go on the plane after the decals just like the antenna wire and the lights on the wingtips
there are a few little paint touch-ups aswell but nothing special

as for the next step , i will spray a coat of klear over the entire plane as a preparation for the decals
so next time i will have the final update with a finished build
and that is all i have for now
so until next time
cheers Mark

[UKguyInUSA]

Nice job so far, Mark...she's coming together nicely! I love the idea for toning down the black by pre-shading the panes to make the black look lighter and worn...I'll remember that one next time I use black in a color scheme.

Cheers,

Martin

[MarkVerploeg]

thanks Martin
i had help with the black and it's good that i did as this looks better
but just a black bottom looks toy like and you loose asmost every panel line
but that is the advantage of being on ISM there is always some one that can point you in the right direction
cheers Mark

[T3hGuppy]

Great work dude.


The mottling came out great.

[peppie]

Camo looks great Mark
And I like what you did with the black. Is the only way I think. Just painting it black makes it look plastici bud with the fading...

[MarkVerploeg]

thanks guys
i only messed up 1 vertical stabelizer the first time because the ab was too close to the surface oops
so i had some running paint but a new coat of grey and a second try helped
but i'm happy with the result and can't wait to finish this build so i can get ready for the d-day gb
build some armor this time as i did enough wings for now
i think 4 done and this will be number 5 with just one piece of armor so far
so it is time for some tracks and big guns
i think this will.be done in the next couple of days
cheers Mark

[MarkVerploeg]

hi there guys
so this is the final update for the me 262
yesterday i finished the paint work and applied the first coat of clear
as a preparation for the decals
i did ruin 1 decal on this a tail number but there are 2 other sets on the sheet aswell
only bad thing is that the version i made also had the last 3 numbers from that decal on the nose so i didn't use those either as they are a different number then the replacement tail number
but first some pics

so the first thing on the to do list decals
these are cartograph decals so they are good
i applied some micro sol first ,then put on the decal and push it down with a q-tip to remove airbubbles
once this is done i applied a second coat of micro sol and let it dry
once all the decals are done i went over them with a bit of micro set to seal them in
after that was dry i sprayed it all with a new coat of clear


once that was dry i used mig productions washes
brown for the top and neutral for the bottom
and i let that dry for about 2 hours
i then used a flat brush and thinner to remove all the excess wash
but as you can see the panel lines are very shallow and very little of the wash stayed in there
and once this was dry i spayed the whole plane with vallejo matt varnish thinned with airbrush thinner by vallejo


as a last step i glued on the canopy parts ,navigation lights and the antenna
this was made with 0.2 mm lead wire for the vertical line i drilled a small hole in the fuselage and put in a small amount of ca glue to make it stick in there
then i used a small amount of mig productions black smoke pigments to make streaks on the gun ports to resemble gunpowder stains
or unburned powder residue wich could happen with these large calibre shells
and that was the final thing i did

so i hope you guys like the model and for pictures of the whole plane you can check the reveal section
cheers Mark

[rodrant]

Mark , great painting Job on this 'mottled ' camo , it is very nice , and the build result is just great !

It's a pitty the decal issue , how I understand you .

But really well done ! The details are just great ! You done a fine job here !

Impossible not to like the Me 262 .Wonderful plane ! Waiting to see the final reveal

[MarkVerploeg]

thank you António
yeah well it was just one and the problem was solved very fast
but i'm glad you like it and the reveal is posted aswell
cheers Mark