Me 262 1/48

[T. van Vuuren]

Hi all.

I have eventuallytracked down a nice Tamiya 1/48 Me 262 with Kettenkraftrad for a late WW2 German airfield diorama.

Has anyone built this kit? The reviews on it seems very good, eccept fot the wing slats that are only in the up postition

I dont have the guts to slice up the wing on this plane!

Now where oh where will I get a resedent RLM expert to help with collours on this site, I wonder................. (nudge,nudge -wink, wink) LOL

Theuns

 

[AlanG]

It's an excellent kit. I'm sure the slats opened when on the ground but i'm not 100% on this. I'm sure Steve will correct me if i'm wrong.

Looking forward to seeing this built.

 

[T. van Vuuren]

The slats did deploy below a certain speed, thereinn lies the problem.

I have seen many of this kit built, but only a very few cut the slats loose. Will still have to see how to do this without messing up a good kit!

Maybe I can say the German ground crew held the slats up to keep snow and mud out of the rails LOL!

Theuns

 

[stona]

Maybe I can say the German ground crew held the slats up to keep snow and mud out of the rails LOL!

Theuns

And you'd be absolutely correct. Plenty of evidence from old Luftwaffe "black men" (referring to the colour of their overall) that it was common practice to push the slats back up on parked aircraft for exactly that reason.

Cheers

Steve

 

[T. van Vuuren]

Wow, a gamble that actually paid off for me LOL!

Will you be able to assist me with the collours and maybe a few pix later if posable Steve?

Thanx

Theuns

 

[stona]

Hi Theuns,I will most certainly do my best. Despite the jet engines the Me262 is one of my favourite aircraft!

Cheers

Steve

 

[garethm]

Hi Theuns it is an excellent kit and both plane and kettenrad are well detailed and a good build, I have the four volumes of the Smith and Creek books on the Me 262, let me know what you want and will try and send images for you. I like the Me 262 as well, got two both Tamiya.

Gareth.

 

[T. van Vuuren]

Cheers gents!

I will build it out the box with no aftermarket bling on it.The only "interesting" thing to do corectly will be the mottle on the fuse, my Badger 100lg can't work so fine I think .Having said that, I have seen some mottle that doesn't seem to have the sharp difined edges we would expect to see, it looks more "flowy"

Theuns

 

[stona]

By the time the Me262 went into service things had gone a bit pear shaped for the Luftwaffe! Many different schemes and very often the paint was very loosely and very thinly applied.Some mottling was very thinly applied indeed,no more than a misting of colour. Don't know what you are planning yet but some late war machines didn't get painted at all and more had areas left unpainted.There are no rules though!

I've got a few references too, and a selection of decent profiles,so once you decide on a subject I'm sure that,between us, we'll be able to sort you out.

Looking forward to seeing this one!

Gareth,good books those. My Vol.4 has gone AWOL,lost, loaned or down the back of a sofa! I might just need to have a good search.

Cheers

Steve

 

[T. van Vuuren]

Thanx Steve.

I would like to do a diorama showing the late war period when things were rather "bare minimum" for the Gremans and where conditions were tough.I don't know if it was winter by then, but some snow/mud on the ground could show off the green on the jet nicely.It all depens if that jet was in that theatre at the time according to the side#.

Here is the box art to give an idea of the collours

Theuns

 

[T. van Vuuren]

2nd try!

View attachment 25775

 

[T. van Vuuren]

If I could get hold of a 1/48 willis jeep and US army airforce figures, that wuold make a nice dio of the "surrender" and the aircraft being handed over by some senior Luftwaffe officer to inteligence core members.

Theuns

 

[stona]

Great idea Theuns. You wouldn't neccessarily need your senior Luftwaffe officer,a lot were abandoned and some flown west or even to Switzerland like 500071 now back in Germany.

There are quite a few pictures about of G.I.s arseing about with or sitting in the cockpits of Me262s in various states of disrepair.

What does Tamiya say about the one in the box art,unit ,W.Nr. etc?

Cheers

Steve

Edit

Here is that machine being towed by some U.S. tractor.

From the Squadron Walkaround.

Steve

 

[m1ks]

That looks nice, I always quite liked the 262 and have been pondering adding one to my collection for a while.

I particularly like this one with the Kettenkrad, think i'll stick that one on my list to santa

Loking forward to seeing that built.

 

[T. van Vuuren]

Steve, I have not recieved the kiy yet, but on closer inspection of the pic I can see no side ID# except for what appears to be a "B" in the yellow aft fuse band.

Do you know if the Lufftwaffe would also "hand over" to the RAF at all?

The ICM Spit fit has some RAF personell in it.

Theuns

 

[stona]

Theuns the RAF got hold of a load of Me262s at Fassberg. I've got a few of piccies on my HD but there are more in Vol4 of the Smith and Creek book. Gareth might be able to scan them for you if you need them as my Vol4 is AWOL.

There were others "acquired" as well.

These are the Fassberg captured birds.

So an RAF scenario is definitely on.

Cheers

Steve

 

[T. van Vuuren]

I have seen a 262 with US markings on it , but not the RAF roundal. That's interesting.

I have seen the 262 here in SA, but is is a 2 seat night fighter and the commo on that is so fine it would be very hard to do with an airbrush.

I have also seen 262's with the splinter camo on the fuse, not mottle, when was this in use and where?

Theuns

 

[T. van Vuuren]

I just saw it now. The "jerry cans" next to the jerry 262 LOL

Theuns

 

[stona]

The official factory camouflage pattern for the Me262 ,dating from 20 July 1944, shows the splinter scheme on the upper fuselage (quite a high demarcation line) and shows another line lower down which was to be the extent of the mottling. The mottling was SUPPOSED to be factory applied. This document also gave the upper colours as RLM81 and RLM82,superceding L.Dv.521 under which the Me262 was finished in a standard 74/75 over 76 scheme. There is an interesting note in the corner of the document saying that the underside paint (RLM76) was only to be applied to steel and timber components.

The problem is that even a cursory glance at contemporary photographs shows that these instructions were simply not followed. This was due to a combination of various factors. Firstly a shortage of the relevant paints. Secondly and more importantly, Me 262 production was fragmented with components and sub-assemblies arriving from plants spread all over what remained of the Third Reich. Some arrived unpainted (lots of pictures of aircraft with bare metal parts) and others arrived wrongly painted. In the rush to get the airframes out a lot of corners were cut.

As far as the lack of mottling goes,some aircraft appear to have been painted in a way that brings the upper surface colours fairly low down,the demarcation with the lower colour is more of a loose line than real mottle.

Here is a profile from the Kagero "Me262 in combat" book to show what I mean:

Here's a variation of that scheme on this machine from "Kommando Novotny". Low solid camouflage but a mottled tail fin and rudder.

There really are no rules for this type,this late in the war.

Just for fun here is an Me262B-1a/U1 night fighter of NGJ11 sporting RAF roundels and fin flashes. Fancy a go at that mottle?

Cheers

Steve

 

[T. van Vuuren]

Thanx Steve.This what makes late war Lufftwaffe so interesting and sometimes rather confusing.It seems that there were no real "rules" to how the planes were painted and someone who wants to critisize will be hard pressed to prove the collours wrong!

I actually like the splinter cammo on the fuse with the mottle on the tail only, makes for an interesting variation. Now just to see if the decals side# in the kit was used in that time and area of ops.

I will post some pix of the kit next week for you to have a look at the decals and give me some advice if you guys would.

Theuns