Hi all, For my next mission I needed something easy as my 410 just about beat me to death. So I came up with this.
Dragon came out with the loftbomber ages ago. It comes in there horrid soft white plastic. I was going to build the kit as is, but came across the Tamiya 262 at a price too good to say no. So my plan is to saw the front glass section from the dragon kit and transplant it to the tamiya kit (Much better fit, moldings etc etc). I also had in my addon stash a few goodies as well. Am i the only one who buys addons without even owning the kit yet. God im sad.
Here was the point of no return,
To chop the dragon nose off, i cut about 1mm behind the panel line that matched on both kits. There shapes seemed very similar (Funny that) but close enough for the conversion. Then using a firm solid platform. A bathroom tile in my case, I place a piece of wet and dry and sanded to the panel line. Taking loads of time as this had to be right.
After cutting the nose from the Tamiya kit, i dry fitted the dragon part and the bombadiers section to see if my plan stood a chance,
Looks pretty good to my eyes. Before i paint the Bombadiers station i need to get the cockpit and wheel well done. (Paint em together) The Bombbadier station like the cockpit is going to be RLM 66 and the wheelwell airframe Ally. Looks like a kit in itself to me LOL.
I dont expect this build to go that quickly, but you never know. I do have next week off work. [:-^]
Hmmmmm,
Looks like we need to sit you down and have a chat Guy.
Doing 2 models at once is OK, we all do it, but the rest of us don’t hack them up and swap bits over LOL I have enough trouble getting the parts to fit the kit they came with let alone a different one !! You should start a special ‘Group Build’ all send each other bits and see what you can make with them [:D] You had add on’s and no kit for them ?? Well that’s different, the rest of us do it the other way about [:D]
I tease [:-^] If you got a week at home I expect you’ll whip this one out and make us all mutter darkly about how good you are and prob make something excellent out of the bits left over [sigh]
Keep posting the pics [tup]
You do take some wild things on… Bravo Sir !!
All the best,
Mick.
Another build? Jeez, take some Prozac or sumthin’…
I’m starting to think you have a miniature factory in your closet with elves turning these out 24 hours a day. WOW! a whole week off? I expect at LEAST 12 kits finished from you. LOL…
So what are you going to do with the rest of the Dragon ME-262? I could use the wings engines canopy and PE to finish up one of the 2 spare ME-262 fuselages from my Mistel kits. [:D]
Really… dude… get some help. It one thing to crank 'em out but your taking on some heavy duty projects. having said that… GET TO WORK. I wana see this one done[:-^]
Well onwards and upwards. Todays mission was an awfull lot of de-stubbing the resin and dry fitting. I also had to remove a fair bit of the molded detail from the side wall. Aires sets are very good but i had to shorten the resin sidewalls by about 1mm on either side. Some of the levers in the PE set with the resin were tiny,
So. I put the pit together and did the usuall weathering (For me anyhow) this consisted of cleaning the resin parts with airbrush cleaner, different i know, but it gets rid of all the release agent left on the part totally and evaporates. Win win situation. Then it was on with a slightly lightened coat of RLM 66 for the Bombadiers section and the pit. I gave this an hour or so to dry then picked out some of the knobs and whistles with various colours. (White, red, yellow). Then it was a light drybrush with Alluminium in both sections and then a wash of Vandyke brown. Suitably lovely in a grubby sort of way.
The underside of the pit is in natural alluminium as is the inside of the fuzz. When i get my camera re-batteried ill take some more.
I had a look at the glass work for the nose section and theres horrid marks in both pieces. Hopefully i can polish these out with a bit of elbow grease.
Ah and a fine piece of work! I actually think this one is too cool for corned beef! Cleaning with AB cleaner wow! I kinda use the same method but with 90 % rubbing alcohol from the pharmacy. Works for me and smells a little better and cheaper in my world. Of course we used to use that spray can Carborator cleaner to clean our weapons too. That is some stout stuff. Probably explains a lot about me behavior! [:-,] Do you have any history on that type? Was it a straight bomber or pathfinder or perhaps used to sight see along the coast. It is a strange version but extremely intriguing to me.
That’s a great idea lufty! I will be watching to see how this pans out. I got a 1/32 resin fw190D-11 I’m fighting with right now. Those dragon 262 are about the closes thing to being unbuidable as they come.
Thanks for the comments guys. Im enjoying this build so far. Aaron this was just another one of those, too little too late ideas by the Luftwaffe. There idea was to have a high speed precision bomber. They actually built 2 of these suckers, V555 (My one, and V454) I forget now but one of them had an advanced/ bombguidance autopilot!
My plan was to get the wings on with the least amount of stress. Difficult, when Resin + model = PIA (Pain in the A##e) The resin pieces at 1st glance look like they fit like a treat but on closer examination almost everything needed fettling here and there. Aah well, its what modelling is all about…isnt it? [xx(]
this is what the underside of the pit looks like. The resin x-piece at the back gave me the most jip. Then to add even more hassles i decided to put the resin wheel wells in the sucker too. These had an enormous pour stub on the back of each of them. I cut the top wing detail away using my nippers and finished off with my wonderous Micro Chisel from Mission models.
In the back of the photo you can see the other side already glued in place. The problem arises when you try to fix the lower wing to the fuselage. A lot of the original kit has to be chopped away.
You can see this side has been butchered and the other is a waiting. Anyhoo, i got there in the end with a pretty reasonable wing join.
Next up was to try to get the Dragon nose piece on. I was really worried about this part as it was pretty vital to the look of the model. I just couldnt be that lucky…Could I?
Ta daaaaaa. Plenty of gluey fingers and superglue and accelerator (You need 3 hands) and its on. Not a bad fit at all. I think ill need a little bit of filler here and there. But nothing too taxing.
Just a couple of bits to tidy up in the wheel well and then i ought to think about the 2nd engine. All 400 resin bits of it DOH!!!
Ok it’s official you are totally bonkers. 1st you get this crazy idea to chop up two and make one. Then just because that’s too easy you have to add all the resin and P-E goodies. Then to top it off you do it all at an incredible pace with amazing quality results. I have never seen that bird built up but the way you are going it will perform better than the real deal ever could!
The whole thing is quite amazingly scary and leaves me to wonder , " What the Heck is Next" " How can he top this" Why the heck am I so slow? Hmmmm I think we need a formal investigation. Guy has discovered some kind of performance enhancing drug for modelers. Somebody find a wig! [bow]
Thx Aaron, You are now my official supporters club. Member No #1. Before i went to bed last night i gave the join between the new nose and the original fuselage a good sand. The join between the 2 is now a lot smoother. Ill blob some Mr surfacer on there today, if i get chance and maybe some primer. Mmmmm Primer. That means paint is on its way LOL.
