Tamiya 1/48 Me262A-1a "Red 13" (pics)

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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You kinda have to admire a pilot who picks unlucky 13 as his personal number, but that’s what Heinz Bar did. He was one of the Luftwaffes leading Aces with over 200 victories, mostly in 109’s. He survived the War but ironically died in a light plane crash in 1957. The model was built mostly OOTB with a replacement resin seat from Ultracast. Model was painted with ModelMaster enamels and aftermarket decals from Aeromaster were used. A special thank you to Pixelater and Jeff Herne for their assistance in researching the color scheme for this bird. All of the many errors in execution are strictly of my own doing. Thanks for letting me share.




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Very Very nice, I like the camo it looks greats. I am looking forward to seeing more pics of your models. [8D][tup]

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Looks GREAT, Rick !

Did yoy freehand or soft-mask the fuselage side camo?

It turned out a very nice model. Well Done !

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looks very nice

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[#ditto] … it does look very nice. Thanks for sharing … [swg]

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Thanks everyone for your comments.

Pix, the fuselage, fin,& rudder were sprayed freehand. The wings & tailplanes were soft masked with heavy bond paper.

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well done.

joe

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Looks awesome!!! Do you think that the Germans had the same superstition about the number 13 like we do?? That would be interesting, eh?!

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I like it! Good job![tup][tup][tup]

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This is a great build. Looks awesome. I did have a question. Did individual pilots have the leeway to paint planes the way theuy wanted? For instance, the red on this plane, was that the pilots choice?

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sweet plane

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Fantastic build!

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OOOPS!![:0]
saw these pics the before but left before i had a chance to post: how rude of me!![:p]
great job, rjkplasticmod!![:)][:)][:)]
regards,
nick

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This will likely show how much I know (or rather DON’T) about WWII A/C. What’s the story with the grey front tire? The mains look black enough, but that front one’s got me guessing…

Bri~

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Thanks Joe, Heath, John, nsclcctl, b25fan, Erock68, and Nick for your comments. Glad you liked the build.

nsclcctl, The Luftwaffe elite pilots were given the right to have personal AC numbers and insignia. Bar’s Red 13, Marsaille’s Yellow 14 and Galland’s Mickey Mouse are just a few well documented examples. As far as the red nose on this AC, I honestly don’t know if it was Bar’s personal marking or a squadron ID marking. His 109’s did not have red spinners so I suspect the latter.

uillean, Sorry you didn’t like the model but I’ll try and answer your question. Actually all three tires are painted exactly the same color, it’s just that the lighting on the front is different in the pic. As far as the grey color, the tire rubber compounds used in the WWII era were quite different from today. They contained less carbon additives and were a dark grey rather than black, in spite of most kit painting guides to use flat black. Most luftwaffe AC had their wheels painted semi-gloss black and if you look at photographs you can see a significant tonal difference between tires and wheels. I read somewhere that due to resource limitations the German rubber compounds were even weaker on additives than the Allies so their tires would be more grey. If you go back to WWI era the difference is even more stark. Many tires were made with no carbon additives and were a greyish red natural rubber color. Even modern tires are not true black. If you put a true black color chip against a modern tire you will see that the tire is really a very dark grey but not quite true black.

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rjkplasticmod: Nice job! I like the red

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Your Me-262 looks stunning.
Excellent paint job and very nice build [:D]

Wayne
[8D]

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Great looking build and awesome paintjob.

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jkeller, Wayne, magic8796 : Thanks for your comments. Glad you liked it.

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Very nice looking Schwalbe you got there!!! [tup][tup][tup]