Build review Pt I: Me 262 A-1
From Revell
1/32nd Scale:
Product number: 03875
Number of parts: 211
Length: 336 mm / Height: 122 mm
Wingspan: 391 mm
49,99 €
The Messerschmitt Me 262: A Brief History...
Nicknamed Schwalbe (German: "Swallow") in fighter versions, or Sturmvogel (German: "Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft. Design work started before World War II began, but problems with engines, metallurgy and top-level interference kept the aircraft from operational status with the Luftwaffe until mid-1944. The Me 262 was faster and more heavily armed than any Allied fighter, including the British jet-powered Gloster Meteor. One of the most advanced aviation designs in operational use during World War II, the Me 262's roles included light bomber, reconnaissance and experimental night fighter versions.
Nicknamed Schwalbe (German: "Swallow") in fighter versions, or Sturmvogel (German: "Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft. Design work started before World War II began, but problems with engines, metallurgy and top-level interference kept the aircraft from operational status with the Luftwaffe until mid-1944. The Me 262 was faster and more heavily armed than any Allied fighter, including the British jet-powered Gloster Meteor. One of the most advanced aviation designs in operational use during World War II, the Me 262's roles included light bomber, reconnaissance and experimental night fighter versions.
This 2019 tool from Revell features:
- Jumo 004 Engine replica
- Movable ailerons and rudders
- Machine guns
- Detailed cockpit with side consoles
- Detailed cockpit hull in the landing gear well
- Detailed landing gear
- R4M rocket launch platform
- 4 bombs
- 2 additional tanks
Revell first kitted the Me262 in 1971, back
when Revell boxes were decent top opening solid boxes!
Those 1970's boxes...
The box art like all their boxart for their
32 scale kits were very evocative and led me to buying the kit, although, I
cannot remember building it. I imagine
it was like all their kits of that era though.
Now it has been replaced with this
excellent, completely retooled kit, this particular kit follows on from their
also, new night fighter first released in 2016, so shares quite a few parts from
that kit, some which are not needed for this particular version.
Anyway, back to the plastic, which is
Revell’s usual pale grey-green, slightly textured
plastic with fine panel lines and fasteners in evidence on all the main
airframe parts. A little fine for my liking, but I’m sure the people that want to
go the extent of puttying them as some 262s were, will like this just fine (pun
intended) Detail looks sharp and will stand out nicely with the use of washes
and dry brush or detail painting techniques. The instructions clearly layout
the construction over 82 steps in a logical manner allowing options for
retracted or extended undercarriage, flaps and leading-edge slats, Open or
closed gun bay, Ordnance provided gives a choice of bombs, drop tanks or
underwing rockets, linked to each marking option.
Instructions are Revell's new format, which
I find a huge improvement over their older ones, however, there is a mistake in step 75 Revell seems to have got a
little confused between the two versions and indicate the rear fixed canopy part H157 can be hinged open. This is
incorrect as, on the fighter, it would have only been removed for maintenance
so should be glued closed
Let’s get started. For something totally different Step 1 starts
with the assembly of the cockpit.
9 parts make up a well-detailed cockpit
tub, including a battery that sits below the pilot seat. I assembled as much as I
could into subassemblies before painting
I used Tamiya German grey to represent the
RLM66 colour, before drybrushing with light grey.
Out of the box, the instrument panel looks
nicely moulded and matches pictures of the real panel well, Revell even giving
you the option for a panel with rocket-firing buttons or bomb release panels.
Dial and side console decals are provided
on the decal sheet, but looked a little out of register to me, the side console
decals especially
As I had a YAHU instrument panel for the
262, I used this, after sanding the detail of the kit panel, it was glued on
with gator grip.
I used the decals for the side consoles,
and although they fit well and bedded down nicely, after I sliced up the
carrier film a bit, my fears of them being out of register was confirmed.
Still, it doesn’t stand out. Eduard now do their own LOOK panel and pre-painted etch set for the cockpit, and although not strictly necessary, I think
the PE would busy up the side consoles nicely. In any case, I would advise using
the LOOK panel rather than the Yahu, as the Eduard panel is made for the Revell
kit, and should be a better fit.
I sprayed the seat silver before spraying
AK chipping fluid on, quickly followed by Mr Hobby RLM02 and then scratched it
with a stiff brush to get the worn paint effect. The leather seat back was
painted in leather colour then given various brown washes, Not enough to hide
the metallic sheen from the underlying silver paint though. I’m banking on the seatbelts hiding this!
Revell provides seatbelts as decals, the
serious modeller will, of course, replace these with aftermarket belts as I
did, HGW belts in this case.
With the cockpit components now painted, It
was time to assemble them. Here I had a little trouble trying to mate them all
up in a tidy fashion, having to separate and reglue the parts a number of times
to get things square with the two tub sides meeting the floor tidily. I still have a bit of a step on one side. I’m
still not sure what the problem was here.
At this stage, I deviated from the
instructions. Taped together dry runs
had shown me I could add the cockpit tub and gunbay bulkhead after glueing the
fuselage together, so this is what I did, also adding the cockpit decking.
Doing it this way, also allows you to add
more easily check the amount of weight you have added to the nose is enough to
prevent a tail-sitter.
The raised fuel fillers in front of the
cockpit was first scribed around then sanded flush with the surrounding
fuselage as photos showed them flush on the real aircraft. Panel lines that had been lost through
sanding was then reinstated
This is probably a good time to talk about
panel lines on 262s. My reading up on
the real jets led me to believe not all jets were necessarily puttied. Only those ones that failed RLM inspection
were so finished. Early in their production, these jets were being turned out
reasonably well made, and not requiring a lot of their joins to be sealed and
puttied.
As
the war progressed, with Germany’s raw materials and skilled labour diminishing
rapidly, not only the jets but other fighter aircraft, as well, were
increasingly having to have their joins puttied and smoothed as they failed RLM
final inspections for streamlining and quality of manufacture. I decided to leave them alone seeing as
this is a review build. (code for I copped out!)
The other advantage of not adding the gun
deck as per the instructions is you are able to ensure the amount of weight
added to the nose is enough before the nose is sealed up. I left the guns and associated feed chutes
off until later.
The instructions call out for the interior
of the fuselage wall that can be seen through the wheel wells to be painted
RLM66. I left mine in natural metal, photos show various colours and I think it
would be quite hard to say if it was a definitive colour on all airframes
Ensure you clamp the completed wheel well assembly to the wings to ensure a rigid assembly with the correct
dihedral. I opened up the holes in the
tabs on the lower wing parts to aid dry fitting and assembly. Don’t forget to open up the holes required
for your choice of weaponry as called out in Step 29. For me, this meant the holes for the bomb racks.
Interesting that there are flashed over holes in the rear of part D20, does
this mean a future boxing with RATO bottles?
Dry fits revealed a reasonable fit at the wing roots that would close up
once the cockpit tub had been fitted, however, comes the real thing, I needed to
fit a thin shim to the port wing to even out the dihedral.
We need to talk about the fit of the nose
though!. Again dry fits revealed a good fit, although the gun cowl always was
going to be a problem. I may have got the gun deck out of alignment, but
reading reviews of the night-fighter version revealed other people had problems
here too.
Apoxie -sculpt to the rescue. A bit of
relaxing sanding and all was good with the world again. This was the worst
fitting part of the kit.
I must say peering up into the wheel well reveals a nice busy look with Revell also supplying parts for the bellcranks
and control rods. If you wanted to, you
could add wiring to complete the look.
We now move onto the engines, although I
actually started off construction on my kit at this step, just to mix it up.
Onto the engines...
Initially, I was horrified at the huge sprue
gates, and went to some effort to clean them up
Given the upper engine cowl is a separate
part, I thought it would be rude not to!
I used various diameters of plastic rod and
copper wire. I had some excellent photos
of the wiring in my reference books, but there are some good ones on the net as
well. The plan is to have one cowl off to display part of the engine, whilst
the other will be closed up.
In step 38, I would advise glueing part E57 and E56, together, then cleaning up the join before adding the
remaining parts. This will allow you to clean up the intake join from both
sides to get a nice clean seamless intake. I painted parts E58 in two different colours on mine as these engines were
frequently swapped due to catching fire.
The various parts of the engine all locate
into each other confidently with little slop.
If you want, you can assemble the engine into sub-assemblies to ease
painting. I used the colours called out in the instructions.
Of course, you could go to town on the
engines far more than I did, but bear in mind, you are going to see very little,
even with the separate cowling off, unless you cut up the nacelle to
remove the lower cowls.
The nacelles themselves assemble well. The
fairings all fit along panel lines but I still used putty on mine as the fit of
parts C47, C48, C51 and C52 were a bit loose. The fit of the
pods to the wings was excellent, apart from the rear where I needed to clamp
the flat plate at the back of the wing to avoid a step.
It was here where the build has ground to a
halt, as I somehow have managed to misplace one of the leading edge slats. Rather annoying as the kit was almost ready
for paint. So The build will be on hold until I get a replacement part from Revell.
Very annoying as I had taken particular care on this build to keep all parts
together. Obviously, not enough!
Before adding the windscreen, I fitted
short lengths of yellow wire to the rear of the instrument panel. The reverse
of the kit part already has the bodies of the instruments moulded on, they just
require drilling out in preparation for the wire, although once the windscreen
is added, very little of the wire can be seen.
I used Eduards new TFace masks to mask the interior of the clear parts
before painting them Tamiya XF63. Revell has moulded the windscreen and
fuselage panel immediately below and in front of it as one part in clear plastic.
I found on my kit, this panel also needed fairing in with putty.
Overall, so far, I think this is a good,
well-detailed kit, only let down by the fit of some parts. Back for part II when the slat turns up.
Bruce Anders
