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ME 110EAs I said the cockpit is poor and in this case I decided to use the Eduard set (48 253). It's typical Eduard, lots of tiny bits to lose in the carpet and some folding that seems quite unfeasible but on the whole it really makes a difference. The cockpit looks MUCH better after this (though still inaccurate, if the Revell cockpit floor is to be believed) to the extent that it seems a shame to hide it. So I bought a couple of Squadron canopies (9545) as the way the rear cockpit opens wouldn't have been possible with the kit part. The MG-15 was replaced with the MG81Zs(?) left over from one of the G-4s (replaced in that kit by part of the Aires cockpit set). Whether it's appropriate for that particular a/c I don't know but some of the later Es had them fitted, I understand. And it looks better than the kit part, and makes a change. The cockpit (painted RML66, maybe it should have been RML02?) was then installed into the fuselage halves and basically I just followed the build from the instructions. Don't forget to open the appropriate holes in the wing and fuselage underside for the fuel tanks/bomb rack (whichever you're using) and the pitot. Also on my kits I had to open up the hole for the inboard aileron mass balance, it's not mentioned and I can't see why it would be flashed over but all mine were.
At the stage of the main construction being finished, to make painting easier (and so I wouldn't knock them all off), I left off the landing light, crew ladder, aerial mast from the cockpit top (and in this case the canopy, as it hadn't arrived yet!), the exhausts, the loop aerial, the props and spinners, the main wheels, gun barrels, under fuselage aerial and the aerials on the lower rear fuselage. In fact for these last ones I eventually didn't use the kit parts anyway, I installed some plastic rod for the posts and used thin wire for the aerials themselves, much more to scale. I'll also mention the exhausts here. I know I should have drilled them out (at least the ones pointing up) but I was making five of these, OK? Even just doing the ones pointing up that's 60 little fiddly holes. I just couldn't face it. So I painted them black. Call me a wimp if you want, I stand by my choice. Many of your options during the build are related to the various sorts of fuel tanks and it might be worth mentioning here that the 300 litre tanks are somewhat undersized. It's noticeable but I decided to live with it, life's too short…. The only external difference between the -D and the -E is an intake on the upper side of the nose (so I'm told) and this was fabricated from a small section of scrap from the Eduard fret. Then onto paint and decals. This one was going to be my all black nightfighter. Slight ramble here, it was a black nightfighter that got me seriously back into modelling (or at least the buying of models) a few years back. I was happily making nothing but modern jets in 48th, nice little niche, fair bit of choice etc. Then I succumbed to the lure of a Monogram P-61. What a neat looking aircraft, especially mean in that all black gloss scheme. And having done that, and my SR-71 Blackbird, I had this urge to make a collection of black aircraft (themes, they can really get you into trouble) and nightfighters seemed the logical choice. And then I found that just about any plane you care to mention has been pressed into nightfighter service at some time or other so it seemed I could buy anything in 48th. So I did. And look at my loft now……. Anyway, let's resume normal service. Black is a bit of a problem, paint it all over and it doesn't look right so I preshaded with real black and then painted the rest of the aircraft with a dark grey. About 3 parts gloss black to 2 parts Xtracolor Gunship Grey FS 16118 looked pretty black without actually being so, you can just about see the effect of the preshading.
Then for decals I was using Nachtjäger Nr 001 from the Owl sheet "W.Nr 001" with the -E Nightfighter of Major Falck. Here was a bit of a nasty shock, the Owl decals behaved like nothing I've ever seen before. Thin, yes. Strong, yes. Moveable, no. Ok, that's not that unusual if you've ever tried Propagteam decals but these were different again. When you tried to lift them to move them (like I said, they didn't want to move, certainly not sliding (I'm told that saliva works well, BTW)) it was as if they were made of cellophane, and full of static. They made a crinkling noise and wanted to fold up. In all honesty it was a bit of a struggle and a learning curve I could have done without. If you have a set of their decals and haven't used them yet, be aware, they're different. And they silvered. And they have no truck with compound curves or any of the decal solvents I have to hand. I even resorted to a fine spray of dark grey between the white parts of the crosses to disguise some of the silvering, the usual slicing and Super Sol application having less effect than usual. And while applying the decals I realized I had missed the yellow fuselage band so I had to interrupt the decaling process to do a bit more masking and painting, silly me. Then it was a coat of matt by a few light sprays of light grey and reddish black where the exhaust staining should be and then onto the canopy and little bits. Most were fine except the landing light which seemed overly large and took some trimming, certainly worth dry fitting first (I didn't the first time, learn from my mistakes). The kit wheels were replaced with True Details items (48046), which necessitated a little bit of drilling and inserting of pins to hold them on. The canopy was obviously a bit more effort than the other aircraft, cutting up the thin vacform plastic is always exciting, I'm happy just to finish it with all my blood still in place inside me, those new blades are sharp! But with all the parts separate the framing was hand painted (I couldn't face masking it, too floppy), the few internal parts fitted and the canopy attached. The aerials from the mast to the tail were done with my favorite thin wire, the gun barrels were the last thing I spent time on. The kit parts are just lengths of more or less circular section rod, the real thing had flash suppressors and the like. I made some from appropriately sized bits of rod, again I should have drilled them out but having made 20 gun barrels I couldn't be bothered. I think I'm getting lazy. 3 down, …. Next Last updated 04 November 2007 |
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