Messerschmitt Me 262 double build.

[Skinny_Mike]

:frantic ... I'm so weak. Last night I transferred a Hobbyboss 262A from my 'wish list' to my 'cart' over at Hannants. May not hit the bench any time soon, but then maybe it might...



Ian.

I'm with ya Ian! I just bought the hobby boss me262b night fighter.now I am trying to decide which one to start for this buddy build.. but first, my HAF F-16 needs to get to the paint booth! More on that front tomorrow.

 

[matrixone]

Bob,
Most panel lines on the fuselage and wings on the Me 262 were filled with a metallic colored paste and filed and sanded smooth.
Some artists illustrations in older Me 262 reference books have the filler putty a tan or wood color and this is incorrect, the filler putty was made to match bare metal surfaces because the RLM wanted to eliminate painting the lower surfaces of their fighter aircraft to lesson weight, use less material, and reduce labor costs. That's why some very late production Bf 109's, Fw 190's and Me 262's were seen without paint on the lower surfaces in photographs taken shortly after the war ended. Wood, steel, or fabric surfaces would still get painted.
The Me 262 was clearly a high speed aircraft and having smooth surfaces on the airframe was important to reduce drag but even though the filler putty was used the poorly skilled slave labor often left the surfaces less than smooth from poorly aligned metal panels or filler putty not sanded down properly.

I have built a HobbyBoss Me 262 and I thought its nearly as good as the Tamiya kit, the surface of the plastic was not as refined but that did not detract from the quality of the finished product. If I could buy more HobbyBoss Me 262 kits I would, the BMW 003 engine version is of great interest to me.

Matrixone

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Didn't the Me262 use the Jumo 004 engines though? Seems like the BMW 003 engines were not used that much. Only plane I can think of that used it was the Arado and then only for a couple of test versions.

As always Les your builds are quality detail and they teach me a lot of painting techniques.

 

[matrixone]

Nearly all Me 262's were built with the Junkers engine but there was at least one built with the BMW 003 for test purposes and that's the version that I would like to add to my collection and AFAIK only HobbyBoss makes a 1/48 scale model of this variant.


Matrixone

 

[lupanzer]

Very nice teachings,Les!... ,btw, the cockpits look cool!

...

Luiz

 

[Skinny_Mike]

Ok Les - got some color questions for you...

Still debating on which Me262 to bring to the party, but I have a couple of question concerning the paint colors for either option. First off, what color is RLM81 as it relates to the 262. The only good references I have are related to FW190s. I have a few options in my paint collection. They range from WEM Colorcoats RLM 81 which is a pretty deep brown to the Mr Color RLM 81 which is a dark olive-ish green color. Thoughts?

Next up is our night fighter colors.

Instructions call for RLM76 under the dark gray mottles with a black belly. But they all look much more like a light gray then RLM76. Here is a bad picture I stole from the internet for the sake of discussion.

Despite just how cool this airplane is, I really don't have a ton of reference material for it. I think I need to fix that.

:drinks

 

[matrixone]

Mike,
RLM 81 was intended to be a brown color shade and as it relates to the Me 262 it usually was. There are three reasonably good wartime color photographs that show this to be true.
But, and I mean a big BUT, RLM 81 was also identified as an olive shade similar to U.S. Olive Drab and older reference books have even described it as brownviolet. Keep in mind that at the late stage of the war paints were sometimes sprayed on very thinly which could greatly effect how the colors looked on the aircraft. For example: highly thinned RLM 81 if sprayed on in a single light coat over RLM 82 green would look much different and could easily be mistaken for a different color shade.

Fw 190's did use RLM 81 but it was not common, Mimetall built Fw 190D-9's are known to use RLM 81 on the fuselage aft of the cockpit but for reasons unknown other D-9 producers were some of the last to convert to RLM 81, most of the green camo on D-9's were proven to be RLM 82 medium green and a dark green most call RLM 83.
A year or two ago I posted some stills from a color movie film showing RLM 82 and RLM 81 painted Fw 190A or F's that had not reached the front before the war ended, those examples are the exception and not the rule. Many short nosed Fw 190's were painted in RLM 74/75/76 grays or even RLM 75 and with a dark green replacing the RLM 74.

All the radar equipped two seat Me 262 nightfighters were converted from single seaters, so there was no production line and thus all had some variations in their camouflage paint.
Your color photograph of W.Nr.110306 'red 9' was not clear but I have a good copy of that photograph and from what I see on the inner flap and downward positioned elevator they are almost certainly painted RLM 75 gray. In other photographs of this aircraft the upper wings appear to be a single color but sadly they are black and white so its not possible to be 100% certain what the color is...my money is on RLM 75. B) Fuselage looks to be mottled RLM 75 over RLM 76 and possibly a few RLM 74 mottles.


HTH

Matrixone

 

[ij001]

Makes a muddy pool as clear as it can ever be... Great reply, Les.

Ian.

 

[matrixone]

Thank you Ian, I try!

Mike,
I found another picture of W.Nr.110306, even though its black and white this is one I can't recall being in any of my reference books so I thought you might want to see it.
BTW, when this machine was still in Germany just after the war ended the black paint was still on the undersurfaces...when it was cocooned and shipped to the U.S.A. some of the paint was lost after the cocoon material was peeled off.

Here are some pictures of unpainted Me 262's and in these you can see how the metallic gray putty on the panel lines was sanded down.

This unfinished Me 262 was found in one of the forest factories, notice the road made out of saplings.

A painted and mostly complete Me 262 photographed in color at the Kuno forest factory, if you look closely unpainted Me 262 assemblies can be seen in the background. I wonder if there were any other photographs taken like this one, good color photographs are rare from that era. Also this Me 262 clearly has a dark nose wheel strut.

I should have in-progress pictures later after the weather clears a bit more.

Matrixone

 

[matrixone]

Some in-progress pictures...

Much of what little detail painting of these parts are going to get is now finished, the fuselage halves can now be glued together.

Below is an older color photograph that for years many researchers thought was a Me 262 still in its original colors, I first looked at this photograph when it was published in VOL.3 of ''Luftwaffe Colors'' back in the late 1970's.

The photograph looks very convincing but as it turns out this Me 262 was partly repainted by the Swiss before being given to the Deutsches Museum in 1957.
Comparing this photograph against the other photographs like the one below of this machine just after landing at Dubendorf air base in 1945 prove its been repainted.

Matrixone

 

[moon puppy]

Looks swell Les

 

[matrixone]

Thanks Bob!

The fuselage halves are joined together and am getting ready to paint the tires, I never mask off the tires from the wheel hubs and airbrush them like I do on most model parts, hand brushing the tires works the best here and gives them a slightly used look from the less than even paint.
After the tires are painted rubber I will usually do most of the weathering of them with the airbrush.


Here is a decent color photograph of an unfinished Me 262, its easy to see the color of the filler putty and how it blended in with the metal surface it was placed on. This is another example of a late production Me 262 with the dark metallinc nose wheel strut.

Matrixone

 

[Hawkwrench]

That would be a fun airplane to fly. She's coming together Nicely. I like to hand paint my tires also, instead of airbrushing. I guess I'm still old school about some things.

ldguy

Tim

 

[lupanzer]

Very nice subject,Les...following with full atention

Luiz

 

[matrixone]

Thanks Tim and Luiz!

The fuselage halves have been glued together and wings attached, all the wheels have been painted and the first stage of weathering has been done on them, the rest of the weathering will be done with the airbrush. Even though the two sets of wheels look very much the same now they will look different after all the weathering is done to them.

Below is a painting of the Me 262A-1a aircraft I am modeling, notice the filler putty showing through the thin paint job on the upper surface.

And below is the Me 262A-2a I am making...lots of squiggles on this one. hyeah To make painting the complicated camouflage pattern easier I will paint the engine nacelles separate from the rest of the airframe and glue them on later after painting. The good fit of the Tamiya kit makes this possible.

Some color artwork of this aircraft.

Matrixone

 

[lupanzer]

Very nice squemes!...great choices

Luiz

 

[SA Dave]

This is going to be another masterwork in airbrushing I see

 

[matrixone]

Thank you very much Dave and Luiz!

Painting has begun on these models, I am using Xtracolor enamel paints for the upper surface colors on the Me 262A-2a and since this brand of paint takes longer to dry than my usual Model Master enamels this one will get painted first to allow the paint to fully cure whilst I am painting the Me 262A-1a. I have had this Xtracolor RLM 82 pot of paint for a number of years and its just now starting to go bad so I had quite a battle getting it to spray steady enough for attempting to paint this scribble camouflage. The Xtracolor RLM 81 I will be using is also old but its never been opened before today and after stirring it for a couple minutes it looks to be in great shape.
To make painting this camouflage pattern easier on the Me 262A-2a the engine nacelles were painted before being glued to the airframe.

Matrixone

 

[moon puppy]

Now 'dem are squiggles.

 

[ij001]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjaqrPpdQYc


Yeah that covers it !!

Ian.