Speed build: the Airfix Me-262 in 48hrs
Hi Everyone!
This is my "48hrs Me-262" from the new tool Airfix Me-262 1:72 kit. We - some modeling friends and enthusiasts - just held a friendly speed building competition this weekend. As far as I know this was the first such event in Hungary (there was an online event earlier but this was a real meeting) and I think there will be more to come soon - as it was a real fun to everyone. We started with the very same kits at twelve on Friday and we had to stood up from the tables at twelve on Sunday.
The rules are simple: everybody make the same kind of kit; you had to bring and use your own favourite tools, paints, glues, compressor, airbrush, etc... - you can imagine the size of my pack (with a decent amount of Krusovice - one of my favourite beer - hey, there was hot on this weekend). You have precisely 48 hours and you can use your time as you want - modeling, chilling, sleepind, chat with other modelers - who cares - but after the 48 hours passes, you have to finish the work and hand the kit over to the jury.
At the end a qualified jury (consist of the organizers, our host and her wife (the latters are not modelers so they had the needed fresh eyes :D) decided about the end result - as You can see I was lucky. I didn't think that a kit (and this one is not so good either) can be finished within such a short time with painting and all the tiny bits we know well - I slept, went to eat, we had a pool so we chilled in there as the outdoor temperature rised etc. - so in reality I calculated that I was able to work 24 hours in total on the kit. The model is pretty much OOB (the rules allow you to use aftermarket parts but the time limited - the AMS guys armed with a bunch of Eduard etches needed much more time and struggled a lot with them). I made seatbelts from thin foil and thin brass wire and a new pitot tube from hypodermic needles - because the latter is weak and prone to break off. Surprisingly I finished the model in time - it had some (OK, lots of) faults but hey, it is finished and finished within 48hrs. Wow! It was a really great modeling weekend with really great modelers so I hope we will make such meetings in the future. My fastest build ever - as they say "the distance is suits her" but I hope You like it.
Cheers, Gabor
That is amazingly well done for 48 hours. Can’t wait to see what you can do in 72 hours. Looks to have been great fun.
Yes it was! My lesson to learn: you can make things really fast if you don't take things too serious. This was a real anti-AMS weekend.
I see 11 262's...somebody didn't follow the "rules" - 🙂
He wanted to build a car from the kit - strictly speaking it's not against the rules; he just simply didn't finish it. Scratchbuilding is not a time saving idea 😀
Excellent build mate. I wish I could make models at half the quality you have achieved in 48hrs.
Congratulations!
Thank You!
The next time someone says I am crazy to be a modeler I am referring them to you and this post. 🙂
Hey, amazing work! And where did the rest end up?
Thank you! As you can see nearly everybody was able to finish the kit - one of us came later - he was a 36hrs builder 🙂 and one of us began to build a car from the kit :). It was just for fun as it should be.
You virtually built this kit as fast as the subject could fly! Well done!
Thanks a lot!
It's really a 20-hour kit. 🙂
Yep, and I spent 24 with it 🙂 What a lazy pig I am 😀
I was lucky to spend some time looking closely at a real 262 at Cosford aircraft museum and I can tell you yours is much neater than a real one,well done I couldn't build that in 48 days !
N.
Thanks Neil!
Thank you guys! The organizers will make a detailed article with lot of photos about the event which I will post here if you like.
I'm on it!
Guys, meet Janos Dobo the mastermind behind this crazy idea 🙂
Actually it is the copy of the Iron Bunny from Eduard. But we made it like a friend group, not a professional modelmakers, like the Eduard's event. They made they event very Seriously. Professional packs, Model Show quality, heavy physical part --- IRON ... you know.
But we called our event "Fluffy Cat" ... 😀 😀 😀 😀
Oh, and don't forget Zoltan. He was the another ... 😉
As you said! Buco, where are you?
What a crazy idea, just the sort of thing a group of modelers would do! Looks like everyone had a good time and the end result shows you enjoyed yourself. Nice looking model, glad you posted it.
Thanks Tom! It was surprisingly fun AND relaxing 🙂 must because all people were truly awesome I met at the weekend!
People freak out with me when I say I built something in a week. A week for me is pushing it and it takes skipping certain steps which always makes the outcome iffy. But 48hrs for your build...that is a real WOW !
I didn't hesitate too much I just glued and painted. Surprisingly relaxing when someone suffers in a serious AMS like me. It really brings back my childhood when I was able to build a kit in an afternoon.
Gábor, it looks like you all had great fun! Well done to you and your "fast friends!"
Thank you Jeff! "Fast friends" - it's great I will use this! 🙂
Yep .. that is what my wife always told me ... You'r my "fast friend" ... 😀 😀 😀 😀 or best friend? 😀
The more I look at that model, the nicer it gets. Good inspiration to pull out mine. Any "minefields" to worry about?
To be honest not too much. The strange engineering the first thing which come to my mind. Whoever designed this kit she/he was probably an engineer not a modeler. If you dont follow the steps in the instructions you can run into interesting pitfalls (notably in case of matig the cockpit into the fuselage or the wings - don't glue on the upper halfes of the wings just AFTER you glued the lower wing onto the fuselage). There is an interesting approach with the landing gears too where you have to glue the doors on first and the doors serve as additional supports for the landing gear legs. The fit is sometimes good, in some cases average but mostly OK - test fit doesn't harm in general. The only areas where you will need true modeling dexterity are the engine pods/wing joints - interestingly the port side is much better than the starboard (I suppose the kit based on CAD so I don't know why). A bit deep panel lines but they look OK under some coats of paints. Oh, I nearly forgot: the canopy is clear and well executed (however the frames are a bit over exaggerated in return you can easily mask them) but the parts don't fit very well that's why I opted for the open version - miles better that the Revell canopy in any universe in spite of this... Frankly I enjoyed this little kit, simple and the shape is every bit a Me-262 so there's no real complaints from me.
Great fun, and I'd be happy with a result that looked like that after 48 DAYS!
Thank You Greg! I tried to make as clean work as I could as I've known the painting will be the "make or break" in this case. The most difficult thing is to make some kind of plans about the progress you want to make in a time - I used fast and agressive paints (Gunze Mr. color, fast acrilycs) mostly and fast glues, puttys but sometime you just have to wait not to screw up what you did - that's an interestingly hard part. I tried to break into sub assemblies the project (paint the engine interiors while the fuselage dries, making the landing gears while the gloss coat dries for the decals etc.) which helped. All in all it was a really different challenge I used to - and exactly that's why a great fun as you mentioned .
Sounds like a brilliant weekend, Gabor. The 'Schwalbe' looks just fantastic and sounds like it brought back a few memories from your modeling childhood, always a plus.
Models, friends, beer, pool, food. You guys died and went to heaven for a couple of days!
Yes, just as you say 🙂 If I ever become retired I want to do this all the time 😀 😀
Best weekend of my life.
"Models, friends, beer, pool, food. You guys died and went to heaven for a couple of days!" -Comment of the year! 🙂
Thanks, Dobo - I want a piece of this action - how do I sign up? My daughter in law is Magyar (KInga, expecting our grandchild before Christmas) - do I qualify?
Szia,
David.
Szia David!
It will be a honor for us, if someone come here to Hunagry, because of the "Fluffy Cat" 😀
The next evenet will be in 2019. Or earlier? 😀 Who knows. We will talk about it. 🙂