Brengun 1/48 Messerschmitt Me P 1103

Started by Ronnie Olsthoorn · 20 · 10 months ago
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    Ronnie Olsthoorn said 2 years, 10 months ago:

    To coincide with a speed build challenge on Facebook, I'll be starting the new year with a new model: Brengun's diminutive 1/48 Messerschmitt Me P 1103 with less than two dozen parts and beautiful box art by the late Gino Marcomini. This kit is representative of design XII 283 from 12 September 1944. I intend to build this in raw material style, meaning mostly wood with some dural panels and hatches. I've not finished a kit in 25 years, so I hope I'll actually manage to finish this in the next four or five weeks.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 10 months ago:

    This is an amazing entry @skyraider3d! The kit looks nice and solid, with your excellent skills reassuring a fantastic result!
    Looking forward to your progress, especially the "raw material style" camo!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 10 months ago:

    Beautiful entry Ronnie @skyraider3d
    For sure this will result in an excellent aircraft.

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    Ronnie Olsthoorn said 2 years, 9 months ago:

    For a 6-week speed build, starting in the 5th week may be a bit late, but here goes!

    For a 1/48 kit it's pretty tiny and even if the real plane would've had a spartan cockpit, I figured the cockpit could do with some extra detail. It only comes with an instrument panel, flight control stick and rudder pedals. To this I added a throttle, levers for the flaps, landing skid and for unhooking the tow cable. I also added a simplistic oxygen regulator plus some wiring behind the instruments and a canopy lock/jettison latch. The colour these extra items add is most welcome! The handgrip of the flight control stick was shortened and angled to make space for the extra instruments and to more represent the sticks seen in other Messerschmitt designs. I might try and jam an oxygen gauge in there somewhere, but I already closed it up last night.
    The 30 mm cannon barrel was replaced with a medical syringe and I cut off the jet pipe and replaced it with a piece of telescopic radio aerial.
    Seat belts were made from Tamiya masking tape and a vintage set of ExtraTech photo etch buckles that I've had for decades. "© 1989 Made in Moravia Czechoslovakia" (!)

    Next thing to do will be a lot of wood pattern decals. Spiros, John, thanks for the confidence, I'll try my best! 🙂

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 9 months ago:

    Great progress and amazing cockpit looks, my friend @skyraider3d. You are right about the cockpit: might not have been too busy in "reality", but, still could benefit from some extra details, as you did.
    Love the telescopic antenna exhaust nozzle! What a trick!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 9 months ago:

    Superb detailing, Ronnie @skyraider3d
    Not only the level of seatbelts is high, also the idea of using a needle as a gun barrel is well thought.

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    Ronnie Olsthoorn said 2 years, 9 months ago:

    Thanks guys!

    The model was assembled, primed and painted - ready for the wood pattern decals.

    The tailplane assembly was tricky as the locator tabs were unusable. Using a heated pin I made tiny holes in the fuselage and tailplane, into which I superglued a small piece of a staple hoping to create a stronger bond. It didn't really work all that well, though it's better than nothing.

    Base paint for the wood decals is a mix of white and Dark Earth. The black areas will receive aluminium paint after the decals have been varnished. Perhaps reversing that order might be better? I don't know, but I prefer to handle the model as little as possible once the metal paint has been laid down.

    3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Ronnie Olsthoorn said 2 years, 9 months ago:

    Masks traced on Oramask with pencil, then scanned at 600 dpi, traced and cut with the Cameo. Thankfully the results are near-perfect (look at the openings around the hatches). Of course this pattern will double up as a mask for the aluminium paint, later on.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 9 months ago:

    These masks do look perfect indeed, Ronnie @skyraider3d
    Beautiful work.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 9 months ago:

    This really is superb work, my friend @skyraider3d!

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    Ronnie Olsthoorn said 2 years, 7 months ago:

    Thanks guys!

    About time for an update! Basically just decal work since last time and all wood work is now complete. It took longer than hoped/expected, particularly fine-tuning the masks (there are slight variations in the positioning of hinges etc. left/right/top/bottom!).

    I was impressed how easily the decals folded around the leading edges. The ones on the tail planes are very narrow but I had no problem at all with them. For the fuselage I used Micro Set/Sol, but I wasn't happy with the process. I used very diluted wood glue for the wings and this went much better (but all surfaces were single-curved this time around as well).

    After a clear coat I will spray the remaining areas in aluminium paint.

    3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 7 months ago:

    Wow! Turning out really wonderful, my friend @skyraider3d!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 7 months ago:

    Great wooden looks, Ronnie @skyraider3d

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    Ronnie Olsthoorn said 2 years ago:

    Sometime ago I painted the black areas with aluminium paint (Mr Hobby), but unfortunately damaged a number of the wood decals while unmasking, despite a double coat of matt varnish. Lessons learnt: decals last!
    I'll replace the decal on the underside of the starboard wing, but the rest I'll have to live with I think. Things to do are the canopy and handling dolly and then she's pretty much done. I'm keen to get on with a fresh build (one of Eduard's Zeros!).

    5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years ago:

    Looks amazing, my friend @skyraider3d! Yes, decals last, had also unpleasant experiences myself...