The Modelling News: Build Guide Pt. II: 1/48th scale Me 262 HG III from Amusing Hobby

Today we see the great work that Gary Wickham has undertaken with Amusing Hobby's Me 262 HG III in 1/48th scale. See how he finished it off so well in Pt.II of his extensive build guide.

Build Guide Pt.I: Me 262 HG III

From Amusing Hobby

Kit No #48A003

1/48th scale

Plastic injection moulded kit.

Two marking choices included in the box

RRP: $22 USD from Hobbylink Japan

Build Guide Pt. I: 1/48th scale Me 262 HG III from Amusing Hobby

Today: Build Guide Pt. II: 1/48th scale Me 262 HG III from Amusing Hobby

As I use more of the 3D cockpit decal sets I have started to make a point of applying a general flat clear coat over all the parts, including the instrument glass, as I find the vinyl parts are too shiny. The flat coat helps reduce this distracting shine and blend the parts into the cockpit tub. The instrument glass is easily re-instated using a small brush and some clear gloss.

Paint is now applied to the fuselage interior. All parts are primed in black using Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black and then a coat of AK Real Color RC933 RLM 02 RLM-Grau (1941)

The intakes and general engine parts are finished in Alclad II Aluminium 101 which is a lacquer paint making it very resilient to masking and washing. At the tail end of the engine is a small exhaust outlet which I also painted in Alclad 101 Aluminium over which I applied a couple of heavy enamel washes to give it a distressed look. Very little of the exhaust will be seen once the fuselage is joined so I did not boil the ocean here.

The top and bottom halves are now ready for final gluing. It occurs to me that a lot more detailing could have been added to the interior but I have found myself being less inclined to spend effort in such places these days, preferring to save that for exterior work which will be far more appreciated on the finished model.

One last task, which must not be forgotten, is to add weight to the nose. Most model aircraft that employ a tricycle undercarriage layout (with a nosewheel rather than a tailwheel) will need weight in the nose to keep the model from sitting on it's tail. There are many ways to add weight to the forward parts of aircraft models, the one which I use these days is 2mm lead shot, which are small enough to fit into all the nooks and crannies of the model interior.

The lead shot needs to be secured in place using some form of adhesive. The two most popular methods I have seen used are two-part epoxy glue or CA (Super) glue. I have also used epoxy resin to hold the weight but in this case I was concerned the thin resin would leak out the nosewheel bay making a mess. I therefore chose a 5 minute two part epoxy glue which is much more viscus. As it is winter here in Australia at the moment my Pacer ZAP Z-Poxy 5 Mins glue was cold and thicker than optimal. A simple way to make the glue more runny is to warm the two parts in boiling water for 5 mins before use.

With all the interior parts in order, the two fuselage halves are mated and Tamiya Extra Thin Cement is carefully applied along the seam. The Tamiya cement is perfect for uses where you want to apply the cement after the parts are already together. It is thin enough to run into the gaps between parts such as the Me 262 fuselage and wings. When using slower setting styrene glues I like to use clamps to ensure parts don't move as the glue cures. The red clamps I am using here are Hobby Mio Soft-Pad Clamps and the tips can swivel to better accommodate awkward shapes, often found on aircraft models. The only place I found where a small gap occurred was on the starboard engine rear nacelle. I think was a problem of my own making as I don't recall seeing during dry fitting, but once I got to this point I decided it was better to leave it and then fill later and sand smooth.

For the most part the fit of the Amusing Hobby parts are excellent. As with any kit, the manufacturer has to make design decisions to achieve a balance between accuracy and ease of assembly. All plastic models will inevitably have part join seams that need to be dealt with, and its really down to how many and where they are placed which can make all the difference between an enjoyable vs horrible build experience. The two main parts of this kit which require some patience and effort are the intakes and the seam on the nose sections.

The nose seam runs from the wing roots to the nose tip and has an unusual "kink" in it. It unfortunately runs across several panel lines and rivet runs, most of which will be damaged as we work to fill and sand away the seam. This is all part of the joy of scale modelling. I have found that in such cases applying a black panel wash to the plastic helps me to clearly see the surface detail so I can better work on it before and after sanding.

I had intended to leave the seam around the lip of the intakes as provided by Amusing Hobby. However once I saw how it looked it decided that both the interior and exterior joins needed to be removed. A suitable filler was needed that could fill the fairly large gaps and be blended into a smooth surface over which I would be painting natural metal.

The best choice to tackle the seams and gaps around the airframe and in particular the intakes was a mix of superglue and filler. I have used many cheap and expensive CA based glues over the years but at the moment my favourite is the VMS Flexy 5K CA family of modelling glues. VMS provides these in several use-specific flavours including PE, Thin, Slow, Resin and 3D. When you want to use CA glue as a putty/filler as opposed to a straight cement, you can use VMS CA Glue Filler fine powder which when mixed with CA glue turns it into a fast curing putty you can use for instant gap filling much like the standard putty but without the usual wait.

The VMS Filler is simply a white powder which you mix with a small pool of the CA glue. This feels and looks like a milky paste and is very easy to apply the model where you need it. The largish joins in the intake lip were filled with the putty and left for 30 mins to cure before sanding. I also used the putty on the nose and engine nacelle seams.

One new tool that I have started to use more frequently is the DSPIAE ES-A Electric Reciprocating Sanding Pen. This tool is a cordless battery operated sander with 8 interchangeable heads of varying shapes and sizes. I got one as I thought it would be useful for hard to reach places where your fingers are too big, such as engine intakes and exhausts.

The tool comes with self adhesive pre-cut sheets of grit ranging from 180 to 1000 which you can stick onto the shaped heads. I would not consider this an essential tool, but like most specialist tools, it's hard to beat when you really need it.

After some careful sanding, re-scribing and riveting the surface detail along the nose seam has been repaired. I added most of the detail back and once I again the black wash helps to keep track of what requires more attention. These parts are now ready for a coat of grey primer for my final checks.

The four 30mm cannon ports on the nose are blanked off by Amusing Hobby so I opened then up using a 0.9mm drill bit. It's a small detail but and easy one to fix.

The empennage (tail) is separate to the main fuselage/wings and has a traditional left/right seam. This completed sub-assembly is now offered up to the fuselage with the resulting join being on a natural panel line. There was a very small lip as the join was not perfect but it was so small that I chose not to sand it and have to deal with all the repair work. The seams along the wing roots were removed as these are not actual panel lines. Riveting work along the top and bottom was handled by a 0.65mm GALAXY Riveting Wheel.

More seam and riveting work was needed on the bottom tail. Having lots of nice surface detail is good, but means more work when you need to deal with seams.

The wingtip navigation lights are provided by Amusing Hobby as simple engraved lines. I felt this was a pretty lazy effort, especially when you look at actual Me 262 lights and they are clear with coloured bulbs.

Step 1 to address this was to use a razor saw to cut out a wedge from the wingtip using the kit lines as a rough guide. Two straight cuts at 90 degrees are needed.

Step 2 is to sand the cut-out to be fully square, for this I used some 400 grade wet n dry stuck to a GodHand Acrylic FF Board using double sided tape. The thick acrylic board provides a solid, non flexible mounting for grit when you want to ensure sharp perfectly flat sanding.

Step 3 involves taking a section of clear sprue (which is circular) and sanding two flat faces onto it. These will mate with the cut-out on the wingtip. To simulate the navigation bulb, I drilled a 0.8mm hole into the corner of the clear sprue and then put a drop of clear red for starboard (green for port). The clear sprue section was finally glued to the cut-out on the kit wing using super glue and left to set for 30 mins.

Step 4 the clear plastic was now sanded and shaped to match the contour of the wing tip. I started with 400 grade for the rough work, then switched to 600 grade for the last shaping work. Once happy with the final shape I used GodHand GH-KS2-KB Kami-Yasu Migaki Sanding/Polishing Sponges which range from #4000 to #10000 grit to buff and polish the clear sprue to a glass finish.

After a final check of the seam-work with grey primer, it was now time to mask up the intakes, exhausts, wheel bays and cockpit. I have become a fan of using soft packing foam (the sort you find in Eduard Brassin sets) for masking awkward shaped opening like wheel bays.

The soft foam is springy and easily pushed into the shape and it makes a firm fit. Sometimes you need to use a small section of tape for a hard edge, but more often than not even this is not needed.

When masking cockpit openings I use small sections of 1mm and 2mm Tamiya tape. If I feel it's needed I also will seal the edges of the assorted pieces of tape with a brushed on coat of a PVA and water mix. This is enough to stop the tape from lifting when you are not watching and letting some stray paint into the cockpit.

For the "accessories" such as the landing gear doors I use some rolled up tape to hold them in place ready for spraying. Note that I do not use expensive Tamiya tape for this but the more cost effective Frog Tape Delicate Surface Painter's Tape.

All through the build process I have been thinking about how I wanted my Me 262 HG III to be painted. I did not really like either of the Amusing Hobby schemes and I am very partial to the Luftwaffe North Africa colours of RLM 79 Sandgelb / RLM 80 Оlivgrün over RLM 76 Lightblau. For some inspiration I picked a couple of the brilliant Luft 46 profiles by Peter Allan. These were helpful to get the creative juices flowing.

As both the RLM 76 and RLM 79 are what I would consider "light" shades, my process is to start with a dark primer, in this case Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black. For the finishing of this model I used three different airbrushes, each for a specific purpose. To start with, for laying down general overall coats, like base/primer and finishing clears, my airbrush of choice is a GSI Creos Mr. Procon Boy PS-290 Trigger. This brush is basically like a mini spray gun, but it has a 0.5mm nozzle (which is actually not that big). The shape of the needle tip is the magic ingredient which allows you to spray almost like a rattle can, but with far more control. This brush is ideal for laying down super smooth coats of paint when you have a decent surface area to cover.

When the Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black is thinned with Gunze T117 Mr Rapid Thinner it dries to a silky smooth semi gloss finish, perfect for your next coat of paint.

I was now ready to lay down the first top/colour coat. For this I selected AK Real Color RC321 RLM 76 Version 2, thinned with GSI Creos T108 Mr Color Leveling Thinner. For applying this coat I switched to what I consider my workhorse airbrush, the Iwata Revolution CR (4247). This is also a 0.5mm brush, however the tip is a very fine point (unlike the Mr Procon PS-290) and this allows you to be able to paint down to a very fine line if needed.

I like this brush as I can open it up and paint largish areas or step it down and do fine work. It is not expensive and the Revolution series is the first in the Iwata range that have PTFE (Teflon) seals so you will not have to worry about internal rubber seals swelling when using lacquer paints.

At this point I needed to make some decisions about how the main top colours would be handled. I had previously built an Eduard 1:48 Bf 109E-7 Trop and decided to try to mimic the colour demarcations. This means hard masks where the wing met the fuselage and later on the top of the fuselage. Thin Tamiya tape was used to follow the gently curved panel line and then the cheaper Frog Tape to back fill. First colour was RLM 79 Sandgelb and for this I switch away from AK Real Color to MRP. AK RC have two shades of RLM 79 (early and late) and I find their early shade far too yellow. The MRP-068 RLM 79 Sandgelb I was lightly sprayed over the black primer in a random fashion to give a non-uniform finish. The MRP acrylic lacquers are pre-thinned for airbrushing and are in my opinion the best model paints available.

Once the RLM 79 was dry, I switched to my third airbrush, an Iwata Eclipse HP-BS Gravity Feed. This is a 0.3mm brush and I like it for very fine work, such as the camouflage mottles needed next. When working close up with the airbrush I step down the air pressure and thin the paint a little more. For the first mottle shade I chose AK Real Color RC324 RLM 81 Version 2 as this had a nice brown shade to it. AK has no less than 3 versions of RLM 81 Braunviolet, as like many things during the war, specifications and paint formulas changed to meet evolving requirements. As I was building a "what-if" I had the luxury of choosing the shade of RLM 81 that appealed to me the most.

As I wanted a two tone mottle, the next colour was the pretty standard RLM 80 Оlivgrün. I chose to stick with the AK paint, selecting AK RC948 RLM 80 using their own RC702 High Compatibility Thinner. If you look closely you can see I have tried to slightly change the shape of the green mottles to be more circular, this way you get the colour difference and the more subtle shape change. At this point I was pretty happy with the look of it.

With the wings complete, I could now mask the upper fuselage spine ready for some RLM 79. This time the edge using masked using thin sausages made from Bostik Blu Tack. The flexible and low tack Blu Tack is ideal for this type of masking and can handle curves and bends with ease. Tape is then used to backfill to avoid overspray. These Blu Tack sausages were rolled to approximately a 3mm diameter which results is a very clean demarcation with little or no feathering.

Once the Blu-Tack and masking is removed the mottling is added to the fuselage, this time running down the side of the fuselage, over the top of the RLM 76 Light Blue. As you can see I have also now added some white and yellow (RLM 04) identification bands on the nose, tail and wingtips.

I have always liked the strong visual impact of RLM 04 Yellow on the nose and rudder of Luftwaffe aircraft, so I indulged myself and added both white and yellow as typically seen on North African theatre Bf 109's.

The all blue underside was looking very clean and monotone at this point. This would change shortly but first it was time for decaling. I like to apply a light coat of gloss clear to protect the paint for future washes and weathering as well as giving the decals an optimal bed to lay on. As my washes tend to be enamel and/or oil based the gloss clears I tend use are either acrylic or lacquer based. In this case I loaded up the GSI Creos Mr. Procon Boy PS-290 Trigger with moderately thinned Tamiya Lacquer LP-9 Clear. Two thin coats were applied over the entire airframe.

Decals were next, being a mix of spares and national markings taken from generic sheets. It's worth mentioning that I did not use any of the Amusing Hobby decals as the crosses looked too small and the swastikas those overly complex multi-part efforts. I normally use my tried and true MicroSet and MicroSol when decaling, however I had recently purchased some of the VMS Decal Set & Fix + Softener so was interested to try these out.

The VMS Set & Fix solution did not seem that much different to the other brands of Set I have used, but the VMS Softener was a different story altogether. Man this stuff is strong. All of the mix of decals I used on this model were no match for the VMS Softener as it set about first crinkling them and then pulling them perfectly into all the recessed rivet and panel detail. I only had one small casualty, the ink on the "green dragon" nose art on the port side seemed to blead and when I applied a second coat of the VMS Softener with a brush it damaged the printing on the lower jaw.

Nothing much I could do about it, so I put it on the "live and learn" list. Overall I was very impressed with the result of the VMS Softener and will be using it again.

Experience has taught me to leave decals alone for at least 24 hrs to cure fully before sealing them with another light coat of Tamiya Lacquer LP-9 Clear. Once the clear was dry I was good to go with the panel wash.

For this I selected Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color (Dark Brown) as I felt it would be a suitable match for the sand and blue coloured paint.

I have created a detailed guide to how I do my Aircraft Panel Line Washes: Step-By-Step. One of the most critical choices in this process is the solvent you use to remove the excess wash. The rule of thumb should be use the weakest solvent you can obtain. I have found that White Spirit is the best option as it is a very gentle hydrocarbon solvent and will remove enamel/oil products without being so harsh as to damage the underlying paint or decals. Never ever use strong solvents, like thinners, to try and remove the excess wash.

It always impresses how a simple wash can bring a model to life. The previous boring monotone blue under surfaces are now transformed and are popping with all that delicious detail that Amusing Hobby went to the trouble to add. I don't even consider this step to be part of the weathering of a model, more an easy way to add some true 3D aspects to an otherwise 2D surface.

It's important to take your time to get the panel line wash right. Often I need to go back over some sections to re-do the wash to make sure it is consistent.

To remove the wash I have found simple paper towel with a drop of white spirit is enough to gently clean of the excess wash. For awkward spots use the tip of a cotton bud dipped in White Spirit.

It's worth taking a close look at the rivet and panel line detail on and around the decals. You can see clearly how well the VMS Softener has done its job at getting those decals into every nook and cranny. The panel line wash tends to reveal all the decal flaws and in this case I'm happy with how well the decals have settled. The final step for the main airframe is a flat coat to tone down the gloss clear. My current favourite is Mr Color GX114 Super Smooth Clear Flat Lacquer. The name says it all as this clear gives a beautiful smooth finish and is not overly matt, just enough to take the shine out of the previous gloss layers.

With the main work done, the masking can be removed, final clean-up handled and all the "breakable" bits like undercarriage and aerials added. Here are a couple of final photos to show how it all ended up. I decided to not go heavy with the weathering and oil stains, I think it still looks "plausible" for a what-if.

CONCLUSION - Amusing Hobby 1:48 Me 262 HG III (48A003)

This was a very enjoyable, trouble free build. Amusing Hobby have done a good job of providing Luft '46 modellers with a modern tooled injection kit.

Building a subject where you can let you imagination out for a spin is also refreshing as sometimes you get a bit stale, slavishly counting rivets and checking reference sources for accuracy. What-if's give you more freedom to unleash your creativity.