CANicoll

Scott, you may have already used these folks, but I've had really good luck with the Micro-Mark #11 blades - being super sharp and staying that way for a while. 100 are $21. They also sell a box of 15. I like to use a fairly wide variety of blade styles like the ones found on their site here. Stay safe! Chris

Thanks Peter and Martin. Martin - excellent pictures, wow! I appreciate the pics and will be studying them. I love this very helpful community. Chris

Thanks Carl, I'm hoping for the same but think the windscreen will be ok. I can fudge the camo on the rest of the canopy by leaving it open (it swings way off to the side. Gary - Not too far, but have to work on the wing-root gap still. A bit of CA should close it up nicely. Looking forward to weathering which will also hide all sorts of evils! I saw on Instagram a guy is building a Mustang but doing it all as a polished aircraft - one thing I have not tried yet. That may be my next build.

AHH, now that is a great idea! Never thought of using BlueTacto hold something while the cement sets up... The shape is looking really good. Sometimes these kits just go a little weird on alignment and from what it sounds like, this is fairly common with ZM. I doubt it is some obvious mistake you made. I'd file it away under "stuff-happens". Can't wait to see it with some paint on it now!

Gary, OMG, this is reminiscent of the KH P-39 kit, but this is ZM!! You are doing an AMAZING job with the constant fixes - and not just chucking it all into the bin. Your level of detail is admirable - but overall, your build is going swimmingly well. Don't let these gremlins get you down. I would not have even noticed most of what you are pointing out. Hang in there! Chris

Finally had some energy and some time at the bench. And had one of those 'Uh oh...' moments: I meant to attach the windscreen which also has part of the fuselage attached (its a clear part) before painting the fuselage, and esp the cammo. Opps! Will have to address that this weekend. In the meantime, attached the landing gear - which looks a bit catty-wompy - to me as well as the drop tanks. All black is a bit of a challenge to photograph, esp since it is still a bit glossy (for now). Oh yeah, and since I was not going to open up the nose-gun area, I kind of skipped those build steps. Which means I missed the note to put 15g of weight into the nose. Duh. So I drilled a small hole in the underside of the nose cone and filled it with Liquid Gravity. Naturally ended up with the little balls everywhere, but got the plane mostly balanced onto the nose. Slipped a bit of the flexible weights used in Pinewood Derby cars under the nose gear and that now has the bird sitting pretty firmly on the nose gear. I have two more ME-262s in the closet: The Tamiya 1/48 A-1a and the HobbyBoss A-1a so will try and do better on those builds. And if you want to know why I have two A-1a's to build? I don't know, other than maybe to compare the Tamiya and the HobbyBoss kits... More to come...

Peter, The camo looks terrific - what do you use for your masking? And I see you are using the AK paints - how do they compare to MRP in your opinion? I'm still using an old MicroMark spray booth which is 15x20. I wish the extractor fan was a bit more powerful, but like you I have a flexible hose that I vent through the window when I paint. As usual your painting looks terrific, and I never can see those seams you say need fixing. Great subject! Chris

Loud and clear! What is on the workbench these days?

Late war machines were probably not perfect in their placement or alignment either, so who is to say you don't have it accurate, anyway? 👌

I was wondering about that approach, Peter. Definitely should work. Definitely will take a week out of my life to accomplish! 🤣

Gary, Wow, nice bit of engineering on that fix. Having not built a ZM kit, yet, I was not aware of the gremlins that pop-up on their kits from time to time. Definitely enjoying your build, the photos, and best of all, the commentary. Keep going! Chris

Quick Update: I tried gently wet-sanding the mottling and got an interesting result - an even more faded look to the camo, but not the clean-up I was hoping for. Used a Micro-Mark 8000 grit pad, dipped in a bowl of water. I tried something similar in the past, on a Mustang painted with Model Master Acryl paints, and liked the effect there. But this time, it didn't take away any of the overspray, just made everything a bit more faded. Hmmm... I confined my attempt to a small area on the fuselage but won't continue to the rest of the aircraft as I don't think that was the effect I was looking for. I think I'll paint some camo on my paint mule and give it a try again. I like the worn effect - the challenge is to not make the wear TOO uniform. But something to keep in mind for the future. On the ME-262, it will take a LOT of work - but I may come back to it. I think the effect would work really well if I had a BMF under the camo paint, something to be exposed with the wear. Hopefully more this weekend! Chris

Funny you say that. My Grex sat for a LONG time as well before I took it out of the box. I wasn't really sure how to clean it properly which was the biggest barrier for me. Once I overcame that hurdle (thank you YouTube) then it was just spraying paint on my paint mule (an old 1/48 Mustang) to see how it worked. Finally, took the leap of faith and put it on an Eduard 109. If it makes you happy, then it's a success, right?

THANKS Carl, and I have to agree with you. Sometimes it is just about the 'doing' and 'completing' and just enjoying the process. I actually enjoy the research going into a build just as much - finding out about the pilots, especially. Kind of makes history a bit more real to me. Chris

Thanks, Harv! I'm still working on it. Chris

Phil, Much appreciated! I've built three Revell kits - best as I can remember. The old B that JohnB grafted the D nose onto. Definitely an old kit. The 'new' P-51D kit is one of my favorites - fits very well, goes together pretty easily, has a terrific OOB cockpit, and no engine to mess with (and gets hidden anyway). And now this ME-262 which I would say is between the two Mustangs in terms of fit and ease of build. But I'm having fun with it! Chris

Thank you Peter! I think I needed to dial back the air pressure even a bit more, but overall, I'm pretty happy with it. Like you, I've had to move to different airbrushes to try and accomplish what I'm trying to do. I have an H&S which is supposed to be able to draw lines a fine as a hair. Hmm - I'm not quite at angel hair pasta thin-ness just yet!

Looks AWESOME! Great job on the nose. "To the brave go the spoils"! Chris

Painting update. I bought the GREX Tritium TG5 specifically for the German-style of aircraft camo, using the .3mm needle (I have both the .3 and .5mm). I just can't work my Iwata HP-CS to the same degree no matter how much I tried. This is my second attempt - the first was a 1/48 Eduard ME-109 which was a fun build, really nice. I did this side first, after practicing on my paint-mule. RLM 74 over a RLM 76 base. Both colors are MRP acrylic lacquers - I love how quickly they dry to the touch for easy handling. I sprayed at about 8-10psi. If I remember correctly, @Peterpools got me started on MRP, despite my store of Model Master and Vallejo. Thanks Peter! I was not as successful with the very small mottles, so I need more work/practice on that. This is pretty much the first time in almost a year that I've done a major paint effort. Here is the fuselage, laid on top of the wings for an early look. There is a fair bit of overspray but I'm going to try a VERY light sanding to see what kind of effect that will have. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the effect, but your comments (and suggestions for improvement) are greatly appreciated. Chris

And an antenna wire to snake down inside the canopy. FIRST time I've seen that level of detail...

Really looking good, and really convincing me NOT to try a build like this! Well, maybe. But definitely following along with you, step by step. Cockpit looking terrific! Chris

Gary, Funny that you mention the resin seats with the belts molded on. I only did one model with those types of seats and they came out really good, to my eye anyway. But for some (obstinate?) reason I keep buying and trying the HGW belts. I'm pretty good at putting them together. Not so good at the varnishing, etc part... What are you going to do for the ME109?

Peter, I want to see how this works out! I do not do a good job with any seatbelts to be honest. Even the HGW ones don't seem to come out with way lots of other folks are able to get theirs to look...

Hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder! The yellow bands look good, as well as the tri-color mottling. I just came across the link from Britmodeller on German Camo that you might be interested in. I perused it and it may be of only limited help/information, but thought I would pass it along just in case something caught your eye. Chris

Gary, Have you chosen a scheme? Inquiring minds want to know! Chris