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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

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6 hours ago, Jackster said:

Kai , I have just read this thread, fantastic modelling and great methods of overcoming the flaws in the kit. I am sure it is going to be a stunner when finished. Keep up the great work.

Cheers

Kev

Thanks Kev, really appreciate your feedback. 


This is the positive side of building this kit: It’s a real challenge and also always a chance to try and learn new techniques...

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Meanwhile I took care of the intakes , the nose and the tail cone.

Hubert was fully correct in mentioning that the parts between the fuselage and the intake ramp are too thick:

53D5EA0F-B8FB-4BF2-9FC5-48F87AA5C579.thumb.jpeg.3face118895bae7c29a8cb3a94567323.jpeg

I corrected that by carefully milling  them thinner with my dremel-tool. As expected I milled into the left intake ramp and had to make an insert :(:

E5817978-F565-4A59-9139-0E64F88B0CB3.thumb.jpeg.dc8ef9420addb50096804b6f2470098f.jpeg

After grinding I sanded everything with 400 and 2000 grid sandpaper. The pictures do not clearly show how thin I milled them, but it looks ok now for me:

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Then I added the stabilator-pins for the inlet-cones:

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They are made of 0,5 mm wire. Glueing them in place wasn‘t an easy job as was all I did in this update. 
It is really important to do all these improvements before the intake-installation because it’s much easier.

Then I moved over to the rework of the nose and tail cone. There the fit was extremely bad.

Since it’s important not to loose all details I make every panelline and rivet deeper before sanding. This assures that you do not sand it away and have to add it new again later. The process is always: sandig, stop sanding when the details can still be seen, rework of the details and continue sanding. This is how I was able to save all the complex details on the nose:

8BEA7DD6-20CC-45C6-BFE4-50F99A4A2832.thumb.jpeg.39005403214b8a8271d9bc93b8644ed7.jpeg

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The last step was to sand the connection between the tail and the tailcone where the fit was worst. 
It took long and much 400 grid sandpaper. But now it’s looking good:

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Next is to finish the rescribing and riveting and to rescribe the perpendicular lines of the nose and tailcone. 

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37FD4DB8-DCE0-4F3F-91BB-7B852EFCAA1F.jpeg

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Kai, the intake and nose cone areas look so much nicer now.  You're really making this bird look great.  Pre-scribing the details gave me an idea to share....  I'll try to make this short as it may help both of us on future models:

Some friends at my club AMMS Brisbane told me how to handle the notorious dorsal spine panel line on the Bf 109.  They told me the easiest thing to do was to sand each side of the joint at a slight angle to widen the line at the top before closing it up.   Then...  once the fuselage halves are glued together, your perfect line is still there.  Here is a small , simplified illustration.

109fuselagepresand.png.9961c78a3da838b9ec448e484a1bfab9.png

 

It just occurred to me that this technique might help with nose cones, tail cones, and also the front cowlings of some radial engined models.  I think it might have been very helpful with the cowling on that PCM 190 I just finished.  Actually...  it might be useful anywhere a panel line coincides with a seam.

 

Hopefully we'll see some color, soon!

 

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16 hours ago, SapperSix said:

This is a really great build.  As you are learning new techniques so am I.  You have a ton a patience Kia.  I am enjoying your build very much.   

Thanks for your feedback Frank! 
You are totally right: patience is what is really needed when building this kit.

It‘s important for me to share my techniques here because we all can learn a lot from each other. And I have learned a lot since I‘m part of this group!

Kai

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14 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Kai, the intake and nose cone areas look so much nicer now.  You're really making this bird look great.  Pre-scribing the details gave me an idea to share....  I'll try to make this short as it may help both of us on future models:

Some friends at my club AMMS Brisbane told me how to handle the notorious dorsal spine panel line on the Bf 109.  They told me the easiest thing to do was to sand each side of the joint at a slight angle to widen the line at the top before closing it up.   Then...  once the fuselage halves are glued together, your perfect line is still there.  Here is a small , simplified illustration.

109fuselagepresand.png.9961c78a3da838b9ec448e484a1bfab9.png

 

It just occurred to me that this technique might help with nose cones, tail cones, and also the front cowlings of some radial engined models.  I think it might have been very helpful with the cowling on that PCM 190 I just finished.  Actually...  it might be useful anywhere a panel line coincides with a seam.

 

Hopefully we'll see some color, soon!

 

Thanks for your feedback and your tipp Gaz! 

I will for sure give it a try since I have a lot of Me 109 in my stash. And not only for them. 
This makes working on such panellines much easier! 
 

I also hope to get some paint on it soon, but still the rescribing is in front of me (not a job I adore...)

Cheers

Kai

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8 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Kai

Looking so good and thanks to you and Gaz for the scribing tip - Great idea to get it right.

Keep ‘em comin

Peter

Thanks for your feedback Peter!

I also like the feedback and tipps one can get here! Great forum ! 
 

BTW: What about starting to post the actual status of your He-219 here?

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Hi everybody, today I finally received the kit from Isradecal, quite a nice one with very crispy details, specially on the exhaust. So, remembering what Kai mentioned above, I want straight to check the fit and, at least on dry, it seems almost ok.

20210419_123933.jpg

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2 hours ago, alberto49 said:

Hi everybody, today I finally received the kit from Isradecal, quite a nice one with very crispy details, specially on the exhaust. So, remembering what Kai mentioned above, I want straight to check the fit and, at least on dry, it seems almost ok.

20210419_123933.jpg

Hi Alberto,

Nice to hear that the quality of your Isracast parts seems to be better than mine. 

Are you sure that you wanted to post this here in my Mirage blog? It should be posted in yours or not? 

Cheers

Kai
 

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Since I made a little pause with sanding and rescribing I started with the landing-gear.

So yesterday I opened up the next construction site. I hoped that it wouldn’t occur but as expected also the landing gear needs a lot of rework. Especially the front gear has an insert with a bad fit which even needs putty!

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And also the main landing gear has a lot of seams to be removed.

F72CD7D9-75F2-4C37-B33F-A15249ECD301.thumb.jpeg.5b288f989679e37b7d05fb674e678d58.jpeg

The dampers aren’t glued but just plugged.

Since I want to add some piping this will be a time-consuming task. But what’s not time consuming when building this kit ? Good that it’s still 6 months to go till Telford...

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You seem to enjoy some suffering Kai, this kit seems to kick you in the back on every subassembly. The fit of the front leg insert is a joke. Even my last Mikro Mir Fokker kit was better designed, I'm lucky, Italeri doesn't build real planes.
Given your shown braveness, it will pay off in the end, I'm sure, but would you build a second one?

Cheers Rob
 

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9 hours ago, DocRob said:

You seem to enjoy some suffering Kai, this kit seems to kick you in the back on every subassembly. The fit of the front leg insert is a joke. Even my last Mikro Mir Fokker kit was better designed, I'm lucky, Italeri doesn't build real planes.
Given your shown braveness, it will pay off in the end, I'm sure, but would you build a second one?

Cheers Rob
 

Thanks for your feedback Rob!

I‘m lucky too that Italeri doesn’t build real planes.

I have a second one with all Matterhorn Circle parts and at least the fit of the nose (Recce-Version) and the standard tailcone should be better.

But it‘s at the very end of my list...

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Oh my god, ........this is beyond words,  even LEGO assembles better than this, I definitely banned my Mirage 

to the attic............ Good luck with the undercarriage, you'll need it,

Frank

 

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2 hours ago, Trigger said:

Oh my god, ........this is beyond words,  even LEGO assembles better than this, I definitely banned my Mirage 

to the attic............ Good luck with the undercarriage, you'll need it,

Frank

 

Thanks for your wishes Frank. You are right, I need it. 
 

You should really only build this model when you are a total Mirage III addict or when you have no other model at hand or - like me - when you have promised to build one for the Mirage SIG for Telford which I did before knowing what awaited me...

But as I already said: I will win the fight! Italeri will loose...;)

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7 minutes ago, Kaireckstadt said:

Thanks for your wishes Frank. You are right, I need it. 
 

You should really only build this model when you are a total Mirage III addict or when you have no other model at hand or - like me - when you have promised to build one for the Mirage SIG for Telford which I did before knowing what awaited me...

But as I already said: I will win the fight! Italeri will loose...;)

When the going gets tough, the tough get going! :respect:

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Kai

Has Italeri missed any part or assembly that doesn't need major work or corrections? Only answer possible is Italier they are trying to give the builder the biggest bang for their buck in terms of build time. :wallbash:

I'm also banning my Mirage to the stash with the AM I bought

Keep 'em comin

Peter

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6 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Kai

Has Italeri missed any part or assembly that doesn't need major work or corrections? Only answer possible is Italier they are trying to give the builder the biggest bang for their buck in terms of build time. :wallbash:

I'm also banning my Mirage to the stash with the AM I bought

Keep 'em comin

Peter

Peter,

I didn‘t start the assembly of the external stores so far...

I will add the big subsonic fuel tanks from Italeri and Shafrir2-missles which I bought from Isracast. 
We will see which problems arise with them. The hope dies last. 
 

Good decision to leave yours in the stash.

Kai

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Today I took care about the intakes. After looking at pictures of the real plane it soon became clear that the seams of kit are no seams at the real plane. I really think that the Italeri designers have a contract with sanding-paper companies. Otherwise there is no explanation why the seams are placed that stupid. I sealed them all with superglue:

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I then sanded them smooth and started the rescribing. Still a lot of work to do:

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FC18B43D-3D86-4B35-863E-C9C1C050D818.thumb.jpeg.e093214e90e06d51d408ced99695560e.jpeg

 

Then I moved over to the landing gear. I filled the gap on the front gear with superglue and then reworked all:

C004DF8E-D12B-4828-A3FB-528B3F856A82.thumb.jpeg.7ccdb5309a69bb4bd71233e0fb9410cd.jpeg

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Now I can start detailing them with piping.

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5224A77E-EAF7-4F1A-8C74-8A3ECBC4480D.thumb.png.831eaffba7a09081f2d8d036beecc27f.png

That’s all for today. 

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