I found this kit at a garage sell for a whopping $1.00. It didn’t have a box, directions or decals but that is not a problem. The ease of construction made the directions a moot point. I had no problems at all.

            I started with the cockpit tub (#39). It got a coat of RLM 66 by Aeromaster Warbird Color. Then I lightened the tint just a bit and painted the control stick (#41) just for contrast. The boot of the control stick got a coat of brown. The instrument panel (#40) is very well detailed right out of the box. It got a coat of the same RLM 66 and then each instrument was painted black with white highlights and a drop of Microscale Kristal Klear for each lens. I painted a few of the instrument bezels yellow, brown or red depending on what instrument they were. The throttles (#42) were glued into place and throttle knobs painted yellow. There are very good reference photos in the Monogram Publications German Aircraft Interiors 1935-1945 Vol 1. I made a small seat pad out of Miliput to cover the seat which has the seatbelts molded in. Next improvement was a set of old Waldron German Foot pedals and a set of Edward Luftwaffe seat belts to spruce up the stock cockpit a bit. The whole tub got put into the fuselage cockpit support (#37) to make a great little package that will drop into the assembled fuselage perfectly. Now I glued the two fuselage halves (#1/2) together and put the nose wheel well (#17) into place.

            I decided to display the plane with the weapons bay closed to show off the shark like appearance of the plane. I had to make a guess at how much nose weight would be needed to be glued into the small area. I used lead fishing weights epoxy in place and hoped I had enough. I glued the gun deck (#46) into place since it also acts as the roof of the nose gear well and added to make the nose area more ridged. Dry fitting of the gun port panel (#29) and the gun access panel (#38) shows many fit problems. I superglued these panels into place with super thick superglue to help fill in the gaps. I then used 400 grit sandpaper to reshape the nose. In the process I sanded off the small bulges on the gun access panels. I then went over this area a few times with Tamiya Putty and Mr. Surfacer to help hide the seams. I then dove into my spare parts and found some small blisters that were left over from a Hobbycraft F8F Bearcat (Tree “G” part #3 and #4). The blisters were used on the  Bearcat wing to replicate different versions. They looked perfect when glued in place of the missing blisters I had sanded off earlier.

            Now I turned my attention to the wings (#3/4/5). The wings should be displayed with the leading edge slats extended but the amount of work I would have to do was just more than I was willing to put out on this kit. It might be a different story if I was building the Tamiya Me-262. The wings glue up with no problems but are susceptible to wing droop and warping so take your time in gluing them together. I broke off the pitot tube right away and lost it somewhere on the floor. So that is going have to be replicated at a later time. The next thing to tackle was the engine nacelles. The left nacelle consist of the two halves (#9/84), the engine cowl (#10) and the two exhaust cone halves (#15/90). The fit of these components is not the best. After placing the nacelle to the wing you can attach the engine exhaust cowl (#50). The fit was really rough and the area needed heavy sanding. You have the ability to show off the engine which is detailed enough to make a nice display. But I decided to keep the nacelle closed. There is no other way to support the exhaust cone (#14/91) without the engine core so I glued the engine halves (#12/13) together and placed the engine into the nacelle halves (#8/83). Then I glued the front engine cowl (#10) to the nacelle. This got affixed the wing and the exhaust engine cowl (#51) to the end of the nacelle as I had done on the other wing. This area needed lots of filling and sanding. The fit is probably the worse part of this kit. For ease of work, I did not glue on the wings until I was finished sanding it down completely. Then using labeling tape and scribe plates I re-scribed the wings and fuselage. This was the most time consuming activity on this kit but the payoff was worth it.

I glued the wing onto the fuselage then filled and sanded the joints. I was pleased with the fit in this area. Next came the tail plane (#6) and the rudder (#7) turning the rudder slightly just to give the model a bit of life. I filled the joint of the tail plane to the rudder section with Mr. Surfacer and hit it with some 400 grit sandpaper. I also glued the front windscreen and aft windscreen (#68) onto the fuselage and sanded with 600 grit sandpaper. I polished out the glass with a soft cotton cloth. I used Tamiya masking tape to protect the glass for the remainder of the build.

The hardest part of this project is deciding on which one to model. There are so many great schemes to choose from. I decided on Yellow 7 flown by Ofw. Heinz Arnold of 11./JG 7 Parhim, Germany April, 1945. The actual aircraft can be found in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I have many reference photos of this plane and like the contrast in RLM 82/83 and the non standard upper wing camouflage. I used Model Master colors RLM 76, 82 and 83. For some reason I really like painting Luftwaffe planes. There is great satisfaction when you pull it off right. I used my own photos and books to get the mottling just right. A quick gloss coat of future and it was ready for decals.

I used SuperScale Decal Sheet 48-781 which worked out very well. But I believe there are a few mistakes I think the yellow 7 should be more straight instead of the curved down stroke of the 7. The badge should not be such a light shade of blue. But the dark blue and red bands around the tail are about perfect. They acted very well to Solva-set. Another coat of future then I used Model Master Flat to knock off the gloss sheen.