1/32 Avia S-92 (Czech Me 262)

[kfutter]

Prompted by a post in Adam's own 262 build thread, I decided I'd wind the clock back a bit and post some images of what is still one of my all-time favourite builds (of my own, that is). It started out as the Hasegawa 1/32 Me 262A kit, and I originally intended to finish it in Galland's markings, but it turned out that the kit decals were not really accurate. If found on an old Superscale sheet I had, however, a nice set of markings for the post-war Czech variant, called the Avia S-92. And so that's what it became.





I also had some leftover parts from the Trumpeter kit, as another builder had replaced them with resin upgrades.



I ended up combining the Trumpeter parts with a whole lot of scratch-building, and a complete rescribe of the airframe, to arrive at this:



















If you'd like to Czech out the gory build details, there's a build thread over on LSP:

http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=29698

Thanks for looking!

Kev

[hrtpaul]

Very nice there Kev

[tor lives]

A lovely aeroplane in some unusual colours. Nicely done Kev!!!
TOR

[kfutter]

Thanks fellas. I thought I'd augment this thread with a few random images of all the work that went into this model, as the finished photos tend to belie that somewhat.

Scratch-built landing gear retraction arms (kit part at bottom):



Scratch-built rear bulkhead with Trumpeter bearer in place:





Scratch-built nose wheel bay in situ:



Scratch-built nose wheel retraction piston:



And in place:



Fuselage interior coming together:





Cockpit decking details:



Fuselage interior finished:





Rescribing underway:



Scratch-built landing gear door details:



Pitot and landing light:



OK, I reckon that's enough! There's more to it than even these photos show, but I don't want to replicate the entire build thread here - just give some impression of how much work went in to this one. Still one of my most satisfying projects to date. I wish I had the time to do this kind of work these days, but at least my photography has improved!

Kev

[Adam the Akrodude]

Yep - that's the beauty I remember! I think I first saw your 262 at a Axis Eagles comp - would it be 5-6 years ago? Anyway, it's a cracker to behold "in the flesh" so to speak. I had no idea of the level of detailing and scratch building you did. It's for this very reason I did try (unsuccessfully) to campaign for "Degree of Difficulty" to be incorporated into the scoring at model comp's here. Whilst not easy to judge, I do believe this can be done using documentation provided by the modeller - photos, description of the build, etc). Having a "Degree of Difficulty" score would help separate models in a comp with equally decent paint jobs and reward the modeller that has gone the extra mile with his/her build. At present, there is nothing to reward the modeller in the Large Open Scale Aircraft category for adding complex detail/scratch-building, etc. May as well just build out of box and do a decent paint job. We've of course seen how this happens at comp's haven't we.
There is "Realism" in the scoring, but this is just not the same thing - similar, but does not totally cover detail and scratch building work entirely. A model can look "Real" just using painting/filtering/weathering alone. Anyhoo, I tried, but failed on this issue. Just my 2 cents worth.

Cheers and thanks for posting this Kev! It's certainly added some inspiration for my build!

Adam

[kfutter]

Yep - that's the beauty I remember! I think I first saw your 262 at a Axis Eagles comp - would it be 5-6 years ago?

Thanks Adam! I built this in 2011, and it took 3rd place in that year's Expo, plus, oddly enough, taking about Best Axis Aircraft. I also took it to Axis Eagles that year and got a first place. I think I retired it after that, as bits of the undercarriage started to fall off!

Kev

[AndrewDoppel]

Now that is a sweet looking bird Kev.

[kfutter]

Now that is a sweet looking bird Kev.

Thanks, Andrew!

Kev