My little Spatz

[Cap'n Wannabe]

What RLM 81 are you using?

Hi Brad

It's "Mr. Hobby" aqueous paint. I'm pretty happy with the 81. Their 82 was way too light and needed darkening which I did and now comes pretty close to all my references. We should get Damo into the convo - he loves discussing RLM paints!

Yep. There's green, another green, a different green, a coupla blues, yellow, and red. There might be other colours, but I don't care.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Hi Brad

It's "Mr. Hobby" aqueous paint. I'm pretty happy with the 81. Their 82 was way too light and needed darkening which I did and now comes pretty close to all my references. We should get Damo into the convo - he loves discussing RLM paints! [/quote]
Yep. There's green, another green, a different green, a coupla blues, yellow, and red. There might be other colours, but I don't care.[/quote]

You strangly forgot to mention all the greys and the browns - tut tut tut, I think we need a RLM paint guide refresher course Cap'n! One day, I'm going to make a Luftwaffle C172 resplended in mid-war RLM greys - gotta love Luftwaffles! Now which category would I enter it into at Expo?

Luftwaffles by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

[Adam the Akrodude]

Oiling/filtering/griming time!

This is a slow process, but the most fun for me. Whilst not in operation very long, they were moved around a bit and the one I'm doing did actually go on combat patrols and did fire its cannon. Without a doubt they would have leaked like sieves and the fuel itself was more like a diesel and thus more oily/waxy/paraffin based than the refined kerosene based Jet A-1 we have today. They were based on grass fields and not nice clean sealed hangars, so dirt combined with oily fuel = grim and that's what reference photos show. The Brit's captured these birds all nicely lined up at Leck in early May 1945. So, the plan is to display my Spatz c/w engine on the trolley on a grass base with some sealed taxiway with a British officer (maybe in RN uniform if I can find one to represent Capt "Winkle" Brown) inspecting it - see how I go.


One can get an idea of just how mucky these jets got by looking at how they appeared in those dying days of WW2 and just afterwards. Photos below of He-162s at Leck in Germany - late April/early May 1945.

Untitled-4 by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

cba472d6a81b3b207cf516ed6a4e8b6c by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

He162_2 by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

He_162_Salamander_worldwartwo.filminspector.com_10 by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

2_fs by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

Now where I'm at with the oiling/griming and engine work.

Scratch built "drive shaft" (that pipe/shaft thang at the rear of the engine) which I'm guessing is part of a augmenter in the tail section of the engine to open/choke the exhaust as is done on modern turbines. Some may be interested to learn that the BMW-003 engine was the basis for the French ATAR engine. So out of the evil of this program, some good at least came of the design. The Russians also copied this engine as well (RD-20).

20180620_161324_resized[3743] by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

Two more pipes/wring looms added - plenty more to come -ARGH!

20180620_170844 by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

Oiling & griming

20180620_170806_resized[3741] by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

20180620_170719_resized[3740] by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

[hrtpaul]

The model looks great but that engine and the stand, f&*king awesome

[Graeme H]

Really coming along nicely

[Adam the Akrodude]

Thanks guys! More engine "bling" to come Paul! The engine is a model in itself and was crying for detail. It does pose a dilemma for Expo entry as Ed Russel advised that it would most likely be ignored even though it's part of the same kit. If so, then I would enter it separately in another category -possibly Miscellaneous. Anyway, I will seek clarification on this. I can't put all this effort in for it to be ignored gadamnit!


Latest update is the beautiful Master Details gun barrels and nose gear position indicator have been installed with the pitot tube to be the last bit attached. These brass bits are just jewels and highly recommended.

[hrtpaul]

I'll be watching. I've got a couple of 1/32 F-16's that will be aggressor jets that have separate engines and I'd like to go to town on one cos they look cool as. There's somehing else in the stash that has a separate engine that I wanna do the same thing too but can't remember what it is dammit.

[Adam the Akrodude]

I'll be watching. I've got a couple of 1/32 F-16's that will be aggressor jets that have separate engines and I'd like to go to town on one cos they look cool as. There's somehing else in the stash that has a separate engine that I wanna do the same thing too but can't remember what it is dammit.

I bought a 1/32 Tamiya T-birds F-16C awhile ago which I will tackle one day. I've not had a close look at the engine, but guessing it lacks a lot of the plumbing being a Tamiya kit. I will publicly bow low with deep respect if you can tackle this F-16 plumbing - it would be all kinds of awesome! It's tedious work but worth it. I can only handle doing a couple of pipes at one time - each one taking me at least half an hour with the eyes wanting to explode! I think as long as the major bits of plumbing are there it makes a big difference. I added quite a bit of wiring and plumbing to the wheel well to. The genious of Tamiya is what they do, they do really well and leave plenty of scope for super detailing for those mental enough like me to tackle. I get my money's worth out of each kit, but it makes for a slow build.

DSC_1608 by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

DSC_1618 by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

[hrtpaul]

Yeah I agree. Even a few extra pipes makes all the difference I reckon. Hey if you wanna swap or sell the gear and doors plus the intake bits from your T-birds kit I'll take em off your hands as they're required to build a Block 30 jet which I wanna do.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Spent two hours over the w/e recreating the canopy lock and toggle/lanyard for my Spatz - my second version. My first attempt at this finished the Saturday morning of Expo when this "Mk.1" attempt at this went sailing across the man cave having sprung out of my tweezers - FFS!!!!!!!

This item contains 7 separate parts in total and is about 5mm long - pretty freakin' mad huh! I'm recording this mainly for myself as a measure of my madness regarding this build. The more photos of the bloody BMW-003 engine, the more pipes and wires I see - AAAARRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Canopy lock by Adam Dormer, on Flickr