Here are a few in-progress pics of three of my models I am working on.

The models are the Tamiya Do 335B, Monogram Me 262, and Revell Lippisch Li P 13a. All these models are 1/48 scale. They have their markings on now and are nearly done, the Do 335B will get some mild weathering before the final clear coat is put on it. I don't have any new pics of these models with their markings on them because I take all my pics outside and it has been very wet the last few weekends so probably any new pics will be of the finished models.

http://pic7.picturetrail.com/VOL195/1996958/6054204/85333069.jpg
http://pic7.picturetrail.com/VOL195/1996958/6054204/92528464.jpg
http://pic7.picturetrail.com/VOL195/1996958/6054204/92528307.jpg

The Me 262 was painted with AlcladII and then all panel lines were painted with gray paint to make it look like the gray colored putty that was used to smooth out the panel lines on the full scale a/c. RLM 82 was sprayed over the uppersurfaces very lightly so that some of the painted putty lines barely show through the paint.
I am trying to copy the camouflage seen on some late war Me 262's where they were given a thin coat of field applied paint. Some of JV 44's Me 262s were painted like this.
The nose and engine nacelles are painted a slightly different shade of paint to represent replacement parts from a different Me 262, a common practice used by the Germans in the last weeks of the war.
This model has been given markings that look like JV 44 style markings but will carry X-4 air to air rockets which make it a sort of JV 44 ''what if''.

agentsmith

It's guys like you who've almost driven me out of the model airplane hobby:).

I used to be a big builder of model aircraft kits. I thought I was pretty good but it became obvious that there are people who are better than I will ever be. That's the reason I've drifted more into sci-fi scratchbuilding where my talents are more competitive.

Your work is outstanding. I figure with skilled builders doing that kind of work, I should direct my energy elsewhere!

Brent,

Thanks for the more than kind words!

In other forums where I posted pics of some of my work I sometimes got a not so nice welcome because I like the Luft 46 type of models.
Some of the Luft 46 a/c look very much like sci-fi to me, that Li P-13a I am building is just one example, there are many others that look even more sci-fi than WWII!

If you get tired of sci-fi models hope you try one of the Luft 46 paper projects, they are fun to build and no ''experts'' can ever claim your model has the wrong colors or markings.


agentsmith

Well, I LOVE Luft '46 subjects, so you're very welcome here :).

John P,

Thanks for the welcome!

I have some really cool projects planned for this year, many of them Luft 46 types.

Also working on a Hasegawa 1/32 scale Fw 190A-8 that is being built as a late war A-9, this is a first for me as far as using resin after market parts.

At the same time I am building the Verlinden 1/48 scale Luftwaffe Airfield start cart set which is all resin and PE. I almost went insane this morning building the leaf springs, they are very small parts to work with and try and fold but managed to assemble them somehow.
These start carts will look good in my airfield pics and help add some realism to them.


agentsmith

I have those little carts too. I seem to recall they drove me crazy. On one of them, I rebuilt the whole chassis with brass rod after screwing up the kit chassis something awful.

But they do look cool sitting amongst my 1/48 Bf-109 collection. :).

Awesome finish! I luv 'em! Fox

Thanks FoxTrot!

The Do 335B looks quite a bit different now than it does in these pics, can't wait to get that one done. Its shaping up nicely.

agentsmith

I think the Lippisch is an unbelievably cool design! It says scifi as much as the current generation of X plane scram jets. I gotta get one!

Great shots, alway like to watch a build up. Thanks and keep them coming. :) rr

Thanks F-91 and roadrner!

F-91,
The Revell kit of the Lippisch P-13a is OOP at this time, I bought my kit years ago and am just now getting around to building it.
The good news is PM has released a 1/72 scale kit of the Li P-13a sometime last year and should still be available.

roadrner,
I had hoped these three models would be finished by now but last weekend I got sidetracked by those kits of the Luftwaffe start carts and my 1/32 scale Fw 190A-9 project.
I have too many interesting models being built at one time to make any real progress on any one of them. From now on no more than two models at a time will be built.
If any of my models are ever finished :rolleyes: I will post a few pics.


agentsmith

Yep, I'm gonna get a 1/72 Huckebein amd Lippisch P13. There is a 1/48 P-13a on the auction place right now.

F-91,

That Revell Li P-13a kit is pretty good, what few parts it has fit very well. The take off dolly is O.K. but is soft in detail and is not as well molded as the a/c.

The PM 1/72 Ta 183 is good but not great, it is interesting that the two fuselage halves are slightly different sizes which makes some putty and sanding unavoidable. The wing to fuselage join also needs some putty but is very easy to correct.
I have three more of these kits in my stash and will be adding more when I can, I think its a great Luft 46 subject and makes a good looking addition to the shelf.

http://pic7.picturetrail.com/VOL195/1996958/6054204/77731591.jpg
http://pic7.picturetrail.com/VOL195/1996958/6054204/77731440.jpg

Above are two pics of my PM Ta 183 ''black 5''


agentsmith

Agent smith, -Really cool huckebein! BTW, My son was down in Tillamook last weekend at the Air Museum and the Ice cream Factory.

ThanksF-91!

I went to the Tillamook Air Museum about 8 years ago and had a great time, there was a Bf 109 there but it was one of those Spanish built versions. At least it has a nice Luftwaffe paint scheme on it!
Another a/c that was interesting was the twin cockpit Spitfire, at that time I had no idea such Spitfires were ever built.
At the time I was there they had an unrestored Navy prototype on display, I have no idea what that a/c was but it was painted overall dark blue and a prop a/c. I like to see these a/c in their actual colors before restoration.

In the gift shop area they had a glass case which had a few models on display and I spent a while looking at those too. Back in those days I was very involved in RC flying models but after looking at those plastic models on display made my want to get back to building scale models again.

agentsmith

Agentsmith!

If you keep making those German airfields look so good, better watch the skies for a flight of B-17s heading towards your house!

I for one have always been interested in Luftwaffe 46 ever since I was in Munich and saw their actual 163 and 262. Good thing we won when we did.

John P's site is also a great look at German paper projects. Also his dad's account of his mission the day the A-Bomb was dropped was a fascinating read.

Thanks Parts Pit Mike!

Yes its very good the war ended when it did.
The Germans also had two other jets that are overlooked, the He 162 and Ar 234C.

The He 162 was only at the start of its development, if the Germans had more time later versions could have swept wings and butterfly tails making them faster and maybe even easier to fly. Plans were being made to fit a small drop tank to increase its range.

The Ar 234C was already very fast but if only a few more months were available they would have been built with swept wings making them very difficult to intercept.

Also the Ta 183 and BV 215 could have been developed into useful combat a/c.

BTW, my airfield will be getting some AA protection in the form of some Hasegawa 1/72 scale kits, 8 Ton Half Track with 37mm AA, Wirblewind and Ostwind. :tongue:

agentsmith

[QUOTE=Parts Pit Mike]
Good thing we won when we did.

QUOTE]

At the risk of sounding political, it's a good thing for the Germans that we won when we did. If they had held out for another four months, the first A-bomb would likely have found it's way to Berlin.

I enjoy the Luft '46 models because I'm a big fan of "what ifs". But, in all honestly, the Germans spent years building what if airplanes that would have likely never made an impact. The 262 had been flying for 3 years when the war ended and, even under the pressure of war time production, couldn't be delivered in numbers or made sufficiently reliable to affect events. It's fanciful thinking to believe that things would have been different if the Luftwaffe had lasted until 1946.

The USAAF took delivery of 13 YP-80's in October of 1944. A number of them were on their way to Italy when the war ended. Lockheed and North American had production contracts for over 5,000 P-80A's with deliveries beginning in 1945.

As models, Luft '46 subjects are fantastic. As history, they are awful. A lot of people look at the subject in a vacuum: imagining what the Germans could have done with another year. They forget that the allies were deploying new weapons (the germans did a lot of designing and little deploying) which would have inflicted unspeakable destruction on Germany if things had lasted longer.

Thanks for the wet blanket history lesson delivered as only Canadians can.

Brent,

For sure the Germans would have lost the war even if they had more advanced jets and other weapons.

The Allies were able to break the German secret codes early in the war and by the time the Me 262 was operational the Allies not only knew where the Me 262 bases were but how many planes were ready to fly missions.
That is partly the reason the 262 did not have a better combat record, constant attacks on their bases and then being moved often to new bases reduced their combat capability greatly.

The real reason the Germans would never have won WWII is Hitler and his group of thugs, no amount of wonder weapons could have won a war for a nation that had a madman for a leader.

But I still like those Luft 46 models even though I know they could not have been war winners for Germany, they could have made missions over Germany for the P-51 pilots much more interesting instead of the turkey shoots they actually were.

Yes its good the war ended when it did, the loss of life could have been far worse than it was for both sides of the conflict had it dragged for a few more months.

agentsmith

F91 "Thanks for the wet blanket history lesson delivered as only Canadians can."

Wow. What's that supposed to mean?

Well, as I've said, I do like the Luft '46 models and I've built a few myself.

I think a lot of modelers get tunnel vision when they don't realize that Luft '46 would have been fighting USAAF '46 and RAF '46!

The DH Vampire went into serial production on April 20 1945. The Gloster Meteor had been in service since July of 1944. The P-80 was in production and (as mentioned earlier) a few were just arriving in Italy as the war ended (sources conflict as to whether the planes were actually unloaded from the ship in time to actually fly in Europe before VE-day). Even the carrier born McDonnell FH-1 Phantom flew in January of '45. The F-84 Thunderjet would fly in January of '46.

There exists a notion in the mind of some that, had the war lasted, in April of '46 we would see TA-183's and Me-262's duking it out with Mustangs and Spitfires. In '44, before the war turned sour for the Germans, the P-80 was scheduled for mass production in the four main Lockheed factories and the Kansas factory of North American Aviation. The RAF Gloster Meteor was already stationed on bases on mainland Europe (2nd Tactical Air Force having left southern England) before wars end.

Brent,

Yes the Allies would have jet aircraft in '45 going onto '46 but the Germans understood the advantage of the swept wing and would have still had an advantage in speed. At least for a short time.
The P-80 and Meteor had unswept wings and I don't think plans to produce swept wing versions of these or other planes were made until the Americans had a chance to look at German research papers a few weeks after the war ended.

The P-51, P-47, and late war British piston engined fighters had a speed advantage over the Bf 109 and Fw 190A making them easy to overtake and shoot down, however the German jets would have had the speed to escape the Allied jets making the losses suffered by the Luftwaffe lower with a chance for their fighting units to build up some strength instead of nearly being wiped out on every mission while flying the piston engined fighters.

But like you said earlier in this thread the larger German cities would have been nuked if the Germans had managed to stop the Allied advance into Germany, many more lives would have been wasted.

It sure would have been interesting if Focke-Wulf and Blohm&Voss had built at a prototype or two of some of their desighns before the war ended, I always wanted to know how these planes would have performed.
I remember a couple years ago reading about someone who made a large RC scale model of a BV type a/c (like a BV 215) and it flew very well.
Last year I read in a RC modeling magazine a review of an electric powered ducted fan Ta 183 RTF model, it was interesting that the model made use of wing fences (clear plastic) just like the full sized Mig 15 used.
The reviewer said it was a good flyer with a high roll rate.

agentsmith

It means it was a joke that wasn't got.Generally, I've found that canadians have a dry, sardonic wit. BTW, You should know, I love Canada.
F91 "Thanks for the wet blanket history lesson delivered as only Canadians can."

Wow. What's that supposed to mean?

Okay, eh.

WOW!!! HOLY COW!!!

That is very cool work! You gotta make it up here next spring for the galaxy contest!

I will have my 1/48 B-24J with custom and after market turrets. It will be Cocktail Hour. ( the plane of course....but I will buy drinks! )

http://www.kensmen.com/COCKTAIL.jpg

Thank you fluke!

Where is this ''galaxy'' contest?

Also I am not an IPMS member and most contests I have read about require membership.

I live in a rural area where there are no other modelers or hobby shops. The nearest hobby shop is 65 miles away which is Trumps Hobbies in Corvallis and they mostly are into RC planes but they do have a big selection of plastic kits with even bigger prices.
My only contact with other modelers so far has been the internet, so entering a contest seems a bit overwhelming at this time, however going to a contest would be interesting to me to see other peoples work.

agentsmith