Hi guys welcome to my next project. As the title states this will be a twin build of two Me 262's both in 1/72 scale. One will be Revell's Me 262 B-1a/U1 Night Fighter. The second will be MPM's Me 262 A-1a/U4 with the 50MM Cannon sticking out of the front. SWEET!!!

To help maintain the Twin theme of this project and to cut down on the confusion deciphering between the 262 B-1a/U1 and the 262 A-1a/U4 I will dedicate each aircraft to one of my own 19 month old twins. From here on out I will refer to the 262 B-1a/U1 Night Fighter after my lovely daughter Delaney and the 262 A-1a/U4 with the "Big Cannon" will be named after my son Beckett

On to the kits:

First up we have the Revell Me 262 B-1a/U1 Night Fighter or Delaney. Its a fairly nice kit with an acceptable amount of detail. No extras included with this kit.







The add-ons:



Next we have the MPM Me 262 A-1a/U4 "Big Cannon" or Beckett. This kit was originally made in the early 90's. Surprisingly it has some decent details but it appears to be covered by a lot of flash.







The cool thing about this kit is it comes with some great extras like 2 1/2 sheets of Photo Etch and a vacuform canopy.



Well the stage is set, and the band is tuning their instruments. Soon the curtain will rise on the opening act which will be the construction of Delaney's [B-1a/U1] cockpits

Thanks for looking...

I guys and welcome to the first part of the twin Stormbird build. I'm starting with Delaney's #1 cockpit. This took me a lot longer then I care to admit but its all part of the process I guess.

Here is the first part from the kit


Here we have the the first of the Photo Etch parts before and after





Now before we place this first piece of PE we need to make room by cutting out the kit part.





Here the console is in place but its still not right. Its sitting to high and needs to be lowered.



Here you can see where I added some PE panels and levers.



Next I moved onto the rudder pedals. These were a royal pain in the arse and will most likely the last set I put into any of my aircraft. They are just to much work and will never be seen.







Next I'm moving onto the instrument panel. On the left is the kit part and the right is the PE part that gets placed over top the original



I painted the interior with Poly Scale RLM 66. It has a slightly bluer tone to it like some of the actual color photos of the 262 cockpit. I chose the Poly Scale over the Model Masters RLM 66 not only because of its accuracy but because it allows us to see the detail much better then the darker Model Master.



Next I moved onto the pilot seat. It was here that Murphy (He wrote a bunch of laws) reared his ugly head and I broke the seat.



My resolution to this problem was to make a Frankenstein seat. I took the kit seat, cut the bottom off and attached the PE seat back. SWEET!





Next i installed the PE framework for the seat, some levers and the seat belts. Next went the control stick and the seat. Hold on a minute. Here comes Murphy again. The seat doesn't fit in the cockpit. The funny thing is the PE seat back is no bigger then the standard kit part. The resolution was to shave down the cockpit walls with a file till the seat fit.





Finaly we have the completed cockpit





Thanks for looking...

Till next time

These four parts make up the Junkers Jumo 004 Engines.





Here you can see the second cockpit. As you can see the seat pad is a different color. That's because I didn't like the color of the first one and went out and bought some brown paint. I think the back seat looks better. As for the color mismatch that's ok because apart from these photos it will never be seen an cushions wear differently and by the time this aircraft was serviceable uniform parts were hard to come by. They would use whatever they had.







I filled the front wheel well with plumbers putty for ballast to keep the nose wheel on the ground. I hope its enough. :roll:



Model Master RLM 82 was used as the base for the wings.


Model Master RLM 81 Splinter pattern was then applied




Model Master RLM22 was applied to the bottom of the wings and the engine nacelles


Then came the realization I never cut out the wheel wells. :oops:







Here is the PE Wheel Well walls




Model Master RLM 76 was used for the base coat for the fuselage


For the fuselage camo pattern I used Model Master RLM 74. This process has been extremely tedious




I still have a long way to go before the camo pattern is done. As tedious as its been I have to say I like it a lot.


Till next time, Keep em flying!

Keep going Dirk, looks good from here. Got to love that Me 262. Russell

Really nice job, Dirk. When I built my Revell 262, I used the same method of weighting the nose as you, stuffing it with Sculpey modeling clay. I did push as many lead fishing sinkers into it as I could, for added weight.

Your "squiggley" camo is really something. How in the world did you do that? I was impressed with your work with the P.E., but that camo scheme really intrigues me.

Keep it going, ...great job.

Cheers,
Mike

The bottom was finished off with RLM22.



Finishing off the Junkers Jumo engines



Dry fitting the components together





Moving on to the front wheel well. For this I decided to go withthe PE part rather than the kit part.









More to come

Not much to show here but I was able to do a little more on the fuselage blending the camouflage a bit.











On to the landing gear doors









Started the canopy



Added the additional radio for the rear searter





This bad girl had over 50 decals and most of them are beyond tiny.





The aftermath.



I think that about covers this one for now. Thanks for looking.

I think it's very nice

I like it very much


Cheers Nick

Nice build! Like the way you've done the camo on the B-1a/U1, much simpler than airbrushing the lot and very effective. I have one of these in the stash and keep putting of the build because of the paint job. Thanks for sharing can't wait to see the A-1a/U4.

Cheers
Damo

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

Damo, I'm not sure If I will be starting the 262 A-1a/U4 (Beckett) just yet. I saw an Idea for a 262 VI prototype I think I might try next. There is something about a Me 262 tail dragger with a prop that has me all excited. Time will tell....

Very nice camo Dirk and the end result is good too.

Fantastic camo job!
Have you used a brush?