Shortly after I finally managed to get a Promodeller Me 410 there was of course the new model from Meng announced. However I like the plane, after seeing the original in Cosford some years ago so I ordered the new one, too.
Once I had a little geographical advantage and received mine quite quickly . I decided to do the Meng first, quite OOB as I assume it is a bit easier to assemble.
I do not want to add to any previous in box reviews, just so much: very nicely packed, expecially the clear parts, instruction book very nice, clear and large enough to be read without magnifiers. The plastic parts have really nice details, just the panel lines and rivets are for my taste a bit wide, but I do not regard this as a serious problem.


I followed the instructions and started not with the cockpit, but with the gun bay. Fits quite nicely and but I would not install the cartridge chutes at this stage again as they easily fall off and can be installed easily after the fuselage is put together.
Gun bay and cockpit are very nicely molded and I added just a few wires and made the levers myself. The pedals are PE from my spares box, the seatbelts are the kit’s. The cockpit looks very nice, not 100% as crisp as resin, but nearly. My only complaint are missing decals for the instruments. I seriously depleted my spares box, not able to get new ones in time.
In the instruction it is not very clear that the instrument panels are divided roughly in the middle and of course I got it wrong first time.
The parts fit very well and seem to fit in the fuselage to in very clear defined recesses. There are even 2 spreaders to keep the fuselage the correct width
The wings are separate and should be added as last step. Curious, if the they fit well and in the correct dihedral.

How can I get the pics larger?

I would copy the address of the large image from the gallery- right-click on it, and select "copy image location" or "copy image URL" or something similar, depending on browser. Then use the IMG tags, and paste this address between them:
{img}http://gallery3.kitmaker.net/data/500/CIMG2742a.jpg{/img}
(but using square brackets)

and you get:

Thanks very much Ben, tat did the trick!

Both cockpit parts fit in very nicely. I just would let off the deck of the aft cockpit, makes life unnecessarily difficult. There are 2 spars for the wings, which seem to give some nice support. But we will see later


You can install the rearguns later, as directly below is a separate fuselage insert. The guns are really nice, having very fine details and even muzzle openings.
The fuselage went nicely together until i tried to fix the clear part .
I tried to clamp it together but there was too much load on the parts

The problem is, that the fuselage is open at the front end and can be easily spread so that the clear part won't fit.
At the end I spread it even more and was luckily able to get the forward cockpit out again. I had to thin the floor and the instrument panels at the side quite a bit. After that the fit was much better, but still not perfect.
Not sure if I made a mistake in alignment of the instrument panel or if the design of the original plane with its open front end lead to this problem.

The bomb bay is quite nice. The 5cm BK is still missing. I plan to leave it open to show the nice details.

Nice one Tom!

Really nice work so far! It's not fair though.. our kit still hasn't crossed The Pond from Staff_Jim, and you've got me itching more than ever to get started on it!

Keep 'em coming, and all the best

Rowan

Hi Merlin

It is a real nice kit and an interesting subject, that's why I started so quick. I just wish I had a better camera.
For some funny reasons the Chinese models are normally available in China much later than elsewhere, but Meng made a recommendable exception here. Got it actually before New Year. And the local prices are quite attractive too

Best regards from China

I'm toying on getting this kit myself it will be good to watch your progress. Looking good so far

Hi Tom

Staff_Jim's package arrived today, so I hope to start having some fun with the kit this weekend. With you as guide, I hope to avoid too many pitfalls...

All the best

Rowan

Hi Merlin

Actually there are no pitfalls. Only problem is to be careful with the cockpit width so that the nose is not squeezed apart. AndI would install the guns after the fuselage is together, otherwise the window is a bit difficult to fit in and the cartridge chutes are in the way.

The update took a bit because i had to tone down the funny molded disks on the wings and tailplane.

.

They are on the Promodeller model too but not on the real plane. I heard they are some canvas patches!?
I also cut out the slats and spend some quality time fixing my lousy cut and smoothen the slats.

By the way, has somebody an idea what this structure in the box should be? Looks like retracted dive brakes, but did the B version as a fighter had dive brakes?



Finally installed the tailplanes and the top mainwings.
The wingspars are a little short, so to get a nice fit I only installed the top part of the wings and fit the lower part later.

Glued now the undersides of the wings on. I did this to reduce the gap between wings and fuselage. Unfortunately the wing parts are completely separate, like in the Promodeller kit, without incorporating the underside of the fuselage. You have more visible seams and it is more difficult to adjust the dihedral right. The gap is smaller than it looks on the pic, just put in some Mr Surfacer, nothing really bad.

I only want to show the port engine, so I assembled the starboard nacelle completely. I made a small box inside the cowling to be able to install the exhausts without engine.

to close the front i cut out a circle and superglued in a rivet as propeller shaft

I want to keep the gunbay open, showing the nice details. The metal barrel is the only extra I bought for the kit.


A question for all Me-40 experts: The cover for the gunbay seems to be one part. How is this part opened? Are there any hinges? Or is it actually split in the middle like the standard gun bay doors like in the plane in Cosford?

Any help would be appreciated.

Hi, Tom! First off: great work on your 410 so far- cheers! I'm very curious to see the sprues of this kit firsthand, but I doubt I'll buy one. I've already built my 410.

As far as that gun cover goes, I think the whole thing came off as one piece and was moved to the side. I've seen a pic with no hinged panels evident, but a large section of the fuse lying on the ground nearby. You'd need a lot of room to work on that monstrous gun!

Those elongated panels on the upper wing are indeed the bizarre, venetian-blind dive brakes. I do not know if the B model had them- but they were likely standard to all models, thanks to the requirements of Herr Goering and friends.

I'll be watching with interest- have fun with it!
chuk

Hi Tom

Nice going. It's seems a shame to waste a nice engine if you're not going to display it, so your propeller mount is a neat trick.

Chuck must have posted while I was busy writing my reply , but to back-up what he's said:

Re- your earlier point about dive-brakes, the WWP In Detail only states that they were fitted to early production '410s, so I'll fill them on my kit.

The annotated illustration in the same book for the BK-5 cannon is taken from an original servicing manual and simply mentions a "removable cover panel" - nothing about it opening like the normal bomb doors, and it doesn't seem to split and hinge in the diagram. (The fact that it was bulged probably meant it simply wouldn't fit like the original doors...)

All the best

Rowan

The overwing dive brakes seemed common... One crew described trying to trick attacking P-51 and P-47s by opening them up at close range during an attack, and thus "slip" the attacker in front to fire on him...

In the one account I read, this trick didn't allow destroying the P-51, but it did muddle things enough for the 410 to get away in a cloud, with quite a few holes in various places... It didn't look like too encouraging an ordeal, going by the crew's account... It did seem to offer something over the Me-110G however, in addition to the better speed...

Gaston

Thanks Chuck, Rowan and Gaston

Your help is much appreciated! And tanks for your kind wors Chuck. Compared with your masterpiece mine is just a quick and dirty OOB build.
Seems to be the opinion abt. the dive brakes is 2:1 , so I will leave them as they are.

The drawings I have seen of the 5cm BK are a little ambiguous and as far as I know anyway for the Me-410A as actually nearly all of the drawings I have seen.
No problem at all, the gun bay is very busy and I anyway want to show it open, so i will just leave the belly-cover off. I just need to figure out a way to fix it under the cockpit floor like the real one. Meng want to fix it on the belly plate.

No worries about the engine. I just closed the port nacelle, the starboard one will be open. I have a me-110 exactly the opposite way and want to display them together.
The spare engine will be kept for the Promodeller kit.

No further update, after a Chinese New Near party I feel not really like holding sharp tools.

Greetings from Shanghai

After some time now a little update.

Did a lot of not very interesting stuff, like installing all the control surfaces, sanding, the slats, installing the coolers etc.

I opened the both cooling flaps, the top one is a separate part, the bottom has an optional part. Quite nice. Unfortunately the actuators will not fit then. However 2 originals were broken anyway (complete sprue broken, packing mistake) and one in the following disappeared into outer space.
I tried to replicate the original scissors, but the first version was to big. The final version is better now and in the right place. The outer one is very close to the wall (you can see it in Cosford, while the locating holes are more to the middle.



The engines are very nice, no real need for aftermarket. I tuned them a bit with different gauges and cables. The engine cradles have the right shape, but the depressions inside (for the steelpressing) not. I first wanted to drill them out and back them up with a thin sheet, but then painted them with Mr Surfacer 500. 2 Layers and a bit sculpting with a toothpick, quite nice result. I like Mr Surfacer!



I planned to install the engines after the wings are glued together to avoid the fuss with the small parts when aligning them. Looked like it would just fit, but did not! So I bent the cradles, thinned here and there and finally get them in, but without a real positive fit.
So follow the instruction in this special case!

However I did not like the engines this way. The nice charger and backside of the engine is hidden, you actually see only the crankcase.



So I took the whole thing out again and cut off one more panel on the topside at the leading edge of the wing. “Inspired” by chukw I added pipes and wires and made the space really busy. Now I was able to fit the engine exactly and positive with ease.
The engine is actually nice enough to show even the underside, you can cut off the bottom cover easily too and show it off.




I recommend to cut before joining the wing upper and lower half, very easy to follow the panel lines. If you do want to cut the top panel you should install the engine then, afterwards its really a kind of a problem.

Greetings from Shanghai

Nothing highly exiting done recently. Added the last bits to the gunner's cockpit, some small gauges and the gun sights for the remote controlled guns. Nice parts.

The canopy is very nice too,very clear and having inside and outside frames. The inside frames are raised (a bit difficult to make a photo) Its clearly shown in the instruction what should be painted. Just brushed them, quite easy.

Not so easy is the installation of the glasshouse.2 sidepieces, 2 top pieces and 2 hatches plus a windshield. Fits all together quite well, but.... not on the model.
I fixed the windshield first, then the starboard side part. fit was not great, gap at the bottom. Then I thought fixing the port side part and add the top parts later. They are rectangular, so easy to sand.
Unfortunately the port side part is the one with the openings for the hatches and very flexible.
So when glued in, it warped, the tops did not fit and the rear end was not really in line with the fuselage.

After some thinking, I carefully tried to remove the rearend of the canopy and of course it broke off fortunately at the very thin frame under the opening.
Glued it again in, this time in the right position.
The top pieces needed to be sanded down a bit, but its now fitting and already masked.

From the quality this is for sure an improvement to the older Promodeller kit,much clearer, but from the installation I don not think so. Looks basically same, except the top is separately, actually even more difficult to install due to more parts and no locators.
Due to the bulging design the parts tend to slide outside, and the separate tops......
Maybe they should have split the thin across instead of lengthwise.
For the priming I installed the engine covers and canopy hatches temporarily with glue. Easier to mask and when painting and weathering I get the same shades

Hi Tom

Nice job! The engine looks especially neat!

I've been frustrated in my effort to start the kit properly due to work and illness, so modelling's had to take a back seat.

All the best

Rowan

Hi Merlin,

all the best for your health!

the engines are really nice, but beware of the engines

Cheers from Shanghai

Good work!

What a great cockpit!

I decided this kit is a keeper: With two Zvezda Me-109 spinners and two Zvezda Me-109F oil coolers (better than the kit ones), it is a good representation, if substitute props can be found...

The canopy has slightly too square corners in cross-section at the windshield brace level: To simplify everything, I will glue all the forward clear parts together, solidify them into a solid piece, and make a smash-mould master with it.

This will allow a "rounder" cross-section appearance in front via sanding, but also it will reduce the complexity of the front canopy pieces to one main part, for the front half at least... Likely the much more complicated rear canopy shapes will have to be kept as kit parts...

What substitute props from another kit could be used for this type? I don't want to use resin props...

Also a hard edge scheme suggestion, with no soft edge mottling, would be very useful...

A very motivating build so far...

Gaston

Thanks Gaston!

I would do the canopy different next time. Hope there are no surprises when i remove the masking.

I will definitely change the spinners, they are soo much shorter than the Promodellers. Have already an idea how. Oilcoolers will stay as they are.
The Propeller look a little pointy and small for me, but not sue which one would fit.
Btw I just started with the mottling. have not too many pics of the B-model with the big gun. This will be as OOB as I can, the Promodeller then will be converted into something more special.
Have you realized, that the Meng kit contains the rocket launchers under the wings and some PE parts which are not used? Hints to a different version in planning

Greetings from Shanghai

Have holidays here, so progress is a bit faster.

Painted the camouflage. The wings have "nearly" sharp edges the fuselage is free hand sprayed and mottled (except the white band of course). Washed the the panel lines with a dark gray and sprayed future on it as preparation for decaling.



While the future was drying I started to prepare the landing gear.
That looks like a bad copy from the Promodeller

Wheels not bulged, main gear simplified, the oleo scissor looks like fully extended because the spring is longer. But the overall length is the same so you cannot just cut out a part. Much less detail, the longitudinal strut looks not like the real thing, the cross strut is missing completely.



Its not a disaster but simply not good and not that easy to fix.
I cannot really understand why a newer kit has worse details than an older one. There is an original existing and you can find pics in the net in minutes.
I really wish somebody makes a replacement for the gears!

Greetings from Shanghai!

I upgraded the landing gear by gutting out the rubberbellow, as this special plane seems not to have one at all time. In a lot of photos I have seen the rubbers not installed You can see the shiny oleo nicely in the pic.



I replaced it with stainless wire, and shortened the visible part by putting a "Q-tip"cover over it so that the scissors look more in a slightly weighted position.



I added a cross strut and used some micro cable for the brakelines

The landing gear fits quite well. I added the longitudinal strut last. The cover was a bit difficult to install. Next time I would leave the wheels off until the end.

The canopy looks ok so far, no paint bleeding under the masking, but the fit gives me a fit. Had to fill more gaps with superglue and Mt Surfacer.





I put already most of the weathering on, using several of Chukw' s tips. Nothing remarkable about that.

I do not like the props and spinner. The spinners are abt 2 mm shorter than Promodellers and look a bit small and blunt. The prop-blades have a funny shape and are the same size as on my Me-110. Shouldn't they be bigger (or wider with a much more powerful engine?
I tried to bring the blades in a better shape but it still looks not right. With that I decided its not worth to change the spinners.


I hope somebody will make a resin part in replacement, then I can throw away the kit parts

I would not measure parts for accuracy normally, but when it looks really wrong to me I start to compare with the other kit or photos from Cosford.

Greetings from Shanghai

great paint work!

Best 48th scale spinners (for 109 F onwards, 110 F onwards, 210 and 410) are those from the Fujimi 109 kits!
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