Hi all,
With the weather finally warming up for a couple of days I finally got to do some serious painting on my ME-262. I do still have to paint the white Afrika service band on the rear of the fuselage.
Don't pay attention to the wing joints in the one pic. The fuselage is just setting on the wings and the others are just poked in the holes. When the paint really sets up I'll get the wings all glued and looking real good.




Does anyone have any good tips for printing ink jet decals? I am trying to print out my 'Totanhand' squadron marking and so far I do not like the quality of what I am getting. Things just look like little puddles of ink instead of a nicely printed decal Maybe I am not using the correct printer resolution?, picture resolution? Or is that the best ink jet can do? I may look into the laser printed route or maybe I'll just paint my squadron markings by hand.
Any tips or help would be very much appreciated.

Good modeling,
Wayne

Looks good, but I don't think there was an Afrika Korps 262 was there???

This never served in either Italy or North Africa - am I missing something? Jim

Guys, it's a what-if and you've just been fooled!

:-)

Wayne, what colours did you use on the 262? I would have put sand colour there, but it might not have been as nice as yours!

You are absolutely right guys. The ME-262 was never operational in WWII Africa
This is my project for the Double Take campaign which is a strictly 'what-if' type of thing as OllieC has mentioned. The idea of Double Take is to take any aircraft or thing that flies and change history by painting it in camoflage and/or squadron markings that never happened with the craft...such as my Arfika Korps ME-262. The campaign is still going for a while if interested in joining up

OllieC- I had thought about using sand gelb as a base for the jet and then putting tiger stripes over the top of that which would look extremely cool. The official description of the real scheme I borrowed for my 262 has RLM 02 Grau, RLM 65 Hellblau on the sides , and RLM 70 Schwarzgrun for the stripes. I decided to stick with that instead of the tan. I may do a companion 262 sometime using the sand gelb tho. The two contrasting 262's sitting beside each other would look really cool

Good modeling,
Wayne

The "Tiger Stripes" are outstanding. Are you going to place it in a Dio ?

Niiiiiice...

What are you going to do with the seams at the wing roots?



And what kit is it?

yea why not a what if!!
So many german jets where what is as well!
Ron

Thanks CRS I hadn't actually thought about a dio but if I can come up with a good idea, that just may be a possibility




Thanks too OllieC...I did a lot of test fitting with the wings before I did any painting. The fit on this kit is fabulous. The wings and the fuselage are going to glue up really good and tight and other than possibly touching up a little paint somewhere I shouldn't have to do anything with the joints
The kit is the Tamiya 1/48th Me262-A-2a with kettenkraftrad. So far this kit has gone together sooo well. Tamiya kits are all usually good but this one seems to me to be a superb fitting kit.

Thanks too Phantom Major and Hoovie. I appreciate all the comments.

Good modeling,
Wayne

Ollie, will people like you and Fitzer keep away from me with all these hypothetical ideas? I don't need Luft '46 or do I need DAK 262s...On the other hand...Jim :-)

I thought that we were out of Africa by the time the 262 came out? BTW exellent job thats amazing, i cant wait to see it finished!

I originally thought it might have been for one of those what-if campaigns but it was posted in aircraft and not the campaign. Had everyone fooled there you little......

You are correct on that point TsunamiBomb. My Me262 is a totally hypothetical, what-if aircraft. And thanks for the compliment too




I sure am raising some eyebrows with my Double Take project..excellent :-)
I did post my pics in the campaign forums too but also posted them here for a lot of modelers who may not look or see them in there in the campaign forum. But look closely Alan...I did use the "What-if" group selection I was being sneaky :-) :-) :-)

Thanks everyone and good modeling,
Wayne

Hi Wayne...
you certainly made a few members do a Double Take with the 262....lol.

Love the tiger stripes.
The scheme might be a fitting one for what-if Balkans operations if not only North Africa.

Also we might get Jim doing a secret project piece yet...lol.

Cheers and thanks
Peter


:-)

Hehehe...

You know what the What If motto is, eh?

"Subvert and convert!"

To the decal question, there may be some paper that's designed for that. Check the web stores. If not, you'll need to got the laser route, but remember, there is no white in these printers. The OOP Alps printer did this. You'll need to carefully mask and paint the area under your decal white before appling it.

Wayne, about your decal problems, try coating the paper with Model Master Flat or Poly Scale Flat before printing.

I heard it could help the ink bite down.

A very nice what if projecy Wayne. The Tiger stripes are really well done. I think you might have to scratch build some sort of sand filter for those jet engines :-)
Mal

Thanks for the comments on the 262 and tips on the decals guys.
I have tried different paper settings from normal to photo paper, different picture and print resolutions from 92 up to 300. So far I just don't like what I am getting.
OllieC - I will try spraying the flat and see what happens. It definitely can't hurt to try.
I have also read in one of the threads about painting the decals on the paper. Has any of you tried that or does it sound like it would work?

Mal - For a very short time that idea entered my brian but didn't know what to do with it :-)
I know that the other aircraft that actually did fly in Africa had sand filters and thought that if an Me-262 really did fly combat there then it would, without a doubt, need something to protect it from all the sand.
Just what the heck would one look like for the front of the jet engines? I havn't attempted any scratch building yet but wouldn't think this would be all that difficult. I do need some ideas and advice on what it would look like and how I would make it tho

Thanks everyone,
Wayne

If this fails, try going to a place where they make photocopies and have them print it with a laser copier.

I woudn't put a sand filter there since it would restrict the airflow too much. Just have a mechanic standing by that'll put a cover on the engine when it shuts down!

Hey Wayne-

No, I'm not a stalker that followed you here from the FSM boards...well, not technically any way... at least I'm more than 500ft away from you right now so there's no need to call the cops... :-)

As I said over at FSM, I love your idea for the 262...

Sorry to hear about your problems printing your decals. Just cuious...what brand decal paper are you using? I recently used some decal paper from Testors in my bubble jet printer and was very pleased with the results. The decale paper printed perfectly with no color bleed.

My second thought centers around the photo software you're using to adjust the size of the image you're trying to print. I was running into detail problems on a project too (I was using the dell image software on my laptop...), but then I got my hands on Photoshop and for whatever reason, the image smoothed right out...something to do with the compression algorythm or something....i dunno.

If that doesn't work, or you don't want to spend the dough on photoshop, I've found everything looks better after a couple of these ...... :-)

Good luck- and Cheers!
-scott

Hi Scott, welcome to Armorama
I would Imagine that if these early jets ever did operate in the desert then a sand filter would be the very first mod that would have to be carried out? I envisage a truncated cone that projects inside the engine front with the truncated portion around the cone that projects from the front of the compressor. It would of course be perferated.
This could be made fairly easily. Cut a disc in 5thou plasticard, cut a line to the centre and form the disc into a cone. Get the base diameter to the size of the inside of the engine intake, mark and cout it to size. Cut a circle out of the middle that, when the cone is formed it will fit around the compressor cone. Punch a zillion holes in a neat pattern all over the shape using a sharp pointy thing. Re-wrap the cone and secure with a strip of plastic on the back (inside), paint and fix in place :-)
Mal

Hi BigTon
Glad to see you here at Armorama too. This is a great group of military modeling enthusiasts. I am sure you will enjoy your time spent here

I am using the Testors brand decal paper and am currently using Corel Photo Paint for my graphic work. I have tried prespraying it to help the ink set down better but it didn't help me at all
I think my problem has to do with my brand of printer and the ink they use in the cartridges. I have an Epson photo quality printer which prints out excellent quality photos and anything else I need to print. But for some reason the printed decals look like @#%$
I took my pics out to my Mom's and tried it on her older HP deskjet, and another relatives newer HP deskjet printer and the decals look GREAT
It must have something to do with the Epson ink. I think I remember seeing somewhere in the threads someone mentioning oil based ink and non oil based ink. That is probably the answer there.
I am thinking about trying out a couple of the different better quality brands of decal paper. Hopefully they will work on my Epson, but if not, I can still always use them on my Mom's printer.

Mal - thanks for the idea on making the sand filters. It will take me a few times reading your post to get in my head a picture of your idea ...but it will get there eventually Actually.... I just read it again and I think I am getting the idea I'll keep reading
Plasticard Is that the sheet styrene stuff in the model stores? I am a total newbie at scratchbuilding anything at all
Is there a small enough metal mesh that would look good for the front of the filter? That would save time in punching billions, and billions, and billions, (Carl Sagan impersonation :-) of tiny holes.
I'll start looking into seeing what I can do This sounds fun to try.

Good modeling everyone,
Wayne

I just had an idea about where you can find a fine metal mesh....

If you go to a tobacco shop you should be able to find small circular mesh filters for pipes. They may just work out for your intake filters on that bad boy.


-scott