Voir er Savoir 43 - Me262

Greg Baker
All right.. who am I to stand in the way of popular opinion. Let's kick off another Voir er Savoir project, the Me262. Since this one doesn't have a propeller, no need for a dc motor, but I feel like adding lights to the engine. For my Area 88 builds, I usually add orange LEDs, but I feel like this one should be different. Should I use red ones? Anyone got an opinion?

Spanjaard
Nice idea to have leds, squeezing them in the nacelles is interesting, but, what about the cables?

Bozzer
Greg, do an eBay search for prewired SMD's. They run on 3v, and bro, you'll be amazed at what you can do with them. Trust me 👍

Greg Baker
Thanks Bozzer... I've got a bunch of SMDs and have used them to good effect before. That might be the way to go here. The wiring will be tight, but I think I can carefully feed them through the wheel wells and into the main fuselage. It'll be tricky, but I think it's do-able.

Of course... I ALWAYS think it's do-able... until I do it...😉

Spanjaard
Really curious about how you get those cables in there....

Bozzer
Try to avoid the flashing one's, unless you run them on a different circuit. I found that they backfeed and caused everything else to flash too. I have wired my own in the past, but mate, it's harder than picking your nose in handcuffs! Good luck buddy 👍

Spanjaard
As u see it, it is only possible drilling inside of the wing... horizontally. Very, very tricky

Donald Dickson II
Look at you, caving to peer pressure.

Bozzer
Oh another useful tip. I used the circuit board from a small solar garden light, hid the solar panel near the cockpit, so it got light, then recharged the battery. That was in a 1/144 747 though. I also used dressmakers pins through the wheel legs, careful drilling, hooked them to the battery, so I could give it a boost if necessary. Sadly, the 747 hit the deck and I had no choice but to bin it. It was a brand new release, Iron Maiden Ed Force One too! 🙁

Greg Baker
That is a TRAGEDY, Bozzer. Do you have a memorial album so we can see it? I checked your timeline, it seems overrun by trucks... some of them lit up. I have a friend who was supposed to wiring up a 1/24 Firetruck, but seems to have copped out. Maybe he could use some tips from you.😉 cough... don... cough... 😛

I'm intrigued by the solar panel. You can get them pretty cheap off eBay and the rechargeable idea is a good one. I put batteries in some of my earlier projects, but opted to go with USB plugs instead (which, you can connect to a battery as well...). One thing I recently did was retro-fit all my Area 88 1/144 scale projects with micro USB plugs so that I wasn't buried in wires. On a one-off project, wiring it up directly was fine, but after 3-4 the spaghetti starts getting out of control.

Greg Baker
Spanjaard. I don't think it'll take much horizontal drilling actually. Famous last words, I know, but I added a pic to the album to show. I think I'll only nee to make the jump from the engine nacelles to the wheel wells. 2mm... after that I can hide the wiring under the wheel covers and move them into the main fuselage.

Spanjaard
You may be right actually. Looking forward to it

Bozzer
Greg, yeah mate, I light up my trucks. Unfortunately, the 747 didn't get a chance. It was a crazy accident and the Mrs felt so bad, she bought me a new one. It's still sealed in the box. Believe me, she nearly was too! It had interior lighting, as well as headlights and a separate cockpit light. By day it recharged and the battery was the noseweight. All I had to do, was let it dry a little more and then clear coat it and decals. Had it drying in the bathroom and the Mrs flicked her hair in the shower, it bounced off the sink, hit the bog, then split in half. Now I bury myself away in my purpose built mancave and build trucks and trailers. No women allowed, naturally. Happy to lend a hand, if you need any advice or such mate? Give me a holler, now you know where I am 👍

Greg Baker
It does happen from time to time. I was a bit worried about it actually. The kit is beautiful, but it's certainly not meant to be built in flight. Getting the wheel covers in place will be a good challenge.

Spanjaard
wheel covers should not be that complicated 😉
Me-262 in-flight and on the ground | Album by hetspanjaard (1:144)
i am sure you can do it better 🙂

Greg Baker
Now THAT is really really handy. I'm intrigued by what you did with the engines... I'm going to have to study that a bit. I forgot about that project of yours... it seems it needs an update. 🙂

Donald Dickson II
Honestly Greg, I dont even have a clue where to start. No idea what type of lights let alone how to accomplish what I want. I have figured out, I think, how to make the light bar. But again, dont what kind of lights to use nor where to get them. I am about at the point where I am gonna say screw it and just finish building it and be done.

Erik De Smet
Greg, I recommend prewired. smd's . Make a small cut in the plastic from the nacelles to wheel bays , put the wires in it and fix them with filler putty. I would prefer Orange for flame lights ( of maybe Blue ?)

Greg Baker
Thanks Erik. After some further review, I'm starting to be a bit more skeptical about my chances. not about getting the SMDs in... that can be done easily enough. I'm just not sure any light will get out. There's really not very much wiggle room on the back end of the engines. I'm going to try a few tests, but it might be more trouble than it's worth.

Matthew A
Now I see why the Revell one didn't make the table. Would have been easier to wire the funny looking revell engines thanks to the wing brake down. But you may have broken it with all the putty and sanding.

Bozzer
Don, I'll guide you through it mate. There's a few things I need to know, so I'll PM you, if that's ok? Saves hijacking this thread?

Dave Flitton
Watching

Spanjaard
my project doest not need an update... needs to get back in the bench 😛 but i need a bench first 😛

Spanjaard
but if somebody will get light out of those engines... is you 🙂

Alec K
This is interesting...

Greg Baker
Let there be light! I even got it done without making any holes in visible areas. I wasn't sure how it was going to work, but after studying the Voir et Savoir picture for a bit, an idea came to me.😉

Greg Baker
I seem to be a glutton for punishment.

Torsten
You do it😎, I'm in

Matthew A
You made it look easy.

Spanjaard
if somebody was going to pull this off... it had to be Greg 🙂

Greg Baker
Ok.. back to the 262... everything that needed to be closed up is and putty has been applied. A surprising amount, I think, compared to what I expected from the fit before I started. Oh, well. Far from the worst.

Greg Baker
As I was uploading the images, I just realized that the box cover has a Me262 attacking a B-24J... that's a total coincidence that I happen to be working on those exact same kits. Weird... karma.

Erik De Smet
And I thought it was on purpose

Greg Baker
Yeah... I remembered your comment. Now it makes more sense. 🙂

Greg Baker
I used a bit of sponge to try and paint a bit of mottled grey camouflage. It sorta worked... I think.

Matthew A
looks good to me

Slavo Hazucha
Greg back in his usual scale with tiny planes & lots of cables sticking out of every corner!

Makes me take the usual seat & watch as thing´s are going to lighten up 👍😉!

Greg Baker
Hey now... I spent a lot of time making sure you couldn't see the cables sticking out!😉

Greg Baker
Thanks Roland. I'm happy with how it turned out too. We're into the final laps now...

Alec K
Looking great Greg 👍

Greg Baker
Thanks. Alec. Just the decals left to do... but the lights still work!

Greg Baker
Alright... we're more or less done here. I snapped of the pilot tube, so I'll try to add a scratched up one carefully. Also need a radio antenna, but this one is pretty much done.

Spanjaard
👍 well done

Donald Dickson II
Very nice indeed!

Nils Steyaert
great job, that little 262 turned out great.

Greg Baker
Thank you gentlemen. I always appreciate the feedback. Roland, my Voir et Savoir projects are only partially related to Tintin (Tim und Struppi). Hergé (with a lot of help from Jacques Martin and Bob de Moore) created 60 chromolithographs about airplanes from 1939-45. So I'm building them and trying my best to match the drawings.

Greg Baker
I did come to the conclusion that I wasn't going to try and copy every detail of the markings. Trying to match the number and unit markings exactly would mean buying a lot of decals. So instead I'll just scavenge what I've got and come up with the closest possible. Case in point this one should be a "white 9" but I only had a "white 5" handy, so close enough. You can read more about The overall project it on my blog - strobez.ca/wp/index.php/voir-et-savoir/

Greg Baker
Thanks Roland. Have a poke around, there's lots of projects on there now.

Alex K
I was going to ask about the markings vis-a-vis the original series (e.g. 15 instead of 16 for the Wildcat) - but you just covered that... I didn't intend of course to put any pressure - just a means to show your audience does indeed follow closely your builds! (Now... don't you think it's time for the Repu to part ways with the Jack and have its own project/album in the Plus collection, along with the I-16????) 😛

Dark Master
great ideea

Greg Baker
Hah! Thanks Alex. I was kinda fretting over the markings for two main reasons. The first is, you'd need a massive amount of white/black/yellow/red numeral decals in a variety of sizes to be able to match the random markings that Studio Hergé came up with. The second is that it's still a lot of guesswork because the markings aren't always visible (either angle or resolution of the image). So instead of pulling my hair out, I just decided to go with what I could get in the stash. So, for example, the F4F did a decal swap with a Revell Airacobra for the roundels, and 16 went to 15. I also took the decals out of the Revell Me262 box to compliment what was on the Trumpeter decals sheet.... and the F4F too. For the B-24 I decided the yellow "5" and "S" were so close that even Hergé might've just made a mistake.😉

Greg Baker
So, it's still going to take some legwork, but it's more manageable this way. I've also come to a more forgiving stance on the painting, since I've seen chromos (on screen) with at least 3 different colour balances. So let's not be too constrained, it's all made up anyway😉

Jay Dubya
Always a pleasure to watch a pro at work Greg, so I'll hop on a seat in the back row.

Peter Hardy
Top job Greg! Very impressive!

Greg Baker
Thanks Jay and Peter! This was a fun little build.

Alec K
Any chance for pics with LEDs on? 😄

Greg Baker
Just for you Alec~ LIGHT IT UP!

Alec K
Oh yeah....

Torsten
WOW😎

Matthew A
Coooool

Spanjaard
excellent 262 Greg

Slavo Hazucha
Beautiful finish, the panel lines turned out great and the exhaust trails look excellent both On & OFF - a lovely little gem! 👍