I had
the kit sitting in a box for about 8 years (it was a gift from a guy named Luis
Mezquita when I was 16, I never heard from him after I moved, If you’re
reading this Luis, please email me!!!) before I decided what to do with it, one
day the bug just bit me and I started doing some research on the aircraft. I
found a couple of websites that had pictures of the only remaining Ho229 which
at the time the pictures where taken was sitting on a restoration hangar at the
NASM (National Air & Space Museum) waiting for restoration. The aircraft was
painted and the markings where also painted before the allied forces captured
the prototype in 1945 and brought it back to the US, the original aircraft ID
number was visible (T2-490), so why not!!!
I chose this specific aircraft as my subject.
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The kit
itself it of good quality, the fit is good except for the nose section.
The model has some photo etched parts and comes with the two jet engines
(I really thought they where nice looking...) even tough I still decided to get
me some really great aftermarket parts that really did wonders for the model. I
got a hold of the resin Jumo 004B jet engine made by Aires
(…then I saw this one and the ones that came with the kit where not nice
looking anymore, these are a little expensive but in my opinion well worth the
money!) and also the Photo Etched set made by Reheat. Some scratch building was
involved and a minimal amount of the decals that came with the kit was used.
For the painting I used Tamiya, Model Master, Alclad II and
Aeromaster paints.
The Reheat set
provides a very nice “sandwich type” instrument panel, unfortunately it does
not come with the acetate sheet with the printed instruments and I could not
find any on the market so I did my own using the photo etched outside panel (the
one with the holes in it) as a stencil, I sprayed the panel with flat black over
a piece of white styrene sheet, now I have a bunch of black gauges on a piece of
styrene. Now take a scribing tool and carefully start “drawing” the needles
and indications on the gauges by removing the black paint and exposing the white
styrene, when done with that cut the styrene to match the photo etched panel,
and glue them both together (if you want, in between that you may cut a very
thin piece of transparent plastic like the one used for slide show copies to use
make it look better), after that just add a little drop of Future floor wax to
each gauge to simulate the glass and presto!
The fuselage was painted in RLM 76 and mottled with RLM 75 using a
stencil made out of paper, the markings on the wings where painted on and the
swastikas on the rear are dry transfers made by Verlinden.
The aircraft was a prototype with little use and was probably kept at a
hangar most of the time for the purpose of secrecy and fine-tuning, therefore I
chose to keep the weathering to a minimum (with the exception of the exhaust
panels, jet engines burn lots of fuel and the combustion at that time was much
dirtier than today), some paint chipping where the fuselage meets the wings
(because they where removable) around access panels, on the walking surfaces and
on the leading edges of the wings, you will not see the classic “aluminum
chips” but rather a yellowish (wood) color where the paint had chipped because
the aircraft’s skin was made out of plywood and not aluminum.
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I used a couple of
books (the usual ones you can find) on flying wings and lots of pictures from
internet sites, I wrote to the NASM but I was too impatient to wait for their
reply regarding some questions I had. In conclusion I love the way the model
looks and have no regrets about spending the money on the aftermarket parts. I
would like to thank J.C. Porcella for the positive feedback, Dr. Paliza for the
parts provided by him and “Chiche” for the paints! (All these guys are part
of the Dominican Scale modeling Club in the Dominican Republic; guys start
publishing your work!!!) Any comments or questions about techniques used on the
model are welcomed; feel free to write to me at Av8r1977@yahoo.com.
Ramsés
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