Small Scale Military Headquarters

I just finished a redo of an IXO ME-210 I picked up on eBay and this adds to my growing collection of 1:72nd scale unusual Luftwaffe diecast subjects mainly made by IXO for a variety of brands---Altaya, Atlas, Oxford, etc.---plus an Easy Model or two. Here's a "before" shot of the ME-210. As can be seen, the colors are way too dark, the crosses are wrong, various parts are missing, etc. Also, they did the underside in a very dark gray. Huh?

Here's the ME-210 redo:

And its much lighter underside:

The next picture shows my ME-210 along with a DO-335 and an Arado jet bomber:

Here's a TA-152, a BF-108 and an Arado 196:

Now, two Henschels--a 123 and a 126-----plus a ME-163 and a HE-162:

Finally, a HE-219, a HS-129 and a late model BF-109:

Excellent repaint of the model. Very nice diecast collection you have there.

Delicious stuff..

I dig those Luftwaffe models!

Very nice collections.

I like the luft 46 very much and plan to build the Dornier 335 and Me 163 to add to my collections. They will be in 1:48 scale

Epap.....did you repaint all those planes? Including the He-219 & Do 335?

How do you do the canopy framing?......do you mask, paint it free hand?

Most of the German models are repaints, AF. When the original colors are fairly dark and a close match to the paints I am using, I usually leave the frames as is-----because they are a real pain to redo. In other cases----where I have no alternative-----I hand paint the frames, using a fine liner brush under magnification. Of course my hand slips from time to time, but little miscues can be fixed by removing excess paint or small spills with a small, sharp pointed brush dipped lightly in thinner. It's an art one learns by trial and error and in the beginning I sometimes fogged up the canopies, turrets, etc. rather badly. Now, many hundreds of plastic model and, in the case of diecast, repaints, later, I am getting pretty good at it, including learning how to use Future polish to clear up fogged windows. But this is still the hardest part, believe me.

canopy frames are the main reason i left plastic model airplane making many years ago.

I am conteomplating collecting 1/72 planes again due to the large number of prebuilts now available but i recognize i'll have to make some kits too, especially if i want any variety in larger aircraft, like bombers. With the work i have done on 1/144 planes, i had to use a magnifying glass as my old eyes are not even close to what they used to be. I have discovered you can do amazing things with a magnifying glass however, the human hand being far steadier and more precise then i would have imagined.

So that has given me some confidence about doing 1/72 canopy frames again, when needed. The bonus about having old eyes now is that once the work is done and i just have my regular glasses on, the models look perfect because everything is slightly out of focus still...the world looks good slightly out of focus.

Nice work epap.

Been buying mostly 1:72 lately Aferg. Sure is a lot out there. Still like the ol' 1:144 though. Only a couple 1:72'rs around here.

Wanted to try using blue automotive 3M fine line tape for canopy frames if I ever decided to do a code 3 or model. Would have to lay some out individually, paint them and then do the others, hopefully not lifting the paint off the frames done previously.
Have to do something similar when painting the very thin pinstripes down the side of a Ford Crown Victoria which are painted on and you can't use tape stripes.
My hand is not steady enough to do much freehand, maybe I drink too much coffee.

Just picked up that IXO Hs-129 a week ago for a decent price. Wish I could find an He-219. Haven't seen any Bf-108's either.

You'd be better off with the Tamiya yellow tape - my experience with the blue painter's tape is that it did not lay quite flat enough and you can get a little paint up under it. My guess is that auto/house paint is a bit thicker and doesn't leach under as easily.

very nice

Epap: who makes that Arado 234 jet bomber in your picture? Is it diecast or a model kit? I only know of the Ixo 234C which has 4 engines.....i've never seen a 234B prebuilt.

aferguson wrote:Epap: who makes that Arado 234 jet bomber in your picture? Is it diecast or a model kit? I only know of the Ixo 234C which has 4 engines.....i've never seen a 234B prebuilt.

I took one of the IXO models, AF, and knocked off its engines which I replaced with two taken from a Dragon Kit. They fit almost perfectly. Then, I did one of my repaints.

interesting custom, i wouldn't have thought that would work