Airfix 1/72 Me410a

[Jim R]

Cracking start Andy. Reinforces all the good things said about these new Airfix kits. That's a great looking cockpit, shows that you don't need aftermarket stuff to get a really good result. Glad the wing root join is good, so often that's where work is needed.

[Waspie]

Perhaps a life raft?

My two penneth on what I reckon!! Assuming the rear seat crew isn't a pilot I would hazard a guess at maybe a binocular case for the back seater to ID targets or use for navigation!!! A life raft I reckon would be larger and a brighter colour.

[stillp]

My two penneth on what I reckon!! Assuming the rear seat crew isn't a pilot I would hazard a guess at maybe a binocular case for the back seater to ID targets or use for navigation!!! A life raft I reckon would be larger and a brighter colour.

Could be Doug, but I know that's where the life raft was stowed on some Allied aircraft. A binocular case or sextant case (or both) would make sense though, particularly as Airfix want it painted in leather brown.
Pete

[Waspie]

Could be Doug, but I know that's where the life raft was stowed on some Allied aircraft. A binocular case or sextant case would make sense though.
Pete

One of my many jobs in the navy was packing life rafts from single to ten man rafts. That allowing for thinner materials these days is awful small to be even a single man raft!! Plus and in my opinion a big plus is the absence of a CO2 bottle to inflate it. Or even a bellows to inflate the raft.

I was thinking sextant too but they tend to be square(ish) and the case tends to wooden!! Methinks it may be a conundrum we never solve. Unless someone knows different???

As an aside. It always amused visitors to our squadron when being shown around the helicopters. A common question was parachutes. When explained we never* used them but we did sit down on a life raft!! Then came the 'suppose you jump from the helicopter, count 1 - 1000, 2 - 2000 etc, look up and check life raft has deployed!!' Oh how we cringed!!!

I put an Asterix next to 'never' as all check flights of 10,000 feet required a parachute.

[Steve-the-Duck]

As always with new Airfix, a cracking little kit
The 'problem' though, as you're finding Andy, is the tolerances of CAD stuff. There's no provision for paint 'thickness'!
Still, future modellers, should there be any in 2083, won't need to worry about the mould warping over the next sixty years!

[Guest]

It’s not the life raft — that was stored behind the rectangular panel below the rear of the cockpit, just in front of the left gun mount:

[ATTACH]496936[/ATTACH]

Legend:
a. Inflatable boat container
b. Ejector spring
c. Hand lines
d. Inflatable boat
e. Cover
f. Container lid
g. Locking lug
h. Locating pins
i. Pusher (?)

There were handles on the left side of the cockpit, next to both seats, which would release the raft when pulled.

This is from a PDF of part 9 A: General Equipment auxiliary 1: Inflatable Life Raft of the Me 410 A-1 handbook.

BTW, as I read Andy wants to add the big gun, that’s covered by part 8A It looks like you can only download one file per day from that site, though.

[Andy T]

Apologies, I've missed this until now!
Coming along excellently,and at a pace too,Andy :thumb2:,
Very nice looking plane that,a shame they don't do it in 1/48, braille scale is too small for me!
Following closely from here on in.

Cheers Andy. It goes together really well so it doesn't take too long.

As for the scale, I'm finding it a whole lot less fiddly than the 1/48 Bf100!

Cracking start Andy. Reinforces all the good I think the belts things said about these new Airfix kits. That's a great looking cockpit, shows that you don't need aftermarket stuff to get a really good result. Glad the wing root join is good, so often that's where work is needed.

Thanks Jim. I'm very impressed with the kit so far. If someone asked you to build it blind and said it was a Tamiya you probably wouldn't argue.

I think the belts came out a bit chunky but I'm happy with the overall look of the cockpit.

As always with new Airfix, a cracking little kit
The 'problem' though, as you're finding Andy, is the tolerances of CAD stuff. There's no provision for paint 'thickness'!
Still, future modellers, should there be any in 2083, won't need to worry about the mould warping over the next sixty years!

Thanks Steve. Nice tight tolerances where it counts. Now that I know I'll be more mindful of scraping the joints clean.

It’s not the life raft ~

Thanks Jakko, handy link that.

[Andy T]

Ailerons, radiator cowls, exhausts and their shields have been fitted. I've also built up the fuel tanks and their brackets but left them removable for painting

[yak face]

Only just caught this one and its almost ready for paint ! Great work andy , looks a lovely little kit . Cheers tony

[Waspie]

It’s not the life raft — that was stored behind the rectangular panel below the rear of the cockpit, just in front of the left gun mount:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH]

Legend:
a. Inflatable boat container
b. Ejector spring
c. Hand lines
d. Inflatable boat
e. Cover
f. Container lid
g. Locking lug
h. Locating pins
i. Pusher (?)

There were handles on the left side of the cockpit, next to both seats, which would release the raft when pulled.

This is from a PDF of part 9 A: General Equipment auxiliary 1: Inflatable Life Raft of the Me 410 A-1 handbook.

BTW, as I read Andy wants to add the big gun, that’s covered by part 8A :smiling3: It looks like you can only download one file per day from that site, though.

Thank you for posting Jakko. Most interesting, I see the CO2 bottle and see how it was packed. And by the looks of it the inflatable craft was a two seater!!!
Apart from materials, the packing is not dissimilar to how it was done in the 80's/90's. ( I wonder if they used French chalk when packing the rubber elements to avoid them sticking?)
Not being a German speaker I'm unable to determine that from the document.

[Guest]

The instructions for folding up the boat (pages 10–13) really only talk about the importance of getting all the air out (including mentioning instead of three or four men lightly pressing the boat flat, a vacuum cleaner can be used for this) and how to fold it. No mention of chalk.

Aha, later on, in chapter IV (p. 22):

Unabhängig davon, ob das Boot im Flugzeug eingebaut oder auf Lager gehalten wird, ist es alle 4 bis 6 Wochen schwach mit Luft aufzupumpen und mit Talkum einzureiben. Es ist ratsam, auch durch das Ventil Talkum einzublasen.

“Irrespective of whether the boat is stowed in the aeroplane or held in reserve, every 4 to 6 weeks it is to be lightly inflated with air and to be rubbed with talcum powder. It is advisable to also blow talcum powder in through the inflation valve.”

Edit: Just remembered that I can now download part 8A as well No idea what bits of the gun are included in the kit, but for general interest, here’s how it fit in the real plane:

[ATTACH]496960[/ATTACH]

1 5 cm BK [Bordkanone, lit. “[On-]Board Cannon”, more loosely, “aircraft gun”]
2 Front mounting
3 Rear mounting
4 Ring-shaped magazine
5 Weapon mount
6 Fittings on seat and weapon mount
7 Spar reinforcement
8 Hoisting rollers on seat and weapon mount
9 Hoisting rollers on main spar
10 Hoisting rope
11 Hoisting eyes on the weapon
12 Storage tube for hoisting rope
13 Pneumatic belt feed
14 Pneumatic feed
15 Pneumatic charger
16 Fuselage panel
17 Spent-case chute
18 Fittings on main spar
19 Installation plate
20 Strut
21 Transformer for igniter
22 Plug connector P 264/P 800
23 Electrical junction box 5 cm BK
24 SZKK 4 [whatever that may be]
25 Warning light P 267 (now visible symbol connected to SZKK 4)
26 Distributor V 28
27 Circuit breaker P 263
28 Relay P260, P 266 and P 3
29 KG 13 B [?]
30 B-button [firing button, I assume?]
31 3× EPD-101 A [?]

[Waspie]

The instructions for folding up the boat (pages 10–13) really only talk about the importance of getting all the air out (including mentioning instead of three or four men lightly pressing the boat flat, a vacuum cleaner can be used for this) and how to fold it. No mention of chalk.

Aha, later on, in chapter IV (p. 22):


“Irrespective of whether the boat is stowed in the aeroplane or held in reserve, every 4 to 6 weeks it is to be lightly inflated with air and to be rubbed with talcum powder. It is advisable to also blow talcum powder in through the inflation valve.”

Edit: Just remembered that I can now download part 8A as well :smiling3: No idea what bits of the gun are included in the kit, but for general interest, here’s how it fit in the real plane:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH]

1 5 cm BK [Bordkanone, lit. “[On-]Board Cannon”, more loosely, “aircraft gun”]
2 Front mounting
3 Rear mounting
4 Ring-shaped magazine
5 Weapon mount
6 Fittings on seat and weapon mount
7 Spar reinforcement
8 Hoisting rollers on seat and weapon mount
9 Hoisting rollers on main spar
10 Hoisting rope
11 Hoisting eyes on the weapon
12 Storage tube for hoisting rope
13 Pneumatic belt feed
14 Pneumatic feed
15 Pneumatic charger
16 Fuselage panel
17 Spent-case chute
18 Fittings on main spar
19 Installation plate
20 Strut
21 Transformer for igniter
22 Plug connector P 264/P 800
23 Electrical junction box 5 cm BK
24 SZKK 4 [whatever that may be]
25 Warning light P 267 (now visible symbol connected to SZKK 4)
26 Distributor V 28
27 Circuit breaker P 263
28 Relay P260, P 266 and P 3
29 KG 13 B [?]
30 B-button [firing button, I assume?]
31 3× EPD-101 A [?]

,Brilliant Jakko you come up trumps again. Talcum powder/ French Chalk. Same- same.
We used the same technique when packing our rafts. Suck all the air our with a good old ‘Henry’, plug the hole, even if it did have a non return valve!!!
Then French chalk, fold iaw the relevant AP, (aircraft publication). Then try and fit it into a fibre glass shell or canvass back pack.

[Lee Drennen]

Nice one Andy and your updates look great.

[papa 695]

Some cracking work Andy, looking the biz.

[Andy T]

Thanks Ian & Lee. I'll certainly be looking at more of these newer Airfix kits in the future.


I've had a couple of issues today but both were self inflicted. Firstly I broke the side mounted machine guns in half while clipping them off the sprue. I managed to fix one but lost the others barrel, so have added a bit of stretched sprue. Not perfect but they are so tiny I'm hoping no one will notice :smiling5:

Then the biggy. The canopy is in 3 parts and while cementing it together I managed to get a load of gluey fingerprints on the inside!

So that was a couple of hours this afternoon, sanding and polishing. It's looking salvageable as I break for food, will have another go at it tomorrow.