Another problem was found: one the halves of the engine front domes, containing the Riedel starter motors (part kit No. 11), was missing, because it was wrongly moulded. I looked for a sprue from other model which diameter matched the missing part, and from it made a replacement for the missing part. In addition, the forward landing gear doors were corrected, cutting the wrong front section in two and gluing to the two rear halves. As mentioned, this is mistake in this kit, because only the Ho 229 V2 prototype used this front section, while the V3 and subsequent prototypes and the production designs had two side doors.
The kit’s rear landing gear wells are quite far off to represent the real aircraft’s ones, so I decided on surgery to improve them, opening them with the saw and the Dremel, like they are in the real aircraft. In addition, as suggested by eduard’s 72 186 photo etched set, I opened the sides of the cockpit. In a way, I knew this move can be “suicidal”, because it requires detailing the resulting empty space. So, I went for it.
Detailing the interior visible through the cockpit and the now open landing gear wells requires filling the empty space with a combination of the kit parts, photo etched parts, and scratch building. The eduard set provides pieces to build sections of the engines and its heat shields, visible from the cockpit and the forward landing gear well, but they are too short for the sections visible from the rear gear wells (because they were originally closed). So, I built extensions of the engines heat shields with metal from a wine bottle seal/capsule (wine is good for scale modelling!), moulded and trimmed to fit.
Paul Ainsworth says
Hello,Ricardo – Full complements with all the detail work you’re doing with this fascinating build.It’s looking excellent.👏😉👍
Ricardo Barrientos says
Thank you Paul, hope you enjoy the remaining, perhaps, more interesting steps. Best regards,
Peter Legge says
Hi Ricardo, you have done a really good job on the panel scribing. Well Done ! Regards, Pete in RI
Ricardo Barrientos says
Thank you Peter, those panel lines really improved the look of the wings. Hope you enjoy the next steps. Best regards,
Ricardo.-
Andrew Rowe says
Hi Ricardo. Great looking build. What’s the name of the tool you are using that copies the shape and contours of parts? I’d like to get one.
Thanks.
Ricardo Barrientos says
Hi Andrew, you can find it as a Contour Gauge. Good luck and thank you for reading!
Albert Moore says
This is some incredible work and goes to show that with some elbow grease and TLC, this model can be built to the same standard of the Z-M Horten Ho 229 (or exceed it in this case).
Ricardo Barrientos says
Hi Albert, thank you very much for your kind comments! And yes, “elbow grease”, but above all, love, and passionate dedication to this hobby! Happy holidays and my very best regards from Guatemala!
Michael Michalzik says
Incredible. An absolute masterpiece!
Ricardo Barrientos says
Thank you very much Michael, extremely kind for your commentary.