Revell Messerschmitt Me210 A-1 1:72

Next phase is the cockpit…

I usually do all work necessary before closing the fuselage, leaving to the end all small details that can be ruined by masking, sanding, painting, etc. This has advantages and disadvantages. I installed the photo etched side panels (from the correct Eduard sets, because, as mentioned, the ones from the other sets won’t fit, too big), primed then, and painted RLM 02. Here a word on the colour. More or less, from 1941 on, all Luftwaffe’s cockpits were painted RLM 66 black-grey as the standard, but all my sources indicated that Me 210’s cockpit airframe parts were RLM 02, while consoles and other components and instruments were RLM 66. I followed this finding.

Closed the fuselage, I assembled the plane, fitting the nose, wings and horizontal stabilisers. Then I worked joints, dealing with poor fitting in the wing roots in the underside, apart from that, normal fitting as per an Italeri 1990’s kit. Then, I trimmed the photo etched flaps in the radiators and oil coolers in extended position, and detailed the defensive MG 131 barbettes. Applied primer and base paint camouflage, using templates made of tracing paper. I used Testor’s model master enamels. In addition to general references, for specific references on this particular plane, the wonderful photo library at the Bundesarchiv (the Federal Archives of Germany) website (www.bundesarchiv.de), as an amazing collection of pictures of the III/ZG1, taken during operations in Tunisia and the Mediterranean, in 1942-1943, including many pictures of 2N + CD, in flight, being serviced, etc., a goldmine of references for camouflage and weathering.

Painting…