Miles M.52 recolor

[rockpaperscissor]

Coming shortly.....a recolor of Dragos' 1/72 scale Miles M.52. The one page recolored file has already been printed out and clear coated, and hopefully I'll be able to find the time to start cutting paper soon.

It's inspired by, but is not an exact copy of this illustration:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/dswks/m_52_rae_f_1946_1.jpg

[rockpaperscissor]

My recolor of Dragos' M.52 is coming along nicely. I re-read my earlier thread on building the Beta model and picked up a few helpful construction tips that I had forgotten.

There are a couple of physical changes on this recolor version: the wings have been moved forward about 1/4 inch, and also sit a bit higher. I moved the vertical stabilizer forward as well. The contours of the recolored model compare favorably with line drawings and illustrations of the airplane.

The beta model wasn't glued to the stand when I built it last year, so I'll reuse the stand to mount the recolor version to.

Here are a couple of photos of my progress:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/dswks/papermodels/M52RC1.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/dswks/papermodels/M52RC2.jpg

[Dragos]

Looks nice so far.

[rockpaperscissor]

Many thanks Dragos. I'm not sure if the illustration is historically accurate for the M.52 or not, but I believe it's a good representation of how the British painted their development/prototype/test aircraft at the time. Regardless, it's eyecatching.

[rockpaperscissor]

Here are latest couple of pics for anyone who is following. The fuselage is now complete and the vertical stabilizer is in place. I still have to do my edge coloring, though. I tried to suggest highly polished metal in a couple of areas. Looks OK, but it's a far cry from Airdave's renderings. Overall, I'm very happy with the model. I like the coloring, and Dragos' design makes assembly trouble free.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/dswks/papermodels/M52RC3.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/dswks/papermodels/M52RC4.jpg

[rockpaperscissor]

The Miles M.52 recolor build is done. It didn't generate much in the way of comments, but I'm very happy with it.

Photo 1 is a sideview which compares pretty well with the illustration I was inspired by. An addition to the original kit is the tail skid, seen in profile.

Photo 2 shows the underside. The teardrop shaped tail skid is fully visible here. The yellow color came out too bright in this photo.

Photo 3 is a closeup of the tail showing the new markings and my attempt at rendering polished metal.

Photo 4 is a closeup of the nose. I glossed up the canopy with a few coats of clear acrylic. On the real airplane, the cone shaped pilot's capsule was actually an escape pod that could be blown off and would parachute safely to the ground if the flight became uncontrollable at high speeds.

Photo 5 is the finished model, perched on a base sporting the RAF coat of arms.

[ericinoz]

Looks great, well done. It must be very noisy sitting inside a jet intake.

[Don Boose]

Fascinating model, Don.

Sorry to be late in offering praise, but was out of the net for several weeks and missed this one.

Don (too)

[rockpaperscissor]

Thank you, Don. I'm actually pretty happy with the way this model turned out. It's simple to build, and with the new coloring it's easy on the eye. I have quite a few recolors complete and waiting to be built. Several allfrompaper WWI armored cars (weathered), the allfrompaper Ba-64 (weathered), four or five old Maly aircraft kits, a weathered 7TP tank from Exclusive models resized up to 1/50th. I'm nearly done building Kancho's CAC Kangaroo, colored and sized to 1/72 scale. Our own artdeco has shared some helpful Photoshop tips with me, for which I'm very grateful. I've found that I enjoy the recoloring process almost as much as building the models. The only problem is, I've got so many kits recolored and ready to go, I don't know which to start building next.

[Paper Kosmonaut]

I too really like it, Don. It indeed has that just-after-the-war-look and I have always liked that yellow "Prototype" colouring. Nice work!

[Tim Crowe]

Looks good - shame it never flew

Tim

[Alcides]

I missed this one too. Very nice recolor Don, really pops up.

[rockpaperscissor]

Hey, thanks for the comments fellas. I thought everyone was on vacation when the thread was active :). It was a fun build.

[richkat]

Dang like everyone else I missed this one! I built this model (the original one) back a few months, but this one looks so cool I would love a go at it.......Rich