Repainting Fiddlers Green He-162

[avro202]

Hi all:

I have been meaning to build the He-162 Salamander from Fiddlers Green for ages. I love the lines on this plane. But the paint scheme on the FG machine never looked right to me. The green seemed too bright. So a couple days ago I decided to repaint it. The colours are just what I happened to think look good; they are Not Official RLM colours. This is not a big deal to me, as my printed will almost always mess up the colours by printing too dark or light anyway.

Of course, once I started in on changing the colour, I had to add in some "grunge". Then I figured I could add in some rivets.

I have attached part of the original model, so you can see what the colouring was like, and part of my repaint. Tonight I hope to print it out and see how it looks.

[jagolden01]

Very nice job on the repaint.

[Swampfox]

That really does look good, I like the grunge you added. I be watching to see how the build turns out.

SFX

[Uyraell]

I like the colouring you've chosen, Avro202, it is more in keeping with the He.162 colouring schemes of which I'm aware.

I sincerely hope I do not cause any offense with the following observation.

However; one small but significant point comes to mind. I felt I should mention about the wings on the aircraft being made of wooden components, apart from the ailerons themselves.
They were skinned in a type of plywood known as "Formholz" which was bonded to the underlying structure with an ureic adhesive, or with "Tegofilm" adhesive when it could be obtained.
Thus, the wings lack evidence of external rivets, so far as I am aware.

However, the main fuselage panels did contain rivets where duralumin panelling, rather than wood panelling (such as for vertical rudders, nose cap, and landing gear bay doors) was employed.

I hope the little bit of info helps you, Avro202.
I look forward to seeing the results of your He.162 repaint.

Kind and Respectful Regards, Uyraell.

[avro202]

Thanks for the info. I was aware of the wooden wings, but was unsure if that meant it would have no rivets.

I may just leave them on anyway. as I kinda like the look. And hey; its Fiddlers Green! It's not supposed to be a perfect rendering.

[Uyraell]

I'm glad I caused no offense.
Personally, I think metal-covered wings would have been introduced on the aircraft at some stage, if only for comparative purposes in flight testing.

There was precedent for this, in as much as the Russians built metal versions of wooden aircraft such as the La 5 Fn and the Yak 9 (Ie: Yak 7u, Yak9U) and the Germans would certainly have been aware of that. They'd likely have built or rebuilt a comparison prototype, but using the He.162 rather than a propeller-driven fighter.

As for it being an FG model in origin, well, whilst not dead accurate from the "rivet-counter" perspective (please pardon the unintended pun) the FG models do make reasonably good representations of often rare aircraft, and I enjoy seeing those as much as I enjoy the "accuracy-perfect" models I've seen in many media.

Your version will be unique also, which gives it a certain cachet, imho.

Kind and Respectful Regards Avro 202, Uyraell.

[rockpaperscissor]

Great job on the recolor. I've built this model in 1/72 and I think it's one of FGs better ones. Looking forward to seeing your's come together.

[Idoitall]

Nice job! I have a salamander hanging on my ceiling and I agree with the color. It never did seem right. A little too cartoonish. I hope you submit your paint to FG so that I can build it! Again, nice job.

[MacSongLi]

Avro202

Wow, I really like your re-paint. You've done a great job with the weathering (I would expect no less for a guy from Winterpeg [I'm originally from Carberry]). I agree that you should keep the rivets on the wings, you did a superb job on the rivet and panel highlighting as well. I look forward to seeing this come together.

Gary

[willygoat]

Nice work Tim!