Mitsuoka H-1 / D338

[Andrew Gorman]

A few more U-Boats made it through with Nazi tech and designs. The first landing
Attempts were disastrous, with all the warnings of a fanatically hostile population proving true. The Emperor is locked away in the bunker in Nagano and fed only strictly edited information by the military clique. And a German design was modified and put into production. Why?  The Japanese were
Capable of building perfectly fine flying boats, but I had a kit and needed to do something whiff it. A cartoony napkinwaffe ( I love that term!) will be the result.  What I'm starting with is below.

[frank2056]

I love the boxtop artwork on that old Revell Me 262



Is this going to be a jet powered BV-138 or an Me-262 flying boat/carrier?

[Andrew Gorman]

It is good box art! And yes, a jet flying boat. I have a couple of ideas for the wings.  Probably a little grandiose for a group build, but I need the incentive.  First day of cutting sorting and trimming in the motel was successful. 

[Andrew Gorman]

Made some more progress while trapped in the motel.  The supermodel plastic is quite thin, so I will
Have to add more structure.   Square tubing is at home, but I have sprue and plastic card.  The Lindberg Vulcan wings will work, and to make them fit I can amputate the thick root intakes and exhaust saving me the trouble of filling those.  The Frog, Revell, and Hasegawa  262 engines don't match, but I don't care.  End result will hopefully be something like the E.555 bomber project.

[kerick]

Just mount the engines in opposing pairs, they'll fit right in.
I'll be watching this one!

[Andrew Gorman]

That's the plan!

[Andrew Gorman]

Assembly is coming along fine- nothing out of the ordinary apart from fixing some (probably) self inflicted fit issues. I did take a leap and cut down the Vulcan wings.  Even after cutting off the engine sections (channeling Doctor Liston...) the wings are still awfully thick- about twice the thickness of the center section.  I'm debating thinning them, which will require four long and relatively precise pie cuts along the leading edge, or just leaving them as is. I'm finally back home so have access to tools and materials. A side effect of being stuck in a small town motel I entered a lowball bid and now have two other Lindberg Vulcans in case I mess up.

[Andrew Gorman]

Just went ahead and did it. 2.5mm off of each leading edge at the new root and it shouldn't take much to clean up.  Pictures when there is something to see.
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[Andrew Gorman]

Progress as of today.  Again, a bit ambitious for a group build but I need the incentive.  The removal of the radiators from the boom left a gaping hole, which I covered with a section of the former lower wing.  The equally gaping hole left by removing the central engine was just filled in with plastic card.  The red plastic is from a vacuformed Valentines day heart shaped box, is very thin, and has proved incredibly useful.  The Vulcan wings were thinned by a couple of long pie cuts along the leading edge backed up with a length of sprue. I'll add some wing spars and beef up the edges of the delta wing root with some AliExpress square tubing for a larger bonding area.  New more streamlined turret is just a plastic test tube end and faired in.  Engines are on hold for now but will probably sit on a park bench made from a constant chord kit wing.  Cockpit was cut down so it can be inserted through the windshield at a later date.  Fit isn't great on either of the main donor kits, but they are inexpensive and making them work is part of the fun! And I have an idea of what to do with the cut off Vulcan engine section...

[RAFF-35]

I reeeeeeeeally want to see this one when it's complete! 

[Andrew Gorman]

It's getting there... I'm just agonizing over the wing spars and attachment points.  I've added some square tube to the upper wing roots for more surface area, and need to add a few sprue stub pins drilled into the booms, a long rod or two out to the wingtips and use epoxy for the initial attachment to make up for sloppy fit on the pins and for a fast setting initial attachment.  Even cut down, these wings are quite large! I'm also replacing the chunky kit wing floats with a more streamlined pair from an Airmodel float set.  I don't think they will retract.

[Andrew Gorman]

The wings are stuck on!  And time for a little thought about what to do with the original outboard engine nacelles.  The design has morphed from the original idea of just swept wings to the massive delta and the full complement of engines (6!) is a little too crowded. I was going to use the original propeller areas for a radar and a Leigh Light, but it's calling for a more streamlined treatment now.    Almost time for the first coat of primer and the horrors that will reveal. Pictures soon.

[Andrew Gorman]

A couple of pictures highlighting the problematic boom noses.  They'll get cut back, but just how I haven't decided.  And dang, those wings are big!  The whole machine is a lot bigger than it seems.

[frank2056]

Your design reminds me of the Vought ADAM VSTOL: https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/vought-adam-and-adam-ii-v-stol-projects.14098/

[Andrew Gorman]

I lopped off the original boom noses and replaced them with some cut down pieces of plastic test tubes I've been curating for more than a decade.  Obviously more clean up work to come!