1/48 Monogram Me-262

by Konley Kelley

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I bought a 1:48 Monogram ME262 from Phil's Hobbies a few years ago (your Dallas readers will appreciate that). I wanted to build the very cool-looking ME262 for my collection of 1:48 aircraft flown by famous aces.

One of the aces featured in several of my books is Heinz Bar. He was the top scoring ace in an ME262, the world's first turbojet fighter. Heinz Bar was also a very skilled pilot and respected leader in the Luftwaffe. He survived the war with a record of 220 aerial victories - 16 of these in an ME262. All of his aircraft were numbered with a red "13."

Well over a year ago, I created a digital image of Bar's ME262 flying up to greet an unwelcome group of US bombers. The image always looked a little hokey to me. I made the B-17G's using 3D software and thought blending them in an image with the scale model ME262 would work but no luck.

I recently built a 1:72 Academy/Minicraft B-17G "Bit O' Lace." There is an image of it in another section on my website. I was looking at it the other day and decided I could change the perspective of my ME262 / B-17G attack and move the camera closer on the 3D B-17G's if I used Photoshop to detail them with the markings for "Lace" and her bomb squadron. I also took new pics of Bar's ME262 in a more dynamic pose.

I think the results are much better and this time around.

Konley

Thanks for showcasing my work. For more digital dioramas, see:

http://home1.gte.net/konman/index.html

Photos and text © by Konley Kelley