1/48 scale Bf 109's x 2

[matrixone]

Thank you Dave and Luiz!

I have looked at most of the pictures taken yesterday of the four completed models and there are very few of them that I would consider to be good but I had a really short window of time to work in so I did what I could.
This next week is supposed to be wet so it was either get hurried pictures Friday or wait another week or two for getting my airfield style pictures.

I live in a wet climate and dealing with all the rain and dark days is the norm but this water year is turning out to be nearly record breaking for rainfall amounts...great for ending the drought we had here in the P.N.W. but not so good for people like me who have S.A.D.


Matrixone

 

[matrixone]

Some detail painting of the cockpit parts has been done and only need a couple more things to paint and I can get the cockpit fitted inside the fuselage for good.

The seat belts are hand painted, I don't have any aftermarket items to work with.

The instrument panel was also hand painted but its not that bad, to improve the looks of it after the dials were painted I added drops of Future to add the glass to the instrument faces. This took four applications of Future to each dial, I would add a drop and wait for it to dry and repeat it several times during the day it was not hard to do and the instrument faces really do look like that have glass on them.

Matrixone

 

[lupanzer]

Very nice :salute

Luiz.

 

[matrixone]

Thanks again Luiz!

The last of the detail painting of the cockpit has been done and the cockpit and I.P. has been glued inside the fuselage.

The two pale rectangles that can be seen above the luggage compartment and on the pilot head armor are placards I made from old Hasegawa decal scraps. I have no idea what these placards say but after looking at photographs of pilots getting into their K-4's and photographs taken of K-4 wrecks after the war the use of placards was widespread.

The model will be built with the canopy closed so the detail painting of the cockpit is good enough.

Red putty was smeared in the wheel wells to fill in the holes that were drilled so the upper wing bulges could be fitted.

The wings are just dry fitted here and are not glued in. Also I sprayed some paint on all the seam lines to check for defects...and not for pre-shading.

Matrixone

 

[Skinny_Mike]

shaping up nicely!

 

[moon puppy]

 

[lupanzer]

...

Luiz.

 

[matrixone]

Thanks Luiz,

The flaps are fixed, slats are slotted, and canopy is attached and just like that this model is at the painting stage, that's what I like about the large scale Hasegawa 109's they are so quick to build and yet still look good after they are finished.

The model will be marked and painted as ''white 10'' of JG 27 and photographs of this aircraft show it to have been heavily used and it had extra heavy exhaust stains on the fuselage so I will try and copy that feature on the model.

Matrixone

 

[lupanzer]

Superb!...following :coolio

Luiz

 

[matrixone]

Some painting on the big 109 was done, today's session was simple highlights sprayed on with flat white paint, pale RLM 76 will be sprayed on next but not before some gloss black on a few places under the engine cowl. This model will be different than most of my other 109's and I will allow a bit more of the highlights and pre-shading to peek through the paint job...the aircraft I am modeling had a distressed look to the paint job.

Below is the spinner that had the white section sprayed on, those that know the late 109's well will notice the unusual placement of the white segment and this is the way ''white 10'' had its spinner painted and was roughly done too, I tried to copy that on the models spinner.

Here is where the white segment was usually painted on many 109's.

and after you finish looking at the Italian babe look at the spinner AND the dented drop tank.

Below is another incorrectly painted 109 spinner, this paint job must have been done in a hurry since some overspray of white is on the prop blade.

Here are some photographs of Italian 109's and how they were hidden on the ground under camouflage netting and tree branches. THIS is why late war German aircraft could be seen with badly worn paint even if the aircraft itself was not that old.

Check out the conditions the ground crew had to work in when getting their aircraft ready for flight.

Below are two photographs of subcontractors building the tall tails as used on the late war 109's.
In this first picture notice the hard edge mottles on the fin and the sprayed on mottling on the rudder. This is how my model will be painted to demonstrate the patchwork effect seen on many late war aircraft.

This photograph is probably part of a propaganda story used by the Reich to show everyone is doing their part to help win the war. The rudders have a sprayed on mottle style I have not seen before.

Matrixone

 

[phantom II]

Everyone including the forced labor groups. Must have been hard to pressed to have a pleasant face for the photos .

Looks like some Italians were in your paint boot with a white spray can Matrix

Waiting on more

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[lupanzer]

...

Luiz

 

[matrixone]

Thanks guys!

Thanks to the test spraying and adding white highlights I found a problem...

...I am not too happy about this goof but its WAY better to find it now instead of finding after the camouflage paint has been sprayed on. ldguy


I wanted to include this image in my post yesterday but forgot. This is a Bf 109G-6 at Regensburg that was destroyed from an air raid, even though the quality of the photograph is poor the tall tail and stencil applied camouflage pattern can be seen, this pattern is identical to the patterns seen on the later G-10's and K-4's, so these subcontractor built tails were being supplied for quite a while up until the last days of the war.

Matrixone

 

[phantom II]

Looking very good

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[matrixone]

Thank you Christian!

The goof on the leading edge of the wing was fixed with super glue and sanded down, then a few areas of pre-shading with black paint was added under the engine cowling and on parts of the lower fuselage before spraying on RLM 76 to tone it all down.
This all went pretty good but I made yet another mistake by covering up too much of the highlights and pre-shading...the aircraft I am modeling was well used and I had intended to let a little more pre-shading effects show on this model to represent the distressed look of the paint on the full size machine.
As it is now the pre-shading looks perfect for a much fresher and cleaner looking aircraft, I thought about repainting the lower surfaces but instead I will be more bold when I use oil paints during the weathering process to make up for the too clean looking paint job.


The fuselage sides don't look that bad...

but the lower surfaces are too bland.

Matrixone

 

[Dusan]

Real beauty!!! :kiss:

All the best!
Dusan.

 

[lupanzer]

Excelent photos!...great finding

Luiz

 

[Heavens Eagle]

This is really looking fine Les! Looking forward to seeing how this type of preshade comes out.

 

[Skinny_Mike]

I think it looks great Les! but understand that its not quite what you were going for.

 

[Duke Maddog]

Wow, even your mistakes are far better than my intentional attempts! I wish my work could look that "bland"!

Looking forward to seeing how you fix this to reflect the effect you are looking for.