Completed! 1/48 Eduard Bf-109 E-7 Tropical

Great work BD. Love the color variation and the pre shading.

Nice cockpit, looking forward to this build!

Toshi

oil stains will care of that seam under the chin 

BD

If you have the Touch N Flow applicator, run some Tenax or Plast I Weld along the seam. The liquid glue will melt the plastic and the paint will soften helping to seal or hide the seam as it dries. I have used this method many times and it has worked in just about each use.

Your paint work really impresses me I gotta say. Looking really good BD.

BK

Thanks, guys! I appreciate the suggestions on getting rid of/hiding the seam. I don't have a touch-n-go, but I do have the Testors cement with the needle applicator, so maybe I'll do that and re-spray it. I like the oil streak. Will have to see if I can find some reference.

I got the mottling done tonight. This is Tamiya Dark Green (not the RAF one). I freehanded it with the SOTAR 20/20 at 22 psi with a 1:1 ratio of paint and Tamiya Lacquer Thinner. It worked well. Only a little tip dry.

And look how that tonal crush totally nullified the shading work I spent so much time doing :/

Next up is masking for the white fuselage band. After that, I'll gloss it, decal it, gloss it, panel line wash, then probably spray a mist coat of Tamiya Buff to tone down the contrast and lighten the whole thing for that sun-bleached desert look.

I have a new technique I want to try on the decals, too. We will see if I can work up the nerve, haha.

-BD-

Interesting point you made on the mottling nullifying the shading.  I will never build anything with a speckled camo.  haha

looks real good. hey no guts no glory. I agree with your plan 

Very nice AB handi work, what a great build!

Toshi

btw I have used white chalk on decals for that sun bleached look 

Looks great!  Nice job on that mottling.

Mike

OH MAN that looks good !  Your mottling is spot on and your pit looks like it was done by Lawdog. Thanks for posting your GB here too.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. Jay Jay - that's high praise, and I think I have a long way to go before I'll be at Lawdog's level for cockpits, but thank you :)

I have lagged with the WIP photos here lately, but am hoping for completion tomorrow (Sunday). I would finish it right now, but can't fire up the air compressor for the flat clear, as it's nearing midnight.

Here are a few in-progress shots to show where it's headed.

Decals on on the underside, clear-coated with AlcladII Klear Kote and a Flory dark dirt panel line wash applied:

And here is the topside with decals applied, but pre-wash:

And finally, since Eduard went ahead and molded grooves in the fuselage and nubs on the rudder, I stretched some sprue and made the rudder cables. Sorry the pic is out of focus - my phone was fighting me:

So, hopefully I can finish it tomorrow morning and get the completion shots up. Otherwise, I'll shoot it Monday after work.

Thanks again!

-BD-

Ok, well I ended up finishing it just now and decided to pose it in flight.

Does it look ok?

-BD-

Does it look ok is an understatement, with the background graphics, it looks like the real thing!

Toshi

Toshi

Does it look ok is an understatement, with the background graphics, it looks like the real thing!

 

Toshi

 

Thanks, Toshi, but I'm not at all that good with either modeling or graphics - that's actually a color photo from WWII of the plane I'm building :)

-BD-

I'm sorry to just catch up to this post Brandon.  I have a suggestion that I suppose you could still use if you had a hard-on enough to try it...concerning the mottling. If you back of the psi just a little bit more and thin your paints down considerably, you'll be able to have a lot of control over how much paint builds up on whatever surface you're working.  This way you can build up the color more slowly and with more control.  =]  After you put down a flat coat, you'll be able to repeat the mottling if desired.  I think what you have currently is just fine. ;)  But for future reference you'll find it better suits you I believe.

Excellent job so far.  Excellent pick with those colors! =]

Bvallot - thanks for the tip. I mottled my Bf-109 E-4 at about 8 psi, so I thought I'd try it differently this time. I think I like your way better, as some of the mottling on this one ended up a bit heavy probably due to the air pressure.

Thanks again!

-BD-

So I was going to post finish pics last night, but when I set it down to photograph it, the rear wheel collapsed (I broke it several times during construction). So I drilled out both ends and super-glued in a piece of steel wire for support. It now holds, and I'm done messing with it, so hopefully it stays that way now!

Ok, on to the real reason you're reading this, the pics:

I finished it in largely Model Master colors, but I did paint the fuselage band with Tamiya, and I used a really thin misting coat of Tamiya Buff after it was painted and decaled to tone down the starkness. The interior colors and engine colors are Tamiya as well. The gunpowder streaks and exhaust staining are Tamiya smoke, and then I used some ground up pastels to accentuate them and blend them a bit. The underside weathering is a little bit of streaking with Tamiya Buff and pastels.

I didn't rust the exhaust stacks because a color reference photo of this one shows no rusting, and the desert air likely helped with that.

I really enjoyed this kit. For $25 plus $5 or $8 (I can't remember) for the PE set, it finished up nicely. I really like the surface detail with the rivets. My only gripes are with the tailwheel needing to be inserted when uselage halves are closed (hence my breaking it repeatedly) and the same thing for the wing guns (which I installed at the end to make it easier to sand the leading edges, mask and not break them off).

Thanks for looking. I still have some work to do when it comes to rescribing panel lines, and I need to pay more attention to the little bits like gear legs and wheels.

-BD-

Great job BD, love the scheme and weathering. The tail wheel broke in my Revell Gustav and I pinned it with a piece of metal which makes it stronger than it originally was.

UKguyInUSA

Beautiful job, Brandon, looks da bomb! I'd love to do this scheme but in a 1/32 scale. How did the engine fit on the 1/48 scale? Did you have any issues like I did with the 1/32 scale? Cheers, Martin!

 

Thanks, Martin!

The engine fit was 90 percent good. The left bank of exhaust ports didn't line up exactly with the opening, but you can't tell (I installed exhaust pipes at the end of the build for masking ease).

What kit are you going to use in 1/32?

-BD-

plasticjunkie

Great job BD, love the scheme and weathering. The tail wheel broke in my Revell Gustav and I pinned it with a piece of metal which makes it stronger than it originally was.

 

Thanks, Plasticjunkie! THat's good info on the Revell. I have their 1/32 G-10, so maybe I should just plan on doing that from the beginning.

-BD-

BrandonD

 

UKguyInUSA

Beautiful job, Brandon, looks da bomb! I'd love to do this scheme but in a 1/32 scale. How did the engine fit on the 1/48 scale? Did you have any issues like I did with the 1/32 scale? Cheers, Martin!

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Martin!

The engine fit was 90 percent good. The left bank of exhaust ports didn't line up exactly with the opening, but you can't tell (I installed exhaust pipes at the end of the build for masking ease).

What kit are you going to use in 1/32?

-BD-

 

Hey Brandon,

Glad to hear you didn't have the problems I did with my Eduard 1/32 BF109E-3 which I post on here over a month ago...but, aftr all the heartache, she turned out nicely in the end!

Cheers