1/48 Eduard Bf 109G-6/R6 RV Grünherz Gustav (Finished!)

Outstanding Hoss, crisp and sharp . 

I've had a chance to make some more progress on this RV Gustav.

Here it is ready for priming. No major drama to this point. I've been wrestling with when to paint the exhaust stacks - 1) before installation and mask to paint or 2) wait until overall painting complete. My previous 109 was a disaster. In this build, I painted them and then assembled and masked prior to main painting.  I'm interested to hear how others tackle this. 

Primed with Mission Models gray. Worked fine. I needed to touch up a couple of areas but nothing major. 

I went back and forth on whether to pre-shade. In the end I like the effect, particularly on the underside. I find I'm not adept at modulating the topside camo pattern to take advantage of the preshading. It doesn't hurt anything, however. 

Gotta love the JG 54 color schemes. Here's the beast with the yellow lower cowling and blue RV band. I ended up with 50% MMP-48 Blue and 50% white for the RV band. It looked closest to my eye. I also learned my lesson on preshading yellow areas. In this case, I preshaded the panel lines with light gray in the yellow zones. Worked like a champ. I also should have waited before installing the drop tank rack. I've busted three of the pins since this photo was taken. 

Ok - I tried the white tack worms for the fuselage camo (Tamiya masking tape for the wings). Worked great and another tool for the toolbox. By the way, I masked the wing leading edge scallop pattern. It's a relatively hard edge, but  several reference photos I check looked similar. 

Main painting complete with Mission Models RLM 74, 75, and 76. Ready for gloss coat then decals. I tried to replicate the classic Messerschmitt Regensburg mottle pattern with the sweeping bands and think it came out OK. The reference photo of the actual plane is a touch overexposed so it's difficult to tell how much mottling was applied. 

I'm generally very pleased with the Mission Models paints but I'm itching to try AK Real Colors based on reviews. Once I work through my Mission Models stock, I'll order some AK to try. 

Thanks for following. More later. 

Adding a few more WIP images for completeness. 

The splinter camo looks great. 

Great looking Gustav, excellent paint work! Looking forward to the next update

Finished this Grünherz Gustav! Went together well and the paint and markings came out nicely. I gave the canopy a bath in gloss acrylic on this build for the first time and think it looks better than without. Having built a few Eduard 109s now, lessons learned on previous helped make this one cleaner. Examples:

-The PE instrument panel is really good but the other cockpit panels and radiator grills are in plastic IMHO. 

- It's good to ensure the PE exhaust stack covers fit before gluing. I had to trim them to get them to fit. 

(Still, I should have waited until the end to install the drop tank rack. I broke three of the four pins during painting.) 

Overall I really enjoyed this one. Enjoy the photos and thanks for looking. 

I thought I was looking at pictures of the prototype! Just amazing. I have a long way to go to achieve this level of craftsmanship... or perhaps sorcery!

Josh

Very nicely done Sir!

Great job!