1/48 Eduard Bf 110 C 9/ZG. 76 "Battle of Britain" (Finished)
On the heels of my Eduard Bf110 E, against my better judgement, I decided to have a go at another one, this time a C variant from the Battle of Britain. I had it in my stash, so in my best Rob Schneider Townie voice, I sez to myself "You can do it!". Waterboy reference aside, I was especially curious to see if it would be as troublesome as the E, or perhaps operator error. I was going to only share finished pics, but what the heck, I'll show what I've done so far.
I couldn't decide on which scheme to do and none of the decals available struck my fancy. Everyone seems to do the sharkmouth choice, so I went with the 9/ZG 76 machine flown by Urban Schlaffer during the Battle. According to Eduard, on August 16th 1940 it was damaged in combat against 602 Squadron Spitfires and made a forced landing in South Sussex England. The part I found intriging was the experimental camo scheme. It was apparently done up in the standard factory RLM 70/71 over 65, however, they want to decrease the dark silhouette so the dark green RLM 70 was covered with lighter RLM 02. I do love Eduard's research which I find very appealing.
Cockpit was a breeze. It's done in AK Real Colors RLM 02. To my eye it's a bit light. It's my understanding AK compensates for scale. Next time I'll add a few drops of black. This time I used the PE handles for the gun magazines which I didn't do on the E.
The fuselage on this one went together perfectly and the lines matched up, better than the E. For the nose, I used the same technique I used on the E, sandig an fitting. For some reason I got it to fit slightly better this time.
Not perfect, but much better...
I had the airframe together fairly quick. I found that the engine nacelles fit better on the E. There was a step at the top rear joints this time which required alot of sanding and filling. I eventually got tired of dealing with them and never got em perfect. I went with good enough. Also, I sanded down the wing tabs that go into the fuselage which seemed to get rid of the wing root gap issues.
I'm out of Flat Black so I substituted XF-69 NATO Black. I had some spare Montex for the crosses, so I used them.
Time for the cool scheme and some experimentation. I figured I'd paint it first like the factory then make the modifications with RLM 02 (the original plan anyways). I sprayed the AK Real Colors RLM 65 first and taped it off. I used AK Real Colors RLM 71 then faded it with some XF-57 Buff, using the reverse basing technique. This is my first time with this particular AK color and it looks pretty good to my eye.
I decided to forego the RLM 70 and went straight to the RLM 02. Spraying the 70 seemed redundant since I was already covering 71, which is also green. Anyways, I taped off the splinter camo and sprayed AK RLM 02 . I added some black to darken it a bit. Then I lightened it with white and did the same reverse basing. I tried to make this splotchy but without making it look too ridiculous. I stopped here.
Next I mottled the sides with RLM 02 per Eduards profile. I also did some post shade weathering with diluted black and red brown mixture.
The exhaust then got some attention. I replaced them with Quickboost and sprayed diluted XF-69 NATO Black first then some XF-19 Sky Grey to simulate heat.
Port
Starboard
The underside got some postshading as well.
That's where I'm at so far. Time for a clear coat and decals.