I'm building the Tamiya Emil in conjunction with the Eduard kit. Me and the Tamiya Emil are old friends, but it's been many years since I've built it. I'm curious to see how this twenty plus year old kit stacks up to the newer Eduard one. Let's find out.
I'll be doing a desert tropical scheme, a first for me with the 109 (I did a Storch a few years ago...yikes!). Decals for Trop versions are scarce, so I'm going with the in-box option of JG 27 Werner Schroer's "Black 8", a fairly well known subject out of Lybia in 1941. Schroer's final score was 114 enemy aircraft. I always liked this photo which is in every 109 book I have ever seen.
A pretty nice profile pic here.
As I said, me and this kit are old friends. Their E-3 was one of the first kits I built when I returned to the hobby and it was fairly new tooling then. I remember it being easy to build and affirmed that I could competently glue together a plastic model. The true shake and bake model kit.
Like the Eduard kit, the pit is average at best. I sprayed it XF-24 Dark Grey with some black added to simulate RLM 66. I gave it "the business" then added a PE instrument panel and seat belts.
The pit is simple, but looks busy enough when fitted inside the fuselage. I'm gonna have to give the edge to the Tamiya kit here.
I was here in about two seconds flat. As I recalled, this kit is stupid easy to assemble. In other news, I forgot this was a trop version and accidentally added the "normal" intake. After I peeled myself off the ceiling I was able to drill it out and break it out of it's hole with an old Exacto before the glue set fully. I then added the correct trop filter. Crisis averted.
Tamiya unfortunately did not add the cool wing rivet detail present on the Eduard kit. Their recent 1/48 G-6 does not have it either. Perhaps Tamiya only offers that in their 1/32 scale stuff as they may feel it should only be seen in the larger scale. A valid point I suppose. I however prefer them. Score one point Eduard in this department.
....and no, I'm not adding rivet detail. As Dirty Harry said, a man should know his limitations.
After the preshading, I sprayed the insignias then added Montex masks. I also sprayed the white fuselage band and taped that off. The Luftwaffe used a scheme of RLM 79 over 78 in the desert. This plane then got splotches of RLM 80, probably field applied as they look crude in the picture. I started with the RLM 78. I was not buying AK Real Colors for this turkey, so I mixed Tamiya paints per kit recommendations. truthfully I pefer Tamiya paints, but I have trouble with their RLM colors. Anyways, for the RLM 78, I went with the recommended XF-23 Light Blue mixed with a bit of XF-50 Field Blue until it looked ok to my eye. It's my understanding RLM 78 is just a slightly darker version of RLM 65. I marbled and faded it with XF-2 White.
Next I fired down the RLM 79. I used the recommended XF-59 Desert yellow with a touch of XF-64 Red Brown. I used the same marbling by adding XF-2 white, but went heavier as these took a beating from the sun.
I used XF-58 Olive Green to simulate the RLM 80 splotches. This was a challenge and time consuming, but I free handed them in there. Very close with low pressure. I faded them out slightly with some XF-57 Buff added. The Montex masks worked great.I forgot to fade out the insignias with diluted flat white, but will do so later.
It will get some gloss coat soon. I pray the Tamiya Black 8 cooperates.