I'm gonna go with done here . The glue is still wet on the groundwork.....LOL. To recap it's the 1/48 Hasegawa Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 in the markings of Anton Hackl of JG II around August of 1943 when JG II was assigned to Reich defense. Hackl was a 192 kill ace with 34 of those being heavy bombers.
Reference the kit, it was the "Experten" boxing which came with Hackl's markings. Its nicely engineered, but in my opinion somewhat basic. I have built many over the years and they do just fall together. It does need a resin pit, or at least some PE in there. My issues, or should I say confusion, lyes in trying to use the correct parts for the particular variant I'm building. Then all the "cut this off...shave that....fill this" stuff.....its mind boggling to me and I usually forget something. For example, this one has two dimples on the port fuselage which was for an umbrella on tropical versions, not this theater. I think I used the wrong cannon blister on the starboard side too. I did remember to shave off the scoops in the canopy. Anyways, on this build, I used a True Details cockpit and Quickboost guns which I found in the stash.
The Reheat figure was found to be nicely detailed. I painted "Major Tony" with Tamiya paints and drybrushed with lighter versions of that color. The skin tones were done with Model Master Enamels with the same techique. It was all given a brown detailer wash. Figure painting is really not my forte but I'm trying to improve in this area. To me, these models just look better with a pilot standing next to them and the chute at his feet is a bonus. I may eventually branch into vehicles and such too.
I may try the Zveda F model one of these days just to see how it compares. I heard its better than Hasegawa's kit. I still have 2 G-2's and a G-10 in the stash.
If you'll have me, there's a good chance I'll do another in here. Thanks for having me and it was a pleasure to be amongst friends again...
Joe
