Bf-109: Reich Defender GB The End

Mike, looking good.

Can't wait to see that one finished.

Speaking of finished....

...I finally put those final touches to the old Revell 1/48 Me 109 K-4 as White 1 of JG77 circa November 1944.

And the view you didn't want in the rear view mirror...

And the reason it took me so long to get the little bits done...

...a trip to the dark side!

Karl

The masking came out great Mike. The late war Karl camo was so different from what was used for so many years. I really like it. The soft/hard masks really make it stand out from all of the other 109's. Looking foward to seeing it with the stickers!

                                                                        Soulcrusher

Hi all,

I masked, sprayed and unmasked the wheel wells and the exposed parts of the flaps, and the decals are going on as of today. I'm not going to make the deadline for the post to the Aircraft forum, unfortunately, there are washes and weatherings still to go, mount the landing gear and do the final touchups, lower halves of the flaps, antenna wire, heck there are 31 decals on the port side of the fuselage alone, plus a sliver of decal to fabricate to complete the spiral. Still, she's nearly ready. Note the canopy was pulled right off by the soft-masking, so I need to remount it.

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Yesterday, using recent photos from this build, I uploaded a soft-masking tutorial to my blog, catch it at the address below.

Cheers,

Mike

Hi Frank,

Many thanks! It feels good as it's going now, which is always positive. I'm using the kit decals, markings for Yellow 4 of II/JG3, March '45, which seems to be a well-documented bird (I found a digital restoration online for use in games, including a 2D version of the skinning images).

I've started the fine brush touch-ups, there aren't many to do, and will be painting gear bays and wheels tomorrow, hopefully along with decaling.

Cheers,

Mike

Hi Frank and all,

Bit more progress -- we got let out of court this morning so I came home to do a bit on the bench. I applied the negative masks to the fuselage sides and touched up the 76 where overspray had darkened it:

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Then removed all masking (with the exception of a few spots on the tail):

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She's not looking too bad -- mask and spray the wheel wells tomorrow, fine touchups, then I can get the decals on. The panel wash is a pretty quick affair right after that, then I'm onto small parts. Note the canopy is off -- that blu-tac is sticky stuff, it ripped it right away. I'll have to reattach it in the last round of work.

Cheers,

Mike

Mike- I like the hard edges on your camo, looks very much like a late war Karl IMHO.

John- Welcome back!

Karl- Looking forward to those finished pics!

Mike- Outstanding work on your 1/32 debut!  You have most definately proven that it does not take wads of $$$ to turn out a stunning replica.  I like this bird a lot, you are a master of the 109 my friend.

OK, calling her done.  I still need to scratch build some aileron mass balances but that will be done down the road.  Something new this time was EZ-Line for the antenna aerial, works pretty well.  The tensioning springs were made from real small guage copper wire wound around a small wire, came out pretty well although hard to make out in photos.  A little more weathering here and there and added some doo-dads.  All in all a fun build and a definite change of pace from 1/72!

This will be my final entry, I think 3 builds is enough for Der Führer (Frank) and Der Vaterland!  Had a great time with this one, thanks to all who participated!

Mike, looking sharp there.

I'm off work this week, so I'll finish the last few bits of the K and post some pics.

Karl

Hi SC and TJ --

Many thanks for the kind words, and yep, any new technique is going to take some trial and error. I'm actually very pleased with the way the fuselage sides look now the masks are away. The 76 will need a little touchup, some overspray is noticeable, whereas the 75, being darker, gets away with it. I think I'm getting into the home stretch now -- hoping to do the 76, and mask the wheelwells for 02 today.

Cheers,

Mike

I'm back after a long hiatus.

Bob that monochrome scheme looks really nice especially with the green band.

Mike Wow that is just awesome.

And we wonder why we want to build so many 109's.  We could probably spend our lifetimes building just 109's and not have enough time.

JOHN

Looks like you are making some good progress Mike. The masking to get the hard/soft edge effect is tough. Its all about getting the edge the correct high and then hitting it with the airbrush at the correct angle so the paint does not get sprayed right agianst the edge of the mask. keep up the good work!

                                                                                    Soulcrusher

Hi all,

I tried to get these up last night but the forum was down for maintenance.

Here's the RLM 83 spots on the tail masked with patches of Tamiya tape:

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The rest of the topside masks were then removed:

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I never knew blu-tac was so strong! It took some tough prising to get the masks off. The marks it left cleaned up with an eraser, so it looks like the 75 won't need patching. I'll know better if the 76 needs a touchup when the fuselage masks finally come off. I must say the demarkations are so tight they look almost hard-masked, I was hoping for slightly more fluff to make it worth going to all this effort...

In the agenda for today, spray the 75 for the vertical tail, then remove the last masking and possibly spot the 76 as needed. Hopefully I'll get the wheelwells masked for the 02 today as well.

Cheers,

Mike

Hi Frank,

I'll push it and try for a finished bird in time for inclusion. I sprayed the RLM 83 an hour ago, here she is:

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My next job is to cut tiny tape masks for the hard edge splotches on the tail, unmask the rest of the airframe and spray some 75 over the tail, then touch up anywhere the 75 needs it. Then any touchups the 76 needs, and I can turn her over, mask the wheel wells and do the 02. I'm really looking forward to decaling, that's maybe my fav part of the process.

Cheers,

Mike

Gentlemen,

I am hoping to post the finished pics from this GB over in aircraft soon to show the masses what we accomplished here.  I am planning on posting these 8/1/09, so if you are able to get yours finished and pics posted by then, I can include them in the group!

Thanks, Frank -- the MM enamels have behaved very nicely indeed, and the AB certainly seems to like them, it's happier working with the chemically hotter paint than with acrylics. Pity they're so toxic!

Cheers,

Mike

Hi Frank and all,

Here's some WIP pics of the K-4. With all this jury service and such, while there's been time available here and there, finding the mental orientation and committment has not been easy, especially to work with a new technique.

Here's the bird with the 75 on the horizontals, plus the soft masks applied to the fuselage:

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Next, the 75 applied to the fuselage over the masks:

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You can already see the tight demarkations. If the rest of the pantjob follows through like this it should be good. Lastly, here's the bird with the 75 masked, ready for the 83:

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I'll try to lay on the 83 tomorrow, then probably do touchups over the weekend. The blu-tack leaves a mark on the underlying paint, so I may be sprarying 75 and 76 as necessary to repair those marks.

Then I have the wheel wells and exposed parts of the dropped flaps to put into 02, spray the wheels, then I'm down to small details and the big job is decaling.

Cheers,

Mike

bobbaily wrote:

Regarding 'the wife enjoying her new space', I'm sure that you've learned that life is always much better when the wife is happy....

Truer words were never spoken, Bob! Giving up my workspace was an easy choice.

Thanks Mike.  My seam filling skills could use some more practice but I'm liking the paint scheme much better after the oil wash.  Not crazy about the decals, but for the price of the Revell-o-gram kit, I can't complain.

Love your avitar-MST2K (and 3K) is one of my all time favorite shows.

Regarding 'the wife enjoying her new space', I'm sure that you've learned that life is always much better when the wife is happy.... 

Hey all.....I'm good with any of the choices.  The bf109 is the one kit I don't have in the stash, but I can always pickup a Tamiya E4/7 @ HobbyLobby w/coupon or the Academy G-6 kit when the build starts.

Here are a couple of pics of the G-10 after the wash.

Still a lot of work to go, but I'm getting my second wind.  I'm currently between careers so I should have a little time between job searches & home based projects to finish up some 'in-process' projects.

 I am voting for the Harry Potter scatch built cookie cutter contest!