Regia Aeronautica GB II (06/15/09 to 06/15/10)

Guy I thought you said you were not that good at painting figures. That pilot looks pretty damn good to me. A mustache would really put it over the top! He looks a litle to English without it. I'm haveing lots of fun cleaning up all of the short run molded parts for the Fiat G 55 so its a bit slow going. The good news is the resin cockpit is assembled and test fittng shows it will fill pretty good in the fuselage. The photo-etch dash is another story. There are no positive mountng points for it andthe instructions are a little unclear as to exactly where it should be placed. I might make a sheet styrene backing for it so its not so delicate and give it a little more area to glue. I can't wait to get my hands on the Specail Hobby G 55 that Aaron is sending me. It is suppose to be a real sweet kit. Looks lke its going to be dual G 55's for me!

                                                                                              Soulcrusher

Luftwoller wrote:

My Mommy said if you guys keep posting pics like this, I can't play here anymore.

Nice paintwork Guy, is there anything you CAN'T do???

That pic might be the whole reason for thoses stomach problems Frank! mabye you should see the nurse agian.

                                                                                           Soulcrusher

I think you're right on there Michael.  NURSE!!!

Hey Michael! I got the back up today!!!!!  Its in my grubby hands!  If Squadron doesn't get it to you I can still accomplish the mission!  Er if I can get rid of this wedgie!

Picked up the Ro for myself but think those others still aren't available just yet. Frankie!  Man that Dave sure causes some hectic moments around here!

Thats a nice haul there Sarge! I saw the Ro 57 also but I have more than enough Regia Aeronautica stuff to keep me busy for now! Mine will take alot longer to arrive as I am alot furthur away from them than you. You should be receiving you Battle tomorrow I hope. I am really looking foward to building the Special Hobby G 55. We might have to add some oak leaves with clusters to your super duper good guy award to upgrade your status just the German pilots Knights Crosses in WWII.

                                                                                             Soulcrusher

Aaron, very nice score on the Mogami. I tend to switch hobbies every 5 years or so, although I was a Model RR for 20 something, but... i've been stashing ships because there's a unique technique to those.  I'm going to get out of a/c after the next RA build, and build a fleet. Love to touch base.

Frank, that photo is a fake, Chinese girls don't have racks, trust me.

Back to Aaron, seems to me too the colors of the uniforms are too dark, didn't the RA pilots wear yellow cotton?

Just my 2,000,000 Lira

 I am betting they didn't wear fishnets either!   Yep I got a bunch of ships to build. Gotta squeeze them in!  I am partial to the 1/350 scale just because I like things that take up too much space!

Thanks Michael but I think most nearly everyone here is a pretty good guy!  Even Guy and his Photoshop art.

Cheers lads, Im glad you liked my figure. Im first to admit im awfull at figures. I may have to do a few more if you liked this one LOL.

I painted him as a German but im going to do the ANR plane,

It should be mottletastic!!!

Aaron, what the heck scale is that beautifull Carrier? Shes super dooper.

...Guy

 That's the new Tamiya 1/350 scale Mogami cruiser! Guy!  Very cool and nice to have a kit that has 2009 molded in as the date! I am very impressed with it. All it really needs is some PE railing and it is good!

 The Ro 57 Bis is also very cool! It looks like a good quality kit of a somewhat obscure fighter bomber. Only 60 were produced and fought before July 1943.  Very nice quality.

 SC! I got the Battle today! Thanks so much as it is just what I needed to round out my early war British Aircraft!  I couldn't find one anywhere and the Aftermarket decals are sweet!  I am very grateful and hope your G-55 arrives soon!

Hey Guy I did some figgies for my 1/32 Swordfish as well!  Not as artistic as your work but they are custom made and unique!  I sculpted them from boogies taken from Bondo's royal nose as he slept!  The mix of alcohol, glue fumes and musalage just is a perfect media to work with!

Geeez Aaron, you made those figgies from boogers? Your talents are just endless, my friend. How have you found the Trumpy swordy? It looks good so far. Just like my 1/48, just bigger.

I think you should let me err....look after the carrier while your busy. Ill make sure its loved while your busy on other things.

...Guy

Wow if I had known you could use boogers to fashion figures out of I would have saved all of those tissues and built my own army!

Aaron PM replied!

Guy I think the next time I need a pilot figure I am going to ship it over to you to paint for me. That pilot really came out great. No progress for me the last two days. To much running around and fixing other peoples cars. The weekend look clear for me though so I hope to get some benchtime.

                                                                                           Soulcrusher

OK, now to the part I enjoy, painting!  I didn't really have a good reference to work from so this is kind of speculative based on other's people's builds on the net.  The decal instructions call out a 74/75/76 scheme but every other rendition I've seen used 81/83/76 so that's what I went with, the paint is MM (76), Aeromaster (81,83) and Polly S (Italian Dark Olive Green) acrylics.  The Italian dark green was used to over-paint the the swastika and what I assume was a unit emblem on the cowl, chances are this was a plane turned over to the ANR from JG 53 or JG 77.  This color was more speculation on my part but the one (not so good) photo I have  shows a dark splotch so the Italian dark green seemed logical.  Sorry about the poor photos but this one's on it's way to club meeting then due for a coat of Future so wanted to get the pics up before I got too far along.

Very nice Mike. Looks like youve nailed that mottle. Your right about that stage of the build. I love it too. Looking forward to getting there soon.

...Guy

Hey ho, Ive been at the Veltro again. It seems that im working at a vastly reduced pace. More like normal people. Geez heaven forbid. My mojo is coming back....but slowly. Anyhoo, heres where im at,

I set about the plug holes, that are the bain of these kits. The way i did it was to glue the plug in without the screw. Then i used fine milliput to fill any gaps. After that was sanded i used Mr Surfacer 500 and sanded that down. Fairly labour intensive but it looks ok. I may need a blob more Mr surfacer in a spot or 2.

Another little job i did that looks quite obvious on the Veltro is the supercharger intake, and its butterfly. The kit part is very basic and doesnt even come with an opening as such, let alone a butterfly. Both were fairly simple. I used my dremel and made a sizeable opening and then it was just a matter of punching out a butterfly from a piece of styrene,

Anyhoo, it looks like, due to the weather, that the Airshow i was hoping to goto, is a nogo because of duff weather, so i may be able to get some more done tomorrow. Maybe even button the thing up.

...Guy

 That is a fancy and well done paint job Mikester?  Is that the first time you have done one of those?

Guy you are chuking right along in your usual grandeur! Looks like that plane has you on your knees though.  Heck I am just happy your wearing pants! And building!  You motivate me to try and emmulate your aceiness!

 I just found out today I have  secret physic physco powers!  You all need to check out Frank's M1 Thread!

Its good to see you back at work shaping styrene agian Guy. You already know the Macchi 202/205 series are some of my favorite planes so I'm really enjoying watchng you on this build. I am heading over to the workbench in a bit. I have the NASCAR race on the television and I'm going to sit down and see how much progress I can make. The G 55 is going to need alot of tweaking to try and bring the quality of the kit up a bit so this is definetly not a Tamagawa project. Almost every part need to be modified cleaned up or just replaced outright. If I manage to get anything done worth looking at I will post some pics.

                                                                                               Soulcrusher

Mike, Beautiful paintwork there!!!!! Always love a well done mottle!!!!!!!!!!!

Guy, glad to see you back at it mate!!!!!!!!!

sfcmac wrote:

That is a fancy and well done paint job Mikester?  Is that the first time you have done one of those?

Yeah, kinda' new to this 109/Luftwaffe camo thing...

Working in 1/32 really is different, I know that's kind of a big "duh" but you don't really realize it until you jump in and especially when you normally work in 1/72.  You really use a lot more paint and the size really allows you to get some cool looking mottles, I probably got it a little more dense than I should have but I was having a good time and didn't want to quit!

OK, got the stickers on, combination of Sky Decals "Bf 109 in Italian Service" and decals from the kit.  They all went down beautifully.  The wing Balkankreuz will be over-sprayed with dark olive green and the Italian insignia will be applied.

luftwaffle wrote:

Yeah, kinda' new to this 109/Luftwaffe camo thing...

Well, for a NOOB you are doing quite well!

I worked on the G-6 todat, painting the white and yellow where they need to be, then masked over them in preparation for some RLM 76 tomorrow.  More to come!

Does anyone have information on the approximate color the Italians used to paint out the German crosses?  As long as I am close, I am OK with it.

Frank,

They would have been over-painted in Grigio Azzurro Chiaro (Blue-Gray), MM carries the exact color labeled as Italian Blue-Gray.

Thanks for the help Mike!  I checked on a paint-cross reference site for a Tamiya match, and they are telling me to use RLM 02.  Seems fishy to me...

Nope, RLM 02 has too much green in it.  Italian Blue Gray is closer to RLM 76, but has more of a gray tint. 

See here:

http://www.stormomagazine.com/Articles/coloricmpr_1.jpg

If you're an acrylic guy (like me) Pollyscale makes this color too.

Great info Mike, but are you sure that the Italians would have adhered to a strict colour code for painting out the crosses? Im not so certain. I reckon that they would have grabbed the 1st can of paint that was close to the surrounding paint..But hey, what do i know

Anyhoo, the paint job on yours is looking fantastic. Did you have any probs with the seams on your 21st ct kit? I used Tamiya extra thin on mine and ive had a right game with them. Even after 24hrs it still seamed (Pardon the pun) a little soft. Ive ended up CA'ing them. Ill post a pic or 2 tomorrow morning before work. Hopefully ill be painting the thing in the next couple of days.

Frank, your progress is looking sweet. I see your using the Frankenstyrostand Mk2. Very nice.

...Guy

Luftwoller wrote:

Great info Mike, but are you sure that the Italians would have adhered to a strict colour code for painting out the crosses? Im not so certain. I reckon that they would have grabbed the 1st can of paint that was close to the surrounding paint..But hey, what do i know

I think that's pretty accurate (based on photos) up until this last few months of the war, after that all bets are off!  I ignored that rule on mine since the over painting was definitely done in a dark color and it's a late war plane.

Luftwoller wrote:

Anyhoo, the paint job on yours is looking fantastic. Did you have any probs with the seams on your 21st ct kit? I used Tamiya extra thin on mine and ive had a right game with them. Even after 24hrs it still seamed (Pardon the pun) a little soft. Ive ended up CA'ing them. Ill post a pic or 2 tomorrow morning before work. Hopefully ill be painting the thing in the next couple of days.

I'm not entirely happy with my seams where the wings join the fuselage, I used Tenax.  I also had a tough time with the leading edge of the wings.  Part of that can probably be blamed on me though too, I should have been a little more careful.  I've read some reviews on the 109 and no one else really seems to have any complaints about fit so maybe what you've got is unique to the Macchi.