Reich Defenders IV Group Build: Strike From Above

That's a really nice looking "Schwalbe", Bish! I love the camo you chose for it!

Thanks for the tut as well. I was just going to ask how you did the base. (it looks great!)

The whole thing looks more like 1/48 IMO. Great work, mate!

I should be able to post an update in the near future as well...

Cheers, Clemens

Finally got this wrapped up. Its been a long build, but a nice one. I am really glad to add this variant to the collection.

I finished it off with weathering with pro modeller wash and AK streaking grime. I added two AB 250 bomblet containers from one of the Italeri resin sets.

Thanks for a great GB. I hope to see some more builds come along soon. I'll be sticking around..

For those who may be interested, I have posted a little tut on how to make an aircraft base.

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/19/t/154940.aspx

Ok, finally time for an update. All the decals are now on and I have given it a coat of flat. The nose wheel oleo was to short so I replaced it with a piece of metal wire. All that's left is some final weathering, another coat on the frame work of the glazed nose and add the canopy's and antenna wire. O, and the ordinance.

Nearly there. 

Wow, some really nice work going on here!  

I haven't had much time to build, but I did get a base coat of flat black on the cockpit to pre-shade the RLM 66.  I don't have too much work this weekend so I hope to get some work done.  

Steve

Thanks for the compliment, Bish.  I'm nervously excited about the mottling myself.  

I do work away from home, on a ship, a month at work and a month at the model bench at home.  I feel the same way, hating to leave a kit halfway through, but the nature of the beast I suppose...

Isn't it just Andrew.

That's coming along nicely. I look forward to the mottling. I had put it off for a while before trying it. The hardest thing I found was finger control. I take it you work away from home. Well I know that feeling, I used to hate leaving a partly built kit for a few months. But it was always nice to get back to.

Isn't that always the way, Bish.  When it rains it pours.  

I had a little time to get my ailerons fixed on, finish up my sanding work and shoot a layer of primer.  I even impressed managed enough time to get my RLM 05 and 76 painted up.  Please excuse the crumbs on the counter in the photo, I've put off cleaning up to get some paint laid in. 

I'd also put some time in over the last three months on three of the figures that will be working around her, shown below.

Next is the fuselage top and the wings, and since I've figured out my pressures and ratios for mottling, I should start on that next month as well.  This sunday is back to work, so I'll have to pick up at it when I get home again.  I'm very impressed by the Vallejo paints for their transparency so far.

My decals finally arrived today, both sets. I know have enough Crosses to equip the entire German air force. The Areo master ones are nice, but the old Microscale set has exactly what I want. So I will have this wrapped up soon.

Thanks, Clemens, the mottling was the hard part, but once I figured out thinning and pressure, not too bad.  Their F8 is nice, pretty much like any of their Wulfs, though I found a reasonable gap in the wing root (not sure if that was my fault or the kit) and have used a lot of aftermarket (CMK, which fits nicely), but otherwise, it goes together nicely.

That's looking very good, Andrew! Some very neat painting you did there! How is the Tamiya kit? I thought about getting their F-8 for this GB as well (the one with the bomb trailer), but I'm not too sure about it...

Cheers, Clemens

Just thought I'd put up a quick post, I've not forgotten about this by any means, but carrying on two group builds at the same time has slowed progress on my Wulf.  Not at a standstill at all, but slowly working on putty around the wing roots and getting things to look right.  On the plus side, this morning I started mounting ailerons and over the last few days I'd given the cowling some thought.  I wound up thinking if I could get it painted before hand, then mount it, I would not risk overspraying all of my interior.  At any rate, here's the cowl and panels.  Next is painting the interior of the panels, getting my other aileron fixed down and finishing the filling work.  Then, finally, PRIMER!!!!

Its just come to my attention that I have been a real Muppet. I have been waiting over 2 weeks for those decals from the US, they seem to be stuck at UK customs. But I was just checking Hannants and found they have just what I want from Areomaster. Given I check Hannants almost every day, I can't believe I missed these. So I have just placed an order and hopefully they should be here Thurs or Fri.

You watch, the other ones will arrive tomorrow.

A quick update. I am still awaiting my decals to arrive from the US. Its been two weeks now and I am getting a little worried. I know its not the senders fault, I am guessing its down to Royal mail. I am also waiting for 2 kits I bought from Poland, which have been even longer.

So at the moment the 262 is stalled.

I know, those HGW belts are really worth it.My Wildcat has a set of them in the pit already. I wish you much luck with the cowls and I'm looking forward to some pics!

Cheers, Clemens

Spartan,

the HGW belts are quite fiddly, but beautiful when finished.  My first set (the one I'm working on now) took me about three hours, but I was so happy with them at the end.

I've been picking away at the Wulf, and got one wing top down and the other halfway there.  I'll have a lot of putty work to do (which disappoints me with a Tamiya kit) but hopefully I'll have a photo or two later this week.  The big hurdle will be temporarily attaching the cowls so I can paint a bit, remove them, insert the engine and then reattach.  Seems an awkward way around it, but I want to paint without covering the exhausts in overspray.  Fingers crossed that white glue holds it well enough.

Nah, I'm not even close to decalling this bird. I need to get the IP decal on though. After that those nice, but fiddly HGW belts and some other stuff. It isn't even painted atm.

Thanks, i take it you are at the decal stage.

Looking really good, Bish! I can't make any progress on my Jug untill I get me some gloss varnish sadly...

Clemens

Got all the decaling done as far as I can go. Just waiting on the crosses to arrive before adding those and the fuselage code.

In the meantime, I will add the undercarriage and get on with the base. 

I just joined the cockpit with one of the fuse halves and I should be able to glue the fuse together today. Dunno if I can get on sanding the seam down though. Maybe I'll post another update today.

Cheers, Clemens

Thank you very much guys!

Mike: I don't like spending too much time on cockpits either, but those Tamiya cockpits are so nice to build and paint, while being very detailed, so it's a joy working on them.

Cheers, Clemens

Clemens -- looking very good! The pit I often find frustrating because it blocks me from getting on with the airframe until I've fiddled with paint, and that can take a fair bit of mental self-control. You've got this one coming along nicely!

M/TB379

Steve... Thank you for the kind words... Very much appreciated.

Bish, I hear ya my friend, If you dont like em, it will always bug the soup out of you!

Clemens... Very nice work! You will remember this the next time! Excellent! Looking forward to the next pics!

Thank you very much, Bish! The most work went into getting that stupid paint mixture on the model without achieving a coarse texture. That Aqua Color Clean evaporates as soon at you pull the "trigger" on your airbrush, so as an advice from me: Don't use it if you don't have to... I ended up with a mix of 1 part paint and 4-5 parts thinner . It is awesome for cleaning my airbrush though (Harder & Steenbeck Evolution Silverline )

I spent about 5 hours on that cockpit. 30 mins of drybrushing, 30 mins for the oil wash, 1 hr for the details, 1 hour of careful airbrushing in very thin layers (green and black), a few minutes mixing the right shade of green and almost 2 frigging hours to get that damn paint/thinner ratio right! (I'll never use that Aqua Color Clean as a thinner!)

Cheers, Clemens

Nice looking cockpit, that's some work in there.

I had to edit the post to get the pics in there. It ended above the firat pic when I posted it first. This happened to me the second time now. Any Ideas what I am doing wrong?

UPDATE TIME!!!

Sorry for all the delays, I had very limited bench time lately. I'll have plenty of it the next weeks though (yay!)

I finally managed to complete the cockpit of my german Jug (well, almost). The only things I'll have to add are the IP decal (i need some gloss varnish first) and the seatbelts (those HGW belts are some fiddly stuff)

I painted the pit in Tamiya XF-26 mixed with some Gunze H-12 to make it a bit darker (it fits the color of the real thing pretty well).  Tamiya and Gunze paints have their own thinners that don't work that well with the color of the other Company, so I thinned it with Revell Aqua Color Clean. This makes it a bit harder to get a nice finish than with regular thinners, but I think it turned out quite good.

Next steps were some detail painting with various Vallejo paints, a drybrushing with XF-16 mixed with some Dark Yellow (and some silver in a few spots) and a black oil wash.

But enough talking, now to the pics!

My camera didn't capture the color that well on all pics, but the first pic shows how it looks in reality.

The painted parts:

Everything glued together:

I hope you like it. It wasn't easy to get a nice and even coat of paint down with the rather unconventional mix of Tamiya and Gunze paints thinned with Revell's cleaning solution.

Cheers Clemens

The cockpit of my Jug is now fully repainted and is awaiting some finishing touches here and there and a little bit of weathering. Stay tuned for an update today or tomorrow! I ordered two German 500kg bombs as well on Hannants.

Cheers Clemens

Doug - really liking that 110!  Camo looks great! I've also been following the 190 build and you've got some really nice work going on there too!

Steve

Try and get all your images into one, either a GIF image or one large image like the one I have my badges in. You should be able to just remove that link from your sig.

For my markings I don't have to worry about accuracy, for once, as its a what if scheme. I just didn't want to settle for the ones I have, which are ok, but not what I really wanted.