Reich Defenders IV Group Build: Strike From Above

I started decalling my Jug today and I hope to get all the stencils in place tonight so I can add the swastikas, fuselage code and crosses tomorrow. Then I'll seal everything with Alclad's "Light Sheen" clear coat and apply some Flory washes... More pics tomorrow evening.

Clemens - thanks for the list of thinners and the clear coat.  This is the first time that I've used it so I assumed that it was a laquer.  Can't wait to see the decals on your Jug.  I ordered some Flory washes last week that I will try over the alclad once I receive them.

Nathan - my wash is MM burt umber thinned wth MM acrylic thinner and a drop or two of dish soap.  Once I apply the wash to the model I dip a cotton bud in windex to remove the wash before it has fully dried.  Normally I apply this over 2-3 coats of future which keeps the wash in the panel lines and gives the rest of the panels a slighly dirty semi-matt appearance.  The windex does remove some of the future but I've never had it remove the future down to the paint like it did with the alclad.  

Steve

I like the effect on your model Steve, but Yikes!! Windex is Future's arch Nemesis! You're braver than me. Before I discovered oil paints, I was using Grumbacher artists tube acrylics, thinned with distilled water and flow aid for my washes. That combination is the safest in the world. You will like the Flory washes too. I just wish they had more colors available.

Whew at least I'm not the only one behind the eight ball

Got the 71 on

And was able to get the splinter masked for the 70.  Hopefully tonight will be sprayed.

Tomorrow with a little luck I'll be able to gloss and decal shortly after.

John

John - your 129 is looking good!  

Nathan - I know!  I used to spray enamels and then future to gloss for decals.  It didn't matter if the future came off since I was using enamels.  I've recently switched to Tamiya acrylics for most of my painting so thought the alclad would be a good barrier for the wash.  

I have used my wash formula for years and would like to keep using it but prefer acrylics over enamels.  Any suggesions for a clear coat that windex won't eat?  I hope he Flory wash will do the trick - seems like it should.

Steve

Hi guys -- this is a very productive discussion of chemistry! I'll add my usual technique -- Tamiya or MM acrylics followed by Microscale clear (also water-based acrylics), followed by Florey (Promodeller when I bought them) panel washes, sealed with more Microscale clear. I've followed this procedure eleven times to date and the only times I've had issues they had  nothing to do with the chemistry as such -- Fujimi 1980s panel lines are too fine for the wash to stay in, and my airbrush was giving trouble which caused a spatter effect in the clear coat, which needs sanding back with the old 2000-grit/liquid soap trick...

John -- the 129 is coming along great, I love it when a model gets to this stage!

M/TB379

I'd forgotten how much masking had to be done on Luftwaffe hard splinter camo

Great work on the 129, John!

My usual progress is very similar to Mike's:

1. spray Alclad clear gloss
2. apply decals
3. seal decals with Alclad gloss or satin clear coat (I use the satin one only for models I want to look a bit more dirty)
4. apply Flory wash
5. Add some pigments and/or more flory wash for additional streaking if necessary
6. seal everything with alclad flat clear (I'll have to replace that one with something else because it is too flat for my taste) 

Looking good John! Neat to hear everyone's techniques. Sanderson- Gunze Mr. color gloss might work, but if your gonna use Flory washes, they don't need to be wiped clean with windex, only water, or just lick the paper towel and wipe them away.

Only a text update for now:

I got all the Tamiya decals (only stencilling) on the model. They are a bit on the thick side but the 2 clear coats before and after should blend them in nicely. I also applied a small amount of micro sol on all the decals.

Then I started to get those LF-Model decals in place and I'm not too convinced with how they handle: They are not pre-cut which wouldn't be a problem on its own, but it really is a royal pain in the to cut them out because the ink is applied in such thin layers that you scratch all of it away as soon as you touch them with any sharp object. The decal film is extremely thin too, which is really nice, but causes some prblems with applying the larger decals (the crosses used on the Jug are quite huge). Another problem is the fact that the black is printed slightlly offset compared to the white, which doesn't look bad on the decal sheet, but it becomes really noticeable with the OD background of the upper surfaces. It's not a huge concern, but I have to trim the decals after application which is another step that could've been avoided. I don't have only bad things to say about the decals though. Once in place and trimmed, they look almost as if they were painted on, even without a clear coat on top.

So far I managed to get one of the top wing crosses on as well as the liitle triangles on the nose that indicate the fuel used (the 100 probably means 100 octane fuel?)

Now the bad news: I wasn't able to use the swastikas supplied with that decal sheet. They desintegrated as soon as I tried to slide them off the backing paper. Why is that a problem? Well, I don't have any damn replacements! The only swastikas I have are from a few of the 1/48 Fw 190 kits i have in my stash. Almost all the kits I can get my hands on come from Germany and as you might know, the swastika is strictly banned there. That means that all my kits are missing them. Swastikas are my most precious decals because it is so hard to get them here and I want to build my models as accurate as possible which involves them being on the tail fin (they are allowed in Austria only for historically correct representation of a modelling subject AFAIK - the best law i have yet to hear of ) Well, back to those 190 swastikas: They are too damn small! Way too small! Looks like I have to order me a decal set of swastikas, so no weathering untill they arrive...

while I was ranting about me being too clumsy to handle big, fragile decals and the ban of swastikas in Germany, the Micro-Sol on the one cross I put on dried and it looks perfect! It snuggled down nicely into all the panel lines without even slightly obscuring them!

I just had a look at one of my EagleCals sheets for a bunch of Doras and there are in fact 2 additional swastikas on there that are only slightly smaller than the LF-Model ones. the size difference is approximately 0.75mm in both directions. Should I just use those ones instead in order to not wait 1 week or something for any replacements to arrive?

I'll order those replacement swastikas anyway though. I'm always lacking a bunch of them and I have plenty of Luftwaffe birds n my stash. Can anyone recommend a set that is of good quality (or a set of masks if those are better).

Just to make things clear: I'm absolutely disgusted by the things the *** did and I'm very happy I was born after that era. Not to mention how ashamed I am that the Austrian people were in fact involved in those actions. I do however want to recreate my Luftwaffe models as accurate as possible, so I will use swastikas on all my German WW2 aircraft becauseit is simply a neutral symbol misused by the *** and it has no personal meaning to me. (Sorry about that, but as an Austrian I just feel the need to clarify this, although I'm pretty sure all of you know it anway)

No worries, mate, we entirely understand all you're saying, as in all conscience we're all faced with the same thing, and in a variety of contexts. Your opting for historical accuracy is probably the decision we all make, and on the same grounds.

Pity about your decal woes! Register is a pain, sometimes you have to go with a slight offset. For the replacement crooked-crosses, TechMod in Poland make very good quality balkenkreutzer sheets, they might make the others too -- not sure, better Google it!

Take whatever time you need, this will be a masterpiece!

M/TB379

Thanks for the nice words, Mike! I'll do some research on Techmod.

Guess what:

Whe I pulled the EagleCals set out of it's bag to check if the swastikas I was talking about were really not used, something fell out of the folded decal instructions:

My small sheet of AM swastikas!!!

I have no clue what company they are made of because I one of they guys at my LHS gave them to me. He bought a set of swastikas in different scales, but he only builds 1/72 models, so he just gave me all the 1/48 ones It includes swastikas in different styles:

• Black (4 of each size)
• White (2 each)
• Black with white border (2 each)
• Black with white and balc double-border (2 each)

The sizes supplied are 1000mm, 900mm, 800mm and some that are a bit smaller than the 800s smaller (different styles here)

Looks like my problem just solved itself

I quicly compared what's laeft of the LF swastikas with the ones I just found and it looks like my Jug had 900mm ones painted on.

Phew -- problem solved! M

I'm having some pretty bad luck today. As soon as I solve one problem, I find another one. The crosses on the fuselage sides go right over the huge air vents (for the turbocharger?). They are recessed quite a bit when closed, so getting the decal to snuggle down properly is going to be a challenge. I hope i can soften it enough with several applications of Micro-Sol because I really don't want to cut it.It's looking pretty good after the first application already, so I think it might actually work!

I ended up havng to cut the decal. It got distorted a wee bit, but it's not really noticeble unless you hold a perfectly intact cross next to it and look really closely I have to do some touch-ups on the black areas, but that shouldn't be too hard to duo (just brush some Vallejo black on)

The 2nd fuselage cross is on. I had to apply a lot of Micro-Sol to sofen it enough, but that also damaged it around the edges of the air outlet. I just hope it isn't that visible sfter the clear coat and some weathering...

SS - I'm glad you got our decal situation fixed!  The side vents/air outlets can make things difficult when decaling the sides of the Jug.  

Got my wash on over the future.  I brushed the future on in two layers and didn't see any paint come off after using cotton buds dipped in windex.  I hope the Flory products are delivered this week - Sprue Brothers was out and I had to order direct from Flory.  It usually takes 7-10 days to get orders to the US.  

Now I need to add several clear parts and the rear canopies/machine guns.

Steve

Time for some pictures. I still have to add the swastikas, the fuselage codes and the decals on the lower wing surfaces (those are going to cause me a lot of trouble)

I lost one tiny stencilling decal for the right fuselage side, but I doubt anyone is going to notice it unless it is pointed out:

One of the red frames around the access hatches (the one at the top) is slightly off, but moving it to the correct position would've destroyed the decal.

Right fuselage cross:

It's not perfect, but I'm confident that the clear coat on top and the washing are going to take care of any minor flaws.

Left fuselage cross:

That was my first try on the crosses and the decal ended up being damaged quite a bit. The edges are easy to touch up with some black and white Vallejo paint, but I'm worried about the lower left corner. Any tips on how to get it to look a bit better/hide the damage?

Wing stencilling (both wings are the same):

Left fuselage side:

You can actually read all the stencilling if you look close enough. Tamiya did an outstanding job on printing those decals. The data plate on the fuselage is completely wrong for this aircraft of course (D-5-RE instead of D-2-RA), but I don't really care about tiny flaws like that. Not to mention that I have no clue on where I could get a correct decal (which wouldn't be worth the money anyway IMO).

Cheers, Clemens 

Got the schwarzgrun on and unmasked.

Looking really good, John!

Clemens - your decals look really good.  I think the left fuselage cross looks pretty good.  Once you clear coat and weather, I would think that it will look just fine.

tempest - very nice job on the splinter camo!  

Steve

Thnks for the encouraging words! I'll probably touch up the decal around the edges and let the wash take care of any other imperfections.

Some great work there guys, both builds are looking really nice.

Thanks buddy!

I did some touch-up work on the fuselage cross and cut out the rest of the decals. I won't be able to continue decalling though. All that micro-Sol weakened (not dissolved) the Alclad clear a bit, so the model is a bit tacky in places. I'll wait untill tomorrow because the clear coat should've hardened again by then. I'll tackle the landing gear, the prop or the engine today though. Maybe I'll even get to complete all 3 of them...

Thanks. I'm in the same situation as Clemons. Waiting for paint to dry to put gloss coat on

They're looking good. I haven't used the Alclad clear for anything but Alclad.

I like your HS 129 better than mine, but here it is so far anyway. In mine, the two dark greens are hard to tell apart. I hesitated with this, but the Tamiya box top looked similar too. It's not as bad as these photos show.

Cheers

Tony

I really liek how your 129 looks, Tony! The 2 greens should be very similar AFAIK.