2015 Messerschmitt Bf 109 Group Build

Joe: That build is gonna be beautiful! I just love these opened up builds of yours man. Your paint looks great so far.

Brandon: First off, this work you are doing is top notch! All washes are applied over gloss coats. Don't worry I've done it too! lol . Lastly all wheel wells were 02 right up until around and after the G-6's and then after the 1944 time period somewhere it was  a random usage of either 02 or 65 and on the K-4's bare metal. On yours its 02 for sure. I could be off on the year but I do know there was a change in colors towards the end of the war.

I got the decals on with only a few slip-ups. I found the Techmod sheet to be a bit finicky, and I tore the first cross I put on, but fortunately had a spare that matched (from another Techmod sheet).

Here it is with a little while left to go yet:

I need to touch up around the canopy (photo directly above) and then paint the canopy rails themselves with the dark green, then do the undercarriage and wheels. Machine guns are on, and the wing ones still need a drybrushing, but it's coming together.

I tried to work a bit with the Flory wash, but it didn't come off the flat clear coat as much as I wanted, and so after doing the underside and nose, I just flowed it directly into the panel lines up top to keep the effect muted. Next time I'll gloss it first, then use the wash, then flat coat it. I put some exhaust staining on with pastel powder and Tamiya weathering... whatever you call the stuff that looks like makeup.

So far I'm liking the way this is going, and I imagine I'll finish it in the next week or so.

Were the wheel bays and inside of the gear doors RLM 02, or RLM 65, in general? I'm guessing they're 02, but I'll be happy to hear if they're 65 since that's the color they currently are :)

-BD-

On mixing paint/transferring it from bottle to paint cup, I use disposable plastic eyedroppers I got from TCP Global. I think it was $15 for 100 of them, and when I paint with acrylics, I wash them with water. Otherwise I just toss them because they're worth less than the amount of thinner it would take to clean them.

I can get really good paint measurement by counting drops from them, and it's pretty quick.

-BD-

Great work on the paint there Joe.

A duel purpose update. 

Trying out a bigger home made photo booth and paint is on.

Three hours worth of paint work is now accomplished.  I tried the same thing that I had been working on the last few projects.  I would appreciate the feedback on this.  

Sorry for the blurry picture of the wing.  I was trying for a closeup and the camera would not cooperate.









Happy with the way the paint looks but unhappy that my white backdrop looks gray.  Going to have to work on that again.  Maybe add more light.  

Comments, critiques, and criticism are encouraged.



Joe

mustang1989

Eagle90: I've never seen an Otaki kit before! Looking forward to see how this one turns out.

Jay: That MDC interior has lots of detail for sure!!! Question: How do you go back and forth between automotive and aviation builds? That would be enough to drive me crazy! lol

Joe: You sell yourself short there friend. Your work here is nothing short of amazing. Keep the pics coming!! You'll do fine on the paintwork man.

Mike: As far as filling an AB paint cup from a paint jar....I have a video series on building a 1/32 Hasegawa G-6 from washing the sprues to final touches and the host covers this. He takes a toothpick and holds it up against the edge of the paint jar at about the halfway point on the toothpick and tips the jar with the pointed end of the toothpick down in the cup. The paint will trickle out of the jar along the toothpick with a good amount of control. I'll see if I can find a pic to supplement this with.

adj: They've got it right about the windows. They are primarily found on only the early models.

Hey Mustang,

She is a pretty nice kit.  Has its flaws, but over all a good little kit.  I had never heard of Otaki either until I bought all those kits from the estate sale.  Got this one and these from Otaki:

They look as good as the 109!

Eagle90

Some aircraft just seem to pull you in to keep building more.

I just won an eBay auction for 3 Hasegawa 48th kits. Hurricane F4U and P-47. The seller had another 3 ok I just missed on.  In it was a p-47 F4U and a 109G-5 that he said was hasegawa. We'll after racking my brain for missing out I find out the 109 is actually a Fujimi kit.

I know the feeling. This build in here will make three for me. The only other model I ever built more than one of was the Fw190 (an A-8/R2 and a D-9) and I'm strongly considering another pair in the future.

mustang1989

Jay: That MDC interior has lots of detail for sure!!! Question: How do you go back and forth between automotive and aviation builds? That would be enough to drive me crazy! lol

Joe, the 109s are kind of on auto pilot for me so I really just have to concentrate on the Dart. Not bored with 109s though, just familiar. Still can't seem to get enough of them.

Jay

Eagle90: I've never seen an Otaki kit before! Looking forward to see how this one turns out.

Jay: That MDC interior has lots of detail for sure!!! Question: How do you go back and forth between automotive and aviation builds? That would be enough to drive me crazy! lol

Joe: You sell yourself short there friend. Your work here is nothing short of amazing. Keep the pics coming!! You'll do fine on the paintwork man.

Mike: As far as filling an AB paint cup from a paint jar....I have a video series on building a 1/32 Hasegawa G-6 from washing the sprues to final touches and the host covers this. He takes a toothpick and holds it up against the edge of the paint jar at about the halfway point on the toothpick and tips the jar with the pointed end of the toothpick down in the cup. The paint will trickle out of the jar along the toothpick with a good amount of control. I'll see if I can find a pic to supplement this with.

adj: They've got it right about the windows. They are primarily found on only the early models.

Bish many thanks.

Joe

So it seems pretty safe to say that any E-1 or E-3 with the early style canopy would have those windows. Thanks!

Ajd3530 -- those were windows meant to increase pilot visibility from the earliest design phase. They were later deleted as a simplification as production corners were cut, at least that's my understanding.

M/TB379

PS: I ordered the mask set for the E-4 from LuckyModel last night, but they're on a 2-3 week restock, plus shipping, so it'll be another month at least!

Thanks jay. I have the Ju 88 bomb racks and am planning on getting the bits for the He 219.Nice to hear them recommended.

Bish

Looking really nice there jay. How do you find the MDC stuff. I have one item and a few more lined up but not used any yet.

I have used quite a bit of it and like it very much. Highly recommended.

Jay

Thanks Mike, (TB) I have done it like that before but wasnt sure if you had a more precise way then I had. I would draw some paint into a pipette and let it drip out, counting the drips, or like you said, let it drip from a brush. Thanks for the info...

Doug

Joe, that is just brilliant. really nice work, some lovely detailing in there. Love the engine.

Looking really nice there jay. How do you find the MDC stuff. I have one item and a few more lined up but not used any yet.

Jay many thanks.  Thankfully the closing of the fuse hid some of the issues I really worried about.  Now just to get through the painting without screwing it up royally.

Joe

Very nice work, Joe! I like it a lot.

Jay

Wow some seriously talented people around here.  

Thank you all so much for the kind words.

Update.  Just a small one.

Interior is finished and the fuse is closed.  There were some gaps, not sure if it was kit or builder issues.  

Where I stand.









Pardon the pics.  I am back to working on taking pictures again.  


Next up will be sanding some stubborn areas to clean it up and then actual color.  I did paint around the cut out area just to make sure I did not bleed over.

All comments, critiques, and criticism are encouraged.



Joe

Thanks, guys! Rigid -- you pose an interesting question and one which is not often discussed. How do we get paint from the jar into the airbrush, including the mixing and thinning stages? My personal technique, used for so long that it must go back to when I first began to use an AB, is to use drops off the blunt end of a paint brush. I use the reverse end of a small brush to stir the paint in the jar, then let the paint drop from the stirrer into the syphon bottle. I add all necessary paints, then add thinner by ratio the same way, from a clean brush (obviously.) They have different surface tensions, but it seems to work out well enough. It means I can be numerically precise on the ratios -- six drops of this to two drops of that to ten drops of the other, then 50% of the total in thinner... It is also very economical on paint, I have observed over the years that when painting small jobs, it seems I waste more paint adhering to the stirrer than in the job itself, but I can recover unused portions of unmodulated colour right back to the original jar. It's only a few cents worth, but hey...

TJ -- thanks for the tip, I must try that mixture! XF-50 I might have to pick up. I have only a few colours to get to have a full collection of the XF series now.

My masks and harness arrived in the post today, so I can get back to the 109s. I'm still trying to track down a replacement canopy for the G-2, and I have just realised I didn't order masks for the small E-4 -- GRRR. No matter, things will be happening before long!

Cheers, M/TB379

I have had time to do a little bit on the K. The wings are together and riveted except for the leading edge slats. I am using a MDC cockpit on this one and have got it assembled and primed.

Jay

jgeratic

Spirals on  spinners - I recall reading about this elsewhere, with the following link being a reference:

http://ghostbombers.com/markings/bands1.html

Of particular note is this entry:

4) All fighter a/c of Luftflotte 3 and Reich are to have a black and white spiral painted on the spinner. Size one and a half spirals turning in the same direction as the spinner. Width ⅕ of the diameter of the spinner.

-------------------------------

Looking at period photos, there is obvious differences in sizes, so maybe the order was not fully understood per above, or it was purposely done to be different?

regards,

Jack

Hey Jack!  Now that is some cool reference material!  Thanks so much for posting it.  I sure was hoping to not have to do a spiral spinner, but I'm just out of luck on that huh? 

Eagle90

SchattenSpartan

I'm pretty sure those spirals were painted on to keep the ground crews from walking into turning props.

Ouch!  Now that would make for a bad day!

Eagle90

SchattenSpartan

Eagle: I had look at my references. Here's what i came up with:

First of all, according to the book on Barkhorn, that particular G-6 did have a spinner spiral:

There's also a pretty nice color profile of this machine in that book:

I'm just gonna go ahead and throw all the good photos I got in here:

I hope these help...

Cheers, Clemens 

Clemens!  Thank you so much!  Wow!  Great pics and the color one is a plus.  But, you also answered another question I had.  The kit has the JG52 crest shown on the fuselage.  Your reference pics and all the ones Isaw did not show him having it on the bird!  So, thank you again!  Great stuff!  Many thanks for the help and pics.

Eagle90

mustang1989

Eagle90: I'm with Joe. I didn't even know Otaki had a 109 in their line up. Looks like your handling the body work good so far and as far as the prop spinner goes I remember a spiral on his spinner. Will check my references.

Clemens: I'll look in my references too and see if I can shed some light on this as well. The more the merrier. lol

Joe: That Cuda sat on that base for right around 30 years. Seems almost like yesterday when I built it.

Mike: Now that's getting down to the "nitty gritty" for an accurate color! Wow! Bringin' it down to a science!

Hey Mustang,

Thanks so much!  LOL!  I was going to post a pic of the 109 box and forgot!  I also have the 190 and Spitfire from them.  Nice kits!

Eagle90

Thunderbolt379

Bish -- I mix my own RLM 74/75 and 76 in Tamiya Acrylics -- here's my blog post that discusses the ratios. I'm still using the same ones today, I did the Fw 190 A-8 last year using them (though I have substituted MM Acryl 76 as it's spot on -- but their 74 and 75 are miles out.)

"Their [Tamiya's] formula for RLM 76 (XF-2 Flat White plus XF-23 Pale Blue plus XF-66 Light Grey at a ratio of 7:1:2, provides a virtually perfect match for the original, lacking only lustre, and an addition of 25 to 30% X-22 Clear Gloss approximates the sheen of the original RLM colours. Unfortunately, their suggested formulas for the 74 and 75 are miles off, and I experimented to find a decent fit. For 74 they recommend XF-24 Dark Grey and XF-27 Schwartzgrun at 3:2, but this was too dark and too green, especially compared to the Model Master enamel equivalent. I reduced the ratio to 3:1 and added 1 part Flat White as well, then brought up the lustre with 30% Clear Gloss. For the 75, Tamiya suggests XF-51 Khaki should be a component, but as 75 has no green hue at all this mystifies me. I mixed it from scratch, starting with XF-24 Dark Grey and adding Flat White at a ratio of 2:1, then adding 30% Clear Gloss. On reflection this was too much gloss, as darker shades reflect more strongly than lighter ones, and 20% would have been ample. The final shades were acceptably similar to the Model Master enamel equivalents, though I have to say the acrylics are both more delicate and lack a certain 'gutsiness' that the solvent-based paints have."

Cheers, M/TB379

WOW!  TB, you sure have done some work with the colors!  Thank you so much for all that.  That will most definitely come in handy!

Eagle90

Thank you BD!  I must say I really like the paint scheme on yours!  Very cool!

Eagle90