75th Anniversary of 1941 Group Build (World at War)

Brandon, great looking MiG, and I like your approach to the weathering - looks used but not abused.  

Thanks too about my I-5 build.  Our two Soviet fighters make an interesting comparison of the old and new.

regards,

Jack

Fourth photo it is, Brandon.  It's an exquisite looking plane.  Nice work with it.  Very effective weathering.  The tonal variations on the exhaust stacks are particularly well done, I think.  

Thanks for being part of the GB!

Well, I finished my 1/48 Trumpeter MiG-3 (unless I pop the canopy off to get that speck of dust out).

I finished this one in Mr. Paint AMT-4 and Gray Blue (or maybe Blue Gray, I can't remember). The nose is Tamiya, and the silver part of the prop is Alclad Polished Aluminum sprayed over a flat black primer so they don't shine toomuch. Chipping is Tamiya Chrome Silver applied with a small brush. It has a Flory Dark Dirt wash overall, which is probably too dark for theunderside. Oh well.

Exhaust pipes were sprayd Mr. Paint Pale Burnt Metal, then the middle parts sprayed Alclad Burnt Iron, with the tips misted with Alclad Jet Exhaust. I've been trying for two years to get an exhaust pipe finish I like, and I think this is pretty close to where I want to be.

If you can use the fourth pic for the completion page, I'd apprecite it.

Thanks for following along!

-BD-

Jack - once again, STUNNING build on that one! It looks fantastic, and the recovery from the decals was really nice.

-BD-

Very nice work, rooster.  Great looking paint application!

Jack:  I corrected the front-page.  Thanks for letting me know.

Thank you rooster 513.

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I admire your choice of scheme for a desert Emil.  About the yellowed decals, you can tape them to a window facing the sun.  After 24 hours, it will have bleached out the yellow and should be good as new.

regards,

Jack

Jack that turned out beautiful!!

I have an update on the 109. Got the paint on her. This was my first attempt at any kind of German camo and I'm ok with the way it turned out. The "tiger stripes" are a little thick on the right side but I like how they turned out on the left. Based on the instructions, the green on the cowling should have been covering the light blue underneath but I must have gotten carried away Based on a picture of the plane I saw online the colors called out in the instructions are not correct but I was looking at this one as more pratice at a different camo style then complete accuracy. Enough talk though...

Gloss coat is on for decaling which will happen in the next day or so I hope. The white on the German crosses are quite yellowed (from age?) so I'll have to mask and paint white over them. Thanks for looking. Comments and critiques always welcome!

Thank you, Bish.

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checkmateking02

Front page updated! Thanks for your participation, Jack. Always a pleasure to see your work!

 

Just one small amendment to the front page gallery, the kit description should just be the I-5.  The I-153 was my oringinal plan, but that changed.  Thanks again.

regards,
Jack

Looks really nice there Jack.

checkmateking02

Absolutely great, Jack. Exquisite rigging and all-around finishing! Thanks for being part of the GB. Always enjoy seeing your craftsmanship. Do you have a preferred photo for the front page?

 

Thanks very much!

For the front page, I like the fourth image.

regards,

Jack

Thanks Checkmate, and thank you for hosting this one.  Here are the finished photos of ICM's 1/72 scale Polikarpov I-5:

regards,

Jack

Should be my last update before final photos.   Firstly the decals, ICM never did get back to me.   I only waited a few days, before going ahead and ordering some from Hannants, and they arrived this past Tuesday - good thing too, as Canada Post has strike plans after this weekend.

An unfamiliar brand, KV Decals - but looks like they are affiliated with Begemot?

I have covered ICM's decal sheet with Tamiya clear, since I do need a pair of white 6's for the tail.  Again the quality is not there, and the white ink is translucent in many areas.  I have touched up with some white paint, but could do with some more - unless this is suppose to represent hastily applied markings?

The engine is now mounted, along with the nose plate armour and ring.  Have also applied some Flory wash to pick out details, and applied lightened base colours to the ribs and a few other raised areas.

While waiting for the new decals, The exterior surfaces were sprayed with Vallejo's satin coat, and the following day joined the main wing to the fuselage.  I figured I could work on the rigging, since they would not impede the location of insignia once they arrive.

Above is just a close up of the starboard faring and rigging attachment point, as seen from the rear.

There are four rigging wires above the fuselage where the machine guns are located.  It was impossible to see what I was doing in there, so ended up ripping the top wing off and attaching the bottom end of the wires before putting the wing back on.  It did result in breaking a cabane strut, (seen lying in the foreground), but at least it was a clean break.  

 Another oopsie moment, scraping off left over dried superglue, ended up taking some paint too.  No big deal, at least through it all, the wings remained relatively square to one another.

 About the stretchy thread, I used two types.  EZ line fine size for the wings, as these are actually flat wires.   The rest of the rigging was much smaller, but still labeled fine size from Uschi at about 0.08mm.

 Bombs and wheels attached - some of the super glue frosted at the wheel/axle - so needs touching up. 

There was slightly out of registration on the new decals, but became a non-issue.  Was able to trim the overlap of the red, while inside of the black outline, the darkness of the aircraft colour fills in the missing red.

All that remains are the navigation lights, some oil stains, and possibly some dusting with powder pigments.

regards,

Jack

That looks just like an Me-109E, rooster!  Nicely built.  Looking forward to seeing more!

Small update here. Main construction is done and canopy masked. Sprayed the interior color on the canopy and the wheel wells this morning but wasn't able to get any pics done.

Looks really nice BD! I like how they give the numbers as seperate decals. After the fiasco on my Tamiya Corsair I had putting the "167" on the side, I think I'll cut them out as seperate from now on. That 7 went down beautifully!

And now the decals are on. I thought there were 8, but Trumpeter actually split the "17" into two individual decals for each side, which is nice since it prevents excess carrier film having to sink into the rudder gap, but it would have been nice if they weren't shown as a single decal on theinstructions. I thought I'd torn it at first!

The decals were very nice and thin, and they snugged down into the surface detail on the tail very well. One thing I like about this kit is all markings for all aircraft are provided, so there are plenty of spares.

-BD-

Thanks, Checkmateking!

-BD-

Well, I went home at lunch and got the black done on the cowling. I've read that it either faded quickly or may have had green paint in it or been painted really thin over the green, so I mottled the bare aluminum with Tamiya Flat Black and then used a heavily thinned coat of Tamiya Black Green. I needed some touching up around the base, but that was easily done, and I also repainted the bays for the flaps on the underside since there was heavy overspray from the blue, and touched up the root of the port horizontal stabilizer. It'll get a coat of clear after work and decals (all 8 of them!) tonight.

Thanks for looking.

-BD-

D'oh! Looks like I need a tad bit of touching up around the underside root of the horizontal stabilizer.

-BD-

I spent the past few days at lunch getting some paint on the MiG-3. After priming in Mr. Surfacer 1500 Black, I shot all the metal parts with Alclad Polished Aluminum (and later cleaned it up by masking and shooting crisper lines of Mr. Surfacer).

Why?

Because I read that the MiG-3 tended to have different shades on wooden parts vs. metal parts, possibly due to being assembled at different places (though I have a hunch it was more likely that they sprayed thin coats of paint and the materials just showed up differently. But I really have no idea). Anyway, I wanted tome subtle tonal variation to show this off.

Once that was all dry, I did the underside in Mr. Paint Gray-Blue. It's an AMT code from later aircraft, but it's close enough, and may have been used on the MiG-3 for all I know. I did my standard method of mottling it with a thin sprayover (Mr. Paint paints are great for this and I love how easy they are to use since they're pre-thinned).

On the underside, it's pretty subtle, and also where I was testing the technique. I like how it came out, since I imagine it would be pretty close, especially after some operational use.

I repeated the process on the topside.

In the above image, you can see the variation. I left the cowl unfinished because it will be painted black.

ANd there's the demarcation line on the fuselage. I did the same with the horizontal stabilizers, and for the fabric control surfaces, I sprayed them heavily so they will (maybe) appear lighter than the rest of the surface.

I hope to get the cowling done today at lunch, shoot a clear before dinner tonight and maybe, just maybe, get decals on it this evening.

-BD-

Surething, Jgeratic. Unfortunately I don't have any of those ones, but hopefully ICM comes through for you.

-BD-

Thank you Tony, and thanks Brandon for the offer.  Yeah the Soviet stars are early type, outlined in black as well as having a circle superimposed in the centers. 

If ICM doesn't come through, I have some spares from other kits I have planned to do in Finnish markings.  Trouble is I can only match the size for those on underwing, while uppers would be a bit smaller and the fuselage would be oversized.  Going to try brushing on some Tamiya clear on the original decal sheet and see if the rest of the markings are still salvageable.

regards,

Jack

Love your work Jack, it looks really good. It's a pity about the decals,I hope you can get some more. I don't have any to offer you.

Regards

Tony