75th Anniversary of 1942 (World at War)

Nice progress on the figures Bish. The uniforms look very good so far.

As for my project, the last progress shots of the cockpit before I started gluing things in place. A topcoat of Humbrol Matt Clear, some light dry brushing with Testors square bottle Flat Aluminum in select spots, and then Testors Clear parts glue onto the IP dials for lenses. I also painted and glued the gun sight in place

I have the fuselage glued together now.. time for seam clean up and rescribing...

Cheers Stik. That pit is looking really nice, like the IP.

I found some of those 109 kits on e-bay, including the original 78 boxings which i am sure is the one i did. Seeing your build is making me want to grab one for old times sake, might be fun to re-do this old kit.

Great looking cockpit, stik; I really admire the IP.  You packed a lot of detail into it.  Extremely fine work!

Nice work going on, Bish.  Now:  when you add the highlights, are you dry-brushing them, or using a thinned-paint "glaze?"

Eric:  thanks for the information on retarders, etc.  Very helpful and insightful! 

Just dry brushing, and with vallejo i can do this without thinning. But i am planning on trying the glaze, i might try that on the grey shirts.

Thanks, Bish.  Joe Hudson seems to use "glazes" in the figure painting articles he's been having in FSM magazine.  Another technique new to me.

Ye, me to, but willing to try anything once.

Check and Bish, thanks. Bish, I am very reluctant to try acrylics for my flesh tones. I am hanging better results with oils and enamels over an acrylic base in my last few attempts.

Yesterday after my last photos, I glued the fuselage halves and wings together. Today I cleaned up the seams and scribed in lost detail.

Unfortunately, the edges of the the chin scoop had dings along the centerline seem edge, so I added some strip styrene that I will sand in smooth 

I also built up some of the last sub assemblies- cowling hood and supercharger scoop, belly tank, and main wheels

Taking final shape now...

A little more seam clean up them I'll be ready to get the airframe all into one piece...

Good looking work, stik!  I like your use of plastic strips to fill in the dings.  A lot of kits have them, and it's a technique I hadn't thought of.

Thanks check. Those dings in spots like that are a bear to deal with. Hopefully this method will work. Trying something new here. I used lots of cement to try to melt it into the surrounding area.

If it worksfor you Stik, keep with it. I am reluctant to move away from enamels to acrylics for my main subjects, despite the issues i am having with reaction to oil washes.

Thtas coming together well,good job on the scribing.

A lot of really nice work going on here. Stik that 109 is coming together nicely!

Finally got started on my 109 and have a small update...got most of the engine assembled and painted. Added some hose and some wiring to busy it up a little. I may add a some more hose here or there and do some light weathering.

After looking at the picture I see some of the small wires broke off so I'll have to reattach those...oh well one step forward and two back

I also have to mask off and paint the small tanks on the side of the engine RLM 02 like the instructions call for. Seems like a good guess based on some of the pictures I've seen. If anyone know differently please let me know

Bish, keep us updated on those figures.  I have not tackled a figure yet, so seeing what you are doing will help a lot when I get around to it.

Stik, that IP is looking fantastic.  Looking forward to more pics.  Interested to see how the strip styrene fix works.

Rooster, nice engine.  The molding and what you did with it looks very realistic.

I am in the construction stage of the T-34, and actually got some parts glued after spending a fair amount of time cleaning up molding seams.  Will post pics soon.  Watching the progress you guys are making is strong motivation to get going.

D

Andy, another nice looking engine. Like the wiring.

Dwayne, will do. As i get more comfortable with what i am doing, i feel i am able to put more effort into build updates.

Dwayne, Rooster, & Bish, thanks for the feedback. I'll let you know how the fixes turn out. It's back to work for me today, so not much bench time for the next several days ahead.

stik:  I've previously tried to deal with the dings using superglue.  It hasn't always worked so well.  Even the newer Airfix Hawk I did for this GB had some serious issues with dings.

Extremely nice looking engine, Andy.  Great!

Appreciate the progress report, Dwayne.  Some kits come with so much mold seam, it's a project in itself just to clean up the pieces.

And, Bish, I think a lot of us are interested to see how your figure painting goes.  I've got a number of 1/72 RAF and US Navy pilots I'd like to paint up, and I just stocked up on a ton of Vallejo paints to see if I can get them to work.  It's why I bought "El Mercenario's" book in the first place.

I'll try and give as much info as i can check. I have not used vallejo for my 72nd figures, i tend not to go into to much detail on those, especialy as most of them are in black coveralls, but i plan on puting more effort into those.

I plan on finishing up the building first, so then once other parts are complete they can be added, so it might be a couple of days before i do any more figure work.

Well the strip styrene lip worked very nicely. I actually used a half round strip with the hollow portion against  the lip of the kit part. After the clean up, it looked real good.

But I may have jumped the gun a bit. When I fit the insert part in place after filling and clean up it required adjustment after the fix...

Nice effective remedy, though, stik.  Looks like it solved at least the one issue.

Yes it does. Much better than gel CA to fill the dings at meeting leading edges like that.

Nice bit of filling there Stik, never tried that so going to have to remember this tip.

Bish, it works real well...

Ok, I was going to post this a few hours ago, but then life happened... so, after seam clean up of the chin scoop insert, there we're still a couple of good size side gaps to contend with...

so I cut a couple of pieces of triangular strip styrene to length and glued them in place...

After I let them dry overnite, I sanded them to fit and no more gaps!

That's all for now...

I've used styrene strips before and if the size is right it's a great way to fill seams without doing any damage to the detail. Really kind of a first cousin to melting styrene in thin glue: Gunze makes a special brand of the brew that also works great. (I still really like hard molding paste for an acrylic putty: probably 3M bondo for serious ugly.)

Still anguishing about my project here. Do we want a knocked out Panzer IVD in winter conditions? Or do we want one of the two famous Japanese type 95 tanks that gave Australian troops a bad scare during a night battle at Milne Bay in September 42. Maybe both, but I still owe the RAF group build an Italieri Sunderland flying for Coastal Command. Either tank project would require some unfamiiar techniques: the PZIV both a winter landscape (for which I have Precision Snow - great stuff) and a burnt out tank. Jungel terrain would be a real challenge also - a whole lot of plantlife there all jammed together.

In the meantime I've just started to break in an Iwata RG-3 spray gun at the behest of super-guru Paul Budzik. I think its going to work great, but it's quite different from an airbrush. Pretty sure I'll be able to spray uncut Stynelrez thinners - and maybe with slightly denser coat to finish in two coats. We'll see.

Eric

Another innovative and effective fix, stik.  Nice work.

Eric:  A lot of options to consider; any of them would make a nifty project.

EB and check, thanks for looking in. The styrene did the job better in that fix than any filler really could. I've got the wings glued on now and they are drying. Seam clean up tonite or tomorrow...

Looking forward to seeing more, stik; the 109 is such an elegant aircraft.

Thanks Stikpusher: The 109 is coming along great.

Thanks Bish: Your Panzer, building & figures are lookin' great.

Thanks Checkmate.

Rooster: Nice weather engine.

Been busy with the Lancaster, but have been plugging away with the Ju52.

Fuselage complete, need some filling. But nothing like the Bf-110.

9 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

From the aircraft being so small I decided to brush paint. First up was Model Master Acrylic white primer. Applied two coats.

11 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

12 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

Then Tamiya XF-23 Light Blue for RLM 65 for the bottom. I had first put down Model Master Acrylic RLM 65 but it was to thin.

13 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

Next was Tamiya XF-2 Flat White on the top and side. As it turns out it' pretty hard brush painting a straight line, so I'm going to let the paint cure then mask the edges.

14 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

15 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

Looking very sharp, Dan.  Nice work with a paintbrush!

Dan, great work on the Tante Ju! I can believe that you are handbrushing this build! I need to try to do that again. It's a lost art for me.

The past 48 hours or so has been major progress on this build. As I said before, I added the wings and the engine cowl, as well as add the supercharger scoop

And then since during seam clean up I sanded away a couple details that I could not easily replace by scribing due to difficulties with my scribing template in that area, so I added a couple pieces of strip styrene to replace those details.

Today I sanded those strips down to a more scale thickness to replicate the lost details

I cleaned up the wing join seams

And on the bottoms after seam clean up I added the drop tank rack, where I had to replace one broken off brace, and some blisters (not sure what they are for...)

I also added the tropical air filter, which for this kit was molded in the open position, so I hollowed out the opening

I cleaned up,the mold seam lines and ejector pin marks off the landing gear struts and doors, and glued those together, as well as cleaning up the seam on the drop tank

lastly I added the horizontal stabilizers and tack glued the spinner in place... NOW it looks like a 109....

Highly commendable progress, stik.  Looking really good.

What do you use for filling in wing/fuselage seams?  My usual method (thinned white glue) has been giving me trouble lately.  

For years, I've used thinned white glue (Elmer's), painting it into the seam; let it dry; then wipe off the over-runs with a damp q-tip.  Then, paint; run a pinwash of black into the seam, and it looks like a normal connection or panel line.  The method doesn't seem to get much use these days, but it was published years ago in FSM.  When it works, it fills the seam nicely, and no sanding, with no loss of details.  

Lately, the glue has been leaving tiny little pinholes when it dries, instead of filling completely. Repeated applications to fill the holes have not solved the issues.  The holes reappear.

I'm looking for an optional technique.  I've heard that Mr Surfacer 500 can be used much the same way, only it's wiped down with alcohol on a q-tip; and again, no sanding.

Check, I only needed to add a small amount of filler on the wing root seams on this build, and I used gel CA. I let it dry a few hours then wet sanded it with no problems at all. There is a "sweet spot" for gel CA glue that you have before the stuff really hardens up like granite. If you let it dry more than say 6 -8 hours, the real work is in store. I have never tried Mr Surfacer 500. I have the 1000 stuff and sand that like everything else I use.

LET THE PAINTING COMMENCE!!!

Last night I masked up the canopy and had it ready to glue in place this morning. So first thing today I glued it in place, then went and did my errands while it dried.

then after errands I did my air brushing. Working light to dark, Flat White then Satin White on the nose, tail band and wingtips, RLM 02 Gray on the landing gear and wheel wells, and Satin black on intake openings and the main wheel hubs. All enamels today, mostly Humbrol, except for the RLM 02 where I used Model Master. 

I'll let this all dry overnite, mask it up in the morning, then apply the main colors of Blue RLM 78 and Brown RLM 79 tomorrow as things stand right now.