Battle For Germany 45 GB Starts Now - 08 May 06

And you were worried about how the camo would look...

Well now you know.... GREAT!

Well once again I let the build slip by one me and there is a lot to answer:

Jules - July is fine, just remember how hot it is here in July... and 100% humidity night and day... think Jurassic Park without as many dinosaurs and you get the picture.    Spring and fall are usually more bearable.  But of course once you make your way towards D.C. it will get less humid and hot.  Remind me closer in and I can set up some directions to places etc. and some options as to what to do around here... if you make it to my area I'd love to show you around.  Believe it or not where I live people really still do ride horses and work cattle and stuff, not 30 miles from one of the top 5 most populated cities in the US.  

OH!  And when you go to Washington D.C. you HAVE to stop by Baltimore (about 45 min to the north of D.C.) the Maritime Musuem there has the USS Constellation (sister ship to Old Ironsides), SS-423 USS Torsk (built 1944), USS Forrestal (aircraft carrier), a liberty ship... the list goes on and on... I had no idea so much had been moved there since I lived there last.  When I went last, the Constellation and an indoor musuem were all that were there...  here's a list of all that's there, just do a find for Baltimore and you'll see how much they have.  http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/preserve.htm

Dave - great looking plane!  especially for 1/72.. I am in the midst of doing a FW-190 in 1/72 so I appreciate the painting on that small of a model.  it came out great!!!

All - well I have the first coat of Panzer Olivgrun sprayed on, the hull worked out well but I made the mistake of using the Fun-tak stuff over again on the turret so now there are smudges of olivgrun on the cream yellow (I figured 2 days and the stuff should be dry on the fun-tak... I learned a lesson).  I think I will have to paint the yellow over by hand and remask them for the final coat of green.  Meanwhile as I wait for the paint to be delivered, I am piddling on this and that unfinished model.  I just made the realization that I looooove building models, but must hate finishing them.  Usually somewhere in the last stages (usually after painting) I lose interest and put it up for awhile.  I come back to them a month or so later.

Ohhh... woe is me!!!  I actually got motivated when I came to grips with balking at finishing a build in my last statement.  I got the 1/72 FW-190 out I have been building and decided as all I lacked was a few decals and the small bits to finish it I would do it.  I even went so far as to take pics as I was so eager to get something finished.  Sadly somewhere between the kitchen where I took the pics and the modeling room the wind screen came off and is nowhere to be found.  No biggie though.  At about $5.95 for the kit I will just get me another one... I really had fun with the 1/72 kit.  It was a pleasant change from the 1/48 ones I have been building.  I'm anxious to start the Fieseler Fi-156 in 1/72 I have now!!! 

here's pics of my (ex) FW-190  ...I'll look some more for the windscreen but I fear the wooden floor monster ate it (if Rudy hasn't already gotten to it)...

During painting.

A scant 20 min ago....

Another shot of the now deceased model.

-=edit=-

I don't know what it is, but all of the pics I have taken recently seem blurry, I've used two different cameras set on autofocus too!  I thought it was my new glasses at first!

(To TOM from the FLOOR MONSTER BURRRRRRP Thanx for the snack)

iI know what you mean i have a light grey Carpet Monster in my house and i build ALOT of DML kits with that nice neutral grey styrene LOL. I also hope to get some pics of my baby panther and my Halftrack posted this weekend

Looks pretty good Tom.  Most of the Fw190A's had the sides of the fuselage directly behind the exhausts painted black but I'm not sure on red 13.  Sad about the windscreen.

Regards,  Rick 

Rick - I know, and was going to do that after dull coating as it would have been a even duller surface.. but all was in vain... 

It's missing a good deal of decals but if I get another I will finish it for the spite of the whole thing!!!

Thanks for the kind words on my loss though.. I still think it was Rudy who snapped it up!

Smokin - the one reference I could find said from 1944 on, the 88's were Dunkelgelb (Panzer Dark yellow) ... I haven't been able to find much though so maybe someone with more knowledge in the area will come along..... 

I did see a pic of a modern day museum with one in semi "ambush" style camo... I think a standard dark yellow would do it though...

razordws wrote:

Ok, finshed pics of the Me 262.  Once again it is Revell's 1/72 kit and I used MM Acrylics for most of the painting.  Comments welcome as always.  I had put myself down for a Meteor as a possible second build but I have now reserved that for another GB, but I might do another Komet if time permits.

Karl, Marc and Jimmy, superb looking progress shots guys, your builds all look outstanding

Robert (smokinguns3) welcome to the build.  They are a great bunch of guys on this build so I'm sure you'll have fun.  I don't have any references on 88's so I can't help you with your question but I think Tom's right with Dunkelgelb as the color you should go with.

Dave, oh yea of little faith, now who was it that was saying that their camo looked a bit naff??  Congrats on a lovely build it looks fantastic (especially the camo) .
You can find your happy snaps preserved for posterity here:

http://photobucket.com/albums/c392/Finescale/BattleForGermany/

Tom I have a spare 1/72 FW190 D-9 canopy that you are more than welcome too if you want.  It's the early model canopy not the blown hood but I don't know if it will fit your kit.

Progress Update
Well I'm afraid work has stopped on the 262 as I desperately try and gather some enthusiasm to keep going.  My biggest pain is the sheer number of parts involved.  In the gun bay alone there are more parts than I'm used to in a normal 1/48 fighter
As luck would have it I had a birthday the other day and SWMBO and the girls gave me a couple of kits, a Tamiya 1/72 FW190 D-9 and a 1/48 Tamiya T-34/76 both of which are great kits.
The Dora I'm doing right away and I'm having a ball, everything is on one sprue and it all fits beautifully.  This one is going to be straight out of the box so that at least I'll have something finished from this build.

Cheers

Tom -  looks great.  Nice mottle in that scale.

Is that your painting base or ar you doing a crashed on the moon dio?

Wow a lot of activity today!

Darren - let me look around for it, actually the postage to mail it to me in the states is probably as much as the kit cost ($5.00 US) so I will probably jut buy another one because there are some things I want to try, especially with the painting.  I am happy with the way it looks but if I did it over I would start out with a different approach which I think would result in nicer more defined mottling.  (Crazy guy like me picks 1/72 to do his first German mottle on haha)

Karl - thanks!  yeah as I said above I am somewhat pleased for the first mottle I have ever completed and especially in 1/72!  It was easier than the mottling I started on my 1/32 FW-190!!!

Bob - don't be scared!  for the price it's worth a try!  I actually found it very enjoyable!!!!

Marc - thanks!  actually I was thinking of somehow combining a Battle for Germany dio with a sci-fi "Lost in space" dio... this is where the evil Nazi pilot gets to try out an alternative fuel 190 and lands on the planet Zarkon by mistake.  haha yeah that's my paint base, I move pieces of sprue around on it to accomodate what I am spraying....

Dave - thanks - I hope so too.. I got so motivated last night when I came out of the closet and admitted I was lazy!

Tanky - you're starting to sound like me with my Martlets!

Great paint job on the Fw190 Tom.  I hope when I do my Fw190Ds it will look half as good (why did I try 1:72 to do my first German models with the airbrush!).  gees I sound like a broken record!  I should spend less time on the forum and more time at the model desk...

Must...start... soon.

Jay - what I did was spray the wings first, then masked the wings and masked a demarcation line on the fuselage just above where the mottle would start.  (I figured if I tried to make that wavy demarcation line in such a small scale without a guide to stay by, it would be all over the model!)  After spraying the grauviolet and dunkelgrun I unmasked and began making the uneven demarcation line.

When it came to the mottle some of it turned out a bit big, so I misted over it with the very thinned (like chalky water) RLM 76 of the undercolor to the mottle.  I'd mist then let dry, mist then let dry.  This ended up with some varying sized mottle.  One or two spots I went back over it after the blue dried with whatever color was needed to darken it a little.

If I could do it over I think I would have tried more control or even pulling the needle out a bit and using the brush as a single action since it was the first time.  But in retrospect maybe it was the best to jump in feet first.  After playing with the mottle in 1/72 and a bit in 1/32 I think 1/48 would be easiest to mottle as in 1/32 the mottling looks sporadic and planned on my first attempt, in 1/72 it's hard (at least with my HP-CR with a .5mm nozzle/needle) to get small enough mottle without resorting to the misting of the blue afterwards. It felt like I was trying to mottle a small cigar!  (I put my finger next to it and it is about as long and as big around as my index finger!)

I plan to buy yet another airbrush soon.  It's between the HP-CS and the 100LG... the 100LG will probably win for price tag alone.  Although recently I have become interested in the Peak C5 on www.bearair.com as it is basically an Iwata HP-CS sold under a different name for $35 less!  Of course if the rumour of a .3mm needle/nozzle for the HP-CR coming soon is true then all this is a moot point!  That along with the cutout handle would be a fine combo!!!

PanzerWulff wrote:

(To TOM from the FLOOR MONSTER BURRRRRRP Thanx for the snack) iI know what you mean i have a light grey Carpet Monster in my house and i build ALOT of DML kits with that nice neutral grey styrene LOL. I also hope to get some pics of my baby panther and my Halftrack posted this weekend

Chris - I forgot to answer this last night.. I found some very ugly dark brown vinyl tile on sale at the hardware store this weekend... I am actually thinking of redoing my model room in it for the very reason you stated!  One if I drop a piece, a whisk broom should find it, two.. all but the smallest pieces should be somewhat visible to the naked eye!

Tom, give the 100 a go, you won't be dissapointed.

Alright I admit I am biased, but the level of control on my 100 with a fine head is amazing.

Karl

Tom, I've been using the Badger 100LG with the medium tip for much of my work & it's a great AB.  I may order the fine tip for it as well, although so far I haven't really felt the need.

Regards,  Rick

Well no work has been done today or yesterday for that matter.  Real life work was a living Hades and since I am waiting on my Vallejo mid to late Panzer colors set to get here I thought I would chill out a little...

I think I might start my 1/72 Fieseler Fi-156 tomorrow.. it also has one of those cute little Kubelwagens and now that I under stand how it goes together (the instructions were very lacking for the kubelwagen, only some crude pictures) I might try a dio with it.  I need to do some research on color schemes for late war Storch's though.. I only know the white, with with dark grey camo ones from the eastern front, and the ever prominent sandgelb ones from N.Afrika...

Chris - I sent you an email from here, let me know if you don't get it...

Tom, dude don't you already have 3 airbrushes including the Iwata HP-CR...

BTW your little 190 looks first class, great job on the camo

Tom, don't you just love how cheap some of these 1/72 kits are?

I've just picked up another Revell Dr.1, not because I need any parts, but because I need an extra set of decals, as the red is showing through the first set. It was cheaper to buy another kit, than buy AM decals!

You definitely need a 100 for 1/72. It's what I used to paint the Dr.1 after all!

It's also what I used to paint the Panther in 1/35, so even when that 1/72 kick ends, you'll still be using it. If that isn't justification, I don't know what is!

Karl

tho9900 wrote:

Well no work has been done today or yesterday for that matter.  Real life work was a living Hades and since I am waiting on my Vallejo mid to late Panzer colors set to get here I thought I would chill out a little...

Tom I feel your pain, I've only been back at work a week now and things are just insane.  I barely have time to even read my work emails let alone post to the forum.

As to the Vallejo mid to late Panzer colors set, what Vallejo colors do you use for a late war panzer?  In the Model Air range I think the colors would be:
025 Dark Yellow = Dunkelgelb
011 Tank Green = Olivegrun
041 Tank Brown = Rotbraun

Also, where are you getting you mid to late Panzer colors set from?

Cheers