The Battle for the Mediterranean

Hey guys, I need a couple more days to finish up the Bf109E-7.  I was hoping to have time to wrap it up over the weekend, but it took us all weekend to do the prep work for the final renovations on our house.  I spent most of the day on Saturday at Lowe's getting all the tile, paint etc. and all Saturday evening packing up the master bedroom, bath and the family room downstairs.  We spent all day Sunday ripping out the bathroom cabinets, sinks, toilets etc and moving all the furniture out of those areas, as well as several hours assembling the new cabinets, medicine chests, and a new glass model display case.  Rough couple of days, we were on the go from 7:30am to 10pm both days.  I'm worn out!  sigh...

Anyway, would it be ok for me to have until the end of next weekend to finish this one up?  If not, I understand.  I'm pretty close to being done.  Just have to spray the green (already masked), gloss coat, decal, weather and seal it up.  I figure I can have it done by next Sunday? 

After I get this build done (and my P-51D for Allied Aces) I'll be caught up on all my GBs and will have enough breathing room so I'll no longer have to slide in at the last minute to have my projects. done. 

And here are two shots right after I sprayed the Grauviollet.  The mottling is heavier than I would have liked, but I'm still getting used to trying to do finer sprays with my AB.  Mottling is hard in 1/48 scale.

Here is a progress photo.  Tonight we work on the topside camo.

I'm doing the final prep on my Bf109E7 tonight when I get home.  If all goes well, I'll spray the underside and flanks tonight. 

I don't know about you guys, but I just love the Bf109 ... it's such a cool looking airplane and I never get tired of reading about the exploits of the "Experten" in them.  I have some great reference books that I picked up recently, specifically for this build:

• Osprey "Bf 109 Aces of North Africa and the Mediterranean" by Jerry Scutts
• "Combat Legend Messerschmitt Bf109" by Jerry Scutts. 

I also got some of the other Osprey Bf109 books for reference material for some of my other Bf 109 builds... great stuff, I highly recommend them to anyone wishing to learn more about the Bf109, it's pilots and it's combat history.

I'm making some great progress on my 1/48 Tamiya Bf109 E/7.  Here are two update photos

Looks like I'll have a couple of seams to clean up a bit, but they shouldn't prove to be too much trouble.  I'm going to make mine in the same scheme that's on the box art.

Ok I picked out  my kit, Tamiya 1/35 Semovente M-40 it was used both in Husky and North Africa.

I just have a few more bits to put on the Bf109E-7 then I can begin spraying, I'll start with the underside as usual, then the top, then the mottling, and finally the yellow nose and tail.  I'm going to make masks for the mottling, unless I can find my gravity feed cup.  I just can't free hand the mottling with my current AB / Compressor setup and the siphon feed jar.

Not much to report I'm afraid.  The construction of the Sherman is complete with the exception of the tracks.  I just need to find time to paint and weather it now.

Cheers

Dave:.....Thanks, yes, there are really nice looking Italian planes, like the SM-85 many totally unknown.

Will take a rest from the GB for a month or two, I am involved with a russian BE-12 in 1:50 scale and need to get my hands into it.

Greetings to all.

Gera 

Soild:  Nice looking Bannana you have there Solid and nice pictures too.  The Italians sure had an interesting design philosophy. 

Anyway, I'm still a long way from the start of my build which may change due to a lack of reference on LCM's in the Med.  I still have lots of time though so I'll see what I can dig up.

Hi guys......

.In a few days, experimental flights of the "Authonomous Experimental Dive bombing Group"  based at Ciampino Sud outside Rome will be flying  their SM-85's and do some dive bombing excersices with the aim of doing it often on the British aircraftcarrier sailing the Mediterranean. The pilots of the group will be very dissapointed when they find out the "flying Banana" is not up to the task!!!!!!!, they eventually will probably be in the long lists of Heroes of Italy dying in the dangerous SM-79's.........

razordws wrote:

Chris:  Wing-nut (marc) posted a build not too long ago using the smoke ring decals.  You might want to check it out http://www.finescale.com/FSM/CS/forums/544256/ShowPost.aspx

DAVE thanks for the heads up on that Marc did a great job on the 202's big bro his greyhound looks awesome with the smoke rings I'll have to look into some of those