Battle of Britain GB 2006 - 1 May to 31 Oct 06

Here are some progress pics with splinter applied with soft demarcation lines.

After the paint has cured fully (tomorrow) I'll start on the speckle camo like below.

Pic is with a No#11 blade for scale purposes.

When I line this example up next to the 109 the scale is almost perfect.

For slightly tighter speckle all I have to do is move the mask around a little bit.

Don't worry about the lsightly blurry middle section, I moved the mask to far away while spraying, otherwise the pattern is tight and better than I thought it would be

My research confirms that Rick, thanks.

What I'm curious about is did they use the same methods for the splinter scheme? ie rubber mats etc 

Are the demarcation lines to define the splinter camo hard or soft edged?

Quite a few images I've seen show soft edges, but they were fuzzy black and white pics so doesn't 'really' help, but alot of kits I've seen built show hard edged camo.

I'm sticking with soft edges, but wondering about how other people view it.

Sean, the basic splinter scheme on early Luftwaffe AC was factory applied, similar to the way the Brits painted theirs.  The mottle seen on Luftwaffe AC was field applied by various meens, Spray gun, Brush, Rags, Mops, you name it, the flight crews used them all.

Regards,  Rick 

I completely agree with you bob.

I haven't done any test runs yet, but hopefully this will work, otherwise I'll have to use the sponge method.

Looking good Bob

As for my references, it appears the same as how you've done your splinter camo, aside from the mottle on the wings.

I'm doing Fiby's a/c which has the very fine speckle camo, hence I'm trying to construct a mask of some sort to get the speckles fine enough for 1/48 scale.

Not to far off now, just layed down the RLM 02, now to mask up and do the RLM 70.

Then it's onto testing the mask!!!!!!

A question.....I noticed on some 109 kits people have done the splinter scheme has sharp edges to it's definition, yet I have always masked them to produce a fine oversprayed edge between the 2 colours.

How was it really done??

I know the Allied craft used mats etc to spray their Spits and the like, but I was under the opinion the Axis crews just grabbed a spray gun, mop, oily rag etc and went for it.

Kinda curious.

Nice looking build Bob!  You gotta love those white nose 109's!  I'm looking forward to more pics.

As for me, I actually started sniping sprue on the Br 20 and I stocked up on the appropriate paints while I was in Vancouver but that's about it for now. 

Thanks all-I might use some grey pastel chalk to tone down the wings a bit...maybe.

FeldMarSchall-thanks.  They are very versitile-handy for detail work & decaling.

Rick-you made me laugh.  No, I don't think I'll be hunting for a pic of 'Sponge Bob' to use as my avitar.

Look out Bob, You're gonna be known as "Sponge Bob" if you keep this up .

Nice work BTW, looks good.

Regards,  Rick

Ahh, now I see what you were referring to when saying the wings were sponged, Bob.  That's interesting.  Looks good though. 

Also, sorry I was confused with what you were referring to in your instructions.  When you said your instructions had 1 white nosed and 2 yellow nose, I didn't realize that they were ALL depicting Wick's plane, lol.  I thought just one of them did and the others were, perhaps, other pilot's planes.

Looks really good to me Bob!

-dave

Camo applied-I see a spot missed right behind the canopy.  Will address later.  Happy with the apperance of the sides-not thrilled about the apperance of the wing surfaces.  Not sure if I'm going to repaint the grey or live with it.

Thanks Dave.  Actually no Legos were harmed in the building of the stand-I used some of my son's old Mega Blocks-a cheap knock-off of Legos.  Terrible fit sometimes....actually, most of the time.  Nothing that a little CA doesn't fix though.  However, as my son gets older, some of his Legos do 'come up missing.....'

As far as Wick's plane, the Hasegawa kit offers three versions from Oct-Nov 1940-two yellow nose & one white nose.  Still there are so many other options given how much research one chooses to do, such as the upper wing surface being 'sponged'.  The kit instructions don't call that out, but the pics you posted & Rick counter that.  Think I'm gonna 'sponge' them.

LOL!  I would have never thought of using my son's legos as a stand for my models.  That's an awesome idea!  Thanks, Bob.

As for the yellow vs. white nose, I'm not sure if one or the other is accurate or perhaps both are, but I like the white nose you did, it looks great.  Also, as I was looking through my instructions for the AM decals I bought for my 1/48 Bf-109E, I noticed it came with Wick's decals and it also showed it painted with a white nose. 

Bob she looks cool and I like the white nose, it makes for a nice change from yellow.  Oh btw your cam job looks just fine to me.

Here's a picture of the tail of Wicks 109 that I posted a while ago, it gives you a good idea of how tight the mottle should be.

Oh yeah, I still like the small elephant ear sea sponge-small on engine.

Thanks Rick.  Looks like I've got more area to sponge.

The splinter is on.  Happy with the results of the Tamiya tape (my first use).  A few spots that I muffed up the masking, but overall, I'm happy.  Also, I could have done a better job on a few of the seams...next time.  Now I'm fighting the urge to change it to a yellow nose....

Wick's bird definitely had splinter camo om the wings.

For oil washes, I use Paynes Gray, Burnt Umber & Burnt Sienna.  Depends on the base color & what effect you want.

Regards,  Rick

Thanks Dave-actually, you have been a big help.  There are just so many reference sites/sources out there and sometimes they don't match.  I will probably go with the kit instructions and leave the wing surfaces in the splinter 'only' mode unless other documentation surfaces. 

Thanks again.

I looked back in the thread a bit and you mentioned you were going to do Wick's plane.  I found two, one has the white nose that you said you wanted to do.  It shows the spinter camo, at least on the upper fuselage.  I wouldn't think that it would have the "sponge" type paint on the wings, but I'm not sure.  If I had to guess, I would say it has the splinter camo on the wings as well.  Is that what you are trying to figure out?  Sorry, I'm sometimes a bit dense.  Just trying to help out.  Here are the pics I found of Wick's plane:

[Edit]  I just noticed that the picture in my previous post is the same plane as the second one above.  I wasn't aware that that was Wick's plane when I originally posted the other picture.  I'm not sure which is accurate, the white or yellow nose or both.

Dave, the kit instructions (Hasegawa 1/48) show the side camo pretty much as the picture you posted, but no 'sponge/rag/brush' applied camo to the upper wing surfaces.  The splinter camo is a match though.  Also, three versions-one white nose, two yellow nose-for the BoB timeframe. I'm going with the white nose.

Also, question for the 'resident experts'-what color artist oil should I use for an oil wash-dark grey or raw umber?  Or something else? 

Thanks

Bob, can ya give us a little more info on what your instructions say or what particular aircraft or scheme you are going for.  I was assuming that you were going to paint it pretty similar to the picture I posted, but wasn't sure, I just guessed.  Almost without exception (at least that I'm aware of), Bf-109E's during the BOB had a camo pattern similar to the picture on the upper wing surfaces and on the top of the fuselage.  Other than that, the differences come from the mottling on the sides (like what you are making) or the color of the engine cowling, color of the tail fin, etc.

Sean & Dave-thanks for the input and Dave, thanks for posting the picture.  Not sure which one I'm going to use (maybe sponge on one side, sponcer on the other ).  Might test using the spouncer and 'double coating' to get better coverage.  dunno.

Also noticed that the upper wing surfaces have camo applied in the picture that you posted Dave.  My kit instructions make no reference to this.

  Sean-do your references show wing surface camo applied?

Hey Bob, I'm no expert, but I think I like the elephant ear sea sponge (the area around the cockpit and engine on the bottom photo) best.  Both look good, but it seems the large sponge has a tad too much large splotches, where as the small sponge are smaller.  I "think" they should be smaller splotches.  Your's look pretty darn close to this:

Darren, I used Tamiya tape and masked each frame one at a time, cutting along the edges of the window pane the best I could.  It will probably have some mistakes in it.  The trick will be getting the mask off without pulling paint off where it should remain.  I'm gonna try and be a good boy and use my knife to cut along the edges before lifting the mask this time.  Me and canopies don't mix well most of the time, but I'm hoping it looks presentable.  We shall see.  It was quite tedieous on a canopy that small.  It's just the 109s are small planes to begin with, and then you throw in a 109E in 1/72.  It was smaller than other 1/72's I've built.

The 'spouncer' looks more refined to me.

The elephant ear looks way to blotchy for 1/48 scale.

Just my 2 cents

Should have my test run of the mask tomorrow night fingers crossed.

Very nice work Dave, especially in 1/72nd.

Karl-nice pictures from Normandy.  Would like to visit there someday.

Darren-tried the camera using the macro function-not sure if it is any better.  I think I also have a lighting issue.

Again, this is an old 'test mule'-not the real thing.

'spouncer'

elephant ear sea sponge-small on engine canopy, large from cockpit back

Rob don't sweat it, I think everyone can relate to a build getting on top of them to the point that it's just not fun anymore.

Dave cool looking 109, it should look excellent with its gear on and flat coat.  Being such a little sucker how did you manage to mask the canopy and what did you use.

Cheers