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

YAHOO!  Finished decals last night and the wash (which really worked well this time!)  Will be attaching landing gear and the transparencies tonight and photos should be up...

 

Darren, same as last year...great group build !  I am already thinking on what to do for next year...maybe a Spitfire...

no progress on my end but wanted to drop by to say I haven't forgotten about this!  No progress on anything as this is the first week of school and people are starting to figure out this or that doesn't work.  Some of my servers were acting up today and I looked and they hadn't been rebooted in a yr or so, so had to arrange getting everyone off etc.. fun fun!  In a few weeks I'll be sitting there in my office with a blank look on my face wondering where I've been the past month...or better yet, where the past month went! 

Darren:
Interesting bit of trivia there.  Something I never knew about British production.  Time to stock up on good ole Tamiya masking tape and go for it.  Actually, not quite time yet.  Progress report.  Shocking as this may sound to those out there.  The fuselage is glued together with the cockpit all done.    Yup, real progress has been made on the Hurricane.  Still chopping off parts left and right, but just about done with that.  Big problem now is getting the resin ailerons to fit well in the wings.  Meanwhile, I am trying to figure out the Eduard PE flaps for this little .  The flaps themselves are no issue, but Eduard gives you these really nice inserts for replicating the top of the wing when the flap are in the down position.  According to the sheet, there is a bend to be made to cover the hole in the wing and look like the spar area.  Somewhere, not sure as there is no bend line in the PE.    So, with that in mind I can take a SWAG at it, or scratch build the spar area in the wing.  The later is sounding like a better idea since it would give the wing some strength.  Once I get that figured out, should be heading toward closing up the wings and moving toward paint.  This will be really nice when it gets done.... when. 

Thanks Rick!

Nice build so far Dave.  Good luck on the painting.

Regards,  Rick

Thanks Sean and  Karl

Dave those Emiles look really nice

So now my kit is ready for painting, just need to give it a bath. Here are some pictures of the kit

Landing grears are not glued in yet nor the cowel.

Thanks Darren I appreciate that.  I use white Rust-Oleum Specialty Plastic Primer as a primer and white finish coat.  Decanted and degassed it sprays extremely smooth with an AB with excellent adhesion.  While it is white, I don’t think it is quite as stark as a pure white.  While I have not done a side by side I think if I did it would be somewhat toned down but still a real white.  It is really toned down with the weathering.  A wash of pastel powder, water and dish soap.  The powder is ground extremely fine with a mortar and pestle… much finer than scraping with a blade produces.  Very liberally applied to the whole area not just the panel lines, wiped off leaving a thin film over the surface.  If it gets too clean I go back over with a dirty spot on the paper towel.  That is how I do the entire model.

I think I have forgtten to thank you for hosting A great GB so please considered that corrected... thanks.  Sorry I missed the 1st BOB GB... very gald I was part of the 2nd.

I agree with Tom, great work Marc & Dave.

Marc once again you have showed us just how bloody good you are.  One question for you though, what did you use to tone down the white on the nose of the bird, it really looks effective?

Dave sorry to hear about the canopy and I'm afraid I've been there done that myself with those older style Eduard vinyl masks.  I found I could get round most of the problems by spraying lightly from an angle that wouldn't allow the spray to creep into the bits that you knew were going to lift up.

Hal definitely hard edged & standardised camo on BoB Spitfires & Hurricanes applied by placing rubber mats over the aircraft and spraying.  The reason the Brits used the mats was that aircraft production was split amongst a lot of factories some of which were very small. The component parts for the fighters were pre-painted at the factories and the camo needed to match once the aircraft was assembled.

Cheers

Sean, Tom... thanks.

 

Dave - I like the look of that mottle.  Granted it has more of a late war look to but I really do like the way it turned out.

 

Joe-FRIDAY???  It's only Monday... you tease us and make us wait 'til the end of the week!!! 

Hey.. Joe-FRIDAY???... Sgt Joe  Friday...I miss that show...

Well Saturday was almost an entire day at the bench...as of right now the first of what will be two coats of Future has been laid down on my Emil.  Working on the landing gear and transparencies until the Future dries...Hope to post some pics Friday evening.

Dave,  Nice work on the Emils.

Hal,  The disruptive camo on the Hurricane was hard edge.

Regards,  Rick

Nice work Tweety, Tryingtomodel and everyone else in the list who I forgot because I haven't posted in so long!!!  The He-111 is about 90% + done, just some fiddly bits left on it... I switched over to the B-25 to see if I could rekindle the modeling mood but although the mind is willing... I have got some work done on it though but that is for a different GB...

I hope to get back into things soon and get to modeling like I used to!!!

Hal, I've always understood RAF aircraft to have a hard edged demarcation, both between upper and lower colours, as well as the upper colours themselves.

The upper surface camo was applied over rubber mats laid over the airframe, thus leading to a sharp edge.

Can't help you with the Eduard flaps though.

Karl

Wow, there are some awesome looking projects getting done here.  Here's hoping I can measure up to the high standard being set.    I love the challenge of trying to improve my skills on each kit.  Anyway, back at the aerodrome the cockpit is getting toward done and only needs to details picked out here and there.

Now for a question for those in the know.  I'm looking at my reference material on the Hurricane.  I see two things and can't decide which is accurate.  It "appears" that the paint line between the bottom and the top is a sharp "taped" line, especially around the cowling/front of the fuselage.  I "think" this is also true on the aft end as well.  As for the camo pattern on the fuselage and wings, it looks like this is a soft "non-taped" line that I should be shooting freehand.  On the other hand, I have seen photos where the camo pattern has a sharp paint line.  What is it?  I know the answer is only moments away.

Try to get some photos posted later today.  I'm off to the spray booth and keep chopping parts off the wings.  Anyone ever done the Eduard PE flaps for the Hurricane?  If so, I got some questions!!! 

Cheers!
Hal

Dave, your mottling looks like the sponge applied mottle, which would be right for the BoB.

From your description, you've got the old Eduard masks. The new ones are make out of Kabuki tape, which looks just like Tamiya tape to me, and these ones go around bends, unlike the old ones.

Karl

Here is a update picture of my 109s.  I'm not to thrilled with my mottling job on the 1/48, but it was my first attempt.  I need to spend some time practicing freehand, close-up airbrushing.  I'm hoping it ends up presentable though.  The 1/72 wont have mottling.

Karl - The Eduard mask packaging says its flexible foil.  The product number is XF 001.  It didn't seem like "foil" to me, though.  But it did seem different than the Black Magic mask I have used before.  It had the texture of like a thick scotch tape and was transparent.

Still haven't generated the desire to mess with the canopy again...  But I'm about to continue on the rest of the plane.  It's all painted, just needs to have the rest of the assembly done and a coat of future so I can put the decals on.  My 1/72 scale 109 is in the same stage.  However, I masked it with the trusty masking tape and it's going to have a closed canopy, so I wont remove those masks until the end.

I'll post some progress pictures once I put the tail wings on both planes.

Marc, stunning job on the Emil.

The weathering looks spot on.

Very nice indeed.

David, nice job on the pit.

Is it 1/72?

Dave, what Eduard masks are you using, is it the older vinyl ones?

Anyway, hope you get that canopy sorted. I used to have similar problems with canopies.

Progress Update

Not a lot!

Back at work this week so my near miraculous progress of last week came screeching to a halt.

On the Dornier I've sanded all the previously applied codes back, and am about to repaint with the base colour.

Once that's done I'll touch in the red crosses, before applying the codes again.

This time the codes are coming courtesy of a set of rub downs. The font isn't quite right, but near enough for me.

As for the Heinkel, I've put that on the back burner, while I try and finish the Nieuport 17 for the Allied Aces GB.

I'm trying to finish two kits before I head off to Normandy for a week at the end of the month.

Karl

Marc top build mate!!

 

David nice work on the pit.

 

Well, building on the 109 is going slow.

Had to order a canopy set from Tamiya as I lost mine 'somehow', and the vac formed item was to much of a mongrel to try and retrofit.

Mind you its going together well, the PE set is testing what little patience I have left but I intend to nut this one out.

Then I still have to figure a way to do the speckle camo thats looks 'in scale'.

One mountain at a time.

 

edit :- speeeling helps alot!

Rick and Marc thank you.

Marc, Dave, Rick, David--- Thanks.

 

Dave... The spring is a strand of wire from an old cell phone charger wrapped around a #80 dril bit and CA'd to a stiffer piece of wire.

 

David... great looking progress. 

Lots of progress showing David.  Good work so far.

Regards,  Rick

Marc ditto to what every one else said on your 109 great looking bird

I finely had time to start on my kit today, back in to the airplane mood. Here are some shots of the office that I got painted today. Noting special but you wont see much once I get the pilot and canopy in. I also test fitted the wings to the fuselage not glued in yet..

Nicely done Marc.  Great looking Emil.

Regards,  Rick

Marc - Great work!  Beautiful looking build.  How did you make the spring for the canopy?

Progress on my builds has slowed.  It always happens when I hit a snag.  It makes it hard for me to get motivated.  It's the canopy, as it always seems to be for me.  I think I need to start my builds doing the canopy first.  If I can do a good job on the canopy, then I can do the rest of the plane.  Nothing is more frustrating than being almost finished with a model and then totally screwing up the canopy....  grrrrr. 

This time, I used the Eduard mask on my Bf-109E-4.  The only place on the canopy that is curved decided to start peeling up while I was painting.  I kept trying to push it down, but inevitabley, some paint got underneath.  I worked with it and was able to get the paint off where it shouldn't have been.  Then I had to repaint it and after a few days, I started to put on a dull coat.  The darn mask just wouldn't stay down.  I know I should have just remasked with masking tape or something, but one of my faults is I'm not very patient.  I got a tiny bit of overspray on the window pane...  Then I started peeling off the mask and in some places the darn paint on the canopy frame (that's supposed to stay there) peeled off also!  Almost like it didn't adhere to the canopy.  Now I'll have to touch up some areas but won't be able to dull coat them.  I don't think I've ever had paint come off the canopy frame that bad before.  I know, I know, I should have used a sharp blade and scored around the masks first.  See the part above about my patience.  I guess I'll just have to live and learn...   Luckily, I have an extra canopy frame for the Bf-109E-4 Tamiya kit.  I might just have to start over with it.

Marc Your 109 looks fantastik GREAT work

 

Cheers

Bear

Thanks Dave.

Marc, that is one very beautiful looking bird you have there. Well done!!!!

Bf 109E-3 Completed. Thanks for the fun GB Darren.

 

Hi all, I'm just getting of a quick post here at work to let you know I'm still alive.  Unfortunately my bench time is near zero at the moment due to other commitments.

I'll read back through the last couple of pages of posts when I get home tonight.

Oh yeah, welcome back Tom