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

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....

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.

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. 

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.

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.

Looks really good to me Bob!

-dave

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.

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

Nice work BTW, looks good.

Regards,  Rick

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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 

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.

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

And hopefully the finished product will look something like this............................

With weathering of course

Well I have scrapped the mask idea

It looks ok in the test pic, but on the a/c there isn't enough paint coming through the holes to look right.

I tried reapplying a couple of times and all I achieved was to block the holes with paint

Ah well, time to find a decent sponge I guess

Of course, it would work if I made a PE template, something that could be wiped clean between applications..............

Anyone know where I could get one of those 'Make your own PE' kits???

I sprayed all the interior bits on my Spitfire last night.  Interesting color the brits use on their interiors.  I'm going to paint the details tonight and should have some progress pics to post this weekend. 

I'm making so much progress on all my builds not that I've got my Mojo back 

Looks good from here Sean.  The early 109's had hard edge splinter camo.  As the war progressed, the painting became less precise, so mid/late war 109's & most FW-190's with disruptive camo had a slightly soft edge.  There was also much more variation in the actual camo patterns applied.  But there are plenty of pics of BOB 109's that show hard edge at that time.

Regards,  Rick

Progress Report: Tamiya 1/48 Spitfire Mk. 1

The kit has been assembled minus a few exterior details which will be added after painting (exhaust, antenae, pitot tube etc.).  I have a little bit of seam filling work to do at the base of the wing assembly where the front and back of the wings attach to the fuselage.  The alignment wasn't perfect on the right wing root, so a little filling will be necessary to make the top of the wing match up properly with the wing root on the fuselage.  And I also need to clean up the fuselage seams, but it should be routine.  Other than the fit issue with the wings (to be clear, it's minor) this kit has been a dream to paint and assemble.  Here is a not so exciting progress pic. 

Looks like you're getting there Scott.  Keep up the good work !

Regards,  Rick

Looking good Scott.  I need to add one of those to my collection.

I made a little progress this weekend-coat of Future and some (not all) decaling.  A lot of stencils.

Sean-would a stretched out piece of nylon hose make a useable template?  Just a thought.