Spanish Civil War GB.

As far as colors, I am not really sure.

For my ar-68 I am doing either all rlm 63 or lightened rlm 02. Testor's rlm 02 is just too dark for me to accept in all the b&w photos I have seen. I may do rlm 02 on the undersides and a lightened rlm 02 on the tops and sides.

For my  bf-109b, I am thinking of either doing 6*56 in rlm 02 over 65 or doing 6*1 in rlm 63. I can't accept that it was all a nmf.

Quailane, these aircraft faded quite heavily over time, so the faded approach to the upper surfaces would be spot on.

The discussion on NMF vs RLM 63 vs RLM02 is sure to run and run. There is also the view that they were painted aluminium, just to confuse matters further!

Karl

Hey guys, I just started reading "The Spanish Civil War' by Anthony Beevor.  If it's anything like the other two books of his I've read ("Stalingrad", and "The Fall of Berlin") then it should be a good read.   

Also, I'm trying to get my hands on a 1/48 Classic Airframes Bf109A kit for this build (instead of doing the I-16 I picked up recently).  I'm still really into the Bf109 lately. 

Scott, let me know what you go with and I'll update the front page.

The CA kit looks great, excellent choice.

Went to pick up the I-15 from the LHS yesterday...

......quelle horreur! Sold out.

Back to square 1.

Karl

KJ200 wrote:

Went to pick up the I-15 from the LHS yesterday... ......quelle horreur! Sold out. Back to square 1. Karl

Boy, do I hate it when that happens to me!  

The cockpit is pretty much done. I'm not a huge fan of pits, so I usually get 'em out of the way quickly so I can get on with the fun stuff.

If I was doing open canopy, I might be a little more careful, and would consider removing the moulded belts and make some better ones, but on the whole, it's not too bad...

Looks good U-96.

Regards,  Rick

thanks folks, you are too generous.

Lesson learned: don't look at other people's models for research. There's no guarantee they did any more than you

Hint: that's a trim wheel, not a stopcock. Resist the urge to paint it red.

Useful product of the day: After years of Humbrol filler (bad) and Squadron green (better), I now worship the ground Mr Surfacer walks upon.

O, not this again.

Who remebers the Mr. Dissolved Putty thread?

Question:

How can plastic be thick and soft but also very brittle?  The Huma Ar68 is going to be a challenge.  I have dry fitted and put aside the Squadron Green and taken up the casting resin and plastic card for  gap filler.  I hope to have some postable progress photos soon...

I got some bad news, boys. My GB joining spree resulted in to much purchases to catch up on, and not enough allowance money to catch up on it. I'm dropping out of this GB until further notice.

Scott, front page updated.

U-96, nice job on the pit. That Academy pit is very nice straight from the box.

Rudy, not too worry. If the situation improves, feel free to hop back in.

Nothing doing from me, still busy with an Emil for the BoB GB.

Looking like I'll be going with the old Airfix Fiat G-50.

Karl

Bummer... talked to Tom at High Sierra Models and he is not able to get me a Classic Airframes Bf109A.  It was a limited run kit and his suppliers are out of stock.  I hunted all over the internet today at the usual suspects (Great Models, Squadron, Tower Hobbies, e-bay etc) and no luck.  I may have to find something else to build.  I suppose I could build a Classic Airframes 109C/D if I can find some aftermarket decals. 

I also saw that Hasegawa has a 1/48 Bf109E-3 kit with Spanish Civil War markings.  Anyone know if that kit is any good?

Scott, The Hasegawa 1/48 109E series of kits are very good.  Lacking in the cockpit detail department, but otherwise very nice.  Many experts feel it's more accurate than the Tamiya kit.

Regards,  Rick

As this is the only thing on the bench at the moment, and I'm not involved with other GBs at the moment, I've made a decent amount of progress in recent days.

Now all assembled and painted up.  This is the first kit I've used Hannant's Xtracrylix water-based paints on, and once I'd worked out a decent airbrushing consistency, they are very easy to work with - not least because there are no nasty solvents and they clean up with water. I still wear a respirator though, breathing in atomised plastic isn't good for you either! 

Karl - now would be a good point to mention if those Cutting Edge decals respond badly to MicroSol/Set

Looking good U-96.

Regards,  Rick

Well, I picked up 2 kits for this build..... (yup, that's the obsessive/compulsive side of my addiction

1/48 Classic Airframes Fiat CR.32 "Spanish Civil War" which is a really cool kit.  Very different from all the rest of the stuff in my stash.  It will be fun figuring out how to paint the camo on a biplane.... lol  I want to do mine just like the box art!

1/48 Classic Airframes Bf109D.  I've always wanted to build one of the Jumo powered 109s.  I really wanted to do an A but being as it was a limited run I couldn't find it anywhere.  I picked up the Cutting Edge decal set CED48264 Early Messerschmitts Part 1.  I just received my goodies yesterday (very fast from www.Great Models.com).  The decal sheet has 3 configurations on it, one B and two Ds.  But only one of the configurations for the D is in Spanish Civil War Markings.  It's a D-1 flown by Werner Molders with the Mickey Mouse emblem on the side.  It calls for a very simple camo pattern of RLM 62 on all the upper surfaces and sides, and RLM 65 on the underside. Very simple.  I was hoping to do one with a splinter camo of RLM62/RLM63 so I may do some more hunting to find another decal set. Below is a picture of the box art.

Since this build goes until April, I'm going to try and do both.  These kits are not for the feint of heart.  There is lots of gorgeous resin and PE.  Both of them have beautiful resin cowlings that almost bring a tear to my eye.  LOL  Also, there are no locating pins and the instructions are very tiny.  I took them into work yesterday and blew them up big time on the copier onto 11/14 sheets so I could see the detail.  All over the place are instructions to drill locating holes for the struts, propellers, tail pieces etc.  These will be a challenge.  I'm used to doing Tamiya and Hasegawa kits so I'm pretty excited to try these two out and see if I'm up to them. 

Good luck with the CA builds Scott.  AS you said, they are not for the faint of heart, although the 109 kits are about their best & easiest to build so far.  The CR42 will be impressive in the box art scheme, but I suspect it will be a bit of a PIA to build.

Regards,  Rick

I can tell already with the CR.32 I'm going to have to paint the upper wing separate from the fuselage and lower wing.  The downside with that is that I'll have to drill my guide holds before I paint so that hopefully everything will go together nicely after the paint.  I'm going to have to make some sort of jig to line up the stuts properly.

Gotta love Classic Airframes, even though these kits are a bit of a challenge, they put out some very interesting subjects! 

U-96, Impressive looking build so far!   Looks really nice and clean without the splinter.

Scott, two really fun looking builds.  I'm planning on doing the Cr 32 as well but it's an old Supermodel kit in 1/72 scale.  Not sure I qualify for the  "not for the feint of heart" kits yet.   Looking forward to deeing your builds.

thanks for the comments folks, it's a nice kit to build, and I liked the idea of a simple RLM02/65 scheme having just done a Vietnam SEA scheme

As far as my modelling goes, I'm in a skill-building phase at the moment: little but important things like opening up that intake on the right of the nose, filling seams properly, rescribing, and a neat paint job.  I'm looking forward to dirtying this one up a little

espins1, that CR.32 looks like a real challenge. Love the paint scheme, I seem to remember there's a Crusader or Matilda in Bovington tank museum with very similar desert colours!

U-96, great job on the Dora.

I know the Academy kit is not as accurate as the CA kit, but having one, it really does build up very nicely.

The paintwork looks great, whatthinner are you using?

As for the decals, I used Gunze's Mr Mark Setter, which worked just fine. If you have any doubts, try your solutions out on one of the decs you don't need for this GB.

Scott, nice choice of kits.

I really like the CR32, such a classic 1930s looking biplane.

Aeromaster do a Spanish Civil War decal set, however the camo is  just as simple as the one used in the CE sheet.

As for me, nothing doing yet.

One more build to complete, then I'll start on a project for this GB.

Karl 

Just in case you guys missed it from the links Karl provided to us on the first page.  I was checking out the first web site and went to this page within the website regarding colors and markings http://www.zi.ku.dk/personal/drnash/model/spain/codes.html and found this little caveat that we should all be aware of when doing our research regarding the camouflage schemes and colors (and I quote directly from that link):

"In the 1930s, colour photography was still in its infancy. There are few contemporary colour photograph of aircraft from the Spanish Civil War. It's often forgotten, 'though, that the photographic emulsions used in black-and-white photography in the 1930s were also far from perfect. So-called Panchromatic films, which responded in a similar way to the human eye to the range of colours in a scene, although developed, were far from standard. Most films of the period were far more sensitive to light of some wavelengths and less sensitive to other wavelengths. Typically, for example, green hues would appear much lighter than they were in reality, and red hues much darker. This means that the many black and white photographs that exist of Spanish Civil War aircraft should not be interpreted at face value, and guessing at the colours of aircraft based on such photographs is an endeavour doomed to failure. This can be seen in, for example, the range of shades that appear to adorn the upper surfaces and tails of I-15s in Spain. As far as I know, these aircraft were actually painted in a very consistent colour scheme, with standard VVS AII green upper surfaces, and a presumably fairly standard tricolour on the rudder. However, depending on the film used to take photographs, the relative shade of different parts of the aircraft vary tremendously. For example the yellow, purple or in at least one case, the red section of the tricolour can appear to be the lightest colour in different photographs."

Which explains why when comparing the color chart that came with my Cutting Edge decals and the black and white photos available of Werner Molders Bf109D-1 numbered 6*79 that the colors seem so different.  The directions call for RLM62 which is not unlike a medium green, but if I used the black and white photos it appears that his camo color is much lighter, and almost appear like a light gray, light olive or even a flat silver.  Interesting how the black and white film of the times tended to show the greens much lighter than they actually are and the reds much darker.

So.... keep that in mind when researching your schemes.