BomberGruppe GB - 2007 (Luftwaffe Bombers)

well i feel better.

got the condor base color on tonight.

will get the splinter camo on tomorrow or fri.

will post some pics this weekend.

nice looking Mistel there Thad....lets see more pics from other angles.... 

Invertman: i still have those condor pics...let me know where and when to send if you still need them,

I will work on wings or clusters for the badge...work your way up in rank.(kickbacks will be accepted to speed up the process)... 

P.S. no military coupe d'etats/insurrections or any other type of forced overtaking will be accepted...Mucker and I are SUPREME LEADERS!!!! eventhough offers may be considered..hahaha.

CS

hey guys,

got the condor painted today.

that splinter camo is tougher than it looks to apply.

well here's some pics.

Tough or not you did a fine job invertman....looks great.

Working on some sub-assemblies.  Landing gear done and should be doing some painting soon.

Great looking Condor Invertman and a nice set of landing gear, wing_nut.

I've spent the early part of this morning finishing up the first coat of paint on both the Ju 88 and Do 217.  I layed down the underside - hellblau - and once it dried, I put on a coat of Future.  Now it's on to a niece's birthday party and a couple of good days' curing time for that Future before I begin masking for the upper surface paint job.

These builds have definitely been a good (if not at times trying) experience.

wingnut:your landing gear is looking awsome.

great work!

Invrtman, The Condor is looking great (and very big), I know what you mean about the splinter camo masking

Mark, nice job on the gear  

My work space is pretty much back together after some renovations so I hope to get some more work done on the cockpits this weekend. 

Invertman: very impressive. Looks like the paint went on nice and smooth.

Marc: Your 1/72 landing gear is more detailed than my 1/48th! I'm sure that's just a hint of things to come...looking good, Marc.

The Condor and the landing gear are looking good.  I like the wire bracing.  I took the Ju-388 out to the workshop today, I hope to get started on it this week.  All those little resin parts are going to need a careful washing, hopefully none will get grabbed by the carpet monster's even-more-evil twin, the drain monster.

Hey Jeaton....

I used a fine cheese cloth to rinse out my resin parts I too was a bit weary about loosing down the drain a tiny part. Just place all the parts for rinsing over the cloth and use a gentle spray from a hand held nozzle if possible....

CS

Argh!  I think that today, once I arrived home from work, God didn't want me to work on my airplanes.  Over the weekend I managed to put down the base colors for both the Ju88 and Do217.  Some touch-up was needed for the Ju88 where the paint was perhaps a bit too thin to properly cover the areas where I had applied putty.  I used Squadron white putty but perhaps I should have used green putty.

Any way, I did manage to do the touch-up.  I had cut out templates to effect the desert scheme I'm doing for the 88.  I was re-building my airbrush, a Badger Universal 360, when one piece came unscrewed and the spring inside went boucing away.  I spent half an hour looking for it, and finally found it where I wouldn't anticipate it could have bounced to!  Then I was continuing re-constructing the airbrush when another screwing part came dislodged and yet another spring went bye-bye.  I found that spring much more quickly, got everything re-assembled, hooked up the air compressor, pulled the trigger -- and nothing!!!!!

It's probably a problem with the cleaning, or lack thereof, and all I need to do is find the part that needs better cleaning.  I've disassembled the entire thing, placed all the parts in a Rubbermaid shoe box, and can find no reason that I am getting no air from the airbrush.  The hose is shooting air just fine, so I've eliminated that. 

After a long day of solving complicated programming issues, I really am just not up to fighting with the airbrush.  So yet another day, and very little progress.  I was hoping to finish these builds by the weekend, and perhaps I still can, but right now it doesn't look good for that finish date.

I've been pretty lucky with airbrushes lately, but I've had my arguments with them in the past, so I have 2 badger 150's and one 200 detail brush, and lots of spare parts, including extra springs.  Trifocals are not good for finding those itty bitty parts.  So, if it does come to pass that one doesn't work, I jusy say "NEXT" and grab another.

I've had a lot better luck with my airbrushes since I quit taking them apart to clean them.  I do a final cleaning by spraying lacquer thinner every day, and maybe once a month I remove the needle and the front part of the nozzle and clean them with lacquer thinner and a pipe cleaner, that's all.    I do clean the color cup, the outside of the spray nozzle, and the place where the color cup inserts, using pipe cleaners and Q-tips, every use.  I run the paint a lot thinner than I used to, and lower air pressure, I suppose that helps keep the airbrush clean.

Aggieman, I feel your pain, and also commend you for having enough sense to realize that it just wasn't your day, so you walked away from the bench. A few years back in the same situation, I may have stubbornly tried to wrestle with fate, only to end up making mistakes with the actual model and setting the build back a few days.

I'm not familiar with your specifc airbrush, and you sound like you know your way around the airbrush...I'm sure you'll figure it out after a good night's rest.

Hang in there...

Finally some progress....WOOHOO

Some double masking needed to be done so the area that will be RLM 65 could get some preshading.

looks great Marc but I'm not sure what exactly your up to there.  Why is part of the underside all rlm 66 and then part of the wing preshaded?

Wish I had some progress shots too but I spent all day working doing the  yard work instead.  MaybeI'll get a second wind and work on it tonight.

Dave, part of the underside was painted black for night ops.  Your guess is as good as mine as to why they didn't do the whole thing.  This, and the distressed winter upper, was the reason for the choice.  I thought it looked kind of odd and that was good enough for me since I too look kind of odd (if you hear my wife tell it)

2 progress posts in 1 day.  I love having nothing to do.  Only 2 weeks since the knee surgery... I am just not up for yard work yet

That looks awesome Marc, and... very ODD!!!  The upper white looks great too.

Hope your knee is feeling better.

razordws wrote:

Hope your knee is feeling better.

(SHHHH! Not so loud.  Don't want the wifey to know I am milking this for as long as I can)

Progress to show off, finally!  Got my airbrush problem solved and was able to put down most of the rest of the paint, although I still have left the spinners for each aircraft and of course the weathering I'll be doing later.  Here is the Do 217.  I'm doing a standard Luftwaffe splinter scheme.  Underside is Luftwaffe Hellblaue.

Here is the Ju 88.  I was initally going to do the standard splinter scheme but then decided to do a desert scheme.  Underside is Luftwaffe Hellblau.  Airbrushed the white stripe rather than use the kit decal.

hey guys,

started applying decals this weekend.

there are a lot of stencils on the sheet.

Aggieman: Looking really nice. I am partial to the desert scheme, but can't wait to see both.

Marc: Wow! You keep out doing yourself, which is not an easy task.

Invertman: The Condor is looking awesome. What are your thoughts on the kit (minus the earlier mishap)? From here it looking like a very nicely molded kit, and you've certainly shown the potential it has.

Aggie....

Looking real good...keep up the good work.

And invertman that condor is coming right along...second time is always the charm!!!

To update all of you my He-177 is chugging along...got the fuselage finally closed up. everytime it seems that I was ready to close I had to add soemthing else to the gunners position. Now those are done. The fuselage fit is not too good...been sanding and filling quite a bit. there are no alignment pins which makes the halves slide around all over the place, and the chin/gondola windows have been a real challenge to fit but that seems to b behind me. Now I amstarting with the wings...lets see how those come along. What I am seeing is THIS IS ONE BIG KIT.!!!

 post some pics later this week.

Carlos

All:

A bit of advice that has worked nice for me..and I know Mucker has done this, when your decal falls over a panel line take an exacto very very sharp and fine blade and cut the decal along the panel line then apply some decal set...the decals set really nice into the line and gives it the painted on look and after a shot of dull cote the results are great...

 try it out..

cs

Agieman...both birds coming along just ine it seems.

 invertman... The condor looks good.

Started decaling the 111.  This has been asked before (for all I know by me) but here goes again.  When a field applied white wash winter camo was used.... was most of the stenciling covered and just some inportant ones visble?   

carsanab wrote:

A bit of advice that has worked nice for me..and I know Mucker has done this, when your decal falls over a panel line take an exacto very very sharp and fine blade and cut the decal along the panel line then apply some decal set...the decals set really nice into the line and gives it the painted on look and after a shot of dull cote the results are great...

I almost always do that.  Even if it leaves a tiny little gap, that gets taken care of withthe panel line wash.  Before the wash, one more thing I do to my decal is a wet sand with 4000 micros mesh.  The edges seem to disappear.

AHhhh the light at the end of the tunnel photo...just a few bits to add.

Don't mean to imply it was a partiularly difficult journey.... it just started so long ago.

Aggieman, Invertman and Wing Nut  -  Some great progress here guys keep up the great work!!

I too cut the decals on the panel/control lines.  I always found that you get just that little bit of silvering in the crack if you don't because the decal can't snuggle all the way down.  Havn't tried the sanding though Marc.  I'll have to give it a try.

ohh man wing nut....what a beauty!!!!

that winter camo is spectacular!!! love to see some close ups...see that splinter peaking thru..

 great job!

carlos