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My 109 Addiction: The Ace of Aces. 23 Aug 17. Painted


Gazzas

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Hi Everyone,

   For a while now I've been avoiding the big  guns of the Luftwaffe.  It's not that I have anything against them.  It's just that I don't like building the same version of a machine that I see a lot of others have done.

 

The kit I'm building is the 1/48 Zvezda Bf109G6.  It's a nice kit and cheaply priced.  It's made to be built with panels open or closed.  It only has a few designed failures.  The cooling flaps are molded closed.  I had to do a bit of work to get mine into the open and relaxed position.  The MG 131 bulges are too big and square-ish looking.  Easily sanded down.  There's also no correct armature for positioning the slats...  so I left them closed.  It comes with markings for Hartmann's early G6 or a Swiss machine.

 

After damaging the Early G6 canopy and not having a spare to sacrifice, I had to use the Erla canopy.  I started surfing looking for a G6 with the early tail and Erla canopy.  As luck would have it I couldn't find one that matched anything available in my stash of decals.

 

Then suddenly I found these:   (all photos for discussion only)

061943.png

You can see that the only real difference between the early G6 and late G6 markings is the number 2 inside the large number 1 and the fact that no kill markings are visible on the heavily oversprayed rudder.   Also you can see that the Erla canopy is a different color than the rest.  I've assumed the color to be RLM 66.  It could be 70 or 71 I suppose, but I haven't found any documentation either way.  I'm sure somebody here knows what the Erla Haupt looked like fresh from the factory.

 

061945.png

Here he is getting ready to scramble.

 

061950.png

 

Finally the complete side of the bird.  No kill marks on the tail.  No black tulip.

 

061946.png

 

 

And finally the spinner.  Machines leaving the Weiner Neustadt 109 factory had a segment of the spinner roughly painted in white.

 

So, I've done some homework to enable me to use the kit decals without building the same version as a ten thousand other guys.

 

180313.jpg

About my method: 

I mix my own colors.  I like to vary paints a bit, so one plane with RLM 74/75/76 doesn't look exactly the same as every other plane with RLM 74/75/76.  On this occasion my 74 is a little too violet and dark, my 75 a little too green and light, and my 76 a little more bluer than gray.  I've also done the Erla Canopy in a probably-too-light 66.

 

180334.jpg

 

Right before everybody who owns a silhouette cameo announced their new magical powers, I'd ordered some stainless steel stencils for Luftwaffe aircraft in 1/48 scale.  On this bird I used them for the first time on the low-vis Balkan crosses.  There were some slight positioning errors as I need to find a better way to align them.  But overall I'm happy with the way they looked after I painted them with the airbrush.  At least they couldn't 'silver' in the hollow areas.

 

Tomorrow I hope to do the panel line wash.  For the first time I will try to dry it expeditiously by using my wife's blow-dryer.  Anything to speed up the weathering process.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Gaz

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Excellent photo collection.

 

As for the subject, aesthetically speaking, IMHO, an FW could never stand-up to the sleeker '109's profile for any variant.

 

So far so good with the model, but let me ask, is it the camera or is there only a shade of difference between the green and gray wing camo? 

And, is that some sort of mask, or is the canopy opaqued?

 

:innocent: Tom

Edited by Gigant
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Gaz,

 

Really nice descriptions and amazing you found those pictures - very cool.  I also think you have the right idea about varying the paints out of the bottle.  I don't think I do that enough so this is a good reminder.  Interesting subject, too.

 

Cheers,

Chris

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Guys,

   Thank you for the kind words and the 'likes'.

 

Tom,

    As I wrote in the first post, my painting was a little off as one is too dark and the other is too light, creating only a slight variation.  I have also done some fading with lighter shades of both colors and pastels which even brought the two colors closer together.  I'm still learning and experimenting with paint, tone variation, and fading techniques.  And yes, the canopy is masked.  I'll pull the mask once I get the weathering and final matte coat on.  The kit comes with a pilot, too.  Hoefully he'sw all right in there...lol

 

Chris,

    My first G6 was built for the Operation Husky time period.  Color pictures from the period have a certain yellowness.  To bring that to the model, I gave it a yellow ochre wash, for better or worse.  You don't really notice it until it's sitting with other 109's in 74/75/76.  Only one of my 109's actually has pure gray shades made from only black and white.

 

Cheers,

 

Gaz

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Hi Phil,

   Believe it or not, Eduard's 109's are the only ones I haven't built so far.  From the reviews, they're nice kits.  But, because they're a bit more pricey I just haven't got around to them yet.  I'm sure I will, eventually.

 

You'll have to let us know how you go.

 

Welcome to the slippery slope.

 

Gaz

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Go for one of the two Eduard 109G 'weekend' kits (Erla and Mtt Regensburg). There is in fact everything in the box you'd need for a G-5 through G-6s and G-14.

 

They go together very nicely, despite the several alternate parts. They are, in my opinion, much more finessed than the Zvezda kits. I am working on a second, and using experience of the first I have cut the upper engine decking in half and glued to each side separately (easier to get the best join and least seam clean up) - the separate hinge will cover the join so no worries there. I have also glued the tailplane halves to respective fuselage halves for similar reason.

 

With it looking like they'll do the F through K I am sold on them, especially with a weekend edition selling for around £14-16.

 

Matt

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Kent, Jim,

Thank you very much.

 

I'll most likely get to Eduard. Of all that I've built so far, overall the Tamiya E and the Hasegawa g6 are among the least troublesome. And I just bought the old Fujimi G6AS this past weekend.

 

Gaz

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