Fanes

Unfortunately it didn't at least not to my satisfaction. My guess is that it's related to the flat carrier film of the Revell decals. I carefully sprayed some blue in their vicinity and that turned out as bright as under the decal - so the final flat coat might resolve the issue

Now with some time and courage there comes progress! FIrst of all: damage report From afar everything looks just fine: With closer examination you can see where the paint ate trough all coats down to the base With some RLM79 sprayed on carefully The coat turned out ultra flat and quite light even though it's from the same jar. After some polishing with a sanding stick the result was a lot more even. The salt fading is a lot heavier than I would like it to be - those MRP colours are sometimes covering too good! I'll try to tone the effect down with more filters. Moving on to the underside: Oil-dot-filter Lots of small dots of white, blue, brown and umber apllied with a toothpick and blended in with mineral spirit The area inside the engine cowlings recieved some extra dark oils as a base for the exaust stains While I was waiting for the oils to cure to aplly a gloss coat (hopefully without any surprises) I turned my attention to the exhausts. They recieved multiple very transparent layers of browns. The idea is to break the uniform look of the exhausts and make every single one unique. The effect is really hard to capture in a photo - the rusty sheen is unfortunately invisible. So where am I? gloss coat repairs decals gloss coat salt fading touch ups oil dot filter gloss coat panel wash gun and exhaust stains careful chipping dust and dirt 1000 small things Still lots of things to do but I really do enjoy weathering and I'm relieved that there's now no more need to hurry which obviously wasn't my style at all

Same applies or my Bf 110 - could you please move it to the WiPs?

Thanks Shawn - I'm going to tackle the beast on the weekend! Thank you very much Reimund - happy new year to you, too! I'll try to gently overspray the damaged area - it might turn out fine since the damage is quite irregular/in small spots. Everything was sealed up twice: first with Tamiya clear, followed by MRP clear after the decals. I guess herein lies the problem: both can be thinned with laqcuer thinner as was the colour used for fading. So Future or any other water based gloss coat would have ruled that out from the beginning. I take the week of frm my Messerschmitt, have several cups of tea to calm down and I'll be back on track in a few days! Max - you're making me blush behind my screen, but I can assure you most swearing was in German. I might change to English if I finally get back to my Spitfire build Cheers to all of you fine mates Joachim

For me it was definitely the Silhouette cutter for my own masks!

Thanks a lot mates - I hope to come to a satisfying end with this build. Something unsatiyfying to start with: I had to resort to the decals from two Revell Bf 109G-6 for the drop tanks and they turned out....well see for yourself: I started some small stuff as long as the gloss coat was taking its time to dry. All surfaces painted RLM02 recieved a dark pin wash with oils (raw umber and black). I tried to keep it understated. And finally the Quickboost exhausts (I noticed my bad cleanup as soon as I took the photos - well now it's too late) got some paint. I apllied Alclad steel over a black base followed by pale burnt metal and at last jet exhaust around the openings. More colour will be aded with brown and black oils, pigments and MRP exhaust soot. More bad news - no pictures so far, forgot my camera - from th weathering: I applied two salt fading coats (MRP light grey and a dark brown) and both somehow ate through all previos paint coats down to the black base Joachim

So where am I right now? What's left to do: gloss coat repairs decals gloss coat salt fading oil dot filter gloss coat panel wash gun and exhaust stains careful chipping dust and dirt 1000 small things Well it seems to me that I'm not going to make it until the dead line. The repairs took me a lot longer than expected (some idiot spilled levelling thinner on the model) and the Dragon decals took about half a day to really settle in (even with the hot Mr. Mark Softer). Since I need to apply two more gloss coats - one of them tomorrow after work, there's no way to finish this here in time.

Nice catch Shawn - PM underway!

Thanks rigor - the green lines were free handed with a 0.15mm needle and a lot of patience/swearing.

Max - neither could I! I had no idea if my plan would work out. Luckily it turned out as I hoped it would

One small step after another - getting there slowly I finished painting today but first things first: the finished props and spinners: Raising the curtain - ehm masks: I had some problems with paint lifting on the crosses, but I'll fix that after the gloss coat. What's left to do: gloss coat repairs decals salt fading oil dot filter panel wash gun and exhaust stains careful chipping dust and dirt 1000 small things Quite a lot of tasks for the next 5 days

Thanks Håkan - more to come later today

Great build, painting and photography! I'll be saving your 104 as a reference for my Marineflieger.

I can only join the praise: fantastic finish Max!

Getting one step closer to the finishline: I applied the blend coat of RLM79 It's kept very transparent so far because I plan to do the final blending after the RLM80 stripes are in place. Some weird bright spots appeared after drying - this never happened before. I couldn't motivate myself to tackle the RLM80 stripes since I'm not a 100% sure how to do them. My first idea was to paint them black and slowly build up the green like on a regular black base. This would require a lot of time and the black base has to be really precise. The traditional way would be to paint the green directly on the RLM79 which worked only so so on my 109. What do you guys think? As a distraction I tackled the props. I shamelessly copied Thunnus' technique from his 109K-4 build. Alclad Aluminium base coat, hairspray, RLM70 - light and dark spots via Radu's template and then chipping (stiff brush and a toothpick). The photo didn't turn out like I wanted but anyway here it is: The spinners recieved a coat with Mr. Color off white, followed by MRP RLM23 red for one third - photos will follow after unmasking. Cheers Joachim