Erich Hartmann, Ace of Aces, Bf109G-14, Double Chevron

[dodgem37]

Thank you Phil. As Dorry said in Finding Nemo: 'Just keep swimming.' Well, I just keep plugging away, a little each week. I'm sure there is an end in sight somewhere. I had hoped I'd be finished by the New Year, but it looks more like February, which I can hardly believe.

 

Thank you, Loic. I be tryin'. I'm not as confident of my painting and especially weathering skills as I am of my scratchbuilding skills. I'm still trying to figure painting and weathering out. I have an idea of what I want the aircraft to be, but not necessarily the skills or knowledge to execute the idea. And now that I am in the weathering phase, the uncertainty factor starts to escalate fast for the most part. I'm just doing my best and at the same time hoping to make it not look bad.

 

I threw some Burnt Umber on the bottom this week. I decided to weather the aircraft as maybe it looked during the early Spring thaw, whenever that was, when the ground was beginning to soften after being rock hard throughout the winter. I figured this called for mud and with the dirt around here as my only reference, I decided on brown. Or more specifically, Burnt Umber. Round 1.

 

I put a wash on before I did what I did here, but it was too thin, because it didn't stain the RLM76. That high cool-warm contrast really enhances the difference between the colors. But I think it doesn't look as harsh in reality. I'll future it again and use a denser wash. That will move the RLM76 more toward the umber.

 

The procedure I used throughout for the rivets is as follows: I located a dot of paint pigment onto each rivet and using a dry cotton bud swiped the bud back and forth across the rivets. This stained the future between the rivets.

 

I repeated the dot painting procedure then swiped the bud toward the back along the air flow.

 

Where there would be run-off, say at intersections and such, I tried to make the run-off a bit more pronounced. Maybe yes, maybe no.

 

I overdid the hinges on this side a bit. Maybe I can convince myself of balance thru assymetry.

 

Tailbone connected to the . . . Extra mud thrown up at the tail wheel location.

 

Thanks for looking in.

Sincerely,

Mark

[LSP_Kevin]

Wow, that looks terrific Mark! Doesn't look like you have any trouble with weathering to me (though I do know what you mean).

 

Kev

[Loic]

Splendid !

Loic

[Pete Fleischmann]

Beautiful job Mark. I'm so blown away by your scratchbuilding skills-Really superb craftsmanship. I keep going back to look at the canopy work-so nice..

 

This is my new favorite thread!

 

Regards,

 

Pete

[LSP_Ray]

Nice weathering!!!

[PhilB]

Incredibly painstaking to do each of those rivets Mark but the result is terrific!

I know exactly how you feel when you sit back and look at what you have done. Is it too much, not enough?

It really is down to personal opinion.

We don't know how clean this aircraft was in reality. Had it recently had a repaint or was it showing signs of a previous hard winter?

Its down to personal interpretation and YOUR view of the state of this particular aircraft.

Personally I am all for a good bit of weathering remembering this was wartime and the crews didn't have time to keep them pristine.

Alternatively it is a valid interpretation to have them nearly "out of the factory" so both views are correct.

 

All I can say is that I think you have done a terrific job interpreting the wear and tear on this build.

 

Phil

Edited December 24, 2010 by PhilB

[Jamme]

Really nice work!

Greets,

Jamme

Edited December 24, 2010 by Jamme

[dodgem37]

OMG!! I can't tell you how much I appreciate your comments. I posted these pictures with such trepidation. Thank you all for allaying my apprehension.

 

As the saying goes, and my wife oftens says to me (at least I hope she is saying it to me and not about me): 'It's better to be lucky than smart.'

 

Overall view. I felt I sorely needed to tone down the brown, so I did. And then some. I decided to stop here. What I hoped to create starting from the wing tip and moving toward the center is a light to dark condition.

 

I mixed White with Paynes Grey, Ivory Black, and Lamp Black to see what sort of Grey I could come up with. Paynes Grey is actually Blue Black in value and when mixed with the White it became Slate in value. I needed to retain the umber but needed its value to move more toward the blue so I overpainted the rivets with the Slate admixture and blended the color using the same method as before. I applied this method from the wing tip edge to the inner edge of the Balkencruz. This toned down the umber. I left the two circular hatches umber for contrast. The panel between the Balkencruz and wheel well I applied the Slate to every other (horizontal and vertical) rivet because I wanted this area to be a transition to the all umber area.

 

The outside edge of the wheel well to the wing inner edge was left Burnt Umber. The lower fuselage has an additional 4 layers of paint added to it. Using the Ivory Black and White admixture, I applied it to the rivets and rear fuselage panel lines and ran a dry cotton bud over the rivets as before and to try to represent slipstreamed oil. Turning to straight Ivory black, I then made the next layer, which is the deeper staining. In addition to using it up around the ETC rack I ran it along the fuselage reveal and cross reveals. Once blended with a bud, I then soaked a brush in turpinoid, dried it off, dipped the tip in the Ivory Black, cleaned it off on some index card, gently stroked -- ooh my - the fuselage from the cowling to the rudder, and used a bud to soften the streaks. I finished the oil streaking with some straight Ivory Black. Not much, I know, but I wanted to stop here.

 

Other side.

 

A better image of the center section. I haven't done much of anything to the lower cowling because I haven't been able to find any images as to how oily the cowl became. If anyone can help me I'd be beholdin' to you.

 

Tail section.

 

Thank you everyone for your comments, compliments, and support.

Sincerely,

Mark

[dodgem37]

Merry Christmas one and all.

I've done a little work on the landing gear. Now that they are done I'll try my hand at the wheel wells.

 

Sunny side. Boy is that big. The intent was to exhibit the centrifugal nature of the mud spreading outward on the tire wall, going from thick to thin. I applied paint to the outer rim wall, spread it outward with a brush and using a damp bud, attempted to soften the outer edge. I filled in the grooves with pigment and cleaned the face with a damp bud. I see I need to do some work on the inner cover to illustrate outward mud streaking at the tire location.

 

Shady side of the same wheel. I tried to use the same technique on this tire side as well. I see I need to fill in that little reveal.

 

Other one. For the rim, I washed the two bolt circles and located pigment along the circumference bolts and added a little wash so the pigment would settle into the crevices then removed the wash between the center circled bolt and the rim circumference.

 

Other side.

 

Tailwheel stuff.

 

Other side. Hmm. I may need to add some more mud to the fuselage.

 

Thanks for looking in.

Sincerely,

Mark

[PhilB]

That's it!!!!!

 

Phil

[dodgem37]

Thank you, Phil. I think I'm getting a hang of this process. Maybe not THE hang of it, but certainly A hang of it, to the point of comfortability, and how to represent what I have in mind.

 

Onward thru the fog:

 

I reworked the gear cover a bit and tried to feather the value from dark bottom to light top on the strut. Maybe yes, maybe no.

 

The other attempt.

 

Left wheel well, overall. Not such a good picture. Oh well. I needed to remove the strut stand-off. The reason for the hole.

 

Left wheel well front. I wanted to represent the mud that spun off of a rotating tire in the wheel well once the gear had locked in place.

 

Left well rear. Same thing.

 

Right well, overall.

 

Right well front.

 

Right well rear.

 

Thanks for looking in.

Sincerely,

Mark

[mattlow]

Superbly done Mark.

 

The mottling is excellent, as is your mask work.

 

Paint job certainly does the constructional side justice.

 

Matt

[dodgem37]

Thank you, Matt.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[Loic]

looks very convincing and nicely executed!

I love it.

Cheers,

Loic

[Jamme]

Hello Mark.

Very great convincing work.

I it.

Do I have the permission to say something?

It's not a critisism, but I find that the couleur of the tires is a little too light.

A darker shade will be (it's only my amateur opinion)better I think.

Sorry, don't take it on a bad way.

As I said earlier, your work is fantastic. A real masterpiece.

Greets,

Jamme

Edited December 28, 2010 by Jamme