Bf 110E-3/trop 2.(H)/14 North Africa - almost done

[Fanes]

Colour is on!

Between moving my stuff, work and other distractions there was a small window of oppurtunity to spray some paint.

All masks were placed over the insignia and the edges were sealed with liquid mask.

 

Painitng started with the underside - RLM78 from MRP. I let the pictures speak for themselves and I'll save my words for later.

 

 

 

As you can see the lower cowl didn't recieve any RLM78. The reason is that I discovered something during painting. I was looking on some photos to determine the demarcaton between RLM78 and 79 and suddenly realized that there was another colour on the lower cowl. I guess it's the typical yellow.
What do you guys think?

And since I'm already at it: the spinner seems to be in two different colours. One is white and the other one could be red or anything else...

I'm looking for pictures of other planes from 2.(H)/14 - maybe there's some information hidden.

 

That's it so far

Joachim

[Fanes]

Small update - text only

I looked into my references - especially: Embleme der Luftwaffe (a beautiful book) - to search for other aircraft from 2.(H)/14.

The lower cowling painted in yellow seems to be present on multiple different aircraft (Bf 109E, Bf 109F, Bf 109G and Bf 110C).

The spinner has proven to be more difficult. There are multiple airplanes with the one third white two thirds dark spinner.
In most pictures (especially for the 109s) the darker colour looks like the prop colour (RLM70). But there are some pictures with a lighter colour.

Since I can't determine if that's an artifact due to lighting, I'm leaning towards the classic white/black-green spinner.

Edited November 29, 2019 by Fanes

[Fanes]

Preparing the lower cowls with a thin layer of white:

 

Followed by Tamiya yellow with a hint of white. I must say that I didn't find a way to properly use black basing for yellow. On my next build I'll try MRP yellow and some tan or red squiggles beneath.

 

Masks reversed an after a long session with MRP RLM 78 we're here:

 

Midway during painting I noticed a change in spray pattern and I must have somehow done something wrong - the tip of my Evolution's needle was bent!
A new one is already on order since I can't freehand the RLM79/80 camo with the damaged airbrush.

The underwing insignia turned out okayish. There's a small mishap at the small black angle and I'm not a 100% satisfied with the white. It's a little too grey.

 

One last shot from its belly

 

Painting continues probably sometime next week. Until then: feel free to coment!

[chrish]

That’s some really nice work!

[monthebiff]

Super work, xantbwait to see this one complete as will be a very special 110.

 

Regards. Andy 

[Out2gtcha]

Lovely!!

[mozart]

Not a great fan of pre-shading, sorry Joachim. 

[Fanes]

1 hour ago, mozart said:

Not a great fan of pre-shading, sorry Joachim. 

I know and I admire your clean paintjobs Max!
Haven't done the pre-shading thingy in a while and decided to give it one more try after my 109F turned out a little bit too boring for my taste.

I guess the pictures are exaggerating the effect - I'll take one more look at it tomorrow under daylight.

[mozart]

14 hours ago, Fanes said:

Haven't done the pre-shading thingy in a while and decided to give it one more try after my 109F turned out a little bit too boring for my taste.

Post shading Joachim? 

[Neo]

On 11/30/2019 at 4:31 PM, mozart said:

Not a great fan of pre-shading, sorry Joachim. 

Technically this is black basing. Per shading is putting black only on panel lines.

 

Great result. Maybe slightly over done on the white but the rest looks deal nice.

 

Funny thing when i did my bf 110 i also bent my badger krome needle! 

 

[Fanes]

23 hours ago, Neo said:

Technically this is black basing. Per shading is putting black only on panel lines.

 

Great result. Maybe slightly over done on the white but the rest looks deal nice.

 

Funny thing when i did my bf 110 i also bent my badger krome needle! 

 

Yes and no. I tried to mimic pre shading via black basing - Max is quite right with his point.

The more I look at the lower fuselage the more I feel the need to add some more paint.

Same applies for the white; it's definitely too transparent!

[mozart]

On 12/5/2019 at 8:07 AM, Fanes said:

Yes and no. I tried to mimic pre shading via black basing - Max is quite right with his point.

The more I look at the lower fuselage the more I feel the need to add some more paint.

Same applies for the white; it's definitely too transparent!

You hit the nail on the head there Joachim, it’s too transparent. With some careful painting you’ll be able to bring your beautiful 110 to the subtle wear and weathering that she deserves!

[Fanes]

Adding the next colour

But before going to the upperside I revisited my RLM78. Just a few passes with heavily thinned MRP and here we are:

 

It's still visible and there's still a little "pre-shading" style peeking through but this will be toned down later with multiple clear coats, filters etc.

I almost forgot to paint the underwing codes. No big problem since I had already cut the masks.

 

The inssignia recieved some more off white and I'm happy so far. They're looking a little bit grimey/dirty and not flashing like pure white.

On the starboard wing some weird paint lifting occured. I never had problems with Tamiya tape (slightly detacked on a glass plate) before. Especially not with Tamiya/MRP paint.

 

The RLM78 is already reapplied, the black will be sprayed once all crosses are unmasked.

 

Heading forward to the RLM79. As usual I started with a mrable coat and unfortunately I didn't manage to finish this one today. So here we are right now:

 

The starboard wing recieved something new:

 

A more irregular pattern over the "usual" marble coat - applied with one of Radu's masks:

 

The idea is to get more variation and in the next step to add other colours to the base coat - I'm thinking of some browns and beige/tan for the horizontal surfaces.
Stay tuned!

[Azgaron]

Very nice paint job so far!

 

Håkan

 

[Fanes]

I finally finished the RLM79 marble on the upper surfaces.

 

I added lighter spots on the horinzontal surfaces with Tamiya buff and darker spots with red brown on the vertical parts. At least that was the idea.

The effect is really subtle to invisible in the pictures

 

I hope that I can put on the blend coat on saturday followd by the RLM80 camo on sunday.

Wish me luck to finish this one here in time!