Bf 109F-4/Trop 8./JG27 - finished

[dodgem37]

The gun trough connection is the weak point of that kit.  I reworked it 9 ways to Sunday before I solved the problem, which is somewhere in the Bf109F-4/Z Trop build in my signature.

 

Good luck.

Sincerely,

Mark

[Fanes]

Thank you Mark - I have your build stored as a reference!

[Out2gtcha]

Ohhhh nice!   Cant wait to see some paint.........................I DO so like those Afrika birds! 

[Fanes]

1 hour ago, Out2gtcha said:

Ohhhh nice!   Cant wait to see some paint.........................I DO so like those Afrika birds! 

Me too! I'm really looking forward to the desert camo and finally getting back to my desert Bf 110!

I'm thinking about painting on the markings since the green squiggles around them. I'm torn between buying masks and investing in a Silhouette cutter.

[Out2gtcha]

1 hour ago, Fanes said:

I'm torn between buying masks and investing in a Silhouette cutter.

 

 

Not even a contest. Get the Silhouette! 

 

I just got done cutting some markings for my Afrika Corps Do-335 with my Silhouette cutter, and they came out wonderfully. I traded a Tamiya P-51 for mine that I paid $86.00 for at a show.

Ive probably used it on 10 or more builds so far, not including cutting masks for others, and if you calculate how much I would have paid for masks for all those, the Silhouette cutter has paid for itself a few times by now. 

 

 

[Fanes]

22 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

 

 

Not even a contest. Get the Silhouette! 

 

I just got done cutting some markings for my Afrika Corps Do-335 with my Silhouette cutter, and they came out wonderfully. I traded a Tamiya P-51 for mine that I paid $86.00 for at a show.

Ive probably used it on 10 or more builds so far, not including cutting masks for others, and if you calculate how much I would have paid for masks for all those, the Silhouette cutter has paid for itself a few times by now. 

 

 

Your build inspired me to look into those Silhouette plotters. Unfortunately they seem to be quite expensive in Europe (around 170€/190$)

[Out2gtcha]

6 minutes ago, Fanes said:

Your build inspired me to look into those Silhouette plotters. Unfortunately they seem to be quite expensive in Europe (around 170€/190$)

 

 

Bummer.  I guess you could always hunt around for one on E-Bay, and if I were you, I might also put up a request on the LSP traders forums................that's where I found mine! 

 

Good luck! 

[Fanes]

Finally: paint!!

I managed to get some time at the work bench and may get even more done this weekend!

First of all a blck base coat (Tamiya X-18 thinned with levelling thinner) over everything:

 

BUT not everything went perfect. I added some Alclad filler to the cowl parts to achieve an even smoother finish. Maybe I started too early with the black base (after some hours) - in the end there was a reaction and the filler became somewhat grainy. You can see it on the rear part of the cowling. The front already recieved a thorough sanding and polishing exercise.

 

I almost forgot the stiffener plates on the rear fuselage. The were really nasty to fit. There was some adhesie residue from the tape they were on and the edges were somewhat burred.

 

More nasty pictures from the underside. I feel somewhat ashamed but I didn't put much love and work into getting aclean underside. Please look elsewhere...

 

The landing gear an the doors recieved a quite translucent RLM02 coat because on my last (small scale) build they came out way to uniform. We'll see how good it'll be in the end.

 

Then I started on the identification markings and laid down a marble coat of Tamiya white on the fuselage band, lower wingtips and a third of the spinner.

The lower cowl recieved a white marble coat followed by a yellow which will reduce the amount of blend coats needed (I hate yellow).

Please excuse the blurry picture - something went wrong with the auto focus:

 

The last pictures of today from the finished blend coats. The fuselage band may be a tad too opaque, at least the effect of the black basing isn't overly visible in the picture. I'll see what the RLM79 and 80 will do.

 

And here's the wingtip and lower cowl - what do you guys think?

 

I'll give the paint a full night to cure before I start masking. next colour will be the underside light blue. As far as I know theusual colour would be RLM78. Eagle Cals suggests RLM76. I guess there's no evidence for the exact colour?
As far as I know the "Red 2" got it's desert camo in the field - see the irregular green mottling. So they maybe didm't bother overpainting the underside?

 

So long

Joachim

[LSP_Ray]

Nice start on the painting! Don't you hate it when primer doesn't work right? I had Tamiya primer start flaking off a PCM kit. I guess the plastic was too smooth, glossy smooth, and it didn't bite ( I washed it, I swear!). 

[Fanes]

12 hours ago, LSP_Ray said:

Nice start on the painting! Don't you hate it when primer doesn't work right? I had Tamiya primer start flaking off a PCM kit. I guess the plastic was too smooth, glossy smooth, and it didn't bite ( I washed it, I swear!). 

That's probably the worst primer experience I can imagine!

 

More paint - underside camo

I decided to go for RLM76 since it's a nice variation from the typical RLM78. But there was one downside: When opening the Gunze paint jar I thought i got RLM65. It was way too dark and too vibrant for my taste. So I added about 15% light grey and was quite pleased.

 

I kept the marbling on the heavy side.

 

Short time later I went over with the blend coat, well maybe more with tinted thinner (thinner:paint - 5:1).
I like the result very much.

 

There's a lot of contrast visible, I hope you guys like it as much as I do.

[Fvdm]

I certainly like it as much as you do, at least I think I do.

[Fanes]

After a little hand injury and lots of work I found some time for the next colour.

The RLM79 (from Gunze) marble is on!

 

I kept it quite heavy on the sides because I think the RLM80 mottel will add a lot of tonal contrast.

The vertical panel lines recieved less paint so they might show up later like after a preshading but a lot more restrained.

 

I'll add the blendcoat tomorrow after work and that's where this project will be stopped until I decide how to do the markings. Until I find a cheap Silhouette - my only options seems to be buying masks (from e.g. Maketar).

[Out2gtcha]

Looks wonderful so far. Good luck on finding your Silhouette, I think once you do find one and start using it, I think you will wonder how you ever got along without it.

[Fanes]

On 4/3/2019 at 6:52 PM, Out2gtcha said:

Good luck on finding your Silhouette, I think once you do find one and start using it, I think you will wonder how you ever got along without it.

I may get lucky soon. There's one for sale close to my work place.

 

Until then: more paint!

 

As I said in the last post I'm aiming for a quite blotchy RLM79 coat with a little more of the marble coat peaking though than usual.

Here's my try on that:

 

Especially the fuselage sides have lots of contrast.

 

I think this would be totally unacceptable on a Marseille 109. The "red 2" has lots of linear mottling which will tone down the contrast - not even considering the markings (made my experience with the latter on my small scale build).

The wings are a bit more uniformly since I'm not sure on the application of RLM80 on them.

 

Speaking o the devil: Eagle Cals suggest a tribute to early JG27 Bf109Es.

 

There are a few pictures of the original (linked in my first post)

(source asisbiz.com - not sure about the copyright, so for discussion purposes only).

The wings seem to be mottled, too. So whom do I believe now?

[Out2gtcha]

Excellent!