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Helmut Wick Bf109 E-4


Greif8

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I got some PMs while building the WNW Fokker DVII asking about figure painting.  As I said in that thread the pilot figure turned out a bit below average as I was not able to turn the somewhat sub-standard casting into a nice finished product.  A few folks seemed surprised that I was disappointed my work and asked what I considered a good figure to be.  The photos of a build I did of Helmut Wick's fighter a few years ago, shown circa mid to late October 1940 after he took command of JG2, features two figures I thought turned out well.  The castings were excellent and I can sometimes get the moon and stars to align when the base product is a good as those two figures were.  

 

The other reason for posting this build is that I have recently read some older threads about the in accuracies of some scale kits, the Eduard Bf109 E-4 being one of them, and realized just how clueless I am when it comes to assessing how accurate the dimensions or form(s) of a kit aircraft is compared to the real thing.  Honestly the only thing that jumped out at me on this kit when I built it was the undercarriage is not raked far enough forward and stands a bit too tall - at least to my eye.  All the other dimensional errors went completely unnoticed by me.  I realized what a disconnect that is as I generally build aircraft that are tied to a specific pilot or event and usually strive to portray the aircraft marked and weathered as accurately as possible.  For example I actually put in a lot of practice perfecting the technique of applying the mottling with the blunt end of an old cut down Number 4 "pointer" brush, as that was the way it was applied in real life.  After a lot of work on a paint mule I managed to get the effect pretty close on the build (in my opinion at least), but I did not fix the slight hump at the top rear of the fuselage as I just did not see it until it was brought to my attention.  Makes me wonder if I need to up my game. <grin>

 

 

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Edited by Greif8
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7 hours ago, WIIM said:

Great work!! Have to ask where the figures came if you would share?

 

thank you, Robert

 

Hello Robert, thank you for the kind words.  The Wick figure (the one gesturing) is an MDC offering.  The pilot taking in his tale of air combat is an Ultracast figure.  The resin casting of both figures is excellent.

 

By the way welcome to the forum!

 

Ernest

Edited by Greif8
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3 hours ago, Uncarina said:

This some amazing work! Truly well-done. Those figures are some of the best I’ve seen, and really bring this to life. Did you use oils?

 

Cheers,  Tom

 

Thank you Tom!  As I said above, occasionally the moon and stars align for me and I can bring off a pretty decent effort; I just wish they would align more often. :lol:

 

The base painting of both figures was done with acrylics.  I airbrushed the flesh tones and the uniform bases, as well as the life jackets.  It is a fair amount of effort as there is a lot of masking and touching up associated with the process; but for the faces especially it is important to have a smooth base coat.  The next step is to add a translucent layer of flesh colored artist oils that I mix using a few different tones.  The highlights and shadows of the faces and hands are than laid in using darkened or lightened tones of the base color.  I generally add deep shadows, shadows, highlights and light highlights to 1/32 and 1/35th scale figures.  

 

I used two different techniques on the uniforms to bring out highlights and shadows.  On Wick I used washes made from the base coat for the shadows and thinned progressively lightened layers of the base color for the highlights.  To be honest I thought the effect is a bit stark, though at normal viewing range the figure looks just fine.  The other pilot's uniform had shadows and highlights laid in with oils and I was able to achieve much more subtle transitions, especially the yellow life jacket; yellow is a very challenging color to shadow and highlight , as is red.  

 

That is more information than you probably wanted, but I thought it might be useful to you and others who read this to hear a bit about the process.

 

Thank You,

Ernest

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1 hour ago, LSP_Ray said:

Figures are great, and you captured the unique camo of Wick's a/c very well!

:clap2::clap2::clap2:

 

Thank you Ray.  I held my breath a lot while doing the mottling as the technique I used is the one and only time I have done that.  If you are interested and think it worthwhile I can write up a short SBS of how I did the mottling.

 

Ernest 

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On 1/21/2020 at 7:44 PM, nmayhew said:

Yes please

 

On 1/21/2020 at 8:07 PM, Out2gtcha said:

 

+1! I'd be interested too

 

Ok guys, following is how I did the mottling:

 

1)  Take an old number 4 or 5 "pointer" type paint brush and cut the bristles back to about 3/16" (2.5 cm) from the metal.  

 

2)  Dip the end in the paint until the end of the bristles are just touching the paint.  You only want a small amount on the end of the brush.

 

3)  Remove paint from the end of the brush by lightly stripling it on a piece of paper towel, cloth, etc. until there is only a very small amount of paint left on the brush, just a bit more than say would be on a brush for dry brushing.

 

4)  Lightly dab the paint onto the surface you are working on using a jabbing motion.  

 

5)  Depending on how dense you want the mottling you may want to do the same area again with a tiny amount of paint this time (almost dry) until you are satisfied with the result.

 

6)  After the paint has dried over night lightly sand the area you mottled with very fine grit sand paper or buffing stick.  I dry sanded using 600 grit, followed by 800 grit, followed by buffing with a nail file buffing stick (probably 1500 grit) on the model above.

 

7) the above did a good job smoothing the finish for the gloss coat and decaling. 

 

I practiced a lot on a paint mule before I actually did this on the model.  As I stated in the thread the mottling was applied with the blunt end of a brush on the actual aircraft, and I am pretty sure that only aircraft of JG2 had this particular mottling during the Battle of Britain; and not all the aircraft in the Geschwader had this camo pattern. To be honest, this particular type of dense mottling is the only application I can think of for this particular technique, and the only other possible use for it would be the very similar mottling that several JG54 fighters displayed on the Eastern Front during parts of 43 and 44.  

 

Hope I was able to explain the process clearly!  If anyone has questions please ask.

 

Ernest

Edited by Greif8
Correct sandpaper grits found in notes
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4 hours ago, Uncarina said:

Ernest, thank you! For both the figure painting and camo, these are great tips. I keep coming back to check out the pics—they are that good.

 

Cheers,  Tom

 

Thank you Tom.  The camo turned out about much better than I thought it would and does look a lot like the real thing.  The figures are about as good as it gets for me.  Great castings are a must (for me) to produce a nice figure as I have the ability to make a "silk purse" look even better.  But I don't have the ability to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.  Just look at the pilot figure in my Fokker D VII build and the contrast with the two figures in this build is enormous.  That casting was sub-standard with a lot of seams and several air holes, one of which was on the face and the end result reflects the starting material - as well as my true level of skill.  In that case I was only able to paint a presentable figures, as long as it is viewed at normal viewing distances.  

 

If you are interested I can go into a bit more detail on how I paint figures.  

 

Thank you again,

Ernest

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