Bf109 E-4 Sortie Prep

[dodgem37]

Good show.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[nmayhew]

some top work!

[Greif8]

Thank you for the kind words guys.  I just finished spraying the RLM 65 and will post a couple of pictures later today.

 

Ernest

 

[Greif8]

I sprayed the base colors on the 109 today.  The following photos are really nothing special as they just show what the plane looks like with a basic paint job of RLM 02, 65, 71.  I went for a very subtle "black basing" effect as I will also be fading the surface.  I used Tamiya Acrylics mixed to represent the different RLM colors and thinned with their lacquer thinner 50/50.  The paints sprayed very well, as usual for Tamiya and I only had to do a couple of very minor touch ups afterwards.  The next step will be mottling; always a fun but tense job for me.  The next step after mottling is complete is to gloss coat the aircraft.  With luck I will have both those jobs finished by tomorrow night and can post a photo or two.

 

Ernest

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 25, 2020 by Greif8
Photo correction

[Troy Molitor]

Looking good Ernest.  The RLM 71 and 02 really look great together on the top side.  

[Greif8]

8 hours ago, Troy Molitor said:

Looking good Ernest.  The RLM 71 and 02 really look great together on the top side.  

 

Thank you Troy!

 

Ernest

[Gazzas]

Looks great, Ernest!

[Greif8]

On 6/26/2020 at 1:00 PM, Gazzas said:

Looks great, Ernest!

 

Thank you Gaz!

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

Its been a few days since I posted an update.  The ISP for our area was doing some work this past Thursday and something obviously went wrong as the internet was very flaky until late this afternoon.  I could not access LSP at all until yesterday evening and then only intermittently, but all seems to be ok now.  I will make a couple of posts showing the progress on the build which included an initial gloss coat, decaling the plane, final gloss coat, pin wash and matt coat.  Next up will be some fading of horizontal surfaces.

 

Several years ago a looked at some photos of a Bf109 that a friend had gotten from a relative, a couple of them were in color; I don't know if they were shot in color during the war or if they were colorized afterwards, but there were some interesting things that caught my eye.. First, the wing crosses were more inboard than you normally see.  I know this was not an unknown practice, but it was an uncommon one and I thought it would be a nice change of pace to decal my build like that.  Second the aircraft number, which was 5, was black outlined in red, and looked pretty neat.  I did not have a 5 in the right colors, but I did have a 3 - close enough!  Finally, there were three victory marks high up on the rudder; again not unknown, but certainly not real common either - and the color photos showed them in red.  I decided early on to decal my 109 to show those three features, and fortunately I have enough spare decals that I was able to bring that off.

 

The first set of photos show the mottling in raw form.  A lot of JG sprayed RLM 71, and often 02 as well, over the RLM 65 fuselage sides.  I opted to spray fairly large irregular mottling of just RLM 71 and then give that a very light overspray of RLM 65.  Again several JG used a light overspray to tone the mottling down and blend it.  My aim was to achieve that soft blended effect using both the overspray and several very light matt coats.  I like the final result, which you will see in the next post, and think it is a fairly accurate representation of the real thing.  You guys may have other views and I am glad to hear them, so fire away!

 

 

Initial port side mottling.  It looks rough and grainy at this point.

 

The starboard side in the same condition.

 

Port side after RLM 65 overspray, gloss coat and decaling.  Things are starting to blend at this point.

 

From above, note how the wing crosses are more inboard than normal.

 

Starboard side, one can see the things I tried to replicate from the photos I talked about at the beginning of the post.

 

Finally, a close up.  I really like the 3 and think it adds a bit of color.  The mottling looks better at this point as well.

Edited July 1, 2020 by Greif8
Correcting photo sequence

[Greif8]

The following shots show the build after matt coating.  I used Alclad II matt for this, spraying it in four very light coats.  I was after a slight sheen, instead of dead flat which I managed to get with the exception of the cowling which looks very flat.  The mottling blended very nicely and I am satisfied with the final look.  Tomorrow I will post some shots of the bottom; I forgot to take any while documenting; stupid I know!

 

Port side, decals and mottling are well blended and (fortunately) zero silvering; which I did not expect of the wet transfers at any rate.  Not all the decal are wet transfers as I did not have enough of the stenciling markings in just wet transfers - heck I did not have everything in normal decals either, but one makes do I suppose.

 

Above rear view nothing special to see.

 

Starboard side, you can see that the mottling now looks slightly faded.

 

Close up of that 3 again.  I left off the marking for the external electrical connection because I thought it spoiled the look of the 3; a bit of artistic license on my part i admit.  Compare how the mottling looks in this close up shot to the first one I posted.

 

 

Finally, the JG27 crest, I think it looks pretty nice.

 

Ernest

Edited June 30, 2020 by Greif8

[thierry laurent]

Very nice! The colors look spot on! 

[Greif8]

9 hours ago, thierry laurent said:

Very nice! The colors look spot on! 

 

Thank you Thierry, the build is far from perfect but it is turning out fairly nice.

 

Ernest

[Gazzas]

That's some very nice work, Ernst!

[Greif8]

2 hours ago, Gazzas said:

That's some very nice work, Ernst!

 

Thank you Gaz, as I told Thierry it is far from perfect but is turning out pretty decent thus far.

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

Below are some shots of the bottom of the aircraft that I said I would post today.  I have completed the majority of the weathering which includes some general grime, streaking effects running from the leading towards the trailing edge, various oil, coolant and hydraulic stains.  I still have to add some powder staining trailing back from the cannons and the bottom will be complete.  There are also two photos of the starboard wing showing the early phase of fading.  Unfortunately the fading on the RLM 02 does not show up very well in the photos being a fairly light color.  Normally, I don't weather Western Front aircraft very much because the operated out of fixed airbases that were paved and had good maintenance facilities.   Due to where aircraft of I/JG27 were based during the battle I want to show the aircraft in a moderately weathered condition as it probably flew a great deal of its sorties from grass strips with poor base facilities.  I/JG27 was based near Plumetot, which incidentally is located a few kilometers inland from Juno Beach not far from what was known as the Hillman Strongpoint which played a pivotal role on D-Day in preventing the capture of Caen.  My useless trivia aside, the airfield was basically a grass field and had no hangers or maintenance areas so the aircraft operating out of it were probably looking a bit dirty and worn by the late August timeframe. 

 

Ernest

 

Overall shot of most of the bottom of the 109.

 

A closer view, the weathering is more evident.

 

Macro shot showing some oil and other fluid staining.

 

Another macro, you can just make out some of the streaking on the wing chord.

 

Close up of one of the wheel wells with various fluid stains and general grime.

 

Starboard wing showing initial fading effects.  Actually they don't look bad at this point and I may just leave the fading as it is.