Zoukei Moura Bf-109 G-14 a Non-Hartmann Build 1/32 Scale

[Greif8]

Looking sharp Gary!  I think you work using the speckling methods turned out great, it looks quite realistic.  I don't think you got the sequencing wrong with the engine oil staining and the "dirt" thrown up on the bottom; it would have happened more or less at the same time in real life.  The figures look fine - macro shots almost always make faces look a bit rough as you have to be aggressive with highlights and shadows to get them to show up at normal viewing distance.  Painting figures takes a lot of practice to get good at so keep plugging away and you will improve!

 

Ernest

[Gazzas]

19 minutes ago, Greif8 said:

Looking sharp Gary!  I think you work using the speckling methods turned out great, it looks quite realistic.  I don't think you got the sequencing wrong with the engine oil staining and the "dirt" thrown up on the bottom; it would have happened more or less at the same time in real life.  The figures look fine - macro shots almost always make faces look a bit rough as you have to be aggressive with highlights and shadows to get them to show up at normal viewing distance.  Painting figures takes a lot of practice to get good at so keep plugging away and you will improve!

 

Ernest

 

Thank you, Ernest.  I think I may do some more streaking.  It just looks a little too neat at the moment.  And faces...   I have a history of making guys that are rather pasty faced or somewhat jaundiced.  So I'm trying to be more aggressive with the color.

 

[mc65]

It gets better and better!
the figures are always an ordeal, for those who do not dedicate themselves exclusively to them (and try looking at a model made by a figure painter? ) but in any case they look good to me.

 

about the underside, I agree, it's an area often forgotten by modelers, for sure by technicians! 
I like the speckling, if I have my say, I prefer to use the pigments dissolved in water, shooting them after the oil streaking.

this gives me the possibility of not risking mixing everything together, of having a mixture as thick as I like for the dirt pulled up by the wheels, and above all of being able to erase and start again practically infinitely at will. when I'm satisfied (that is never, let's say when I get tired) I fix everything with clear matt.

 

one thing that in my opinion makes this dirt more or less credible is the direction of the mud splashes: due to the rotation of the wheels and the motion of the plane, they will be mostly inclined towards the tail, only some will orthogonally reach the surface near the vertical of the wheel.

one last thing: especially in tailwheels, a lot of the dirt ends up in the tailplanes, we tend not to think about it, usually. 

forgive the length, sometimes on Sunday I happen to recite the sermon! 
 

cheers, Paolo

 

 

 

 

[Gazzas]

9 hours ago, mc65 said:

It gets better and better!
the figures are always an ordeal, for those who do not dedicate themselves exclusively to them (and try looking at a model made by a figure painter? ) but in any case they look good to me.

 

about the underside, I agree, it's an area often forgotten by modelers, for sure by technicians! 
I like the speckling, if I have my say, I prefer to use the pigments dissolved in water, shooting them after the oil streaking.

this gives me the possibility of not risking mixing everything together, of having a mixture as thick as I like for the dirt pulled up by the wheels, and above all of being able to erase and start again practically infinitely at will. when I'm satisfied (that is never, let's say when I get tired) I fix everything with clear matt.

 

one thing that in my opinion makes this dirt more or less credible is the direction of the mud splashes: due to the rotation of the wheels and the motion of the plane, they will be mostly inclined towards the tail, only some will orthogonally reach the surface near the vertical of the wheel.

one last thing: especially in tailwheels, a lot of the dirt ends up in the tailplanes, we tend not to think about it, usually. 

forgive the length, sometimes on Sunday I happen to recite the sermon! 
 

cheers, Paolo

 

 

 

 

Thank you, Paolo.  Though still learning how to weather the underside, I do have a plan.  Tier one is the streaking.  Tier two is the speckling followed by more streaking.  Tier three will be a fine dusting with the airbrush to unite the speckles with even finer grime.  The final tier will be pigments so that I can try to imitate fine oil mist and concentrated splash from the wheels thrown up while they are spinning on the ground during takeoff and landing.

 

 Thanks for the tip on the tail plane.  I will be certain not to forget it.

[JayW]

Nice weathering, and convincing!  What is this 'speckling method" you speak of?

[Gazzas]

5 hours ago, JayW said:

Nice weathering, and convincing!  What is this 'speckling method" you speak of?

 

Let me introduce you to Uncle Nightshift.  He builds armor models and makes the absolute best how-to modelling videos out there.    You'll find speckling happening at 9:15.  

 

 

 

[Gazzas]

Welcome back to the fray. 

 

It's been slow going waiting for the oils to dry.  Brimming with impatience, I broke out the hair dryer after adding more streaking.  That allowed me to add some airbrush smoke residue on the center, and grime towards the wheels.  This is getting really dark, dirty, and adventurous for me.

 

 

Despite the fact that I used various shades of grime, they all kind of blended together more than I wanted.  I will finish up the grime area hopefully tomorrow with some grayish pigments.

 

Then, I decided it was time to get cracking with the One Man Army stencils.  They are so finely cut.  Finer than I could accomplish with my Silhouette Portrait.  Any they are kabuki paper masks, so the won;t stretch like my masks. 

 

The direction card in the packet says to use dark gray instead of black.  So I used SMS German gray which is very dark and meant for Panzers.  You will notice that it;s not easy to read...    well, impossible to read...  in the mottled areas.

 

I won't re-doing them.  It would go against my philosophy regarding distance and visibility.

 

And far easier to read where the paint colors are more solid.

 

The hand and foot holds show up nicely, though.

 

They really are amazing, and there's no danger of silvering or showing a thickness of carrier film.

Sorry for the blur.  But I really like this photo.  I devoted a lot of time and effort into weathering that yellow band to give it more structure and presence.  So, despite the fact I wanted to show the results from the One Man Army masks...  I'm more or less fixated on the weathering.

 

I will be using some decals.  I don't don't want to deal with multi-level masks.  Color me lazy.  And I still have to do the red masks, yet.  

 

And now I'm reminded that I need to place 1001 scuff marks on the wings adjacent to the fuselage.

 

Happy Trails!

[Palm-tree]

Great work Gazzas,

 

that last picture of the fuselage from the rear port quarter with the yellow band, looks like the full size machine.

 

 

[Jim Barry]

Looking super fine! I love how the Luftwafffe schemes start off so unappealing but just blossom with decals and weathering. Scuff away! 

[Uncarina]

You are bringing this to life Gary! Those stencils really do make a difference, and your weathering looks authentic.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[John1]

Fantastic work, I love the underside weathering.   This "feature" of real aircraft often gets neglected by modelers.   Question on the service markings.   You have a stencil on the yellow aft fuselage band.   The ID bands were applied once the aircraft was with a front-line squadron.   Do you think that the maintenance boys would have taken the time to re-apply the painted over service stencils?    Not slagging your very nice build, just genuinely curious.  

[Gazzas]

7 hours ago, Palm-tree said:

Great work Gazzas,

 

that last picture of the fuselage from the rear port quarter with the yellow band, looks like the full size machine.

 

 

Thank you! 

 

7 hours ago, Jim Barry said:

Looking super fine! I love how the Luftwafffe schemes start off so unappealing but just blossom with decals and weathering. Scuff away! 

Thank you!  The trouble is, that I can't find myself able to model everything at once.  More like layers of weathering, since I can't seem to figure out how.

 

4 hours ago, Uncarina said:

You are bringing this to life Gary! Those stencils really do make a difference, and your weathering looks authentic.

 

Cheers,  Tom

Thank you.  Yeah...   those stencils aren't cheap but are supposed to be reusable.  Possibly addictive.

 

4 hours ago, John1 said:

Fantastic work, I love the underside weathering.   This "feature" of real aircraft often gets neglected by modelers.   Question on the service markings.   You have a stencil on the yellow aft fuselage band.   The ID bands were applied once the aircraft was with a front-line squadron.   Do you think that the maintenance boys would have taken the time to re-apply the painted over service stencils?    Not slagging your very nice build, just genuinely curious.  

Thank you very much!  I've recently (in the last year) started collecting pictures of the undersides of aircraft.  They are unfortunately few and far between.   I have a few shots of the undersides of 109F's and E's, but none of the later marks.  

 

Regarding the fuselage band and stencils...   I remember seeing photos of stencils that I thought would have been painted over and been surprised that it was still there.   And I have seen photos where the stencil was totally painted over.  So, I guess it's one of those things that would depend on the person doing it, and his superiors.  I added it because it would be just another thing to add detail to a relatively smooth surface.

[Gazzas]

The final stencils I'll be using from 1 Man Army on this particular build, and my thoughts on Luftwaffe aircraft and stencils.

 

After going through my entire archive of late war 109  photos, the only conclusion I can make is that there is no way to be certain whether the provided stencils were used or not.  Perhaps they were painted over.  I went looking for the -ZU stencils used on cowling latches.  In the dozen or so photos from the correct angle and taken at a useful distance I can say only 1 in 12 show the -ZU stencils.  But that's my limited archive.

 

So, I present the 'red' stencils on my ZM 109.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of us work from 1 photo.  Then perhaps we assume what we see on another picture of the same type of machine is what happened all of the time.  There is really no way to be 100% right unless you can provide documentation.

 

Happy modelling!

[Scale32]

Nearing the end Gaz...... can't wait to see her all finished.

 

Cheers Bevan 

[Gazzas]

Thank you, Bevan!  I had more bench time today so I kept the ball rolling.    So, I'll do another update.

 

Since my last I:

 

A.  Continued to weather the underside.

B.  Added the exhaust streaks with pigments and then over-sprayed them with a thinned soup of yellow gray.

C.  Added the remaining decals.

D.  Put on the wheels.

 

I will soften the decal colors with some thin filters applied by airbrush.

 

The black panels on the wing root definitely take the 'dirty' aspect out of the exhaust staining.

 

I got fed up with the way the '9's faded into the RLM 76.  So, I put the masks back on (amazingly I had not thrown them away, yet) and added some RLM 81 and and RLM 82 to neaten it up.

 

I am not quite content with the splay of the landing gear legs.  It looks more like 109F to me.   But the fit of those parts is non-negotiable...   and I am a little to afraid to go chopping plastic.  It looks off balance.  It's just that I can't hold the camera level.

 

So...   What's left to do:

 

A.  Foot scuffs and metal chipping where applicable

B.  Adding appendages...   the 109 has many:  Aileron balances, Morane mast, DF loop, Canopy, Antenna wire...  am I forgetting anything?

C.  Matte coat.

D.  Pilot, Ground crewman, and base.

 

Happy modelling!