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Tamiya Bf 109 E-7...with a difference


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In between more serious 109 builds I like to throw in an OOB build or experiment on a new technique. This one will be both. It will not be Luftwaffe, but I'll wager than no one will guess the nationality. But more to the point, I've decided to try riveting. This is something I've dabbled with for years, but never seriously enough to completely rivet a model. Czech modelers have great success with this and it seems to add much to the realistic effect of a model. The final push came from seeing an Airfix Blenheim at the Dayton Regional a few months ago. It was subtly riveted and looked great. So let's have a go...

Of all the tools I've tried (and I have tried a lot of them), the photo-etched product from Radu Brinzan seems to be the best in 1/72. These wheels are available in individual sets or lately, in the Rosie the Riveter line. I've used the .55mm and .65mm wheels on this project. Libor Jekl suggests building the entire airframe, priming, then riveting into the primer. That seemed too challenging for my first attempt, so I riveted all of the major parts before assembly.

Some modelers suggest using Dymo tape as a guide while riveting. To me, this is unnecessary. I got reasonably good just eyeballing the lines and being careful. For an extreme example of this, look for Spencer Pollard's Airfix 1/48 P-40. This was painted in natural metal, finished, then completely riveted! Takes...umm...intestinal fortitude to do that. Also, that was not his first rodeo. Practice showed that it was fairly easy to get a straight line with a larger riveting wheel, but these came only in .75mm size, too large for 1/72. So I reverted to the smaller wheels. For longer lines I initially used Tamiya tape as a guide, but eventually discovered that just a following pencil line worked even better. I'm sure this first attempt has flaws and the rivets are too deep. But I didn't want them to be obscured in the primer/paint process, so we'll see how they turn out. Here's where things stand at the moment.


The circular guide for the wheel well representation on the upper wing was done with the aid of an Atol tool. A real labor saver. Here's a link:
https://www.modelimex.com/1-72-bf-109-rivet...template-pe-set


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I know this is not everyone's cup of tea and I'm not even sure it's mine. But I would never know until I gave it a try. That's why I'm using a less than serious project for this experiment. More soon...

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Bordurian??? I love it.

 

 

To the guesses, nope, nope and definitely no. I've done Romanian and Japanese. They were probably on these pages before Photobucket ate my portfolio. Flickr is great.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The major airframe is now complete and basic masking and painting has begun. I added more rivets to the wings, which now look suitably busy. This photo has been clumsily adjusted to enhance the rivet patterns.  Camo soon...


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Still no one has guessed the identity.

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Not sure whether E-7s were supplied to these, but the Italian and Hungarian AFs both had later 109s with the white aft fuselage band. I can imagine the Italians would have probably needed the tropical filters operating out of say Sicily during the Malta campaigns. Possible one of these?

Cheers

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Hello,

Very nice job on the riveting, keep carry on !

Why not an English one ??

Can't wait to see it painted.

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp

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Looks good Barry. I have done some experimenting with riveting and found they look best when applied to the model after painting! Scary I know. Go over the surface with a cloth that has been used to apply silver powder. Gives a nice slightly worn surface.

Cheers,

George

Edited by rgb40
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Not Hungarian or Italian. I do have a British 109 E on the table, but not this one. And thanks, George, for the tip. I will try riveting after paint at some point, but it does seem very scary!  

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can somebody explain me how is it possible to use a rivet wheel on curved surfaces like on the tail, expecially on smaller scales without having it skid all over the place ruining the riveting? i've tried it several times and simply gave up in the end. 

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Ever up for a challenge me! What about Croatian or perhaps Slovak? At least I've rediscovered the delights of all those reference works on Willy's best-known product.

Cheers

Paul

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Cambridge, I've used the smallest Rosie the Riveter wheel which helped on curved surfaces. It is the same as the Radu Brinzan photo-etched wheel. I didn't use Demo tape, in fact I've found just drawing the lines on the model and carefully following them freehand works best.

 

Also, not Spanish, Croatian or Slovak, although I'll eventually get around to all of those.

 

Camo painting has commenced. I've carried something over from the 108 build that was just finished. I'm mixing 1/3 Gunze GX-100 gloss lacquer in with the Gunze acrylic paint. It flows well and dries harder and quicker. Also, there is no deterioration in the ability to paint fine mottles.


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6 hours ago, 109 fan said:

Cambridge, I've used the smallest Rosie the Riveter wheel which helped on curved surfaces. It is the same as the Radu Brinzan photo-etched wheel. I didn't use Demo tape, in fact I've found just drawing the lines on the model and carefully following them freehand works best.

 

Also, not Spanish, Croatian or Slovak, although I'll eventually get around to all of those.

 

Camo painting has commenced. I've carried something over from the 108 build that was just finished. I'm mixing 1/3 Gunze GX-100 gloss lacquer in with the Gunze acrylic paint. It flows well and dries harder and quicker. Also, there is no deterioration in the ability to paint fine mottles.


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Fantastic looking camo Barry.  I am interested in your mixing of the gloss lacquer with the acrylic paint, do you have to thin it at all when you airbrush? if so, with what?

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Very much so. Gunze GX-100 is very thick while their acrylics are much thinner. Interestingly, both are thinned with the same thinner, which comes in two varieties; Mr Color Thinner and Mr Color Leveling Thinner. I use the latter, which apparently has a bit of retarder in it. Since the key to smooth paint is thin paint, I routinely thin 2/1 (thinner/paint) or more. It was sprayed with an Iwata Custom Micron airbrush at ~18 psi. Again, as I've often said, Gunze Sangyo is Japanese for God's Paint...or so I've been told. Hope this helps. 

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2 hours ago, 109 fan said:

Very much so. Gunze GX-100 is very thick while their acrylics are much thinner. Interestingly, both are thinned with the same thinner, which comes in two varieties; Mr Color Thinner and Mr Color Leveling Thinner. I use the latter, which apparently has a bit of retarder in it. Since the key to smooth paint is thin paint, I routinely thin 2/1 (thinner/paint) or more. It was sprayed with an Iwata Custom Micron airbrush at ~18 psi. Again, as I've often said, Gunze Sangyo is Japanese for God's Paint...or so I've been told. Hope this helps. 

Thank you Barry, that is absolutely very helpful. This is definitely one for my "tips file"!  I'd have never thought to mix the two paint types, much less the products you use to thin them with.

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Glad to be of help.

 

Painting continues with masks cut from a manilla folder. These are suspended from the surface with small rolls of Tamiya tape, giving a slightly fuzzy demarcation between the colors. 

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With the basic camo complete I turned to the overpainted German markings and tried something different. I cut the decals from the Tamiya kit and suspended them the same way, with tape rolls. I then sprayed Gunze GX-100 clear gloss over the area. Since glossing the model would be the next step anyway, this would actually save a bit of time. The area under the decals would remain somewhat flat, giving me a guide for overpainting. It worked but there was less contrast than I hoped. Under a strong light it was adequate.

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Here's where things stand at the moment, with all of the major painting done and most masking removed.


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