AntoineG

My favorite on german aircraft

True enough. From my humble point of view, the only other aircraft that can beat the 109 in term of paint sheme possibilities is the P51.

Hello, With the windshield fitted and masked, the model was ready for the full painting phase (the upper wings were already finished - see one of my previous post). First, RLM65 (Gunze H67) was applied all over and some post shading with that color lightened with some white was applied. Once dried, the sides of the fuselage were masked and the RLM02 (Gunze H70) was applied and post shaded with a mixture of H70 and H336. The next day, additional masks were applied for the RLM71 (Gunze H64). Again, some post-shading with some lightened RLM71 with a few drops of H336. Once done, the masks one the fuselage were delicately removed and a session of molting started, first with the RLM71 and then with RLM02. Can't resist putting the picture again When everything has dried (and a bit longer, just to be sure), the flaps and the horizontal stabilisers were attached. For the stabilisers, the E version of the 109 has struts to support them. We hit here one of the (maybe only drawback) of this kit. Indeed, Airfix definitely should like to send spare parts to their modeling customer as the way the small parts are attached to the sprue would most generally lead to the parts to be broken. Even by using a red hot knife blade (a technic taught by one of my fellow club member who took pity of me when he saw me trying to remove some very tiny parts from a sprue of Airfix's (again) lovely F4F - thanks mate!!!) So, for the struts, the final score was even: 1 saved, 1 broken. For the dorsal antenna, Airfix won With some patience, everything was in place and in the end, no glue was applied on the stabilisers. They are only maintained in placed by a tight fit and the struts (that were glued). Everything was then ready and the kit received a layer of gloss varnish to get ready for the decals. I started with the Almark decals. It was the first time I was using them. Hence I started with the black crosses for which I could have found replacement. A note on Almark decals. I think it is appropriate to say that Almark is a "small" decal producer. The sheet I have is printed on a single support, hence one has to carefully cut around each element. This takes time but it prevents any potential silvering. The decals reacted very well with MicroSol and MicroSet solution and complied perfectly with the kit engraved panel lines. In the end, it takes some extra time, but I should say that I was very pleased with the results and I recommend Almark decals, except for beginners. For the stencil, I preferred to use Airfix decals to save time.... Waiting for the decals to fully settle down before trapping them with another layer of gloss varnish, it is time to share with my lovely wife a nice glass of red wine ( a Chateau Neuf-Du-pape 2004 I have completely forgotten we have). More fresh news hopefully tomorrow... Cheers, Antoine

Hi guys, When the time came to start installing the windshield, a dry fit showed that the fuselage was larger that the windshield by 1 mm approximately so it would have been quite obvious in the end. My first move was to place two thin lengths of stretched sprue on the side of the cockpit opening, on which the inner side of the windshield will rest, giving it an acceptable width. It worked perfectly well but… it was now too low by a bit less than 1mm. Again, quite visible. Hence the added stops were remove, strips of plasticard were glued on the sides of the cockpit and lateral stops added again. A final dry fit showed an acceptable fit. It was then possible to carefully glue the windshield with some PVA glue. I kept it (delicately) finger-pressed in position (one didn’t want to brake it, did we?) for some long minutes. Any gap around the windshield was filled with Perfect putty. Cheers, Antoine Antoine

Hi, Thanks Sturmovik for your support. The surgery went well and I am now back to work and behind the work bench doing my own plastic surgery . It has not been easy to get back behind a keypad though. But let’s have some news of the 109 now. The main paint job is now completed and I’ll move soon to the decal stage (needs some repairs and a layer of gloss varnish first). A trip back in time is required though to tell you the story of what happened since my last post. While still trying to get a nice longitudinal line on top and under the fuselage, I finished the wings and horizontal stabilisers paints with the RLM71 (Gunze H64). When dry, they were all masked for the next steps. Work switched then to the propeller. It needed some trimming to remove a nasty seam line. What I discovered after a first layer of RLM70 (Gunze H64) is that it required also some filling and sanding. It looked like there had been some moulds misalignment issue here. A final coat of Black Green sealed everything in and the hub was hand painted in aluminium (Humbrol 11). Next came the landing gears that have already been painted in RLM02 during one on the numerous painting sessions with that colour. The chromed sliding tube was hand painted with Humbrol 11 and a brake wire was added (made of thin electrical wire). As stated previously, one of the main (possibly the only) low point of the wing assembly is in the landing gear bay and the horizontal seam line. I tried first to fill it with the white Perfect putty from Deluxe as any excess can be removed with some water wetted towel/cotton bud. The result was far from satisfactory. After some though, I decided to give a try to another solution, using aluminium tape that was applied on the bays’ walls. Any excess was trimmed with a sharp blade. After a layer of RLM02, I was happy with the result. Once that done, I prepared the model for the paint stage. The gunsight was added. The windshield and rear canopy were glued with white glue. And…. another issue raised… Bu my wife's calling me so I’ll explain tomorrow. Cheers, Antoine

Awesome job! Your paint work is impressive. I love it.

Hi, This 109 will remain untouch on my workbench for a few days as I'm going to get surgery tomorrow. So no progress today as I had my mind in getting ready. Hope to give you an update soon. Cheers, Antoine

Hi, When I stated two days ago that I didn’t expect much touch-up, I was right and wrong. There is indeed not much touch-up. The fit of the kit is very good and most of the filling can be done with a small drop of superglue applied with a tooth pick. Touching-up takes me more time than planed tough. That is mainly due to the specific layout of the 109: its fuselage is indeed made of multiple half sections. That means that one has to ensure that all the vertical engraved panel lines go around the fuselage and are parallel but also that there are two longitudinal lines, one on top and one below, just on the glued junction of the fuselage halves. … and its takes me some time to have all those re-scribed properly… I’m still working on it in fact… For info, this filling and engraving work is done using a squadron engraving tool, superglue and Dymo tape… loads of Dymo tape… Another part that requires some work is the landing gear bays. Their walls are indeed split into two: one half on the upper wing and the other half on the lower wing. That leaves you with a terrible seam line just in the middle. I haven’t managed it properly yet either. Finally, as I needed to do some touch-up of RLM02 paint in the cockpit and in the landing gear bays after my first try of filling that ugly gluing line, I used that opportunity to put a bit more paint in the airbrush tank and sprayed it over the re-scribed area to check how they look. I also started to paint the upper wing and the horizontal stabilizer. To give a little more depth to the paint, after a couple light layers of pure H70 from Gunze, I added a few drops of “Hemp” (H336) in the RLM02 and sprayed it lightly in the centre of the different panels. The paint looks good to me. The re-scribing not so much… Hope to have better news tomorrow. Cheers, Antoine

Hi, The program for today was quite straight forward: assembly of the wings, lower cowling and upper cowling (don't forget to paint the engine in black). On the upper cowling, the representation of the machine guns were removed and Master’s replacement put in place. Not a difficult operation but one has to be careful as the plastic under the gun barrel is very thin and one can push through with a sharp blade quite easily. The difference in the position of the R/H and L/H barrels was achieved has much as I could but I can’t guarantee the 1.3mm required by Master…. Finally the flaps were added. I fidgeted a bit with those parts. In the end, the attachment pins were shortened and then they fell in place with no more trouble. The horizontal stabilisers have not been glued yet as, after a dry fit, I decided to install them after the paint. I anticipate it would ease the application of the mottling. The kit is now ready for the filling, sanding, re-scribing stage but apart from some areas, I don’t expect much touch-up. Cheers, Antoine

Hi, The assembly continued today. The preparation of the cockpit proceeded first with an aluminium dry-brush. Then a black oil paint highly diluted in white spirit was applied to highlight the details. Any excess was removed with some paper towel. Before spraying matt varnish to seal everything in, I added some Eduard seat belts and the control stick. In the meantime, the few extras I ordered have arrived by the post: a control panel by Yahu, gun barrels from Master, canopy mask from Montex, exhaust tubes from SBS (one of mine had a moulding issue) and rear wheel from Quickboost. With the control panel arrived and the varnished dried, it was time to glue the cockpit and the fuselage halves together. The gap that can be seen before the cockpit was reduced later on. That’s all for today. Cheers, Antoine

Hello folks, My lovely wife decided last weekend to spoil me and offered me Airfix’s Messerschmidt Bf109E-4 in 1/72 scale. As I’ve been a bit inactive in the WIP section, I decided to share that build with you and to provide a (hopefully) daily progress (well, today will cover the first two days of the build). Willing to have a white nose 109 in my collection for some time, I purchased Almark decal for early Bf109E over Europe and will go for the ‘white 5’. As usual, I started with a good bath in soapy water to remove any potential remaining grease from the mould. Airfix new 109E is a good kit and loads of builds and reviews can be found on the web. Planning to display the model with an open canopy, I decided to improve a bit the cockpit though. First thing was to remove the moulded belt from the seat. At the same time, the oval-ish hole for the seat belts was drilled in the back of the seat. I continued with the trim wheels next to the seat. To create those wheels, I used two different sizes of Punch&Dye. After some tries, I managed to get two reasonable circles. Two disks coming from the left over (inner circle from thz smaller size Punch&Dye) were then cut to replicate the three supporting branches and glued back into the larger circle. A small bit of plasticard was used as a support and everything was glued next to the seat. Finally, a small piece of ø1mm rod was added to form a lever. The work moved then to the side panels: on the left side, it was quite simple with only the throttle box with its lever to add (not the neatest detail I have ever made... ). The right side required more work. I started with the electrical distribution box made of a small rectangle of plasticard, using very small length of rod as switches. If you count them, there are a couple missing. But the idea here is not to be 100% accurate but to have a busy-looking cockpit as close as possible to the reality. Then is added a small box with a bit of copper wire for what was probably the control box for the fuel (identified with the colour yellow of the pipe). The next bit was a bit more challenging: the oxygen system. The kit provides it as a (very) thin shape moulded on the side of the inner fuselage. As, from my point of view, it is one of the most noticeable part of an early 109 cockpit, I decided to give it a bit more ‘fat’. For that, I started with a thin sheet of plasticard that I drilled following amesh I had drawn beforehand on the plastic. Once happy with the result (a few trials were required), I glued the obtained grid on a piece of sprue that had been shaped to give a ‘correct’ appearance. Looking at the picture, I realised that I could have used my sand stick a bit to clean the part. But looking with my eyes only, the result was satisfactory. To finish the oxygen system, a few bits of plastic rod, small plastic discs and thin copper wires were added. While the glue was drying, I moved on to the other parts that will require a layer of RLM02 paint. This includes the wing radiators that saw their inlet and outlet thinned down using a blade. The head armour plate was also thinned, using a sanding box this time. Once ready, RLM02 (Gunze H70) was sprayed and after a few hours drying, black, yellow, blue and white were hand brushed on the different details (after looking at the pictures, some touch-up are required...). So here it stops for today. Cheers, Antoine

Hi Thank you for your comments. Glad you like it. The model itself is quite good. No fitting issue a bit of careful sanding couldn't solve. I only used a minimum of filler also. With regards to the PE, they are easy to work with. So don't be shy about it. Finally, the only reason I had trouble with the canopy was that I wanted it to be opened. Hence I had to thermoformed a new one. I used the one from the kit as a model. Then I cut out the different parts: windscreen, canopy and rear windows. To prevent any issue (fogging, marks...) I used PVA glue to attach them in place. Hoping to see your B-135 soon on the forum! Cheers Antoine

Hello, Here is my latest model. It is an Avia B-135. This slender fighter was designed by the Czech engineers just on the eve of WWII and arrived too late to take any action during German invasion of the Czechoslovakia. Nevertheless, Bulgaria bought twelve of them to serve as advance trainer. In the end, only instructors where flying them. The model is from RS model. It is short-run and comes with a fret of photo-etched parts among which a nice control panel, seat belts, the front radiator face and torque links for the landing gears. The build is leagues away from my previously built Tamiya’s Bf-109G. It required a fair amount of work before closing the two fuselage halves: the chin intake is to be filled with a representation of the engine casing (mine is very crude, but in the end, it is hard to see it); the cockpit between the instrument panel and the seat is a good representation but I had to build up the part behind the seat. For the seat itself, the instructions have it glued directly on the floor. In fact, it needs to be set higher up. For this, I built the tubular structure on which it is attached. I also cut opened the side access panel and drilled the exhaust tubes. Once the fuselage was closed, the assembly went with no big surprise. I only struggled with the front windscreen that I had heat-formed over the one from the kit. The thin plastic I used made its adherence to the kit very precarious, and the masking was quite hazardous with its round shape. After several trials and some touch-up, I managed to have it in place, yet not perfectly, and its frame painted. The box I bought gives you the possibility to paint the prototype under German colours after it was captured in 1938 or in a what-if attractive Czech scheme. Even though I really liked the Czech option, I decided to go for one of the Bulgarian trainers. For this, I used my spare box for the white ‘2’ and Blackbird decal sheet for Bulgarian aircraft for the rest. The only decals coming for the original box are the Avia logos on the tail. For the paint, I used as usual Gunze paints: H64 (RLM71), H65 (RLM70) and H417 (RLM76). Only light weathering was applied as those aircrafts were not overly used. I really did enjoy this built. As most RS kits, it requires a fair amount of work, a good documentation (in this case from MBI publication), but it is a good basis that can end up in a nice representation. What else would you need? But enough talking, here are the pictures. I hope you’ll like the result. Cheers, Antoine

Hi, When I was a teenager, I read a book called "Pumas on the ground and in the air" written by a former Hungarian fighter pilot, Tibor Tobak, who flew during WWII. He belonged to the 101 fighter group called the Red Puma. At the time, I was very impressed by this reading and decided to pay tribute to Mr. Tobak and to the Red Pumas. Some 20-ish+ years later, I finally decided to give a go to this project and to use the brand new Tamiya 1/72 Bf109G-6 as a basis, using the decals provided by AZ-Model (BF109G Danubian user, ref AZA7030). This was my first kit from Tamiya and it was a real pleasure to build. Everything fitted perfectly. The only place I had to do some filling was at the rear junction of the lower wing with the fuselage. Apart from that, it is a beautifully engineered kit. I just added some PE seat belts as I preferred those to the decals supplied with the kit. AZ decals were placed with no problem. I also used another set of decals from AZ Model for the spiral on the spinner. There I needed to apply quite an extensive amount of decal softener. The stencils came from H-Model. The quality of the decals was good but some of the ones shown on the instructions were missing… Finally, I painted the model with Gunze acrylic paints, using my trustworthy Badger 150 (it will be 30 soon). Now it’s time for some pictures. Hope you like it. Cheers, Antoine

It s always pleasant to see one of those oldies, especially when done so nicely. Great job !

Hello guys, Thanks for your comments. Much appreciated. Mike, those are attachments to fit the linkage with the main wings when they are folded. When checking some references, it looks like I should have removed them. One good excuse to build another one Cheers, Antoine

Hello, Here is my latest finished model: a Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat. The kit is from Airfix. It is a lovely model which was a joy to assemble. The only additions are the seat belts from Eduard, the instrument panel from Yahu and the gunsight from Quickboost. Decals are from the kit. I prefered to paint the white and red strips on the tail though. For the paints, I used Gunze aqueous: - H325 for the underside USN Light Gull Grey - H56 + H337 (few drops) for the upper side USN Blue Grey Hope you like it. Cheers, Antoine

Thanks... Also an excellent glass carrier in sunny days

Hi, Today I'd like to share with you my first finished model for 2019. This is Airfix recent Kate, built out of the box. The only add-ons were the seat belts from Eduard and the brake wires. It was really an enjoyable kit to assemble. Airfix option to present the canopy open is very nice, though I didn't take the chance to paint the frames that are under "sliding" parts. Paints are from Gunze. The other down side of the kit were the decals. The hinomaru were quite hard to comply with the details on the wings and fuselage surfaces. Hope you'll enjoy it. Cheers, Antoine

Hi, Here is my last built for 2018. Sure, it has been finished some time ago but one has to choose between posting and modelling. Guess my choice ... Anyway, this is Airfix model. Not the easiest to build, especially for the cockpit that requires lot of attention. No add-on for this one. I just scratchbuilt the pitot tube with metalic tubes of different section. Paints are Gunze for the top and alclad for the underwing. The Swift has always been an aircraft I wanted in my collection. Now this done thank to Airfix. Hope you'll enjoy. Cheers, Antoine

Waooh This is a brilliant and original idea. And perfectly executed. You may have initiated a new trend in the hobby. I love it

That's a lovely model you've produced Polo. Very well done !

Hi Great !! A French avion . And the Morane is one of my favorites. I've always wondered what the Hobby Boss kit was worth Nice start. I like what you have done for the cockpit so far.

Hi Greg, Thanks for your comments. To answer your questions: yes the Gunze and Tamiya paints I used are acrylic paints though both have (had?) a enamel/laquer range; I would not recommend them for brush painting, especially the Gunze. I didn't use any primer; this is mainly because: I am lazzy and don't really like to use can inside; I do use sometime Tamiya grey primer that comes in cans; it is very good and gives you a very nice and regular coat I don't know what primer to use with my airbrush, neither how to dillute it and how to clean it afterwards; I'm sure there is a good post somewhere in this forum, so if anybody can enllight me, it would be much appreciated. Tamiya primer should be fine for Model Master paint. Bu experience it is fine with most of the paints, expect Alclad2. Hope this helps, Cheers, Antoine

Thank you for your kind comments. Much appreciated. I must confess that I was worried when the time came to apply the decals as I have read that silvering was quiet an issue for this kit. I had some cold sweat especially when I applied the one with code and roundel on the left side of the fuselage. The surface is irregular with a recessed handle and panel lines and the transparent area on the decal very large. It the end it worked out well … phew… Basically, the decals were applied on a solid coat of gloss varnish from Gunze. I used mainly Microset to soften and make the decals adhere to the surface. For very irregular places, I used also Microsol but be careful, if you let it too long the decals will become really fragile… If the decal starts to shrink, don’t cry, or if you do, cry on the decal ... but diluting the Microsol with some water might be a better option... then gently dry it with a cotton bud, from the centre to the border of the decal, carefully applying some pressure on the reliefs. The moment of truth was at the application of a second layer of gloss varnish. This gives a good consistent shine between decal and paint. After that, I applied the weathering and a coat of matt varnish, again from Gunze.