Kov1985

Hello everyone. This one is finally off my bench after a few months of work. I don’t usually take this long, but alas I’m happy with the result. I used the following… hasegawa 1/32 fw-190d-9 quickboost cowling, spinner and prop quinta studio cockpit interior Hgw seatbelts eduard brassin flaps 1manarmy stencil masks eaglecals set for serial number a whole lot of research and self torment. So this is my rendition of the famously heavily photographed “blue 12” which surrendered at Furth may 1945. Some small bits I took some artistic license, but I’ll get into that later. For this build I used the abundance of research pics of this aircraft that are available, as well the few that came with the eaglecals set. However I’m less impressed with the set as I intended to only use the serial number, the “E9”, and the “12”. However for some reason, the “1” is smaller than the “2” in the 12. It makes no sense why they’ve done that as every photo I’ve seen of the thing doesn’t show this. Hence I made my own mask for that by painstakingly drawing and cutting it out of paper, tracing onto masking sheet and cutting that out. To make things worse I botched its placement on first go and had to use the mask 3 times… anyways it wasn’t anything I couldn’t fix and there was a lot of that in this build. Just sand it back and give it another go… The colours of blue 12. Experts on the subject lean towards the top of the wings being 77/81, or 76/81, however in my honest opinion that may have well been the case for later Mimetall machines. My theory is that early ones such as 570 here had the standard grey wings, which were then painted 81 on the underside, either by factory or at unit level until Mimetall found their “groove” and painted the whole thing in 81 etc. my source for this theory being machine 581 pictured here (only a few airframes from blue 12) clearly having the grey tops, but notice landing gear doors being that dark colour still indicating to me rlm81, which can clearly be seen also on the famous colour photo of blue 12. I don’t own this particular book but in the next image of it I’ve seen, a more side on view of the Dora shows this landing gear door with a dark colour. paints were mostly my blends of gunze products to get them right. Nobody does a decent 81 in my opinion, even ak’s three options don’t do it for me. I’ve got the blends written down somewhere if anyone’s interested. I did use ak’s late war yellowish 76 though, that one is spot on. the whole this dirtied up with a brown panel wash, followed by a flat clear, then I went to work on rendering individual panels with oil paint. Sepia to shade the edges, cream brown for dust and dirt streaks along the sides, and burnt sienna to mix in with the dust to muddy it up a bit. Keeping source material in mind, also concentrate on corners and panel lines where oil and dirt would find purchase on the real machine to build up. It creates a very convincing effect and well worth the hours spend getting it right. base was just a piece of foam board with ak dark earth “soil”. I found it too dark so I lightened it with acrylic paint, with a sepia oil paint wash. Grass flocking was a mix 3-4mm different shades all mixed together with a pinch of 12 blades thrown in. I applied with scenic glue and my peco static grass applicator. Sides are just bulsa cut to size and oil pained sepia to make the grain pop a bit. Whole thing was then bombed with flat clear to take the gloss out of the scenic glue one dried. I had every intention of including the MPs arresting the pilot like in the phot but I failed miserably at recreating the figures. I figured it was best to leave them out. I find a solution I can always add it later on. hope you all enjoy, and take a bit of inspiration like I do from your work I see on here.

Thank you for that. That’s exactly what I was looking for. Because I’ve seen the other pics of white 16, and there’s nothing on its wings to show any distinct colours in the other photos. And every other photo of what I’m looking for is either in the background, or on a funny angle, or barely visible. Now I can see why they’ve arrived at their conclusions. That’s still not rlm 76 on the wing though… It’s a shade darker than on the side of the fuselage. Assuming 77 is a bit darker than 76 (I always thought it was lighter for some reason), it could very well be that. Or a heavily oxidised and faded chalky rlm75. Whatever it is, it was something they had on hand because it matches whatever they used to paint over the repairs on the leading edge of the wing. either way, I’ve got something to go on now. I’ll probably just mix a light grey colour for there and call it that. thanks again, I really appreciate that.

At a unit level I’ve read by that stage of the war (the very tail end of it), ground crew would paint with whatever stocks they had on hand. I’ve read an anecdote of one German ground crew member saying if they needed green, they’d just mix blue and yellow. They were more worried about not getting bombed or taken as POWs by the soviets than adhering faithfully to RLM rules of paint shades. my original question was pertaining to Mimetall fw-190d-9 wing tops and why everyone seems to think that colour combo is accurate. Again, if anyone can show me that photo of white 16 I was asking in my original post, it would be very helpful.

Yeah I’m not buying the 76 grey on top. Even if you look at these Hungarian g-10s. They would have been delivered in rlm colours. The contrast is sharp but still distinguishable from the 76 on the side. That’s clearly 75/81 (green version) to me. Im happy to be proven wrong though. I see now hobby2000 have a 1/32 d-9 hasegawa boxing with masks and decals provided with the 76/81 brown wingtops. I just find the evidence wanting, and the logic flawed. thanks again.

As I said before, to me the logic of using a colour designed for underside use would be counterproductive. The browns and greens of late war fighters were deployed to the aim of hiding the thing from strafing/recon/bombing attacks. The Luftwaffe were just about bingo on fuel so the planes spent 99 percent of their time hiding in the trees etc. Even if the wings arrived in 81 brown entirely and were then painted at a unit level, they’d be shooting themselves in the foot spraying a bright light blue over it. To me personally it makes more sense to splinter pattern spray it with leftover 75, and if the formula is all messed up because a factory got bombed somewhere, it could be quite light. And the argument of it being primer doesn’t hold water with me either as I thought rlm colours were a lacquer based paint that didn’t require primer. Is that right? thanks again for this discussion.

Thanks for your reply. To build one what you said, here’s a few research pics of mine that I found (and screen-shotted) it’s a bit dodgy but you get the idea… looks more middle grey to me here than pale. Some Mimetall machines… To me this could easily be a faded 75/dark green or brown. I’ve all but made my decision in what I’m using on my build anyway, but it’s interesting to discuss for future reference etc. and then I look at standard 74/75 schemes found on mid/late war fighters and can see a heap of contrast between the colours from film exposure/lighting etc. I’ve never seen an A-8 with anything other than 74/75 or 81/82. Clearly this is 74/75 when you compare it to the rest of the fighter’s colours. And that contrast is sharp. And to add to that, here’s a couple parts dug up in Normandy that I found pics of that apparently have the 74/75 camo. To me it’s indicative of the late war brewing of paints turned out different results from machine to machine. compare that to the two Dora’s in the dump, and I think it could explained as they were 74/75 like this but taken on a sunny day.

Thanks for your response. All things considered, I’d say you’re right. I personally think a light colour like rlm 77 or 76 would be tactically stupid to use as a camouflage colour as it would stand out like a big red clown suit from the air. But I doubt anyone has access to pics and research on the matter like JaPo would, so their opinion would carry more weight than anyone. It seems to be the consensus. I think maybe I might go with a heavily faded 75 with 81 brown violet. Definitely a unique scheme that would catch some eyes and start discussions which what we’re aiming for.

Hello there everyone. I’m still hopelessly lost in this rabbit hole and I feel I can’t move on until I’ve settled this. does anyone happen to have any of the JaPo books on fw-190d-9 camo and markings, and are willing to flip through a few pages for me? If the book was still available and in print I’d snap up a copy for myself, but alas they are not. And the ones I did find cost more than my education - which isn’t saying much… I believe what I’m looking for is in volume 2. JaPo seems to think that late block minetall machines had wing upper surfaces coloured in 81/76 or something similar. From what I’ve been led to believe there’s a pearler of an image of white 16 WNr 500636 that shows this hard demarcation of colour that ends all dispute on this matter. Obviously JaPo guard their images jealously which is why I’ve never seen it. If not that image, than any evidence of this being a feature of later block 500xxx doras. I’ve seen the b/w images of the wings by themselves loaded on train cart, the crashed yellow 11, and the colour image of the dump with the two smashed up doras, but nothing tying that feature to Mimetall builds. I’ve even got brown 4 with ta-152 tail in a b/w photo, but i think that can be disputed with 75/dark green wings. This is doing my head in.. I’m planning to build 500666 of jg301. if anyone can help me out, even pm me some images so we don’t get sued or whatever, I’d be very grateful and my soul may finally rest. Sorry for starting a new thread on this.

Definitely some Dora’s had that light grey/dark something camo, but how did they tie it to minetall machines? There’s gotta be more images out there that we don’t have for them to arrive at that conclusion.

Probably the smartest option. Lucky for me the subject I got my sites on is 500666, and all references are it missing it’s wings. I like the idea of it having obvious mismatched wings to the rest of it because it demonstrates the whole story of the Luftwaffe having to outsource components. I for the life of me though can not work out why some people (Eduard and JaPo for example) are adamant that 500xxx series aircraft had the 76/81 wings. I haven’t seen the pics or research that ties that feature to Mimetall produced Dora’s. If anyone’s got anything on that, let me know please.

Probably not ideal but still I’d say the best I’ve seen. What do you guys think? 74/75? 81(green)/75?

I will tonight, my photo sharing site isn’t being a team player at the moment… I’ll share that image soon once I work it all out..

Ha what can of worms this is. I just found a colour pic of blue 12 from a vid showing grey wingtops, indicative of your standard 74/75 camo. It’s got me thinking, is there any difference between a 190A and a 190D wing? Were they produced in the same factory in some cases? Most 190A-8s have that same colour scheme.

Hello everyone, JaPo publishing have in the past insisted that 500xxx series fw-190d-9’s wingtop scheme have consisted of rlm81 (brown) and rlm76 light blue, creating a very high contrasting modified splinter camouflage that should be obvious in black and white pics. I’ve scoured the internet again and again, and have found this assertion wanting. Has anyone any photos that back this theory up? I’m going to build a 1/32 hasegawa (plus aftermarket goodies) rendition of 500666 of jg301, which although is missing it’s wings in all references, shares similar serial numbers to other Dora’s built by minetall at that time. The famous blue 12 that has a million and one pics of has very few that slightly show it’s upper surfaces of wings and I just don’t see that contrast in camo colours, in fact what I’m seeing is 81/82. Blue 12 was 500570 or something so it’s very similar to the one I’m going for. does anyone out there have definitive proof of JaPo’s 81/76 scheme on those later block minetall machines? thanks everyone for your time.