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.

Thanks friend. For the pilot o found a figure of a marine pilot, he’s usually posed as a guy climbing out giving a big thumbs up. I forget what brand he is, I just posed him a bit different.

Cheers mate. First I made the waves on a timber base around the plane with plastercine/plastiline. Got it to the shape I wanted. Then onto that I made a silicone rubber mould. I then poured the deep pour casting resin into that (has to be deep pour or it’ll exothermically react and crack), essential upside down. That flat part is on the bottom if that makes sense. On that bottom, I sprayed tamiya sea blue, and added another thin layer of resin onto that to seal it it. once set, I put the plane into position and added multiple layers of resin into the cavity with a mix of cotton wool, baking soda, white glue and water to simulate the bubbles. Once that was done I took a small bit of mixed resin with a gloved finger and smeared it over the waves to gloss it up and hide all the scratches and chalky finish that the silicone mould will leave it.

Thanks mate. No it’s just a model scenes grass mat, I think I went with the spring meadow for this one. I have made them before but it’s way simpler to just buy one pre-made, cut it out and glue it on. The base is general foam board from Bunnings, I made bulsa borders for it and painted it with thinned burnt umber oil paint. Grass mat glued onto that and she’s all done.

Hello again. I can’t recall if I’ve shared this one on here or not, but I may as well while I’m at it. I built this one last year, and probably the most effort I’ve put into a diorama build. Learned a lot about dealing with resin on the fly and figured it out as I went. Here it is… hope you enjoy.

Hello everyone, been a while since I posted anything but just polished another one off. This one took a ridiculous amount of research and procrastination but I got there in the end. Took a lot of inspiration from someone’s build of this one, and put my own interpretation on it. Hope you enjoy it. And here it is… I was able to achieve this effect of the putty lines and tarnished aluminium seen on these late war unpainted swallows by doing the following… Start- black base primer. Then a wet coat of gx-100. After I let it cure, I gave it its coat of ak xtreme metalizer polished aluminium. Then I take a fat paint brush and BRUSH on ak gauzy agent shine enhancer. One in green bottle. It sprays like rubbish and wants to bead up on the surface, but I found that brushing it on works beautifully and it levels perfectly. Anyway, I then hit it all with hairspray and then with mixed tamiya paint (50 50 two raf greys to get the shade I was after) I free hand airbrushed the panel lines and where the putty was to be. With a damp brush and a toothpick, I cleaned up the feathered edges and left that putty right where I wanted it. No masking involved. For the nose I substituted the NMF for rlm 81 and did the same thing. Insignia is pained on, and the only decals are for the tail serial number, which I stole from another kit. I then took some thinned tamiya German grey and filled in some of the panels to get the tarnished look you can see in the next image. A few scratches with a tooth pick to rough it up a bit and to expose the shiny glints underneath and I was able to achieve a pleasing effect. hope you enjoy.

Does anybody happen to know for certain if there was a seam running along the top of the fuselage of the me 262? specifically between the cockpit and the vertical stabilizer? I can't seem to find anything definitive on it. I'm making a youtube video of this build, so I hope i don't screw it up with something dumb like that...

Bump for my own reference

I’d have to agree with this. That’s clearly a protective coating or something on the panel itself.

Thanks mate, His build looks phenomenal, exactly what I want to pursue with my own. I’d love to know how he achieved this effect over the NMF, so of course I can’t find it anywhere. Which is typical.

I’m leaning towards it being light anti-corrosion tarnishing the stock alloy. Here’s a couple screenshots for the movie. Particularly the image from the bird’s 6 o’clock you can see it still has a mirror polish under the black cross on the port side, suggesting it’s still NMF. hopefully these images will be useful to someone who’s building this one like myself.