caszerino Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 OK! I wasn't going to build this as a Trop, but the included decals are both from ZG.26 which was sent to Sirte, Libya in 1941. They were actually the very first Luftwaffe unit sent to North Africa according to ZG.26's Wikipedia page ... From what I'm reading, there doesn't seem to be much difference between the D and E variants other than a "strengthened airframe" which obviously is not going to be noticeable on this model. So I'll probably paint this up as a France 1940 example, given that we're in the 75th year since the Battle of Britain. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about the above, or if I would require a 110C to be accurate for France. I'll keep educating myself in the meantime. So, for now, obligatory box, sprue, and decal shots (I'm going to take a nap since it's raining and then start construction when I wake up ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 A shot of the sprues after opening. I started building the cockpit, but the first instructions are for the pilots. But I didn't see any. "I don't have a Sprue A!" I exclaimed (Sprue A is the one with the wings shown inside the poly bag). I started looking in the trash. Under the bench. Oh, there it is, where I put it aside because I didn't need it yet. And I was unable to resist the call of the decal ... after continuing to research ZG.26 I learned about Theodor Rossiwall, the Austrian Zerstörer ace. Decals from the Monogram 110E kit included markings for his aircraft, and it was on eBay for $8 shipped ... ordered. I have the sickness. If anyone has full graphics for the markings of his aircraft I cannot even express how grateful I would be if someone could post them here. All I can find is a port side shot, but I can't find any guide for top down or underside. I know I can stumble along and figure it out because only his registration numbers and personal marking (a Spade inside a white diamond with red edging) will be different ... and then there's the matter of the white-lined red "A" on the fuselage ... I don't think I can reproduce that and it wasn't included on the Monogram sheet. Ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galgos Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Two main differences between D and E, the most noticeable one on all Es is the channel on the nose between the machine guns - not fitted on any Ds. Ds do however have the extended tail section of the fuselage for carrying a dinghy, but then so do some Es! There are many other more subtle differences not worth worrying about to be honest, though I'm not sure which version you're making! When I get home on Sunday I may be able to help further with the markings. Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 (edited) Thank you for the input, Galgos. The kit is for a "Bf-110E/E2 Trop" but I'm not actually sure what I'm building yet. I almost ordered another kit with the C so I could just do France 1940, splinter camo, done ... but luckily I got a grip of myself before I clicked "Check Out". I read up on 110s on the Wiki page and was aware of the lengthened fuselage on the D and E but I ruled out trying to shorten it up because I'm just not there skill-wise yet. I don't know why but I have managed to give myself a complex about painting DAK paint schemes. I cannot explain this because it is completely irrational. I just wanna keep it simple because this is going to be the first model I've painted in a long, long time. And it will be the first one I have ever painted with an airbrush. I would prefer to just do a splinter camo scheme as I'm one of the greenest of the greenhorns here. But I'm also a stickler for at least trying to make things accurate, and I have no idea if Theodor Rossiwall ever flew a 110 with splinter camo, much less a 110E with splinter camo. **EDIT: Aha! He did fly one with splinter camo! It's a C, not a D or an E, but I can live with that. So splinter camo it is. Still a bit concerned about markings, though. I love the ZG.26 shield with the runes on it, but I just can't seem to find a definitive source showing me colour plates of his aircraft other than the two I've posted. Edited January 15, 2015 by caszerino Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 (edited) Did finally manage to get the full page of Rossiwall's markings for his 110E at Argos, Greece in 1941. Looks like I need RLM 70, 74, 75, and 76 in addition to "normal" colors. So as near as I can tell I'm gonna pick up Tamiya XF27 "Black Green" and I should be able to mix my other RLM colors from there. Phew, this is getting complicated! **EDIT: Linked wrong bloody image first! Edited January 16, 2015 by caszerino Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 At least a little bit done today. Those bloody things behind the pilot that look gauges on the floor almost went in the bin. Lot of issues with locating pins not lining up or being too large on this kit so far. I had to cut the pins off all three of those things and tack them down, which is why one is wonky. At least it'll be hidden once the paint and the canopy go on. The plane driver and his mate required surgery. Just an outpatient procedure but I wanted to keep them overnight for observation. Actually I just get physically annoyed by mold lines so I did lots of stupid stuff like cutting towards myself with a #11 blade on tiny parts like their arms, and spending 3/4 of an hour sanding and scraping them when they'll barely be seen under the (now Pledge-dipped) canopy. They will be primed black, then blocked in, washed, and drybrushed. I only punctured myself once and it's already stopped bleeding! You can see where I tried using a (low quality) hairy stick for (Vallejo) primer inside the cockpit, but it looks awful so I'll be sanding it to rough it up on both sides of the fuselage and just spray Interior Green in there tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hgbn Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 The "gauges" on the floor is drum magazines for the rear mounted machine gun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 The "gauges" on the floor is drum magazines for the rear mounted machine gun AAAAAH, thank you! I feel better now. One being wonky no longer bothers me, and that makes perfect sense. I do not understand why the instructions are showing the magazine followers going into locating holes in the floor of the cockpit then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vppelt68 Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 The "gauges" on the floor is drum magazines for the rear mounted machine gun ...or aren´t they actually magazines for the forward firing, floor mounted 20mm MG FF:s. I need to finish MY build by the way, good luck with this one . Regards, V-P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 OK, that makes a little more sense re: why they'd be "plugged into" the floor of the cockpit. And now that I think about it, they are a bit large for 1/72 scale MG15/17 magazines. Well, crud. Oh well, back to the "they'll be hidden anyway" rationalization! I guess I could always break off the wonky one, but I'm just about "over it" at this point. I just wanna get the cockpit painted up, the fuselage interiors sprayed, and seal her up. Although I've already got designs on buying a load of rods, tubing, and sheet styrene when I head out for lunch today to detail the interior somewhat, I keep telling myself to focus on speed (although less speedy than the 20mm magazine mishap - I like that - "The Great 20mm Magazine Mishap of Melbourne 2015") and getting this finished while still trying to maintain a decent standard of workmanship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 Two main differences between D and E, the most noticeable one on all Es is the channel on the nose between the machine guns - not fitted on any Ds. Max Started reading ahead a bit more closely on the instructions and checking the sprues last night, and it comes with nose assemblies for D and E, so now I'm mulling over whether to build a "generic" ZG.26 D in early war splinter camo or keep trying for Rossiwall's E in the Argos pattern. The former is winning as the "scarlet letter" (A) on the Argos scheme is giving me fits as I just have no way to reproduce it onto the model accurately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 Well, Theo and Horst (my pilot and gunner) have both their arms attached now. Dry-fit into the seats well enough. Haven't decided if I want to bother filling the massive rectangular holes in their backs. It's barely visible when they're in their seats, but it's bothering me ever so slightly. They've had holes drilled in their trouser seats and CA-covered toothpicks inserted up their rear echelons in preparation for priming and painting. But as I was drilling with my pin vise (and I have a terrible Chinese one, I need to get a good one) I noticed a DHL truck come lumbering up the street and the driver looking somewhat bewildered. So after he made two passes and stopped the truck I went outside and flagged him down. He was indeed looking for my address and what to my wondering eyes should appear ... ? From Wayland Games. They got this to me in Florida in five days (and almost $100 less than I could find it for in the US) so I just want to plug them here for such awesome service. RLM colors here I come! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 Armed with a bottle of Vallejo Model Air "Interior Green", a 3M paper face mask, a TCP Global spray booth, and my (at the time) unsullied Iwata Neo airbrush, I did the following: They need another coat, but that was the first time I've ever used an airbrush so I'm not too disappointed. I should've done the cockpit fit check in the fuselage before spraying the interior anyway. Massive (1/8") gap above the instrument panel before sanding. Reduced that substantially, should be fillable with Mr. Surfacer now. Rest of the fuselage fit great, and I think it'll seal up nicely with Extra Thin. And I have to glue the control stick back in. I knew that would come off during fit check and it did. I have an issue with getting my window open at the moment to get the exhaust hose (our windows here don't open to the air like they do in Europe because of insects and all manner of other BS, we have metal screens and ridiculous locking mechanisms and blah blah blah) out and I nearly choked on the Iwata airbrush cleaner, even though it's advertised as "odorless and safe" and I was wearing a filter mask! So I'm waiting until Sunday when my cleaning pot arrives before I do any more airbrushing, you'll have to forgive me. I should have the window opened by then, too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jean Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 That's going to look good, I am sure. Great to see your unbounded enthusiasm!!! Just a small point, although it may not matter to you: interior green would be better in the cockpit of US planes. Luftwaffe aircraft, early on during the war were using RLM 02 on internal surfaces, which is a greyish green, as opposed to a pea soup green... But there again, the world is not going to stop turning if you use interior green!!! Good luck JR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 (edited) JR, thank you for the correction! I will use the Interior Green as a sort of primer for RLM02 then. I'll probably have to mix up an approximate shade but I can handle that. I had "Cockpit Green" from Tamiya and I just sort of got excited yesterday when all that Vallejo Model Air arrived and I just saw "Interior Green", grabbed it, and that was that! **EDIT: My Vallejo Model Air RLM 16-color set, including RLM 02, is due to arrive tomorrow along with an airbrush cleaning pot, so I will try to be patient enough to wait until then. Edited January 17, 2015 by caszerino Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 I got a lot done today, for me anyway! Turns out my Vallejo set already had RLM02 so the cockpit was painted, fuselage interiors painted over (initially were incorrectly Interior Green). Cockpit detailed with masking tape seatbelts (extremely crude ones, but they give a decent effect) dabbed on the ends with Tamiya Flat Aluminum. Umber wash gave the cockpit a little weathering. The instrument decal didn't quite go on according to plan, but I think part of the issue was how much I had to sand down the instrument panel part to get a good fit on the front of the fuselage. The 20mm mags were given a coat of Tamiya Gunmetal, and this kit has them in the wrong place and wrong scale anyway, so I stopped worrying about that. The ejector pin mark behind the 20mm mags should also be obscured by the canopy once assembly is complete. Cockpit glued into fuselage. Fuselage halves glued together with Extra Thin. Absolutely fantastic fit. Fit checking, dry fitting, and sanding went a long, long way on this sub-assembly. I got either either a pretty much perfect join that needed very little cement, or I got the "weld seam" of molten plastic when I pressed the halves together. So (fingers crossed) there will be very minimal filling on this one. Which hopefully will lead to minimal re-scribing because I am not at all good at that right now. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. And here are both D and E variant nose cones assembled ... waiting on the arrival of some Tamiya bits and a Starrett pin vise and then I'll drill out the gun barrels. I just couldn't deal with the awful quality of the Chinese one I had so I sent it back. I'm considering using the two-color green/brown splinter camo, kit decals, and the D nose. Not having the right markings, even after having bought another decal sheet, continues to cause me consternation about the E painted as Theodor Rossiwall's ship in Greece 1941. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galgos Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 You certainly are cracking on with this one! I wouldn't worry too much about re-scribing the Airfix "trenches" though. You may have read in other builds that the Airfix decals are just awful, almost to the point of being unusable so if you've got alternatives in mind, use them! Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 Bought a new decal set that is a complete departure from what I'd planned before, but no big deal. I'll certainly have more 110 builds in my future. Now I feel like I have better choices and can discount the kit decals entirely. After my experience with the very stiff kit instrument panel decal I was less than chuffed about facing the same issues with every other decal on the kit. I'll follow up with photos after I get finished doing whatever it is I plan to do today, but I'm hoping to finish most of the build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Oh boy, did I underestimate the time it was going to take to fit, sand, glue, fill, and re-sand the wings! The starboard wing was pretty much a dream with almost no gaps, including the wing root. I had some issues with fit on the port wing (if looking out the cockpit), but it eventually came together and I don't even have to fill the wing roots. I wet-sanded the leading edges of both wings with Squadron Medium and that did a great job. Still needed a little something, though, so on went Mr. Surfacer 1000 around all the wing edges, some spots on the belly, and one spot on the top of the fuselage near the tail. Everything else is pre-filled with plastic that squished out of the joins when the Extra Thin went to work. Take a butcher's, lads, and let me know if I missed anything! I post up everything I'm doing not only because I'm a long-winded so-and-so, but because I want to hear about when I do stuff wrong now so I don't keep doing it in the future. I'm happy with how this build is coming together, though. I thought I was fancy when I painted the gear wells yesterday, until I realized I only painted the piece I glued in, and not the actual wing parts. So I'll have to spray up into them tomorrow. I am planning to assemble the landing gear and paint it before cementing it into the gear wells, and I will probably leave them out entirely until painting is complete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 20, 2015 Author Share Posted January 20, 2015 All the Mr. Surfacer got sanded off and all wing edges and underneath are good to go. Fuselage "spine" re-filled, re-sanded, top and bottom. Done. I ended up painting the filters inside the intakes Vallejo Schwarzgrau and left it. They are far enough back to be mostly hidden, and I glued the intakes on because I don't care if overspray gets in there and the grey plastic is close enough to Leichtblau that it won't matter inside the intakes once the paint goes on because you can barely see in there as it is. Then I started assembling the tail ... bloody hell. Everything had to be sanded just to fit and after checking some pictures of some very well done examples of this kit I have a lot of filling to do. Mr. Surfacer 500 is drying now and will be sanding into oblivion in the morning and beyond. At least I don't really have to work at all tomorrow, waiting on parts to arrive. But there's no turning back now. It's a Bf-110E. I used the extended fuselage tail bit, and I glued a load of .94g fishing weights inside the nose (it will not be a tail sitter). Which led to another problem ... I used way too much CA (I hate that stuff, I really do) to get the first few to stick. It started oozing out the gun ports. I got it all over my fingers. After absent-mindedly sanding my fingers (and all the CA off the nose) while I watched German War Files on YouTube for an hour, things are back humming along. Mostly repaired. Sanded all the CA off the exterior. Scraped out panel lines and around the barrels. Touched up where I'd drilled them up. It doesn't look nearly as bad with the naked eye. *SIGH* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galgos Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 I'm confused about why you're putting lead weights in the nose: the Bf110 IS a tail sitter, not a plane with a tricycle undercarriage! Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 20, 2015 Author Share Posted January 20, 2015 Yesterday just wasn't my day, was it? The last few I'd built had tricycle landing gear and I was just still in that mode, I suppose. Bloody hell. Time to rip them out! Shouldn't be too difficult. I honestly have no idea what I was thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 Well I haven't been completely idle! I got really bogged down when my brain stopped functioning and I filled the 110E nose full of lead weights and all the filling and sanding on the tail section. I pushed through that, I've got the landing gear and other fiddly bits on sticks ready for initial undercoating and the airframe is starting to come together nicely. For the time being I've installed the D nose, but it's just tacked on with Extra Thin, so I am going to try to repair the E nose (by using needlenose pliers to rip the CA-glued weights out, which may end up destroying the part). Now might be a good time for me to learn how to cast parts in resin. I may actually look into that. The nacelles do not fit well, but I knew that was coming. I will also need to do some filling on the spinner, as some overzealous sanding caused a few gaps between it and the ring that fits on behind it. Tail wheel is on (for it to sit on, since it doesn't have tricycle landing gear ). Tailplanes on. Canopy masking underway. Hoping to start priming and painting tomorrow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galgos Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Bit of a roller coaster ride it seems but I'm sure you'll get there in the end! Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caszerino Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) Oh yeah, I'm making a few newbie mistakes but I expected it'd be far worse than this, to be honest! I got the props, intake shrouds, engines, and fuselage bomb rack on last night and filled remaining gaps with Mr. Surfacer 500. Gonna finish masking the canopy today and get sanding. I'm hoping to begin painting tomorrow and barring any unforeseen catastrophes, I should be on track with that. Here's to a Sunday completion! Edited January 23, 2015 by caszerino Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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