*** FINISHED *** Helmut Wick's Bf 109E4, October 1940 (Tamiya 1/72)

[jrlx]

Thanks Ced, much appreciated

[PlaStix]

Beautifully tidy work as usual Jaime. I am so impressed with your patience with the detail PE - it looks so incredibly small.

[jrlx]

Thanks a lot for your appreciation, Stix, it really means a lot

The PE parts are really small and it takes a lot of time to put them in place. I'm now using a head band mounted magnifying glass, which works very well ( thanks to Roy and Ced for the suggestion). Anyway, I think the level of detail provided by PE is worth the effort.

Cheers

Jaime

[Fatboydim]

Looking really good Jaime.

[PlaStix]

I think the level of detail provided by PE is worth the effort.

I totally agree!

[GREG DESTEC]

Wow! Nice work Jaime, keep it up

[jrlx]

Joe, Greg,

Thanks for the kind words

Cheers

Jaime

[jrlx]

Hello again,

This is an update of work done since two week-ends ago. My German lessons and tests don't leave me much time for modelling, so work is progressing slowly.

I started by applying the armoured glass to the wind shield. Here it is still resting on the front fuselage, before being glued in place:

Here it is already glued in place:

Next, I glued the rear fixed canopy part in place:

Then, I masked the cockpit opening, to protect it from main painting:

Masking tape was also inserted near the main gear leg location holes, to protect the cockpit from overspray while painting the aircraft's underside:

Then, I drilled holes on the cannons, using a 0,3 mm mini-drill:

Next, I applied Alclad white primer to the engine area, which will have a yellow-painted exterior:

White primer was also applied to the engine covers and rudder, which will be painted yellow. I also used the opportunity to rectify the colour of the propeller back plate, which was white (according to the profile on the top of this thread) instead of yellow as shown in the instructions:

The engine area was masked, before applying Alclad grey primer to the rest of the aircraft:

After applying grey primer, I applied Alclad White Aluminium to the areas which will be chipped:

The next step was pre-shading the panel lines with mate black:

The white-primed parts where also pre-shaded:

To finish with, I painted the main gear wheel hubs with gloss black:

That's all for now. Thanks for looking.

Jaime

[sean]

Nice progress Jamie, it's all looking good so far,

Sean

[CedB]

Looking great Jaime

It's all there... pre-shading, yellow, chipping... watching with interest!

[Fatboydim]

Hi Jaime, that's looking all rather good. Keep up the good work and let us know how the exam goes. Joe

[AnonymousDFB1]

Looking good Jamie

[jrlx]

Thanks all for the kind words and interest

let us know how the exam goes. Joe

Thanks for the interest Joe! My first test was quite good, at 94%. The teacher thought it was very difficult (he was right...) and gave us all a bonus, so I ended up with 100%

Last Thursday we did a "calibration" test for this week Certification Test simulation. It was a 10 minute-long multiple choice affair, with more than 10 questions and very difficult. Let's see the result...

Cheers

Jaime

[jrlx]

Hi again,

We had a holiday in Portugal yesterday, so I managed to find some time to progress a bit on my builds.

Almost ready to start the main painting of the Bf 109, I just had to paint the wheel wells first. These were painted RLM 02:

I also painted RLM 02 the edges of the cockpit walls, which I forgot when painting the cockpit interior:

I let the paint dry for about 4 hours and then masked the wells with blu-tack:

Then, I painted almost all the aircraft with RLM 65 Light Blue, letting the pre-shading be visible through the paint:

The wheel well masking was removed:

The top half of the rudder was also painted RLM 65. The bottom will be RLM 04 Yellow:

RLM 65 was also applied to the exterior of the wheel well doors:

and to the pitot tube and flap mass balances:

Finally, the rudder actuators in PE were also painted RLM 65:

That's all for now. The next step will be painted the lighter colour of the top camouflage, which was RLM 02.

Thanks for looking.

Jaime

[AnonymousDFB1]

Getting there Jamie

[PlaStix]

Beautiful work Jaime! All done to your usual high standard!

[jrlx]

Thanks, Stix, that's very kind

[jrlx]

Hi again,

Here's an update of work done during the weekend.

The base light blue colour had dried for a few days, so I started masking the model to paint the top camouflage.

Here's the port side, with masking tape delimiting the top of the fuselage and wing root. The camouflage scheme is shown in the background:

Here's a closer look:

The port side completely masked:

The starboard side, as well:

Bottom view. The wings don't need to be protected:

With the masking done, I applied the lighter colour of the top camouflage: RLM02 Graugrün (Grey-green):

Next, I mixed a drop of flat white on the ink remaining in the airbrush, diluted it as for mottling, and randomly lighted the inside of panels to break the tonal monotony:

Next, I'll apply the dark-green colour.

Thanks for looking.

Jaime

[Fatboydim]

Really nice paint job Jaime, and all in 1/72nd scale. Keep up the good work. Joe

[jrlx]

Thanks Joe! Your interest is much appreciated

[AnonymousDFB1]

Nice work Jamie

[CedB]

+1 from me Jaime

I must try this panel shading... Looks good'

[jrlx]

Mish, Ced, thanks! Your encouragement is always very welcome

[jrlx]

Hi again,

Last night I had some time for modelling, so I proceeded with painting the darker top camouflage colour.

I started by delimiting the lighter colour areas with masking tape:

The larger areas were protected with kitchen cling film:

With the masking done, I painted the exposed areas with RLM71 Dunkelgrün (Dark green). The centres of the panels were post-shaded with a slightly lighter tone of RLM71, obtained by mixing two drops of matt white on the paint remaining in the airbrush. Here's the result, just before removing the masking:

After a few minutes of drying time, just enough for the paint to look dry, I removed the masking. This is how the model looks now:

The next step is mottling the sides of the fuselage, tail and top of the rudder.

Thanks for looking.

Jaime

[CedB]

Very nice Jaime (as usual)!

The film idea is a good one - do you prise up the masking and push it underneath or how do you fix it? I guess that would do less (potential) damage than my current 'cheap tape' method.

Good luck with the mottling - can't wait to see how you get on!