Anil's Workbench #3: 1/72 Academy Bf109G-6 In Progress

[azureglo]

Index: 

 

Revell 1/72 P-47 Done               WIP (below)     RFI

Airfix 1/72 P-51 Done                WIP                  RFI

Revell 1/72 Spitfire MkV Done  WIP                  RFI     

Academy 1/72 Bf109G-6            WIP                  

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Well I'm back baby, nice month of non-modelling guitar and flying stuff and I'm ready to kick off a new build. Bench #2 is piled high with my mountain of etch and masks to be sorted, Bench #1 has a Revell F-4E that I don't want to fiddle with right now so lets get this one up and running. First off the Bench for @Tomoshenko : Utter chaos, scalpel on the wrong side of the single edge nipper, wet or dry not correctly ordered in grit size and the Mr Surfacer 500 is on the right of the 1000! Dear god can any good come out of this insanity? 

 

 

I have a pile of these bought at the Southampton Modelzone at 5 for £10 on their last day:

 

 

Looks nice enough, very delicate engraving and lovely general details though a surprising amount of flash on the smaller parts (see IP).

 

 

Decals are coming from this voluminous but inaccurate Skys sheet- I rather fancy  XO1, red nose, blue tail with yellow lightning bolts and a small but un-PC bit of nose art. Slap on the Alclad and it'll be yet  more shininess in the display cabinet. The Sky's decals are gorgeously printed (by Cartograf) and they even throw in a set of instrument dials and stencils as well a a gazillion schemes for a paltry £5.99. The caveat is some of the research is a bit slapdash and many of the decals on the sheet dont have any corresponding instructions, good enough for a non rivet counter like me and plenty of fodder for the spares box.

 

 

Pit done first, nothing fancy Mr Color Chromate green and Mike Grant  instrument decals/placards for the IP. wash is the sepia dark body wash from Les Bursfield's recipe.

 

 

 

Wot a little plastic pilot?! Finally decided it was time to do some miniature painting- little man is from a Revell pilots set and I did some "adjusting" of the limbs that will not be seen when the canopy's on: Belts are painted scotch tape with a BMF disc punched out with my RP toolz punches, which also supplied the gold shoulder badges. Finished off with dark body wash to pop the face and hands. Must say I had an indecent amount of fun doing this, I think all future builds may be crewed...

 

 

Engine is done with Alclad aluminium with a light black body wash ( placard from Mike Grant set).

 

 

Well that's a few days work done and now  time to do work on my rather corroded new purchase, a 1984  Westone Thunder 1A, polishing wheel and elbow grease will be needed in abundance...any guitar restorers out there feel free to chip in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheery byes all!

 

Anil

[rob85]

It’s a nice kit! I built mine as the box art, why? Well it says ‘balls out’ on it. My only irritation with the kit was the cooling gills on the cowling (would have been a lot less irritating if I had thought about this and chosen a scheme that didn’t have a massive decal going over them, but hey ho) 

 

looking forward to your work!

 

Rob 

[azureglo]

20 minutes ago, rob85 said:

It’s a nice kit! I built mine as the box art, why? Well it says ‘balls out’ on it. My only irritation with the kit was the cooling gills on the cowling (would have been a lot less irritating if I had thought about this and chosen a scheme that didn’t have a massive decal going over them, but hey ho) 

 

looking forward to your work!

 

Rob 

Cheers Rob, so far everything fits ( far better than any of the recent Airfix ones I've built) and it's easy to do wheels up. The opened cooling flaps are a bit dubious with some misshapen bits , also not necessarily correct for in flight but hey, a kit for less than a Starbucks Americano? Who's gonna complain...

 

 

A

[Andre B]

Hi!

I agree with Rob, one of Revell's best kits. I have two kits in the bench with an Academy as well.

 

https://www.ipmsstockholm.se/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10767

 

Concerning Sky's Decals I hade problems with them during an IDF Spifire/Mustang build. They didn't work well with Micro Sol and some of them also cracked when using Tamiya semi gloss clear. Try some decals that you not need before you use the decals you need for the kit...

 

Cheers / André

[Courageous]

Glad to see you back Anil and looks like you're onto a flying start with the 'Jug'.

That is a very clean and tidy bench, don't know modelers can build like that.

Sorry, can't help you with your guitar restoration.

 

Stuart

[Tomoshenko]

12 hours ago, azureglo said:

Utter chaos, scalpel on the wrong side of the single edge nipper, wet or dry not correctly ordered in grit size and the Mr Surfacer 500 is on the right of the 1000! Dear god can any good come out of this insanity? 

...and the Lego base plate is not aligned with the cutting mat grid lines. Shocking work Anil - too much distilled ethanol and feasting with Mr Heath I suspect.

 

Lovely start though. The pilot looks great. Like you I'm averse to using pilots as a rule. Engine looks good too.

[azureglo]

On 5/13/2019 at 8:28 AM, Tomoshenko said:

...and the Lego base plate is not aligned with the cutting mat grid lines. Shocking work Anil - too much distilled ethanol and feasting with Mr Heath I suspect.

 

And I was doing so well., have put away the tools and am checking with Nigel if we  can meet for a glass or fifteen of Chardonnay, the shame of it, how can I ever looking any Danes in the eye? Will I ever truly experience Hygge now ? BTW what is with helicopters and  my favorite Bm'ers? You, @perdu and Nigel are currently all working on them.

 

On 5/12/2019 at 11:15 PM, Andre B said:

Hi!

I agree with Rob, one of Revell's best kits. I have two kits in the bench with an Academy as well.

 

https://www.ipmsstockholm.se/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10767

 

Concerning Sky's Decals I hade problems with them during an IDF Spifire/Mustang build. They didn't work well with Micro Sol and some of them also cracked when using Tamiya semi gloss clear. Try some decals that you not need before you use the decals you need for the kit...

 

Cheers / André

Interesting that, I love Skys decals and have used them here:

 

 

 

I have just about every decal softener on the market ( and have used the crazy brushing on  neat lacquer thinner that one of your fellow modellers came up with!)

 

 

That said I now use boiling water and a paper towel and if that doesn't work, going through the Daco three strength solutions. I wouldn't put Tamiya* clears on anything ever, strictly Gunze super UV Cut/levelling thinner or Alclad aqua as Alcad quite logically can react with lacquer thinners.

 

Anil

 

* Actually I avoid Tamiya generally except for their Nato black which is great tonally but as with all of their stuff rubbish at staying on Mr Surfacer 1500 even when its thinned with modelling nectar- Mr Leveling

[Andre B]

Concerning Sky's Decals I used them on as I wrote on two kits. One Airfix P-51D and one eduard Spitfire Mk. IXe.

 

Both had the same type of red/white IDF decal on their rudders (the rudders comes as separete parts in mentioned kits). And before I even tryed the decals on those kits I made an positive test with an blue/white  IDF Spifire rudder decal. All six decals came from the same decalsheet. And I used exactly the same procedure during applying those decals. But strange as it is the rudder decal on the P-51D cracked. But not the decals on the Spitfire rudders.

 

I also tryed Johnson Clear with the same result. One decal cracked, the other one didn't. 

 

I am totaly confused. I've been building kits for over 40 years. This is the first time ever I experienced cracked decals...

 

Wish you good luck. Following your build with interest! 

 

Cheers / André

Edited May 13, 2019 by Andre B

[azureglo]

9 minutes ago, Andre B said:

 

I am totaly confused. I've been building kits for over 40 years. This is the first time ever I experienced cracked decals...

 

 

That is really annoying: decal making is a fairly mature process and cracked decals are really just the wrong amount of clear film coat/applied at wrong temperature during printing- no excuse for it. I like your build and have P-47M to do, the Academy looks good how was that compared to the Revell?( I have several and was thinking of getting rid of them). Now all I have to do is find a Revell Gripen C that I can do wheels up with that cool skull on the tail, so un-Swedish given what liberal, peaceful  and thoughtful race you are!!

 

Cheers

 

Anil

[Andre B]

1 hour ago, azureglo said:

That is really annoying: decal making is a fairly mature process and cracked decals are really just the wrong amount of clear film coat/applied at wrong temperature during printing- no excuse for it. I like your build and have P-47M to do, the Academy looks good how was that compared to the Revell?( I have several and was thinking of getting rid of them). Now all I have to do is find a Revell Gripen C that I can do wheels up with that cool skull on the tail, so un-Swedish given what liberal, peaceful  and thoughtful race you are!!

 

Cheers

 

Anil

 

 

Mmm...

I think the Academy is the better kit concerning shape. There is an opinion that the Revell kit is a bit "Guppy shaped". But I feel the Revell kits are a bit better engineered. And the Revell decals are much better than the Academy decals. Between Revell and Academy I choose Revell.

 

Looking forward for your Gripen!

 

Cheers / André

[Tomoshenko]

10 hours ago, azureglo said:

BTW what is with helicopters and  my favorite Bm'ers? You, @perdu and Nigel are currently all working on them.

Well technically mate - putting my tinfoil hat on with you being an experienced pilot - mine is an autogyro. That said I take your point. My build needs to fit on a beer mat, so it's convenient and quirky enough. I must admit I am doing research as I intend to do a proper detailed kit bash of the Airfix Belvedere. As is Bill. So watch this space there may be a buddy build. However, I will be retuning to wingy things for my next build so natural order will be restored. As an aside I don't suspect you would be partaking in any of this malarkey:

 

 

[Andre B]

Mmm...

One thing I like with the Academy and Revell kits is that they are so well made that one can build and paint the fuselage and wings separately and don't need to glue the wing to the fuselage until the last moment...

 

Sheers / André

[azureglo]

16 hours ago, Tomoshenko said:

Well technically mate - putting my tinfoil hat on with you being an experienced pilot - mine is an autogyro. That said I take your point. My build needs to fit on a beer mat, so it's convenient and quirky enough. I must admit I am doing research as I intend to do a proper detailed kit bash of the Airfix Belvedere. As is Bill. So watch this space there may be a buddy build. However, I will be retuning to wingy things for my next build so natural order will be restored. As an aside I don't suspect you would be partaking in any of this malarkey:

 

 

Whatever doubts that I had about the sanity of helicopters and those who pilot them have been confirmed by this wildly dangerous example of hedge trimming, even Homer Simpson would think twice about doing this.

 

Re Autogyros, a short play:

 

Pilot: " What is that?"

 

Engineer " An autogyro, I invented it!"

 

Pilot " Where are the wings"

 

Engineer " I took them off and screwed them to  the top like a giant propeller"

 

Pilot: "So what powers them?

 

Engineer: "Nothing, you've have to take off like a normal plane to make them spin"

 

Pilot: "So you taken the worst aspects  of an aeroplane and and a  helicopter and put them together?"

 

Engineer: "Precisely!! Got to be going, have other things to invent"

 

Men in white coats ( carrying giant butterfly nets)  " Excuse Mr Pilot, have you seen a man dressed as engineer recently?"

 

 

 

 

[Andre B]

47 minutes ago, azureglo said:

Whatever doubts that I had about the sanity of helicopters and those who pilot them have been confirmed by this wildly dangerous example of hedge trimming, even Homer Simpson would think twice about doing this.

 

Re Autogyros, a short play:

 

Pilot: " What is that?"

 

Engineer " An autogyro, I invented it!"

 

Pilot " Where are the wings"

 

Engineer " I took them off and screwed them to  the top like a giant propeller"

 

Pilot: "So what powers them?

 

Engineer: "Nothing, you have to take off like a normal plane to make them spin"

 

Pilot: "So you taken the worst aspects  of an aeroplane and and a  helicopter and put them together?"

 

Engineer: "Precisely!! Got to be going, have other things to invent"

 

Men in white coats ( carrying giant butterfly nets)  " Excuse Mr Pilot, have you seen a man dressed as engineer recently?"

 

 

 

 

 

Is there any good 1/72 autogyro out there?

 

Cheers / André

[Tomoshenko]

 

On 5/14/2019 at 12:05 PM, azureglo said:

Re Autogyros, a short play:

 

Pilot: " What is that?"

 

Engineer " An autogyro, I invented it!"

 

Pilot " Where are the wings"

 

Engineer " I took them off and screwed them to  the top like a giant propeller"

 

Pilot: "So what powers them?

 

Engineer: "Nothing, you've have to take off like a normal plane to make them spin"

 

Pilot: "So you taken the worst aspects  of an aeroplane and and a  helicopter and put them together?"

 

Engineer: "Precisely!! Got to be going, have other things to invent"

 

Men in white coats ( carrying giant butterfly nets)  " Excuse Mr Pilot, have you seen a man dressed as engineer recently?"

Heh heh. Put like that who can argue. They even took it a step further and put it on floats too:

 

 

[azureglo]

Gah, @Tomoshenko and his helo abomination replies have put me off my lunch, flying and modelling in that order 🤣 Instead had a fun few days throwing a Sport Cruiser around the sunny skies of South England to trying to justify the £85K purchase price but decided to leave the pennies in the jam jar for now: Plane ownership is expensive in the UK, apart from the yearlys etc, fuel is currently an eye popping £1.70 a litre , then add in all the parking, landing fees etc, that comes to £4000+ per  year,  strewth how's a guy gonna pay for his single malt habit?

 

So back to the bench, : Decided to to go with @Andre B's observation that the wings et al are click fit and spray everything separately then  assemble at the end. My pilot looks like he's in a bad mood, maybe because he left his oxygen mask in the officers mess? The Mr Surfacer 1500 was a dream, easily the best primer to date, look at how smooth that is, done using the single wetcoat method as it self levels so easily.

 

 

 

Wings sprayed up in  Alclad Aluminum with contrasting Duraluminium panels to be applied in due course. As usual the Alclad behaved immaculately, lovely lovely stuff if you can be bothered to learn how to use it. Drilled out the guns with varying degrees of success and 0.2mm drill bits. I have load of aftermarket brass guns ( bought for literally pennies at LSAs closing sale), Albion tube etc but it is a real pain getting eight miniature bits of tube correctly aligned and the same length either side ( Jugs had their guns parallel to the ground not the wing dihedral). Stuff like that usually sucks the joy out  of modelling for me, mind you if I could subcontract stuff like this to Tom or @Nigel Heath...🤔 Seams left in the actual gun area as I was way to lazy to fill and sand even though I have 1mm wide files, in real life its not even noticeable.

 

 

 

Decided to add some mean looking bazooka things I saw in a few reference photos, these came from an Academy P-51B/C. Did the prop of many colours while I was there.

 

 

 

 

Lots of painting and masking on this: Settled for Mr Color Blue Angels blue for the tail on the basis everything else was too bright.. Lots of isolated red bits and an olive drab panel that doesn't go on the fin fillet but the rest of the top fuselage so its masking heaven day for me. Also learnt  the nose art  is by Vargas and one that was often on B-17s amongst others, apparently she's holding a wee doggie. Man those lightning bolts should look cool.

 

 

 

 

Well this one's on track for a May-ish finish, it's good to ensure at least one completion a month, am buying a few kits  soon so am happy the stash will be reduced not increased this year. BTW if there any flickr users out there I just spent 45 minutes trying to set up these images, it seems their move to Amazon Web Services like most IT projects hasn't really been thought through, mind you thats why I left the business after 20 years of sitting in rooms with howling code monkeys...

 

Later,

 

Anil

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Lovely jubbly, Rodney. This time next year we'll be brass gun barrel millionaires.

The model is looking good too. Nice paint,

Regards

Pete

[azureglo]

On 5/24/2019 at 12:58 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

Lovely jubbly, Rodney. This time next year we'll be brass gun barrel millionaires.

The model is looking good too. Nice paint,

Regards

Pete

And my son, wait till we get started on the 100 bottles of Stynylres I've stored in the freezer to stop them going off and 200 old tool Airfix Buccaneers, appreciating in value up  in the loft, well cushtie.

 

On a modeling note my masking on the fuselage has taken a back seat, the Mr Hobby ( not Mr Color) blue angels blue/leveling was still tacky after 24 hours...normally this stuff is rock hard in 30 minutes , even the aqueous. That said I found the same with some RAF roundel colours last year , both lacquer and aqueous took a lot longer than the customary 30 minutes  to dry. It seems not all Gunze is the same, even  the lacquers. That said I was thinking of experimenting with nail varnish: It dries on 5-10 minutes, is self leveling and comes in a gazillion shades. I know of at least one model painted with it and Mr Leveling...and I could do my nails afterwards.

 

 

I got rid of the finger marks by the car painter trick of misting on retarding thinner ( aka mr leveling) and joyfully watching the fingerprints dissolve...if you try this, be sparing and slow with misting, you can flood it and then its a strip and respray if you get runs. To avert boredom, did the nose and added contrast panel to the wings. I'm not going anywhere near that blue tail till Monday when I'm back from my trip to the seaside.

 

Y'know the cliche about masking? This took 1 hour 30 minutes ( there are some funky angled bits and pylons under the wings as well red contrast squares on the cowling flaps)...

 

 

And this took 7 minutes.

 

 

 

Quite pleased, didn't want the overdone ironmongery patchwork I often see and all the colours on the nose came out just right without any paint lift or bleed. As ever Alclad is my friend...I think some wing and nose decalling is in order but that is tomorrow. Tonight is my first sundowner in 14 days, been off the good stuff while I reset my diet as old age approaches

 

Toodle pip 

 

Anil

[Pete in Lincs]

Don't forget your bucket and spade! ♠️

Oh, and stick of rock for everyone when you get back.

[azureglo]

2 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Don't forget your bucket and spade! ♠️

Oh, and stick of rock for everyone when you get back.

Its Southsea: Champagne at Southsea castle and our beach would require a gravel sorter...Good news though, I'll bring back pictures of various beverages that I consumed to share with you all, yes I'm that kinda guy...

[Pete in Lincs]

Well if you can find it, I recommend Wadworth's Swordfish*. An old fashioned tasting ale with a hint of rum. Oh, it's 5.0%.

I have a 500ml bottle beside me now. In the interests of research, you understand.

Have a great weekend,

Pete

 

*Yes, the Aeroplane.

[azureglo]

22 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Well if you can find it, I recommend Wadworth's Swordfish*. An old fashioned tasting ale with a hint of rum. Oh, it's 5.0%.

I have a 500ml bottle beside me now. In the interests of research, you understand.

Have a great weekend,

Pete

 

*Yes, the Aeroplane.

And you have a suitably fab and weird one too, up north!

 

Anil

[Andre B]

As one don't need to glue the wings to the fuselage in an early stage of the build when it comes to the Revell P-47 kits it's a rather fast and simple build. Even when it comes to masking...

 

Good looking progress!

 

Cheers / André

Edited May 24, 2019 by Andre B

[azureglo]

2 minutes ago, Andre B said:

As one don't need to glue the wings to the fuselage in an early stage of the build when it comes to the Revell P-47 kits it's a rather fast and simple build. 

 

Good looking progress!

 

Cheers / André

Cheers Andre, was eyeballing yours, are you doing any more this weekend? They're nearly done.

 

Anil

[Andre B]

2 minutes ago, azureglo said:

Cheers Andre, was eyeballing yours, are you doing any more this weekend? They're nearly done.

 

Anil

Hi Anil,

 

Actually I got one moore...

 

I am trying to build one aircraft of 61, 62 and 63'rd FS. But when it comes to "nearly done" it's a slow build. I dipped the canopy's into "Johnson Clear" yesterday and maybe I paint the frames this weekend. I need to paint the props and wheels too...

 

Cheers / André