RFI number three - Bf109G-2 Black 13, 8/JG52

[jackroadkill]

Here she is, at long, long last, my attempt at Hobby Boss's Gustav, depicted in the colours of Gunther Rall's Black 13, as flown on the Russian front in August 1942.  There's debate as to the camo pattern, whether Rall flew this airframe much (as Staffelkaptain it's said that he flew Black 1 more frequently) and many other things.  For example, HB suggest that the cannon in underwing pods should be installed, but I couldn't find any pictures of the aircraft with them, so I left them.  There's a fair amount of creative interpretation involved here, however you look at it.

 

I started out full of enthusiasm before falling into a long period of near-despair with the kit.  Lots of things broke (undercarriage, tank brackets and pitot head being the prime examples), I had huge paint issues and the kit had several foibles which did it no favours, such as the unseen fuel tank which prevents the wings being joined to the fuselage.

 

The WIP is here, should you fancy a laugh:

 

Once again, I learned lots.  For example:

 

Colourcoats enamels give a much better representation of the RLM paints than Humbrol do.  However, they bring their own challenges which took me a while to discover but allowed me to rely less on weathering to hide colour weaknesses;

Brush-painting mottling is getting easier but can still give headaches;

It's easy to over-weather;

That even an uninhabited cockpit can still take up more work than it's worth;

That making seatbelts out of masking tape can give reasonable results;

Rigging radio aerials using stretched sprue makes the job much easier than fiddling around with thread;

That rescribing panel lines can be really hard, even with the proper tools for the job

That shonky, stick-thin, knock-kneed undercarriages can be vastly improved by drilling the struts out and fixing them to the wing with steel rod.

 

I said in the WIP that it was going to be an OOB build, and it mainly was apart from a few things such as scratching a radio mast after breaking HB's one getting it off the sprue, making the position lights out of Micro Kristal Kleer (the existing ones being really clumsy and unrefined mouldings that were way out of scale), fixing the airscrew to the cowling using a slightly turned-down .410 shogun cartridge head, stealing the pitot tube from another kit and grafting it in after the kit's own one snapped, using solder wire to make tank brackets....

 

This one received far less weathering than my last 109 due to increased confidence.  I'm beginning to feel that I might be able to do this, given some time and practise.  I brush-painted the model, which has its own limitations, but as I don't have an airbrush yet, it's the best I could do.

 

So, the pictures, then.  My photographic skills aren't great, but here she is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At times I loved this kit and at others I hated it.  Now that it's done I'm happy with it inasmuch that it's not too bad (in my eyes) and that I learned a lot.  I'm already putting some of this knowledge into my next build, an Eduard FW190A-3.

 

Any comments, criticisms and observations you have will be gratefully received.

 

Thanks,

 

JRK

[Werdna]

Nice work Jack, turned out well I reckon.  The colours look good, not really seen colourcoats before (that I'm aware of).  Can you explain the 'shotgun cartridge' thing.?  The F-4 I built, the prop just butted up onto the end of the fuselage without issue, although it did seem a bit of a crude means of attachment...

[jackroadkill]

Thanks Werdna, kind of you to say that.

 

 

3 hours ago, Werdna said:

 Can you explain the 'shotgun cartridge' thing.?  The F-4 I built, the prop just butted up onto the end of the fuselage without issue, although it did seem a bit of a crude means of attachment...

 

As you said, the method of attachment for the prop (cement it in and Bob's your uncle) seemed a bit agricultural, and also I thought it would make the airscrew prone to accidents if it was fixed solid.  I made a bush out of the shotgun cartridge's brass head and this, turned down a little, gives a snug yet moveable fit into the cowling, thus hopefully allowing the airscrew to pop off rather than break off should any pressure be applied to it.  The hole in the middle is where the primer lived before I pushed it out, by the way.

 

[Spitfire31]

Thos Black 13 really has the air of a 'working machine' on the muddy/dusty Russian front! The brush painted finish looks really good and in particular, I'm impressed by the splotchy fuselage camouflage that, to my eyes, looks remarkably convincing.

 

About those shonky main gear legs – I think that you may have mixed them up during assembly. The gear makes the plane look like a ballerina on her toes needing to p*e, if you pardon the expression. The legs need to be splayed wider and tilted much more forward in order to give the plane the proper, aggressive ground attitude.

 

Apart from that – an evocative impression of a fighting '09!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[jackroadkill]

36 minutes ago, Spitfire31 said:

Thos Black 13 really has the air of a 'working machine' on the muddy/dusty Russian front! The brush painted finish looks really good and in particular, I'm impressed by the splotchy fuselage camouflage that, to my eyes, looks remarkably convincing.

 

About those shonky main gear legs – I think that you may have mixed them up during assembly. The gear makes the plane look like a ballerina on her toes needing to p*e, if you pardon the expression. The legs need to be splayed wider and tilted much more forward in order to give the plane the proper, aggressive ground attitude.

 

Apart from that – an evocative impression of a fighting '09!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

Thanks Joachim, much appreciated.

 

I know she's stood right up, but the angle the gear was at previously recalled John Wayne when he was not on his horse - so much so that the weight of the aircraft bowed the struts, so I deliberately took it to the angle where the legs would appear straight.  It was a compromise in every respect.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Lovely work there, and far, far better than I will ever achieve with paint brushes!

[stevehnz]

Nice job on that, I especially like your mottlinging, I was bowled over when I read that was brushed, an excellent effect with that.

Steve.

[IanC]

Nice one. I agree that the mottle looks quite effective. Sometimes the real thing looked a bit 'heavier' and less perfect than the way it's usually portrayed on our models! Especially when touch ups were added by ground crews in the field.

[Dunny]

Lovely finish and weathering - great job on the mottling! 

[Uncle Pete]

20 hours ago, jackroadkill said:

I started out full of enthusiasm before falling into a long period of near-despair with the kit. 

 

That's the story of nearly every model I build!  Your result, however, is a cracker. 👍👍

[jackroadkill]

4 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Lovely work there, and far, far better than I will ever achieve with paint brushes!

 

Cheers Jamie - I'm getting the hang of the Colourcoats paints now and they've done me well here.  The next model is an Eduard FW190 and so far the paints are really looking good on it.

 

3 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Nice job on that, I especially like your mottlinging, I was bowled over when I read that was brushed, an excellent effect with that.

Steve.

 

Thanks Steve - mottling by hairy stick is the only option at the moment, so I'm relieved that the results are half-decent.  There's a bit of my inner punk that likes doing it by brush anyway.

 

3 hours ago, IanC said:

Nice one. I agree that the mottle looks quite effective. Sometimes the real thing looked a bit 'heavier' and less perfect than the way it's usually portrayed on our models! Especially when touch ups were added by ground crews in the field.

 

Thanks Ian, that's a theory I've relied on quite heavily here!

 

1 hour ago, Dunny said:

Lovely finish and weathering - great job on the mottling! 

 

Much appreciated - I managed to restrain my enthusiasm  for splattering tons of gunk everywhere at every opportunity!

 

45 minutes ago, Uncle Pete said:

 

That's the story of nearly every model I build!  Your result, however, is a cracker. 👍👍

 

Cheers, Pete, I got it there in the end.  How's the Sunderland coming along?!

[Uncle Pete]

32 minutes ago, jackroadkill said:

How's the Sunderland coming along?!

First I have to find a Sunderland then I have to nail a couple of dozen Sidewinders on it for JATO...

[Jeff G]

Another excellent build! Really impressed with your work on this. I've been on the fence about building some Luftwaffe aircraft in part because the idea of attempting the mottling by brush is terrifying. However, you're changing my mind! 

[jackroadkill]

11 minutes ago, Jeff G said:

Another excellent build! Really impressed with your work on this. I've been on the fence about building some Luftwaffe aircraft in part because the idea of attempting the mottling by brush is terrifying. However, you're changing my mind! 

 

Hi Jeff, thanks very much.  I found a tutorial on Youtube a couple of models back and gave it a try - it's not a perfect method but it works well enough.