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Messerschmitt Bf109E-4/7 Trop North Africa


AaronKSJ

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Ahoy. 

I was trying to come up with some sort of pun title referencing The Song.... 

Best I could come up was:

I bless the planes down in Africa
I hear the Huns echoing tonight

I then I got distracted again looking at the kit
 

2021-02-16_09-40-11

 

No surprise I'll be doing this scheme 
 

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And as far as aftermarket stuff goes, managed to track these down in the attic 
 

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Had these kicking around since I was in my teens, went through a Tamiya Luftwaffe phase. 

This'll be my first German plane build in a long time! I'm very excited to take a bash at the dessert camo, I'll need to make sure I practice on some test plastic before committing to olive splotches. 
For the main camo I've bought some Mr Hobby colours. 

Also working on a Stug over in the Panzer III GB, but planning on spending Saturday starting this, so until then!

Aaron

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Morning All

On Saturday I managed to spend a fair chunk of that day working on the 109 with occasional Stug interludes. 

Sprue shots - nice, good quality Tamiya grey plastic 😀
 

2021-02-22_11-04-20

 



Cockpit is pretty much finished. 

Main colours used are from My Hobby, with some details picked out using GamesWorkshop. 

Used a line wash a of grey with a touch of brown, black bits dry brushed with a light grey. 


Bit of North Africa pigments scrubbed into the floor. 

Seat belts are a little iffy, not 100% happy with the colour (Tamiya Buff, with a brown wash) and glued in a little skewed.
 

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The instrument decal went on well with some Micro set/sol. Most of the dials settled in the correct place. 
 

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Finished the gunsight yesterday, so next step is getting the fuselage joined up - which is a surprise to be at this point already!

Aaron

 

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20210302_111108


Bit more progress on the 109. 

Need to figure out how to re-scribe the panel line down the spine of the fuselage as it's been lost with sanding. 

Ignore the incorrect air filter, it's just pushed in place. 

I'll be posing the flaps and slats, up and closed so those parts are being trimmed at the moment. 



 

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Paint them first! I once had 11 Revell 1:72 Panther D/A/G:s built and painted for wargaming - except they were all without wheels and tracks. Needless to say, they ended up binned, the task was just too big 😞

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On 02/03/2021 at 20:10, vppelt68 said:

11 Revell 1:72 Panther D/A/G:s built and painted for wargaming - except they were all without wheels and tracks


Jeez. That sounds like a fresh new horror you'd discovered! 

Tackled re-scribing the panel line down the spine last night. Used a bit of insulation tape. With it's thickness it did the job well. 
 

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Need to run a small amount of Tamiya extra thin down it to smooth it out a tad. 
 

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Used a bit of Mr Surface 1000 in few other spots
 

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There was a slight gap either side of the cowl section join, brushed on a small amount of Mr Surface 1200, which nicely sank into the gap to plug it while still keeping a panel line so when I add a wash it'll stand out. The area was then given a swipe with a cotton bud to clean it up
 

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Aaron

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Evening Folks

Not an exciting update,  bit a little progress

Couple of sink marks in each wing got sorted out. First time using my sprue goo and it worked a treat
 

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Some more bits glued into place
 

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Some reasonable sized gaps under each elevator, some putty should make quick work of them tomorrow.
 

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I've been a bit lazy and not bothered to add the panel line to underside of the fuselage. But there's time for me to change my mind yet. 

Aaron

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20210310_155247


Possibly my least favourite bit now done, masking off the wheelwells (oh actually, the cockpit masking is definitely worse but heyho) 

Used bits of torn / cut up kitchen paper dampened into place with a wet paint brush then sealed in place with some slightly watered downed PVA glue. 

Clear bits have been dipped in Pledge and drying before masking. 

Might get some primer on it over the weekend with a bit of luck

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Quick question, the boundary  between the sand and the light blue, should it be a sharp line or feathered slightly?

 

Got the primer on today, so getting closer to having fun with the green splotches 

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Evening all

Been getting some paint on the Bf 109 over the past few days. 

Primed with some Mr Mahogany 1000 (had wanted some black primer but wasn't in stock) 

Underside has been sprayed with Mr Hobby Light Blue H418. Tried doing a mottle coat over the brown primer for some various but wasn't that successful. 

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Top coat was using H066 sandy brown, tried the a mottle coat again and had more luck with some tonal variation. 

After finishing, felt the H066 looks too dark. 

Didn't have a vast amount of colours to choose from but mixed some H066 with Tamiya XF60 Dark Yellow which was heavily thinned and applied. 

Remembered to take a progress shot at this point to show the difference.

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Here a few pics once I'd finished the re-spraying
 

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Think the colour looks better, but still not quite right.  

Next up is trying to free hand spray the green over this :fingerscrossed:

 

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Painting was a complete disaster :cry:

 

couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.

 

Had a bit of sheet plastic that I was testing on and thing seemed reasonable.

 

But when it came to painting the 109 couldn't control the paint that we'll.

 

Was shooting at around 10psi with a 0.2 needle. Tried different pressures and paint dilutions. The biggest issue seemed to be that when the paint started to spray it would slightly flood the area creating an obvious circle. 

 

The airbrush had been stripped down and cleaned and added a few drops of oil to improve the trigger action as it seemed a bit jerky. (Mmmm jerky)

 

Then tried stippling the paint on with a trimmed down brush. Used q bit of SLT to dilute as normal and it melt the earlier paint work and made a right mess. 

 

With the airbrush creating small circular floods it had created an obvious paint bump / ripple. 

 

So at this point in full of strop mode decided to strip it back so that I could reprime and start again. 

 

So SLT and kitchen paper came out and managed to make it into massive gunky mess. 

 

Fairly safe to say it's trashed and has been placed in the cupboard of shame. 

 

If anyone can recommend something that's good to strip the remaining paint off I'll consider starting again. 

 

I was recently was given the ICM 1/32 Gladiator which I was tempted to start last night as an alternative for the GB. But feeling a tad disheartened after butching the 109. Also not sure if I have a suitable paint for the interior as it calls for taniya XF5 and I just have some US and later(?) British interior green. 

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've just about stopped sulking now :ner:

Stripped some more of the gunk off with SLT and re-primed it this afternoon. 
The finish is still a bit shoddy in places as it didn't strip all the paint. 

If nothing else it'll be good airbrushing practice rather than a waste of a kit.... :fingerscrossed:

 

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*Ding Ding* Round Two

Spent yesterday starting the re-spray. 

Had a lot more success with the mottle coat for the undersides this time around so please with that improvement!
Forget to take a photo after blending the blue and it's under masking at the moment.
 

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I think the issues I've been having with spraying where due to low pressure and not thinning the paint enough.... Dare I say I'm feeling slightly more confident about taking the olive green later. 

Annnnd top coat reapplied. 
 

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With my first attempt I felt the sand brown was too dark, so this time around tried a different tactic.

Added a first mottle coat using H-066, then added some XF-88 (dark yellow II) to the mix and applied that focusing in the middle of the panels. Then blended it by adding some more XF-88 to the mix and spraying thin coats. I think it looks ok, but maybe should have some more orange in there? Thoughts welcome and any suggestions for other RLM79 colours would be useful. 


I'm going to leave the masking in place and work on the olive green at some over this week with some look. 
I'm still a bit in two minds, I can try airbrushing again or I can go the brush painting route. But if brush painting will need to find a suitable acrylic to use as I found last time when brushing Mr Hobby over the MH sandy brown it softened the paint and became smudgy. 

Thanks for looking in. 

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Putting a coat of varnish on before mottling might stop the base colour dissolving, particular if said varnish is the old fashioned non acrylic type - I had to do that in the past to stop Humbrol Clearfix dissolving acrylic paint and even decals when fitting canopies but now I am more careful with the "glue".

 

Pete

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On 30/03/2021 at 19:15, PeterB said:

Putting a coat of varnish on before mottling might stop the base colour dissolving

 

I'm still debating trying with airbrush. Will need to do a lot of practicing first, this time!

 

I usually just use Klear to varnish, think I've got some tamiya acrylic gloss and some Mig Ammo varnish - but not sure if any of them would hold up to me brush painting mr hobby diluted with Self levelling thinner. 

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Your picture of the photoetch alone brought back memories; I've got 2/3 of that same sheet tucked away as well.

 

Generally brilliant work, and I love your mottle technique for the large color areas. Keen to see how you strike on from here!

 

Cheers

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Glad to see you had another go at the paintwork on this rather than shelving it :thumbsup: Hopefully the green works out now as well :pray:

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