Right Said Fred - A Captured Bf109F, Yellow 2. +++++FINISHED+++++

[Ngantek]

Looks characteristically sharp Mark. Turning into a great collection of captured mottles. Perhaps it's my dodgy memory, but I'm not sure I remember you preshading in this style before (as opposed to adding variation after the uniform base coat)?

 

Andy

[Dave Fleming]

On 06/12/2023 at 05:09, mark.au said:

I'm becoming a little obsessed with the captured theme...   The thing is, Luftwaffe aircraft are such an interesting paint challenge and when you couple that with the captured markings and sometimes interesting stories of how the capture occurred, it's a very compelling subject.

 

After a sojourn into jets it's back to a single engine prop, the Bf109F. 

 

This much I have decided. 

 

However, the specific airframe is still up for grabs.  I've narrowed down my choice to one of these three:

 

1.

 

2.

 

3.

 

4.

 

#1 offers good references and clear markings choices.  However, there's a decal set for this one already, so it's a reasonably common subject. 

#2 is less commonly made and I have found three pics of it.  I think I have info enough to replicate it and it's got some visual interest in the retention of some German tactical markings. 

#3 is my current favourite though; look at the weathering opportunities in addition to the markings!  It's even got some new stencilling - "No Step" on the port flap...  Unfortunately, this is the only photo I can find of it so there's going to be some licence necessary on its markings.

#4 is a close second to #3 with the same attractions and challenges.

 

What say you on the choice?

 

Worth mentioning #1 and #4 are the same airframe repainted - which makes the colours on AX-? more intriguing as it's obviously been repainted (Some sources suggest that AX-? was White 9 or Yellow 2 (#2)  - Yellow 2 may have been the F that was seen in overall sand with RAF markings but a swastika on the tail

The colours on KJ-? are a bit of a mystery - it's one of three captured 109Fs that have a very dark colour (The others EY - and GL-?)

There are lots of photos of Yellow 2 on Tinus le Roux's wonderful SAAF Pilots site https://biltongbru.wixsite.com/ww2-saaf-heritage (I have about 46 of Yellow 2, although many are duplicate or near duplicates)

 

e.g.

https://saafww2photographs.yolasite.com/tom-meek-1.php

 

 

 

[mark.au]

On 14/12/2023 at 00:17, Ngantek said:

Perhaps it's my dodgy memory, but I'm not sure I remember you preshading in this style before (as opposed to adding variation after the uniform base coat)?

 

You are right, I don't normally paint that way.  I'm not sure why I did this time but I reminded myself why I don't...  My paint method simply obliterates the pre-shade 😄, read on...

 

On 14/12/2023 at 02:18, Dave Fleming said:

There are lots of photos of Yellow 2 on Tinus le Roux's wonderful SAAF Pilots site https://biltongbru.wixsite.com/ww2-saaf-heritage (I have about 46 of Yellow 2, although many are duplicate or near duplicates)

 

What a fantastic site, thanks for the referral.  I've already browsed a fair bit but barely scratched the surface of what's in there.  Thanks also for the info on #1 and #4 being the same airframe, I didn't know that.

 

I've had a busy week with barely time to check in on BM, I have a lot of catching up to do.  I did however manage to find the time to paint...

 

The uppers went as planned, up to a point.  I painted to the tape and ended up with this.

 

 

As you can see, I wasn't able to keep the RLM79 off the blue, a harbinger of things to come.  I wasn't feeling it to be honest, and the airbrush was playing up such that I couldn't hold a fine line and my finish was getting a bit splattery.  I persitied and only succeeded in going back and forth clearing up endless overspray.  I needed to clean the airbrush. 

 

After a complete strip down and clean I reassembled the airbrush and went back at it freehand.  I got this.

 

 

Pretty happy with that. 

 

What's that you say, I don't believe a line that tight could be achieved with an airbrush?  You'd be right...

 

 

I just could not get it as tight as I wanted so I went t back to blutack.  Churchill said never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense; in this case good sense prevailed and in one attempt I got the basic paint job complete, even if not how I wanted to do it.  As you might imagine, all of the pre-shade had by now been long buried under four or five attempts at free-handing this one.

 

 

 

Next, some texture and depth to this finish before I start to apply the captured markings.

 

Cheers.

 

 

[2996 Victor]

Looks great, Mark, well worth the persistence! Looking forward to seeing the markings going on.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[AliGauld]

Cracking on at a pace, building up to be another spectacular one.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[corsaircorp]

Cracking job here...

Page 2 and almost finished....

Are you going to PAINT the "welle" ???

I can look in my decals surplus if I can find one Errr two of it....

Super job once again...

Late to the party again.....

Well done Mark.... And so fast then....

Sincerely.

CC

[marvinneko]

Beautiful work on the paint. Tack and tape is my plan for painting-- nice to see a great example here. I like the fuzzy edges tack provides. As for freehanding straight lines, that strikes me as a superhuman power!

[mark.au]

19 hours ago, mark.au said:

You are right, I don't normally paint that way.  I'm not sure why I did this time but I reminded myself why I don't...  My paint method simply obliterates the pre-shade 😄, read on...

I was replying to Andy @Ngantek’s comment and want to elaborate further.  In this case I messed up the initial application of the base colours and obliterated the pre-shade but that doesn’t matter anyway.  Next will be some texturing for which I’ll use some thinned variety of faded base colour hues as well as some post-shading to accent wear and paint fade.  All of this would have covered a pre-shade anyway.  Where I use pre-shade more often is the undersides because there the paint is usually lighter and it’s usually less distressed.

 

18 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

Are you going to PAINT the "welle" ???

I can look in my decals surplus if I can find one Errr two of it....

I am going to paint it even though I actually found one in the decal stash.  If I were to use the decal I’d have to match the yellow perfectly to the painted “2” and that would be very tricky.  Better to paint it all the same shade.  Besides, it’s more fun to paint than decal and looks better, too (just my opinion though).

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers.

Edited December 16, 2023 by mark.au
Failure to proof read

[corsaircorp]

3 hours ago, mark.au said:

I was replying to Andy @Ngantek’s comment and want to elaborate further.  In this case I messed up the initial application of the base colours and obliterated the pre-shade but that doesn’t matter anyway.  Next will be some texturing for which I’ll use some thinned variety of faded base colour hues as well as some post-shading to accent wear and paint fade.  All of this would have covered a pre-shade anyway.  Where I use pre-shade more often is the undersides because there the paint is usually lighter and it’s usually less distressed.

 

I am going to paint it even though I actually found one in the decal stash.  If I were to use the decal I’d have to match the yellow perfectly to the painted “2” and that would be very tricky.  Better to paint it all the same shade.  Besides, it’s more fun to paint than decal and looks better, too (just my opinion though).

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers.

That sound right to me too...

Go on young man !!

Can't wait to see it done...

Sincerely.

CC

[bigbadbadge]

Paint looks great Mark you certainly got the line you wanted, despite your airbrush putting up a fight.

Great work

Chris

[jackroadkill]

Yet another of yours that I missed the start of.... Still, I'm here now, so feel free to crack on at your normal pace!

[81-er]

Another late check-in here, but I'm staying for the rest. Superb work so far, Mark, I'm looking forward to the next update

 

James

[mark.au]

5 hours ago, 81-er said:

I'm looking forward to the next update

 

Look no further...  🙂

 

The pics up there of the fresh paint does look very factory fresh and we know that this airframe wouldn't have looked like that when it was in North Africa.  Time to get messy.  The first thing I did was add some post-shading as a base to work on with the paint texturing.  Then, I started to fade the paint on the uppers and sides (I was happy with how the lower surfaces looked already).  In the pic below the rather stark post-shade is evident and I've begun working on the paint fade on the port wing.

 

 

I use very thinned variations on the base coat to build the texture and tone down the post-shade a little.

 

 

At this point I'm happy with the port side but I've gone a little to heavy on the post-shade on the starboard side so more work needed there.  Again, continually playing with the hue of the base colour, sometimes quite a bit lighter but mostly only slightly varied.  I'm also letting this bleed into the blue to distress that colour - it was very blue to begin with but in the desert that wouldn't last long and I would wash out.

 

 

At this point I'm done.  The bright lighting on the bench is accenting the contrast somewhat and washing out a bit of the texture to the RLM79 in particularly.  I'm happy with where it's gotten to.  The post-shade is still a little more pronounced that I would want to end up but the next treatments, including the final semi-flat finish, will soften that effect more to where I want it.  By the way, that's a shadow on the forward portion of the port wing, not a line of different coloured paint.

 

Next I applied a sealing coat of clear gloss to prepare for masking the markings.

 

 

We're heading over to the coast for a few days so there's not going to be any more updates until late in the week.  That'll give everything a good chance to completely cure.

 

A final note; it's a big day in our family as my son completed his final check-flight on the PC12 to begin his commercial pilot career.  He's put in so much time, effort and expense to reach this point of fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming a professional pilot.  Forgive the somewhat self-indulgent proud papa moment of sharing this...

 

 

Cheers.

 

 

[AliGauld]

Congratulations to your laddie. That's a massive achievement. 

A proud dad moment is more than called for. 

 

Cheers 

Alistair 

[81-er]

Definitely a moment to be allowed to be a proud dad, that's a fantastic achievement!

 

James

[bigbadbadge]

Congratulations to your son Mark, that is a fantastic achievement,  you should be justifiably proud.

Great work on the model too, glad to see the weathering start, looking forward to seeing the markings and further effects.

Chris

[marvinneko]

Congrats for your son. May he have many years of safe journeys!

 

When you alter the base hue for filtering, are you adding white / black?

[jackroadkill]

Looking superb, Mark.  You've got a very realistic colour-fade going on there.  Congratulations to your son, too - that's not a quick or simple process for him to have embarked on, so he must have worked his socks off to get there.

[corsaircorp]

Superb job on the Friedrich !!

But moreover !! Congratulations to your son !!

Well done Men !! both the father and son !! That's a great achievement !!

Sincerely.

CC 

[corsaircorp]

1 hour ago, jackroadkill said:

Looking superb, Mark.  You've got a very realistic colour-fade going on there.  Congratulations to your son, too - that's not a quick or simple process for him to have embarked on, so he must have worked his socks off to get there.

I'm doing my 5th ICM Spitfire methink....

I really like that motto.... 

Sincerely.

CC

PS.... Try the ICM Mustangs then, I'm working on both the 3rd and 4th ones....

[Mark]

From one Mark to another, what a fantastic job you’ve done on your Bf109F. The pre-shading works really under desert schemes and you really nailed it!

 

And from one commercial pilot to another, many congratulations to your son! 

[Thom216]

Real nice shading on the model. And great work on the son too! Sounds like you (and he) should be very proud!

[opus999]

Just found this... We kind of overlapped with desert scheme Eduard Bf-109Fs 🙂

 

Paint scheme is beautiful so far... I'm looking forward to more.  I think the topic is really interesting.

 

Also, congratulations to your son and I hope he has many years of safe travels!

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

On 12/16/2023 at 5:15 PM, mark.au said:

 

Look no further...  🙂

 

The pics up there of the fresh paint does look very factory fresh and we know that this airframe wouldn't have looked like that when it was in North Africa.  Time to get messy.  The first thing I did was add some post-shading as a base to work on with the paint texturing.  Then, I started to fade the paint on the uppers and sides (I was happy with how the lower surfaces looked already).  In the pic below the rather stark post-shade is evident and I've begun working on the paint fade on the port wing.

 

 

I use very thinned variations on the base coat to build the texture and tone down the post-shade a little.

 

 

At this point I'm happy with the port side but I've gone a little to heavy on the post-shade on the starboard side so more work needed there.  Again, continually playing with the hue of the base colour, sometimes quite a bit lighter but mostly only slightly varied.  I'm also letting this bleed into the blue to distress that colour - it was very blue to begin with but in the desert that wouldn't last long and I would wash out.

 

 

At this point I'm done.  The bright lighting on the bench is accenting the contrast somewhat and washing out a bit of the texture to the RLM79 in particularly.  I'm happy with where it's gotten to.  The post-shade is still a little more pronounced that I would want to end up but the next treatments, including the final semi-flat finish, will soften that effect more to where I want it.  By the way, that's a shadow on the forward portion of the port wing, not a line of different coloured paint.

 

Next I applied a sealing coat of clear gloss to prepare for masking the markings.

 

 

We're heading over to the coast for a few days so there's not going to be any more updates until late in the week.  That'll give everything a good chance to completely cure.

 

A final note; it's a big day in our family as my son completed his final check-flight on the PC12 to begin his commercial pilot career.  He's put in so much time, effort and expense to reach this point of fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming a professional pilot.  Forgive the somewhat self-indulgent proud papa moment of sharing this...

 

 

Cheers.

 

 

Good for your son, you go ahead and be proud. 

[Biggles87]

Seconded.

 

John