**** DONE: 1/48 Bf 109G6 - Winter War / Eastern Front WWII

[dneid]

Hey, Andy,
Yeah, I was aware of the central seam on the dorsal and ventral sides. I was going to scribe lightly through that lil putty patch there. I am planning on shooting on a light gray as a primer to verify the seams and any fills other than that seam. But, thank you for the reminder. I always loved that about the 109

I wanted to post the pic of the new 109 F/G/K book. Nice book and I think it is an excellent addition the reference library I am slowly rebuilding. I sure miss all those old Squadron walk arounds and so many other refences I had that my ex donated away on me.

I do have one question for you 109 experts. That area under the leading edge slat, I assume it was RLM02 with over spray from all the field resprays?

 

[Wayne Little]

Yes and probably!

However the slats did move freely so they were more than likely closed for main painting.

 

[dneid]

Hey, Guys,
Well, I think I am close to ready to start final finishing. I have the majority of the main build just about done. I did get the yellow ID band, yellow cowling, white wing tips, and white rudder painted. I need to get pics of that work done. Just waiting for the paint to dry. In the meantime, I do have a couple of pictures to share.
1st is thew plane mostly assembled and the final seam fills done. Again, just a tad of putty was used. Almost all of it was done with the Q-tip/Acetone method.

Next is a shot of the rear lower radiators. I chose not to go with a dark iron as called out in the instructions. I used Vallejo's black wash to tone done the PE effect and to get the details to pop a lil better.

Last is the exhaust. I painted them on the tree. I started with a base coat of gun metal. As this was drying, I dribbled a few drops of gunmetal and rust onto the tile. I used a small brush to mix some together for that "just" right mix. I let the base coat dry until it was just tacky. I then dry brushed the mix onto the exhausts. I was going for a very light textured look and a light dusting of rust. Under the magnifying/florescent light, it looked good. Installation and handling resulted a bit of the finish getting off. I will tape around the fuse after final finish and touch these spots up with more rust and maybe some steel.

Wayne, thank you for the feedback on the RLM02 question. I will need to figure out how to get some RLM02 in place as I have the slats installed and partially down. I am thinking after final finish I will mask the area and shoot a tiny splash of RLM02 into the exposed area under the slats.

 

[Slam]

Looking good to me. It's safe to assume 02 was sprayed pretty much everywhere the sun don't shine.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Nice bit of work there, exhaust looks good. Ref that rubbed off paint Dale, I have found that a quick coat of something like Future over paintwork, especially acrylic helps to protect the paint from rubbing off or scratches when being handled.

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking good Dale. The exhaust colour is spot on.

 

[Wayne Little]

Wayne, thank you for the feedback on the RLM02 question. I will need to figure out how to get some RLM02 in place as I have the slats installed and partially down. I am thinking after final finish I will mask the area and shoot a tiny splash of RLM02 into the exposed area under the slats.

That's how i would do it at this latter stage....and your most welcome sir!

 

[dneid]

Hey, guys,
Ok, I am starting to think through the steps for final finish. Obviously, RLM76 1st on the belly and sides. The the 75/74 on the upper surfaces. I do have a couple of questions for Luftwaffe color scheme experts. Referencing the pic below.
1) Is the boundary between the 76 and 74/75 a soft edge? If so, any ideas on replicating that? That is just too fine a line for me to try it free hand. A stack of post it notes cut to shape? Any other ideas?
2) It looks like the boundaries between the 74/75 are hard edged?
3) Notice the grey on the bottom side just aft the wings? Is that an overspray of either 74/75 or exhaust staining or artistic license?

Geesh, these Luftwaffe schemes can drive a man batty! Thanks in advance for the assist.

 

[Wurger]

Here you are an enlarged and clipped shot of the White 7. What do you think about the demarcation line?

 

[dneid]

Thanks, Wurger!!! I figured I could count on you. Man, you must have a reference library to die for!!! Looks like a hard edge to me.

 

[Donivanp]

Looking goooooodd.

 

[Crimea_River]

Soft edge in my opinion Dale. Thing is, at any sort of distance, the overspray is not visible and it appears hard. You need to be very close to see it and that's why it's easy to over-think the difference at scales of 1/48 and smaller. Again my opinion.

Take a look at the 109 on page 17 of your book referenced in post 61. You can see that the demarcations on both the fuselage and on the wings are soft, albeit fairly tight. And here's a pic of a modern example, though I normally take modern paint schemes with a grain of salt. It does, however, illustrate how clean the edge can appear though it's indeed soft.

I have found that doing a free-hand sprayed demarcation in 1/48 to be tricky to get to look realistic but it can be done. 1/32 for sure but 1/72 nigh impossible. The cleanest edge can be achieved by spraying AWAY from the edge you are doing. For example, let's say the model is upright and you are painting one of the darker colours over the 76 on the fuselage. In this case, the airbrush would point up when you are painting the edge (not that you'd hold it that way but it illustrates my point).

Other simpler but more time consuming methods are use of Blu-tac "worms" or raised masking tape, both of which allow a little bit of paint to swirl in the space between the mask and the model, making a decent soft edge. I've had varying success with both but my Mosquito, on which I used the "worms" came out not too bad:

 

[dneid]

Thanks for the feedback, Andy! This finish will really push my airbrushing skills. Thanks for the obvious reminder of 1/48 scale. It is easy to forget as my engineering mind overthinks this. Time to grab some spare plastic sheet, roll it up a bit and practice, practice, practice. I do have an old 109E around here someplace as well. Yeah, that's the ticket.

 

[JKim]

I am also thinking about scale effects on camo demarcation lines. I've only done hard masks and free hand to this point but I'd like to try something different for my Dora.

 

[Wurger]

The tip is the thicker mask material is the softer line you can get.

 

[Slam]

Gents, have a good look at Wurger's post #69. If there was a yellow fuselage band, it appears to have been over-painted. That paint job just got more interesting...

 

[mikewint]

Really nice progress Dale

 

[Crimea_River]

Gents, have a good look at Wurger's post #69. If there was a yellow fuselage band, it appears to have been over-painted. That paint job just got more interesting...

Good point.

 

[T Bolt]

Just caught up with this whole thread. Doing a wonderful job there Dale :thumgright:

 

[dneid]

The tip is the thicker mask material is the softer line you can get.

Wurger, should I interpret this as the greater the spacing between the mask and the surface to be painted, like thicker blue tack "worms"? I think this is what you are saying. The little bit of experimenting I did this evening seem to bear this out.

I did try some freehand stuff as well. I am rather surprised how well the freehanding went. Is it good enough for all the painting on this one? No, the blue tack idea was the best. However, I feel much better about freehanding the various "splotches" on the sides of the fuselage though. Not 100% convinced but, it could be doable. I need to play around more with thinning and air pressure first.

I need to pick up some clean, fresh sheet for further experimenting. My goal is stay organized and keep good notes. From there, I will post some pictures and a brief how to for others in an attempt to contribute on a level approaching what you, Andy, Wayne, Vic, Geo, Terry, and others do. You guys are a wealth of knowledge and so very willing to contribute to us all. I need to "pay it forward".