**** DONE: GB-36 1/32 Bf109G-10 Erla - Axis Manufactured Aircraft of WWII

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Thanks guys! The Revi gun sight has been added to the instrument panel. I'll be putting on the canopy and windscreen soon.




Revell has engineered the kit so that the control surfaces are movable. I don't particular like that idea as they would most likely flop around, droop to the lowest position (for the horizontal surfaces anyway) and wear off paint. So I am going to glue the control surfaces into place. The rudder is the first to be glued on.


I am thinking about the camo finish although it is a few steps ahead. I am going to do Hartmann's White Double Chevron G-10. Anders Hjortsberg has a nice profile of Hartmann's G-10 on his Profile Paintshop website...



Anders concedes the speculative nature of this profile since only the fuselage from the cockpit forward is represented in the existing photos of this machine. Anders chose to portray the bottom as natural metal with light blue (RLM 76) wing tips and control surfaces. Is an all RLM 76 bottom just as likely? Both Eagle Cal and Barracuda Erla G-10 decal sets have representatives of both bottom treatments. Should I just pick one or is one more likely than the other for this particular machine? I am leaning towards doing the RLM 76 bottom as I feel I can do a better job of it than the metal finish, which I don't particularly like to do.
 
There are those who could tell you based on W Nr and factory which scheme was likely John but I'm not one of them. I would hope that the profile artist did his homework in that regard but many don't.
 
Getting closer to painting as I add the final details to the cockpit before closing it up. I've added the little lights on the forward cockpit walls. I lost the resin pieces to the carpet monster. I cut off the lights from the kit cockpit sidewalls since they weren't used and proceeded to lose one of those as well. I fashioned one out of a 1/48 machine gun barrel. Futzing with those lights also knocked out the optical glass from the Revi sight so I had to cut some new ones from clear acetate. Can't see it well but I painted the edges of the rear glass a clear blue/green.




The clear canopy parts can now be glued into place. I've also attached the horizontal stabs and wing ailerons. Those middle flaperons are just snapped into place for now.


One the bottom, the center panels including the ammo chute openings have been glued into place.




I'll have to do some minor fill work on that bottom panel area as well as the windscreen and canopy. But I'm that much closer to painting!
 
Thanks for the comments! Some more focused work on smaller parts... the wing tip lights. I used a micro drill bit and drilled a hole halfway into the clear piece from the back. This hole was then filled with clear red and blue paint to simulate a colored light bulb. A little bit more elegant than simply painting the piece a solid color.


The clear part of the lens will be masked with a liquid mask prior to painting.


I've glued the tab mount for the aerial to the tail fin. It's not at the tip of the rudder so hopefully, it won't get knocked off. I also punched a circular tape mask for the clear antenna port on the fuselage.


The Barracuda resin exhausts were painted next. First, they were given a base coat of black.


Alclad Duralumin was used as the base metal coat for the exhausts.


Alclad Exhaust Manifold, which is a bronzish brown sort of color, is misted onto the exhausts.


I used a darker metal shade, Alclad Steel, at the bases of the exhaust pipes. Instead of a uniform color, I want each pipe to look like a separately weathered piece of equipment.


The next step is to add some rusty accents to each pipe. I use a rusty reddish brown color and dry-dab it onto the exhausts with a stiff brush. Similar to dry-brushing but I poke the brush instead of stroking it.


The ends of each pipe are highlighted using black through the airbrush. I isolate each pipe end with a Post-It. Again, my aim is to differentiate each pipe from the unit as much as possible.


Here is what exhausts look like after painting.




The clear pieces are sprayed with the interior color, RLM 66. This acts as a primer as well and it reveals some funky uneveness on the windshield piece on the starboard side that I was unaware of. That led me to inspect the whole perimeter of the windshield/canopy joint and perform a round of puttying/sanding.


 
Upon looking at the close-up pics of the exhausts, I wasn't quite happy with the results, so I decided to do a little more work on them. I resprayed them with Duraluminum but sprayed lightly so that it did not cover the previous work entirely. I thought this might create a little more depth.


The exhausts were given a re-mist of Exhaust Manifold.


And again, the bases were sprayed with a darker metallic color.


The dry-dabbing of the rusty color was performed more carefully this time, making sure that my splotches were not as big.


Finally, the tips of the pipes were highlighted with black.




A test fit onto the fuselage to see how the painted exhausts look.


 
amen to the brutality of the close up. That's one thing I'm an expert on john....from bitter personal experience.

I think your work on those joint and the re-scribed panel lines is top class.
 
Very nice overall. When I use CA to fill in panel lines and such to be sanded I hit it with accelerator and start sanding almost immediately.

I never understood why people needed accelerator when CA glue sets so fast. Now that I've started to fill panel lines with it, I've found that small drops of undisturbed CA glue might take a few minutes to dry. Ahhh... the accelerator makes sense!
 

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