**** DONE: GB-36 1:48 BF109G-14 - Axis Manufactured Aircraft of WWII

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Looking good Andy! I really like the curveballs that the Luftwaffe schemes throw our way. The light 77 color makes this 109 really stand out!
 
Thanks very much guys. I gloss coated the uppers and must say that I'm really not happy with how the 74 on the wing uppers turned out. I think I will redo it. Pics later.
 
As mentioned above, I was hoping that the gloss coat would help to subdue some of the variations in colours that I applied for the RLM74. I intentionally made it a bit patchy but to my mind, the effect looks too deliberate and pronounced at this scale.

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I therefore mixed up another batch and reapplied the 74 in a more uniform fashion and then reapplied the gloss coat. I'm much happier now with the result.

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Also on the to-do list was to fix the width of the black RV band and this is now done. I managed to match the lightened black well enough to not have to redo the whole black area.

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Whilst all that was going on, I was also attending to some of the other do-dads that will be added. Below is a pic of the finished gear legs. Brake lines were added using lead wire and solder and the attachment bands are aluminum foil.


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Also done are the prop blades. The pic of the actual aircraft from the rear quarter clearly shows extreme wear on the back of the blades toward the tips so I replicated that by spraying on some Alclad Duraluminum and then the RLM 70 which I feathered out toward the tips. A final chip effect was then done with a silver pencil.

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The blades are supposed to be installed before the spinner is glued to the back plate but by simply removing the small pins at their bases, this step can be left for later. This enables me to work on the spinner spiral without the blades in and I'll post progress on that next.
 
Excellent work Andy! I agree that the 74 looks better than before. I would've preferred to keep a little bit more of the pre-shade but maybe there's more there than the photos portrays. I've found it difficult to capture the true effect with the camera. Will you be adding any RLM 75 to the wings?
 
Looking real nice Andy. I actually wouldn't have been too fussed about the RLM 74, depending on what weathering is to come. If you are going to do some washes and even a filter, you will find this effect will become subdued and better blended. Even the final flat coat will subdue it.

Nice work on the prop blades. One day somebody needs to explain to me the aerodynamics of why they got worn on the tips on the rear side, although I have a vague idea...
 
Nice work all round Andy, especially the prop blades, and the paint on the wings does look better now.

Kirby, re the wear on the rear face of the prop blades; in a nutshell, the rear of each blade is subject to more abrasion due to being in turbulent air from the preceding, rotating blade, and also sees more abrasion from ground running, due to dust etc etc.
 
Thanks very much guys.

John, there's no plan to add any 75 to the wings as it appears to be just the 2 colours. The tail planes, probably manufactured at a different place, is thought to have standard 74/75. I agree that the pre-shade has pretty much disappeared by this time but the 74 is quite dark anyway so not much was visible even with the first application.

Kirby, I did think twice about redoing it but I just thought it was too much and too light. Had it been a bigger subject, I might have found it acceptable but in this case I wasn't prepared to wait until after the decals were on to have regrets. I will do a wash and prehaps soem very light post shading though.

Anyhoo, here is the spinner with the spiral applied. Kagero somehow have determined that the spiral is wider than normal so I looked through my decal stash to use the one that most suited that description. This one came from my Eagle Cals 109K-4 sheet and turned out to be quite brittle so there are a few spots where I've had to touch up the white.

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I have also installed the wheels on the under carriage legs and applied a brown wash to resemble dried mud. The placard decal is unfortunately a bit off register but no big deal to the naked eye.


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Hope to get some decal work going today. Thanks again for your visits and comments.
 
Very nicely done Andy, especially the spinner spiral. I always have problems with spiral decals, probably due to my bent hands !
 

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