turbo
Staff Sergeant
Wheels look great.
**** DONE: GB-36 1:48 BF109G-14 - Axis Manufactured Aircraft of WWII
- Thread starter Crimea_River
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Wheels look great.- Thread starter
- #82
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks Kirby. Unfortunately we can't say the same of the decals as I had a setback here.
After combing through my decal stash, I decided to use a combination of decals from Eagle Strike and Eagle Cals. My first decal to be applied was an Eagle Cal fuselage cross. It had an RLM 74 background that matched exactly the colour that I had already applied so I decided to use these rather than mask and paint the 74 background and apply the plain white cross. After applying the decal and my usual careful Solvaset solution, I went ahead with the upper wing crosses for which I used Eagle Strikes. The latter behaved beautifully but when I went back to see what was going on with the fuselage cross, I noticed that the edges of the decals were curling in and UNDER the decal. I never had that happen to me! I therefore made a quick decision to pull the decal off using masking tape. Unfortunately, it didn't come off cleanly and some of the underlying paint also came with it while some of the decal stubbornly stayed in place.
I sanded the area with a micromesh pad to get the rest of the decal off and to smooth out the edges of the removed paint as best I could, though some of the weren't co-operating.
The black band was then masked (third time!) and RLM 76 was resprayed:
Then the 75 mottles were added:
...as was the 74.
I then measured up and cut a mask for the cross background. The inner edges aren't quite even but that's OK since these will be hidden by the decal.
Finally, the cross background was sprayed and another gloss coat applied. I went extra heavy on the part where the paint edges didn't feather in nicely and once the gloss is dry, I will give this a light sand to even out the surface.
I'm curious if anyone else has ever seen a decal behave like that and what, if anything could be done about it. I bought the sheet for my unbuilt 109K-4 and am now leery about using it.
After combing through my decal stash, I decided to use a combination of decals from Eagle Strike and Eagle Cals. My first decal to be applied was an Eagle Cal fuselage cross. It had an RLM 74 background that matched exactly the colour that I had already applied so I decided to use these rather than mask and paint the 74 background and apply the plain white cross. After applying the decal and my usual careful Solvaset solution, I went ahead with the upper wing crosses for which I used Eagle Strikes. The latter behaved beautifully but when I went back to see what was going on with the fuselage cross, I noticed that the edges of the decals were curling in and UNDER the decal. I never had that happen to me! I therefore made a quick decision to pull the decal off using masking tape. Unfortunately, it didn't come off cleanly and some of the underlying paint also came with it while some of the decal stubbornly stayed in place.
I sanded the area with a micromesh pad to get the rest of the decal off and to smooth out the edges of the removed paint as best I could, though some of the weren't co-operating.
The black band was then masked (third time!) and RLM 76 was resprayed:
Then the 75 mottles were added:
...as was the 74.
I then measured up and cut a mask for the cross background. The inner edges aren't quite even but that's OK since these will be hidden by the decal.
Finally, the cross background was sprayed and another gloss coat applied. I went extra heavy on the part where the paint edges didn't feather in nicely and once the gloss is dry, I will give this a light sand to even out the surface.
I'm curious if anyone else has ever seen a decal behave like that and what, if anything could be done about it. I bought the sheet for my unbuilt 109K-4 and am now leery about using it.
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
That's a bit of a b*gger, but it looks like you're winning.
I've recently had similar problems with new decals, although they haven't curled under, just upwards and crinkled, after they'd been setting and had smoothed for more than 24 hours.
On the Mossie FB.VI, the code letters, from Xtradecal/Microscale, bubbled a few hours after the gloss sealing coat, although they did settle down eventually. I'd never had this happen with new, quality decals before - old, brittle ones, yes, but not new ones.
I've recently had similar problems with new decals, although they haven't curled under, just upwards and crinkled, after they'd been setting and had smoothed for more than 24 hours.
On the Mossie FB.VI, the code letters, from Xtradecal/Microscale, bubbled a few hours after the gloss sealing coat, although they did settle down eventually. I'd never had this happen with new, quality decals before - old, brittle ones, yes, but not new ones.
parsifal
Colonel
very good work indeed
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Good fix on the decals Andy. Misbehaving decals are always a pain in the arse. I've been doing more masked markings whenever possible but that's easier in 1/32 than the smaller scales. The spinner looks good and the landing gear especially is very well done!
As far as my previous comment, I thought that the lighter grey may have been an overspray over the more common 74/75 scheme but I don't have anything specific to base it on... just my initial thought. Carry on!
As far as my previous comment, I thought that the lighter grey may have been an overspray over the more common 74/75 scheme but I don't have anything specific to base it on... just my initial thought. Carry on!
decals will sometimes bite you in the @ss....good recovery Andy.
- Thread starter
- #88
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks everyone. I will attack the fuselage crosses today.
John, yes, I understand what you mean and it's a good point. I'm really just relying on the Kagero Topcolours publication showing the two-colour scheme and am hoping that they have some credible grounds for showing it this way. Though I'm far from an expert, I'm thinking that this variation could have been a factory-specific scheme as an example of a two colour scheme using 77 appears in Gaemperle's Captured Eagles an possibly Green's Augsburg's Last Eagles.
I'd love to hear some more educated opinions on the topic!
John, yes, I understand what you mean and it's a good point. I'm really just relying on the Kagero Topcolours publication showing the two-colour scheme and am hoping that they have some credible grounds for showing it this way. Though I'm far from an expert, I'm thinking that this variation could have been a factory-specific scheme as an example of a two colour scheme using 77 appears in Gaemperle's Captured Eagles an possibly Green's Augsburg's Last Eagles.
I'd love to hear some more educated opinions on the topic!
- Thread starter
- #89
Crimea_River
Marshal
I declare success, though the divot in the paint can still be seen despite my sanding attempt. The flat coat will reduce the visibility quite a bit so I'm not worried.
The fuel type triangle will be partially obliterated with a touch up of 74. Close examination of the photos of the actual rig shows this to be the case. Also, there's no MW50 stencil on the starboard side so I left it off.
An overall shot showing most of the decals in place. These have been given another shot of gloss. The reason I say most is that the little personal emblem of crossed hammers still needs to be added but for this I need to spray a background colour as the Kagero decals just have a white outline on the handles. I'll use RLM 02 and will mask and spray the slat and flap details at the same time. That's tomorrow's job.
The fuel type triangle will be partially obliterated with a touch up of 74. Close examination of the photos of the actual rig shows this to be the case. Also, there's no MW50 stencil on the starboard side so I left it off.
An overall shot showing most of the decals in place. These have been given another shot of gloss. The reason I say most is that the little personal emblem of crossed hammers still needs to be added but for this I need to spray a background colour as the Kagero decals just have a white outline on the handles. I'll use RLM 02 and will mask and spray the slat and flap details at the same time. That's tomorrow's job.
Thats looking good Andy.
Great to see a Blue numbered aircraft, we don't see them often.
Great to see a Blue numbered aircraft, we don't see them often.
turbo
Staff Sergeant
Nice fix Andy, she's coming together nicely now 
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Liking this a lot - nice work Andy.
- Thread starter
- #94
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks everyone. I am enjoying this one and am pleased with the results so far, decal issue notwithstanding. The next step was to do some additional masking and to paint on some RLM 02 in selected spots. Probably should have done this before the other decals went on and before the gloss coat but I do get ahead of myself sometimes. No big deal as I really took a lot of the tackiness off the tape to ensure that it wouldn't affect any decals that it came into contact with.
The first order of business was to paint a little X for the background of the hammer handles in Erler's personal emblem. For this, I placed the emblem decal underneath a piece of that paper that protects decals and traced the pattern onto it.
After carefully cutting out the X with a sharp scalpel, the mask was placed along with others over the surfaces exposed by the open slats. Not shown here is another set of masks that I added at the rolled out portion of the flaps.
Here's the result on the port wing after peeling off the mask.
The personal emblem decal is now in place. I didn't quite catch the entire handle with the 02 mask but it looks fine if you're not using a microscope.
The last decal to be placed is the flap indicator stencil. I cut the last strip off as I figure the flap is not quite fully deployed as I've built it.
Next will be a panel wash and flat coat, followed by some more subtle weathering effects. Thanks again for the comments guys. Very much appreciated.
The first order of business was to paint a little X for the background of the hammer handles in Erler's personal emblem. For this, I placed the emblem decal underneath a piece of that paper that protects decals and traced the pattern onto it.
After carefully cutting out the X with a sharp scalpel, the mask was placed along with others over the surfaces exposed by the open slats. Not shown here is another set of masks that I added at the rolled out portion of the flaps.
Here's the result on the port wing after peeling off the mask.
The personal emblem decal is now in place. I didn't quite catch the entire handle with the 02 mask but it looks fine if you're not using a microscope.
The last decal to be placed is the flap indicator stencil. I cut the last strip off as I figure the flap is not quite fully deployed as I've built it.
Next will be a panel wash and flat coat, followed by some more subtle weathering effects. Thanks again for the comments guys. Very much appreciated.
fubar57
General
That's some fine masking
- Thread starter
- #96
Crimea_River
Marshal
Cheers Geo. Just noticed the tiny glue bubbles on the wheel bulges. Damned close-ups!
Great stuff Andy
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Beauty !
- Thread starter
- #99
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks chaps.
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