**** FINISHED: 1/48 BF109F-2 "Hermännchen" - Winter War / Eastern Front WWII

[Crimea_River]

Username: Crimea River
First name: Andy
Category: Judge – Non competing
Scale: 1/48
Manufacturer: Zvezda
Model Type: Bf109F-4
Aftermarket addons: Eagle Strike Decals, Eduard PE Seat Belts and some scratch building in cockpit and engine area.

Here are the finished pics of this build and 4 extras.

 

[Wurger]

 

[le_steph40]

Miam !!!

 

[chris brown]

Beautiful job! Top notch work there. Way to go, Andy!

 

[Jeff Hunt]

Yep....nuff said

Jeff

 

[rochie]

incredible job Andy, well done my friend

 

[imalko]

Excellent work Andy. well done.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks chaps.

 

[JKim]

Great looking bird! The engine looks amazing and the paint scheme is captured beautifully!

 

[Totalize]

I just love the camo work you did here Andy. Top notch for sure.

 

[waterman]

Bravo! Fantastic! I really like the job you did on the engine. If you don't mind, I'm hoping to use your work on the engine as a blue print...I hate searching for photos. Your work here has inspired me to resume work on my Zvezda kits...

The conversation in this thread about hollowing out the kit exhausts peaked my curiosity. Your comment about drilling the kit exhausts with a drill bit and using a razor blade to finish the job sounded like a logical plan that would work. But, I discovered using just those 2 tools proved to be too tedious a task. For future reference, if anyone's interested, using the razor blade to cut the square corners on the inside of the exhausts was just too difficult. But using a Squadron scribe (SQU10202)to cut those inside corners made the task so much easier. The Squadron scribe has a sharp tip that's bent like a hook, so that sharp tip will effectively remove plastic easier than a razor blade. Good news is the Zvezda plastic is soft so the process to hollow out the exhausts doesn't take as long...much easier task than I ever imagined it to be.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks very much guys. I drew the line at hollowing out the stacks on this one. I just find the sh!t/gain ratio doesn't justify it for me.. I just noticed in the engine pic above that I lost the hose going from the coolant tank to the vapour lock so I'll need to find it or replace it.

 

[Wayne Little]

I just find the sh!t/gain ratio doesn't justify it for me..

I find myself giving that 'ratio' thingy much thought during my builds Andy so I can use the required time in the most effective manner and shortcut the BS factor too...

Anyways, more importantly, very nice build and paintwork my friend, well done.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Wayne, I appreciate that.

 

[waterman]

My apologies if my comment was taken in a bad way. I did not mean to stir the pot. I admit the only real benefit with hollow exhausts at this scale is whether you are wearing an optivisor or shooting detailed photographs of the area. Seeing your photos, I agree you taking the time to do so would have been wasted effort. But I'm new to this and the only reason I did it is because it's there and it's a challenge for me. The intent of my post was just to contribute and share my experience, and promote discussion so we can all learn through each other's experiences. In fact, as I continued to hollow the exhausts, I realized your method of drilling and razor blade does indeed work...I just had to get more aggressive with the drill bit (used like a router). But just so you know, I honestly love what you've done and I had no clue on how to paint this type of camo until I read your posts. For me, the most important factor on any build is the paint work and your painting is fantastic! I truly appreciate you sharing how you painted this. I got a free painting lesson. Not trying to blow smoke up your butt either. I mean it seriously.

 

[Crimea_River]

No offence taken at all my man! I welcome any and all comments. I was just clarifying that I did not drill these exhausts out at all and I let everyone know why. The exhaust you see there are flat ended, as supplied in the kit (and one of them escaped my paint brush I see!)

As for the paint, thanks for the compliments. Gotta say though that since posting these pics, I did a little more touching up before I put it back in the display cabinet. I was not entirely happy with the differing intensities of the dark green that you can see in the above pics. Compare the RLM70 on the inner wing surfaces with the same colour on the outer surfaces of the wing and you'll see that there's less contrast on the outer surfaces owing to the the fact that I touched up some of the 70 after I applied air brushed a light, watered-down brown dusting to all the surfaces. I've since toned those high contrast areas down with the dust colour as well to get a more homogeneous look.

 

[fubar57]

A fantastic build Andy and I think the camo is top-notch.

Geo

 

[waterman]

No offence taken at all my man!

Extremely glad to know that!

As for the paint, thanks for the compliments. Gotta say though that since posting these pics, I did a little more touching up before I put it back in the display cabinet. I was not entirely happy with the differing intensities of the dark green that you can see in the above pics.

Man, if I managed to paint what you accomplished, I'd be satisfied. Sometimes we judge ourselves too hard. But, I guess it explains how we improve our skills. Beautifully done my man!

 

[Gnomey]

Great work Andy!!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Hugh, Geo.