T Bolt
Colonel
You've done some really nice work there 
Gotha Go 244 - 1974 Revell - Italaerei build... with trepidation!
- Thread starter southerndoug
- Start date
Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
DBII
Senior Master Sergeant
Nice Bird.
Good work so far!
- Thread starter
- #64
southerndoug
Airman
Just thinking ahead... any advice on saving/helping tired old decals? If spent so long on this bl**dy thing that I don't want to wreck it with lousy decals! Mine are nudging 50 years old, and are yellowed. Also, poorly registered to start with.
And as for camouflage colour scheme... The old instructions suggest two shades of grey up top - Grau 64 and Dunkelgrau 27 - which don't strike me as RLM colours? The only colour image of a Go 244 I can find is this one:
... the upper colours look greenish-grey to me. I was thinking RLM 70/71 would be appropriate?
Any thoughts?
And as for camouflage colour scheme... The old instructions suggest two shades of grey up top - Grau 64 and Dunkelgrau 27 - which don't strike me as RLM colours? The only colour image of a Go 244 I can find is this one:
... the upper colours look greenish-grey to me. I was thinking RLM 70/71 would be appropriate?
Any thoughts?
The names and numbers of colours are for Humbrol or Revell or Model Master enamels. The RLM codes should be RLM 74/75/76. The mottling on the fuselage sides - RLM75.
As far as the decals are concerned... I would suggest exposuring to sunlight on a very sunny day. If not it may be an UV lamp. Then I strongly recommend coating the entire decal sheet with a gloss clear varnish. It can be the Humbrol non yellowish gloss clear coat offered in glass bottles.
As far as the decals are concerned... I would suggest exposuring to sunlight on a very sunny day. If not it may be an UV lamp. Then I strongly recommend coating the entire decal sheet with a gloss clear varnish. It can be the Humbrol non yellowish gloss clear coat offered in glass bottles.
- Thread starter
- #66
southerndoug
Airman
Thanks Wurger! Just the advice I was looking for. How long do you need to leave the decals exposed? Hours or Days?
Depending on the UV source. If the sunlight it may be enough to keep the decals for three or two hours. Just you have to check on the result from time to time. I kept a such yellowish sheet under the full midday sun in the summer for two hours and the yellowish tone disappeared fully. The UV lamp may need a different period of time. I haven't used the UV one yet.
Crimea_River
Marshal
Both Ulmnann and Merrick state that standard colours for the Go244 and gliders in general were 70/71/65 with mottling in the two greens.
- Thread starter
- #69
southerndoug
Airman
More to report: Had a bit of a fight with the nose wheel set-up, as it is the wrong profile, with the kit having an inverted "T" section for the structural member forward of the wheel. Photos show this to be a box section, so I mucked about with some styrene and lots of sanding and filling later had something I could live with:
I replaced the stub of plastic with a bit of brass rod, directly over the pivot point for the nose wheel axle assembly.
Next up, the canopy went on and I went to work on the resulting gaps:
The carpet monster ate part #100 which was the strut assembly at the front of the nose wheel box section. Probably a good thing as it looked too chunky to my eye and I was tossing up replacing it anyway. As it happened, a part for the main gear of the Go 242 glider was pressed into service and modified to fit, resulting in a slimmer strut assembly than the original kit part:
The Go 244, unlike the 242, had ladder access to the roof on the starboard side behind the cockpit. I fumbled about with some fine electrical wire until I'd managed to fold 4 almost equal-looking ladder rungs, and super-glued them to the starboard side. While I was at it, I replaced the kit steps for the side doors with wire, and made a new one for the first step below the ladder:
Hoorah! Not a tail-sitter! The lead weights I added behind the engines has done the trick! Doors are only taped in place, as is the rear cargo door. Got to get all the camouflage to line up before setting them in the open position.
Had another play with my airbrush, and a first light coat of RLM 65 has gone on:
Wingtips await yellow theatre colour. This light coat has shown up a bunch of imperfections, which I'll try and address... soon...
I replaced the stub of plastic with a bit of brass rod, directly over the pivot point for the nose wheel axle assembly.
Next up, the canopy went on and I went to work on the resulting gaps:
The carpet monster ate part #100 which was the strut assembly at the front of the nose wheel box section. Probably a good thing as it looked too chunky to my eye and I was tossing up replacing it anyway. As it happened, a part for the main gear of the Go 242 glider was pressed into service and modified to fit, resulting in a slimmer strut assembly than the original kit part:
The Go 244, unlike the 242, had ladder access to the roof on the starboard side behind the cockpit. I fumbled about with some fine electrical wire until I'd managed to fold 4 almost equal-looking ladder rungs, and super-glued them to the starboard side. While I was at it, I replaced the kit steps for the side doors with wire, and made a new one for the first step below the ladder:
Hoorah! Not a tail-sitter! The lead weights I added behind the engines has done the trick! Doors are only taped in place, as is the rear cargo door. Got to get all the camouflage to line up before setting them in the open position.
Had another play with my airbrush, and a first light coat of RLM 65 has gone on:
Wingtips await yellow theatre colour. This light coat has shown up a bunch of imperfections, which I'll try and address... soon...
Attachments
Last edited:
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Some nice work there.
Crimea_River
Marshal
Really nice I like your attention to detail and the execution is very good.
Very nice indeed
GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
It's looking great!
fubar57
General
Good stuff. I like the ladder rungs
Good work so far!
- Thread starter
- #77
southerndoug
Airman
More airbrushing action... and problems! Help!!
Having applied the RLM65, I moved on to the hardest part: the mottling on the side of the aircraft. Merrick and Hitchcock reckon the overall scheme is 70/71/65 with mottling of 02/70, with Ullmann going for a mottle of 70/71 (interestingly they both use the same image of a Go244 conducting engine runs at Stendal). I went with Ullmann, and wrestled with my new airbrush, trying to do the smallest mottles I could. This is my first time back with an airbrush since my teenage years, and first time with acrylics. Made a few bungles, and cleaned up with alcohol and tried again in a few places. Overall, I wasn't horribly displeased with how it looked, so moved on to the Dunkelgrün, followed by masking for the splinter camouflage pattern and Schwartzgrün, using Tamiya tape, lightly applied.
That all seemed to go on nicely, and I was patting myself on the back for adding a drop of white at the end to sort of fade a few spots. Maybe overdid it...
Anyway, let it dry for a day, and then went to remove the tape: uh oh! That's not good...
Kept going, and wouldn't ya know it, ripped a lot of paint off as I went.
So even though I thought I'd kept things clean, I guess I didn't. Or maybe I should have used that Mr Surfacer I picked up in the hobby shop, and then thought "nah, I don't need that".
Sigh. Live and learn.
Any advice on the way forward from here? I've downed tools for the day, will have some wine to drown my sorrows, and eagerly await any sage advice you guys can throw my way!
cheers!
Having applied the RLM65, I moved on to the hardest part: the mottling on the side of the aircraft. Merrick and Hitchcock reckon the overall scheme is 70/71/65 with mottling of 02/70, with Ullmann going for a mottle of 70/71 (interestingly they both use the same image of a Go244 conducting engine runs at Stendal). I went with Ullmann, and wrestled with my new airbrush, trying to do the smallest mottles I could. This is my first time back with an airbrush since my teenage years, and first time with acrylics. Made a few bungles, and cleaned up with alcohol and tried again in a few places. Overall, I wasn't horribly displeased with how it looked, so moved on to the Dunkelgrün, followed by masking for the splinter camouflage pattern and Schwartzgrün, using Tamiya tape, lightly applied.
That all seemed to go on nicely, and I was patting myself on the back for adding a drop of white at the end to sort of fade a few spots. Maybe overdid it...
Anyway, let it dry for a day, and then went to remove the tape: uh oh! That's not good...
Kept going, and wouldn't ya know it, ripped a lot of paint off as I went.
So even though I thought I'd kept things clean, I guess I didn't. Or maybe I should have used that Mr Surfacer I picked up in the hobby shop, and then thought "nah, I don't need that".
Sigh. Live and learn.
Any advice on the way forward from here? I've downed tools for the day, will have some wine to drown my sorrows, and eagerly await any sage advice you guys can throw my way!
cheers!
Crimea_River
Marshal
That really sucks, and after such a nice job on the mottles. I'm not sure if you mentioned before which acrylics you are using but some are more forgiving than others. Acrylics, in general, have the least ability to bond with plastic, the other two being enamels (second best) and lacquers (best). In your case, yes a primer might have helped but that's for next time.
Short of stripping everything and starting over, there's not a lot you can do that will give you the finish that you may want. I expect that if you try sanding the edges of the torn paint to make a smooth edge, the paint will just continue to tear. Waiting a few days might help but, either way, the goal is to try to make the rough edge of the torn paint disappear and sanding is the only way to do that. If you succeed, apply your Mr. Surfacer onto the exposed plastic and allow a bit to run up into the good paint. Just do one or two light coats and allow it to cure thoroughly. Then re-mask and paint over the patches with your acrylic.
It's also recommended that you de-tack the masking tape as much as possible. I stick it to to the palm of my hands a few times before applying it to the model. LIGHTLY burnish the edge with the rounded end of a paint brush and press the rest down very lightly with your fingers. After painting, peel back the tape slowly TOWARD the masked edge.
Sorry that I can't offer up more options. Good luck!
Short of stripping everything and starting over, there's not a lot you can do that will give you the finish that you may want. I expect that if you try sanding the edges of the torn paint to make a smooth edge, the paint will just continue to tear. Waiting a few days might help but, either way, the goal is to try to make the rough edge of the torn paint disappear and sanding is the only way to do that. If you succeed, apply your Mr. Surfacer onto the exposed plastic and allow a bit to run up into the good paint. Just do one or two light coats and allow it to cure thoroughly. Then re-mask and paint over the patches with your acrylic.
It's also recommended that you de-tack the masking tape as much as possible. I stick it to to the palm of my hands a few times before applying it to the model. LIGHTLY burnish the edge with the rounded end of a paint brush and press the rest down very lightly with your fingers. After painting, peel back the tape slowly TOWARD the masked edge.
Sorry that I can't offer up more options. Good luck!
Lovely work so far!
- Thread starter
- #80
southerndoug
Airman
Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed reply. Really appreciate it! I'm using Model Masters paints, thinned with Tamiya X-20A thinner, roughly 60:40 paint:thinner. Thanks for the note about de-tacking the tape... I was a bit surprised at how much it clung on! Interestingly I lost no RLM65 when I took the tape off.
