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ALOGANO
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Bv 138 Revell 1/72

Hi all,

here you have the Bv138. I have to say that it is one of my favourites aircraft. In many aspects is so strange but at the same time unique. I bought this kit on eBay to a french guy as this model is out of stock and I was lucky to find it!
There are not too many references for this aircraft but in the end, I managed to use these references to make it.
I am not used to making 1/72 models, and in some aspects, it was a little bit difficult and tricky to get the final result but I took it as a challenge as I have to say that I love this aircraft.
To mask the cockpit and turrets I used Montex Masks; with some parts, lots of masking and sanding as many of them don´t fit very well. I also made by myself the bulkhead in the cockpit.
Base coat to get any imperfections, panels pre-shading, and main camouflage colours.
Then I oil shaded panels, gloss varnish before decals and set them with Micro-Set and Micro-Sol liquids. Some decals in bad condition as it is an old kit, so for example, I had to make my own masks for the white lines over the wings. There was no decal for "the cross" in the tail, so as the size was correct, I used the one from my previous 1/48 Do335 (as I painted it on it). Protected them with gloss varnish again and started giving this old and used aspect with oil dots in yellow, white and brown all over the kit. And water line painted as well.
In the end, I wanted to give this old, bad weather-treated and probably this end of the war aspect.
A little bit of history... this was probably the one built in the greatest number. You can find it in the Norwegian campaign as transport aircraft and even giving support to uBoats. It was also used as long-range reconnaissance. The use of diesel engines with a 4.2 tons fuel capacity gave it a maximum flying time of 16.5 hours. It had two rotary mounts in the nose and tail and one open-air machine gun behind the central engine.
As a curious thing about the engines, you can see it had 3 propeller blades in left and right engines but 4 blades in the central engine.
Well, this is all, hope you like it!

Next project... Italeri P47 1/48

Reader reactions:
21  Awesome

26 additional images. Click to enlarge.


29 responses

  1. Nice job. That kit was originally released in the 70s by an Italian company called Supermodel. It’s one of those kits I always wanted, but never got. Thanks for sharing.

  2. Really nice! I have this kit in my stash too (under the Supermodel name) and I find this to be an inspirational build. I love this aircraft, too. I have a thing for flying boats and for this one's unique look.

    Loved your electric toothbrush sander idea, too!

  3. Great subject Alogano, and super Job!

  4. Beautiful job on a classic old kit! I like what you did with the paint.

  5. Very well done.

  6. I love luftwaffe aircraft and would agree they made some really oddball stuff through out the war. You did a really nice job on this kit. I like the overall look you accomplished.

  7. Absolutely beautiful! I also have this (as a Supermodel kit), and almost built it for the iModeler at the Movies group build (but alas, never got started). I'm inspired now - after I get past a couple of Phantoms and a Fiesler Fi-167, I just may have to dive in! Love the weathering you did on this - it looks realistically rode hard and hung up wet.

    • Thanks Greg! Be careful with the decals especially with letters and numbers... they were destroying in the water. There was no decal for "the cross" in the tail, so I used the one from my 1/48 Do335 (I painted it) as the size was correct. I will complete my article with it.

  8. What a beast! And one of my favourite planes. I have the supermodel, but not built yet. Thank you for sharing your build photos.

  9. 🙂 … Greetings … 🙂 :
    A rare model of a very interesting attention grabber Alogano.
    A slight yet very well applied amount of weathering can be seen and is so fitting to this one.
    Thanks for sharing these pictures.

  10. Great work Alogano!
    I built the same kit (as Supermodel) 15 years ago and I really loved it (The result was not as good as yours...). This is a fantastic looking plane; so odd, yet so beautiful, your outstanding work making a lovely presentation of it.
    Nice photo coverage.
    All the best!

  11. Great looking aircraft design and a great build !
    This is one of the plans i would love in 1/32 scale.

    • Thanks Maarten!

      it would be great to have this model again. You can find a nice video on YouTube of an RC Bv138 with interior cameras.

  12. Well done Alogano, really nice presentation of such an ungainly looking plane. I like it.

  13. You are braver then me Alogano and great result with the BV-138!

    I peeked in the box I have in my stash many times, but until now always decided it would take more time and effort than I want to spend on it to turn it into a decent model.

    Thanks for sharing!

    Peter

  14. Smart work , Alogano... a very nice finish indeed... 🙂

    Regards,

    Paul

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