1/48 Condor Legion double build - Tamiya Bf-109E-3 and Roden He-51.

Started by John Healy · 72 ≡ · ↻ 2 years ago
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    John Healy said 3 years ago:

    Basic assembly and preliminary painting on the 109 is done. Main colors start tommorow. I used Floquil 02 for the interior parts. I’m going to use Xtracolor 65 blue and Modelmsster 02 for the exterior 65 blue/63gray. There’s a lot of debate about the nature of the grays 02 and 63. I think that Modelmaster 02 is a decent match for faded 63 out of the bottle. It shows some contrast to the Floquil 02 but isn’t as dark as Xtracolor’s 63.

    9 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years ago:

    Great progress, John @j-healy
    Always nice to see a 109 getting together.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years ago:

    Everything looks super, my friend @j-healy!
    And the chosen color shades look spot on, as well (there will always be debates...).
    Looking forward to your progress!

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    John Healy said 3 years ago:

    I worked on the Heinkel today. This really is a nice kit. Painted up the interior, added PE, installed it and closed the fuselage up.
    Not sure about underside colors on this one. References show the He-51s were delivered in overall gray 63. When they were camouflaged, some received blue 65 bottoms? Seems unlikely they’d paint some blue, but not others. Any thoughts?

    8 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Tom Cleaver said 3 years ago:

    Personally, I don't think any of them got RLM65 bottoms, at least not for in-the-field paint jobs, because painting the underside of an airplane on its wheels is hhhaaaaaarrrrrrrrrd.

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    John Healy said 3 years ago:

    Exactly my thoughts too, Tom. Especially on biplanes like this. I see photos in my references that show a hard edge between the top camo and the undersides on some of them. I imagine this could have led some to think bottoms were repaints. I could see them being masked just to keep a demarcation between camo tops and 63 gray bottoms.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years ago:

    Beautiful result on the interior, John @j-healy
    Those books look very interesting to have some reference material present.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years ago:

    Looking great, my friend @j-healy!

    Net profiles show RLM65 undersides too commonly and I read a few discussions (which, as usual, end in speculation). I believe our friend @tcinla has a strong point there. RLM63 (greenish gray) would be a suitable underside color once the top camo would be applied, so, the too much of a hassle of painting the undersides at the field could be avoided. I also believe that from B/W pics you cannot really tell if the underside is RLM63 or 65. And yes, I believe they would have used tape to obtain a hard edge, but that does not mean that the undersides were painted RLM65.

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    John Healy said 3 years ago:

    The Ries and Ring book is extremely useful. I’m glad I bought it pre-internet from a mail order shop here in the US. It was called Aviation, Usk. Based in the little town of Usk, Washington. The owner was a man named Tom Frisk and he stocked all sorts of exotic stuff in the 80s and early 90s. Really nice guy. I talked to him on the phone a few times. I did a lot of SCW and WW1 stuff in 1/72 in those days and he was a definite go-to. I looked forward to his monthly type written mailing. You never knew what you’d find.

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    John Healy said 3 years ago:

    I needed a spreader beam to get a reasonable fit for the cowling top. The lower wings are a tight fit with some serious anhedral, as everybody else who has built this kit has said. Some trimming and sanding resulted in an acceptable fit. Tape will help it set up. The bottom and top of the cowling both have scoops/vents with nothing behind them. I put a chunk of styrene behind both and will paint them after the main colors are applied. The front of the lower wing/fuselage join had a significant step that I reduced before gluing the wing on. I made a point to drill out the drop tank attachment points so I wouldn’t lose them when sanding. I’ll let this cure and start painting the 109 tommorow.

    6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Tom Cleaver said 3 years ago:

    That's looking very good @j-healy. This Roden He-51 is a much better kit than a lot of people seem to realize.

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    John Healy said 3 years ago:

    I agree, Tom. I really liked the cockpit. Looks busy when built and installed.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years ago:

    In the end the fitting seems ok, looks great, John @j-healy

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years ago:

    Looking great, my friend @j-healy!

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    John Healy said 3 years ago:

    Got the basic painting done on the 109. I forgot to do the white wingtips first. I normally do stuff like that with Tamiya or Mr. Color lacquer. No worries, I’ll just add them with Tamiya acrylic. I’ll do the black areas behind the exhaust with good old Humbrol and finish it up.

    5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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