Webmaster can play, too! – Tamiya 1/48 Bf 109E

Started by Editor · 51 · 10 years ago · 1/48, Bf 109, Tamiya
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    Editor said 11 years ago:

    The lady's dressed for the party, with a sophisticated evening gown in timeless design made of blue-tack, tamiya tape, parafilm, with tails of post-it notes!

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    Editor said 11 years ago:

    Partial update from the paint shop.

    Preshading...

    Since the 1940-type of Bf 109 camouflage was often field-applied, I opted to try soft demarcation lines using raised masks. Not entirely sure about this, but it is at least worth trying!

    The propeller goes first, with RLM70, NMF hub and light grey backing plate (visible through the large propeller blade openings).

    After spraying the camouflage. The preshading worked great, the soft masks were OK, but not quite to the expectations. I will be doing corrections here and there.

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    Magnus Fridsell said 11 years ago:

    Keeping an eye on progress! Nice work! Nothing wrong with the result of using the masks, I'm more sceptical when it comes to the preshading...

    Regards

    Magnus

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    Anders Isaksson said 11 years ago:

    Great colors! I have never seen the underside color go that far up the wing leading edge but I have no reason to doubt that you have done it as per the original.

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    Editor said 11 years ago:

    @magnusf
    Interesting viewpoint. As for the preshading, I guess that we will see only how it works when all the weathering is ready. So far, this model shows markedly more wear than what used to be my standard, but this is on purpose 🙂

    @aisak
    At least some (but far from all) Bf 109s painted in this scheme had the light blue color all the way round the wing leading edge. I guess this was for better concealment in an attack mode...

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    Editor said 11 years ago:

    More progress on painting. The color demarcation lines were refined, using post-it masks and some delicate airbrushing.

    I like the result much better than the initial finish...

    I've added some more shading to the underside, plus started on oil leaks, dirt + grime.

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    Seamus Boughe said 11 years ago:

    At first, I did not find anything wrong with the initial camouflage spray. As a matter of fact, I still don't. But now that it has been tightened up some, I like the way it looks now a whole lot better. Just wondering though, was the area beneath the forward slats camouflaged also, I would have thought it would be RLM 02 or 66. Also, I had built this particular kit for a friend of mine many years ago and cannot recall if it came with splitter vanes in the radiators. I see yours has the spitter vanes, did that feature come with the kit or did your add them yourself?

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    Editor said 11 years ago:

    Very observant of you @seamus1, the rods in the radiators were added by me. I just thought that a proper Bf 109 model should have them as they were such a characteristic element. And, the gaps between the slots and the flaps are still masked in these pics - these areas are painted RLM02 underneath.
    Thanks for the interest, comments here keep me going!

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    Magnus Fridsell said 11 years ago:

    Uwaga! You've always been THE luftwaffe-guy Martin! 🙂

    Magnus

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    Anders Isaksson said 11 years ago:

    Have to agree with Seamus on the painting; the camouflage certainly looked good the first time around but now it looks just perfect. Great stuff! 🙂

    You will add the panel line going along the top and bottom of the aft fuselage, right?

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    Editor said 11 years ago:

    You will add the panel line going along the top and bottom of the aft fuselage, right?

    Now THAT'S nit-picking! 😆

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    Seamus Boughe said 11 years ago:

    The devil is in the details. I have seen many a 109 in various scales all built up and pretty, but very few had the splitter vanes in the forward radiator opening. Such a simple thing to add which brings a whole lot of character to a model, yet not too many take the time. And yeah, add the panel lines to the upper and lower fuselage as they were quite prominant.

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    Anders Isaksson said 11 years ago:

    Just had a look at my Tamiya Bf 109E-4 (on this site) and remembered now that I simply drew the missing panel lines on with a pencil. Quick and easy! 🙂

    I did miss out on adding the splitter vanes though... that's a missing detail I never spotted myself but they sure add to look of the intakes.

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    Craig Abrahamson said 11 years ago:

    You're obviously spending way too much time with other things in life. Your cutting board is much too clean! 🙂
    Very nice progress on your build, however...looking forward to seeing the end result.

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    Editor said 11 years ago:


    More painting progress tonight, this time on a detail level.

    I used to like adding one or two unusual details found during my research for a model. In this case, I have made three minor twists to my paint scheme.

    • "Wrap around" light blue camouflage around the wing leading edge. I spotted this on some photos of Bf 109s from JG26 and JG54.
    • Pale grey gun throughs. Initially, this belonged to the Messerschmitt factory finish, the pale color being protective heat-resistant paint. By mid-1940, it gradually disappeared and got overpainted in service as new camouflages were applied during the BoB.
    • Black surround to the exhaust shields. This was very common on all German fighters as black background hid the worst exhaust stains.

    Although there is no hard evidence that "my" selected Bf 109 had these elements, they are evident in many other photos of Emils from JG26, so that could well have been the case.