ghodges Posted August 15, 2011 Report Share Posted August 15, 2011 (edited) After taking a couple of months off to get some "stuff" done around the house, I'm finally back at work out in Gil World! Since I lost EVERY Bf-109E in my infamous shelving accident over a year ago, I thought I'd start by replacing one of those lost; Erich Mix's Bf-109E-3. He was an ace in WWI and got at least 3 kills in WWII before being promoted to a non-flying job. The cool thing about his plane is the "hollow" group markings, which I've never seen anywhere else. I have some dry transfers that I can cut the centers from (v-e-r-y carefully!) to replicate his markings. I had a few old Fotocut 109 PE do-dads left in the spares box, so I decided to use some of them to spruce up the Hasagawa kit side panels. I also added the radiator fronts in the kit wings. Lastly, I'm using the top PE part (which has a film insert) on the main panel. I've also drilled out the seat back for the addition of the shoulder harnesses, as well as added a couple of PE rudder pedals. The interior has had its first coat of paint aded so I hope to have this one closed up and ready to for final assembly in a couple of days! I'll try to post more pics once the entire cockpit has been painted. Questions, comments, and critiques are welcome, as always! GIL Edited September 15, 2011 by ghodges Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canberrasig Posted August 16, 2011 Report Share Posted August 16, 2011 Nice work GIL, I too had a shelve slide many years ago wiped out about 90% of my Canberra models, very upsetting, My wife was full of sympathy, NOT!!! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David M. Knights Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 Looks good Gil. BTW, I here Fotocut is getting back to producing again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted August 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 What I like about Fotocut stuff is you simply peel or soak the parts off. No cutting required! GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted August 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2011 (edited) Cockpit is painted.... Placards are from an old Reheat generic cockpit placard set, as are the German seat belts. I've since assembled the fuselage (and yes, I removed the stray q-tip fibers from the rudder pedals!), and now have to tackle the sanding and rescribing. More in a few days. Comments welcome! GIL Edited August 20, 2011 by ghodges Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregWise Posted August 21, 2011 Report Share Posted August 21, 2011 Looking good Gil, I am currently working on a Tamiya 'E' dessert scheme.. small world. Keep the updates coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted August 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 Got the painting done.... LOTS of masking needed to do this scheme! Model Master enamels; RLM70 Blackgreen/ RLM71 Darkgreen/ RLM65 Lightblue; all three colors were lightened with light gray and post shaded. Still have LOTS of things to do, but the hardest part should be over! As always, questions, comments, and critiques are welcome! GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonL Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 Looks great! That PE is very effective. In what do you soak the Fotocut sheet, to release the parts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted September 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 You could use acetone or lacquer thinner to dissolve the solvent and loosen the part on the backing. However, except for the MOST delicate parts, I've always simply peeled them up with the tip of a blade while gently bending the backing sheet away from the part. Works very well 99% of the time, and is MUCH easier than cutting pe parts from a tree and then still needing to trim little metal nubs too. GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted September 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2011 You start a project, and you THINK you've got the decals, but then you find out that what you do have just won't work, and you're OUT if what you thought you had! So, I had to resort to drawing the side markings onto decal paper. Luckily, the geometric shapes could be done relatively easily with a fine tip black marker and a template with triangles and circles. All of this took less than an hour, and demonstrates that you can still do decals without a computer and an Alps printer! It only took 4 tries to get 2 usable chevrons, but about a dozen efforts to get 2 usable squiggly markings. They've been sealed with a clear coat to make sure the ink doesn't run when I wet the decals (at least that's the theory!) More pics after they're on the model! Cheers! GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Aldrich Posted September 7, 2011 Report Share Posted September 7, 2011 Excellent work!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weedeater Posted September 8, 2011 Report Share Posted September 8, 2011 (edited) Gil, - As usual, this is looking awesome. The paint job looks sweet and I especially love the subtle highlights/filter visible across the wings. And the ingenuity on the decals is slick. Great work.. Model on, Brother of the Sprue. Edited September 8, 2011 by Weedeater Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted September 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2011 Wow! It actually worked! I only had one of the chevrons fold up on me. The rest went down like a charm, and even resisted Solvaset nicely! By the way (as another example of NOT having the correct decals to start), the crosses on the fuselage sides and the wing bottoms are actually old Monogram 1/48 FW-190 KIT decals; and there's NO telling how old they are. Funny thing is, they were still whiter than any other "aftermarket" crosses I had on hand, and after a little extra soaking went on with no problems. THAT'S why I never throw anything away when it comes to model parts and decals! Next step is the wash and weathering, followed by the rest of the detail painting. Cheers! GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted September 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 She is fini! Glad to have this scheme back on my shelf again. Comments, critiques, and questions welcome as always! Cheers! GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weedeater Posted September 16, 2011 Report Share Posted September 16, 2011 Gil, - As usual, this is absolutely awesome looking. I have been ruminating about building one of my 1/48 109's in this early paint scheme, and your example is most inspiring. Now I just gotta figure out whether to build the Hasegawa kit or the Tamiya kit. Hmmmm, decisions, decisions. Thanks for posting these pics. Model on, Brother of the Sprue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted September 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 17, 2011 My understanding is that the Tamiya kit is better in 1/48, though the Hasgawa kit isn't bad at all. Thanks for the kind words! GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdedig Posted September 19, 2011 Report Share Posted September 19, 2011 Very Nice work Gil...I do question that Pink background Nice Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted September 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2011 It's not pink! It's 1970's Scale Modeler red! :lol: GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmorrissette Posted September 19, 2011 Report Share Posted September 19, 2011 Sweet build. Always loved tis scheme on a 109 Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canberrasig Posted September 19, 2011 Report Share Posted September 19, 2011 (edited) WOW!!!! B) John Edited September 19, 2011 by canberrasig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregWise Posted September 20, 2011 Report Share Posted September 20, 2011 Nice work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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