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Back in the saddle, again....


ghodges

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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.

ErichMixBf-109E.jpg

 

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.

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I also added the radiator fronts in the kit wings.

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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.

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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 :smiley16:

Edited by ghodges
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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

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Cockpit is painted....

100_3622.jpg

 

100_3618.jpg

 

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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 :smiley16:

Edited by ghodges
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  • 2 weeks later...

Got the painting done....

100_3625.jpg

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 :smiley16:

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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 :smiley16:

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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!

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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 :smiley16:

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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. :smiley20:

Edited by Weedeater
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Wow! It actually worked! :smiley17:

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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! :smiley20:

 

Next step is the wash and weathering, followed by the rest of the detail painting. Cheers!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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Gil,

- As usual, this is absolutely awesome looking. :smiley32: 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. :smiley20: Model on, Brother of the Sprue.

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