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A Nose Full of Teeth: The Bf110 Haifisch Zerstorer

a build story by Shekar K Rao
5
Comments

Painting the Kit

The canopy was the first thing to get the masking treatment. I use Scotch Magic Tape for all my masking needs and I find it does the job very admirably. I cut strips of tape, place them over the recessed frames, and pressed down at the edges using a toothpick. I then used a sharp #11surgical blade to cut around the windows and removed the frame tape to get a masked canopy. This was then attached to the fuselage using All-Stik (a variant of Blu-Tak). I had to use quite a fair bit of the stuff, since I needed to hold all parts of the canopy together.

I then proceeded to give the whole model a coat of Grey primer paint. Luckily, the color corresponded to RLM65, so I did not need to repaint the undersides (sneaky, but effective :D!). After this coat dried, I masked off the undersides completely using Scotch Tape. The fuselage was masked appropriately at the bottom areas to enable the splinter camouflage pattern.

The whole model was next given a spray of RLM 70 and allowed to dry overnight. 24 Hours later, I used masking tape to get straight edges, and cut out strips and pasted them onto the model to get the splinter camouflage pattern as indicated on the box art. Again, RLM 71 went on to the model, and it was allowed to dry for another 24 hours.

[click for larger images]

Disaster Strikes!

Murphy’s law caught up with me at last! I had put the kit out in the sun to dry, and I dunno whether the heat got to the canopy or a stray bird did. Anyway, the canopy rear section got bent out of shape leaving me with an absolute mess of a canopy. I cursed and cussed a lot and kept the model aside for some time.

Finally, I decided to give my scratchbuilding skills a go-there was nothing I could lose in anyway. I fashioned a new canopy out of aluminum strips, thin sheet plastic and transparent plastic from an old CD cover. It did give me some comfort, but the damn thing looked pretty ugly to me. Anyway, I kept it aside thinking I would put it on at the end after some painting with a thin brush.

 

[click for larger image]

About the Author

About bytepilot
FROM: KARNATAKA, INDIA / भारत


Comments

bytepilot
Hi TinCan, Thanks for putting up my article. BTW, the callsign I use at Armorama is bytepilot(just to confirm if you haven't got it already!) Cheers, BP(alias Shekar Rao)/
JUL 29, 2003 - 03:49 PM
capnjock
Cool plane. Good recovery on the canopy. Happy modeling and a beer too! capnjock
JUL 29, 2003 - 03:59 PM
shonen_red
Wow! Looks like the real thing!
JUL 29, 2003 - 10:59 PM
Holdfast
:-) Nice one BP, the recovery from the canopy was an inspiration to all on the campaign. Again well done and a nice article. Mal
JUL 30, 2003 - 07:19 AM
tazz
wow cool plane,,, iam going to build the same kit really soon i hope, the fuji kit has the shark theeth. thats the kit iam geting
JUL 30, 2003 - 08:30 AM
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Copyright ©2021 by Shekar K Rao. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. The views and opinions expressed herein are solely the views and opinions of the authors and/or contributors to this Web site and do not necessarily represent the views and/or opinions of AeroScale, KitMaker Network, or Silver Star Enterrpises. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AeroScale. All rights reserved. Originally published on: 2003-07-30 00:00:00. Unique Reads: 8517