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Luft '46 Colours Pt.11 - Miscellaneous Aircraft

I thought Part 10 was to be my last chapter in the Luft '46 Colours Series for a while due to my imminent relocation back to UK. However, while checking through the files for previous chapters, I found many profiles that had already been started but not completed. Some were in an advanced state and some not so complete. But it was too good an opportunity to miss as a great deal of work had already been done and rather than waste them I completed as many as I could to post before I leave.

So...Chapter 11 is a mixed bag of aircraft types, a sort of summary of what has gone before. It includes fighters and heavy fighters mainly, again all illustrating the theory of what mixes of RLM colours might have been used. Again there is one Luft '46 aircraft, the Henschel P135, that bears more than a passing resemblance to an aircraft that was actually built, the Nord 1402 Gerfaut I.

It is also probably a good point in time to take stock of what has been done and how things have been developed with a view of trying to continually improve the profiles. When I look back at the first chapters they were more or less simple flat representations of camo schemes with little in the way of shading or detail. However, even here, the modeller's lust for detail slowly but surely crept in, largely due to my learning how to do things better and more efficiently.

With this in mind, once I’m back home and settled with a computer again, I will hopefully pick up were this chapter leaves off, with adding more detail as the primary aim. For example, I’d like to include more standard stencilling and walk areas. I’d also like to attempt to curve code numbers etc to follow the form of the surface they sit on, especially for the front views.

Quite often adding the panels and hatches is purely invention as these details were never finalised on available drawings of many Luft 46 aircraft plans or drawings; this is also an area I would like to improve.

There are a few future chapters planned, including: Helicopters and Seaplanes or Flying Boats. Asymmetric Aircraft and I’d like to try a set for a single aircraft type; probably the Me 262 and its Luft '46 variants.

As a final word, I realise the Feature on how to do camouflage profiles for your selves should be updated as there are quite a few improvements and new methods to pass on, mainly in organising layers and techniques for shading. Anyway, we will see...

Until next time, many thanks.