Well done on the spinner spiral, Gary! Looks far better than before. I'm amazed that you are able to make your own resin parts. That prop looks really good.
Also well done on your Hasegawa G-6. Recently I've got another Eduard G-6 which I will build as one which Gerd Barkhorn flew. But that all comes next year. The production plan for this year is full ....

Torsten

Hi Torsten,
Thank you vey much!

Casting simple resin parts is very easy. I used Barnes Pinkysil (for the pink silicon mould) and Barnes Easycast (the resin). And it takes less time than you might spend in a long shower.

I hope to build a pressure pot soon. A pressure pot helps remove bubbles from the resin as well as fill in detail features. I've dipped my new spinner in Future a few times, and will give it a few days to cure before I give it a final sanding.

Best Wishes,

Gary

Edit: typo

Hello Everyone,
Despite the NFL, I've been slowly plodding along.

When I attached the rudder and top portion of the tail (molded in one piece) I discovered that the rudder wanted to swing right, forcing the top of the fin to swing left. So, they had to be separated. Then I decided I didn't like the shape of the fin. So, in the area of the orange arrow, I made it into a curve I felt should fit. I didn't measure, just eyeballed it. This cost me the base for the aerial which I had to replace with copper wire that was liberally coated in Mr. Surfacer.

My original plan was to make this plane more visually interesting by having the flaps and vent flaps hanging downwards as seen in so many photos. Here I ran into problems:

The shape of the upper half of the wing root (red and blue arrows) doesn't match the lower half and it's detail (yellow arrow). So, I went in search of pictures showing the upper flap level with the top of the wing with the rest of them down. Found one, so it works.

I'm pushing ever closer to painting. Today I made my own canopy masking blanks using MS Paint and a printer.

Over that, I laid some foto frisket paper which I held down with tape.
I cut that with a sharp blade and stuck it to the windshield. Despite using a digital caliper every measurement was a bit off. So, I had to trim every piece. You can just see that the foto frisket is a little foggy on the inset picture.

You can also see the large amount of putty under the canopy. That is the biggest downer of the kit. Because it's made to be everything from a G-1 to a K-4, you have this arced joint to deal with. I'm hoping that with paint, the dimensional discrepancy will disappear. There is a panel line to re-scribe there, but I fear that doing so will highlight the area.

Thanks for looking,

Gary

Edit: picture fix

Hi Everyone,
I've decided to take the plunge, take the risk, throw caution to the winds, and add some chipping to this Gustav.
Over the last few weeks, I've looked at thousands (feels like thousands) of pictures of 109's and come to the conclusion that the paint they used was really good stuff.

Historical note: In 1938, the paint manufacturer Warnecke & Böhme patented a method that would make pigments adhere to metal without using a primer. The RLM ordered all of their other paint suppliers to produce their paints the same way under license. Wood and cloth pieces were primed red to prevent mildew.

However, I have found pictures where paint has come off on cowling latches and access panels. On wing leading edges, the paint looks really solid. Still, I can't say that because I haven't seen it, that it didn't happen.

Anyway, this is a model, so I decided to use my barely used bottles of Alclad and Alclad Black primer to try some chipping.

In this image, I haven't been able to apply the Alclad in small enough areas.

The red arrows indicate latches and access points that will get some chipping. There are other access points on the plane treated the same, but they didn't show well in the photos.
The propeller blades and spinner are all shiny silver-ish as well.
I did the leading edge of the wings with Alclad, too.

The supercharger intake and the leading edges of the windscreen are all ready for chipping as well.

If anyone has links to some well worn Luftwaffe aircraft I'd love to see them.

Thank you for looking!

Gary

Great progress Gary, your spinner looks really impressive as the whole progress.
For your weathering i would recommend less is more, especially in 1/48 but noticeable.
Here is a link to a great photo collection from Bf 109s from a friend.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28092068@N03/sets/

Cheers
Bernd

Bernd,
Thank you for the link! That is a great collection of photos. I'm looking forward to going through them all.

Gary

Gary,
Your observation on the lack of chipping on Luftwaffe aircraft is quite valid. Over the years I must have looked at literally thousands of period Luftwaffe photos and virtually none, with the possible exception of a few seaplanes, or something on the scrap heap, show any signs of paint peeling. Even the seaplanes show very little compared those of other nations. I'd keep the wear to a little on the leading edge of the prop maybe and just dirty the thing up a little. Really looking good at this point, keep it up!
DR

Guess thats a perfect fit for 109 fans.
Keep up the good work, Gary

Cheers
Bernd

Gary,
I know literally nothing about Axis aircraft, and this concept of non-chipping paint is really quite the opposite of what heavily used Allied aircraft are portrayed in modeling form. Wing walkways are the number 1 area of paint abuse, followed by wing leading edges, and props/spinners.

I'll be following your painting with great interest to see how you handle the chipping issue.

As for the canopy issue, lightly re-scribe if you want, no one will focus on the canopy/fuselage shape issue unless you point it out to them, or post a close up picture.

Joel

Hi Everyone,
After studying yet (many) more pictures of 109's, I'm really finding myself unable to justify any chipping. I will have to find gentle ways to dirty them up a little bit.
The first Gustav was in Sicily. I'm currently reading Steinhoff's book Messerschmitts over the Mediterranean. He does note that the planes were quickly covered with a coat of fine yellow dust. So, maybe a light ocher wash just to blend the paint scheme with the decals and such.
For the second Gustav I've decided on a JG 27 machine on RLV duties.

There's nothing really exciting about the underside except that I've managed to make all of the holes and fittings for other versions and load-outs disappear. There is some light undershading.

This is my first attempt at soft-edged splinter camoflage. It took a few attemtps, and at one point I swabbed all of the paint off the wings with a q-tip and water. (The joy of artist acrylics!)


This machine has a paint scheme representative of Weiner Neustadt production.

Relatively high demarcation lines on the fuselage camo and light mottling.


I've always wanted to build a white-tailed G6 ever since I first saw pictures of Grislawski's machine. Heck, I even have personal decals for Grislawki's machine. But, many other people have done his machine, so I've found another Ace: Ernst Düllberg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28092068@N03/5762554407/in/album-72157640109612456/

Thank you for looking.

Gary

Nice paint job, Gary ! White tailed home defenders were common for a while.
The mottling and the camo on the uppersides of the wings are really well done.

Gary,
I'll 2nd what Bernd said about your camo paint scheme. It really looks quite good. I'd say you really nailed the free hand Air Brushing technique for sure.
Joel

Thank you Bernd and Joel,
Don't give me too. Much credit, though. My hands are far too unsteady for anything but mottling. For the main scheme, I made thin sausages from Blue Tack and gently pressed them to the paint in the patterns seen. Then over those I laid pieces of copy paper cut to shape. For the fuelage line I used blue Tack and thin strips of dinner napkin because it is of lighter weight than copy paper and the texture enables it to stick to the Blue Tack without pressing too much.
There are various methods to do it, some using loops of tape where I used Blue Tack sausages. Speaking of tape, I found the Tamiya tape for curves very useful around the rearmost part of the canopy and wing roots.

Best Wishes,

Gary

mike a real simple solution for BMF that is not tacky enough is to use photo spray mount. spray it on the back side of what you cut out, let it set up a moment and apply.

Hi Everyone,
I've been stymied making my own stencil decals. Of course, the decals I scanned them (the Hasegawa G6 sheet) from were on a blue background, so I had to clean up a lot of them, and my lack of experience with photo-editing software made things take a while.

Yesterday I got the tail and fuselage band painted. It looks like brilliant white, but I did try to tone it down with a little gray.

On the genuine article, they'd masked completely over the swastika and Wk. # causing me to do the same.

For the wing crosses, I was out of decals. Of course, my printer doesn't print white, so I had the choice of cutting around crosses on white decal paper, or making my own stencils and painting them on.

This isn't the first effort. I was forced to completely remove the right one and use the left stencil to redo it.
I try my hardest, but my hands can't seem to reproduce mechanical accuracy. I may have to give up being creative, and just by other people's creativity.

Thanks for looking!

Gary

Gary,
You're being way to tough on yourself. Those home made decals look pretty good to me. Same for your mask wing crosses. I've never attempted either. Not only do I also shake some, but I haven't got the skills nor temperament to do that kind of highly exacting detail work.

Joel

Hi Joel,
Thank you for your kindness and wisdom. I really appreciate it.

Gary

Gary your work is just plain fantstic! I echo Joels sentiments you're being way to hard on yourself! We are our own worst critics and sometimes we can't see the wood for the trees. Sometimes only we can see our mistakes and until we point them out no one really notices them. It does get frustrating when it doesn't go as planned but it's just a matter of gaining experience and figuring out how to make it work or failing that do what you're doing here ask for input.

Just as an aside when you get bubbles under your decals I find a pin and some decal solvent work a treat, simply prick the decal gently and apply the solvent liberally with a brush repeat as necessary.

Hey Gary

You're doing a great job, sometimes we get so caught up in our projects, and we just get too critical of the details.

Your Gustav looks great, the camo edges are really well done, and those upper wing crosses are sweet !

Thanks for posting a great blog .

Hi Chris,
Thank you very much! I appreciate what you've written. After years without models, I'm really enjoying being back into it. But things have changed, and I don't know what has changed more, the kits and supplies available, or my self-expectations. I'll have to learn To enjoy more and stress less.

Best Wishes,

Gary

Hey Paul,
Thank you for writing! I'm really appreciate your compliments and am glad you're enjoying my blog. Sometimes i need to be reminded that it's about fun and relaxation and less about trying to hit perfection.

Thank you for that!

Gary

Gary,
I was a very active IPMS contest and club member back in the 70s, then as life often does other interests, work, and family pushed modeling to the back burner for 30 years. When my Mojo finally returned and I got back into modeling, I was more then just shocked at how far the hobby had progressed. I knew almost nothing other then the very basic of basics. Everything else had changed.

My learning curve was massive and really quite steep. Not to mention quite humbling. What we once accepted as top quality work was in reality middle of the road at best now. It took more then a year before I reached the level of an fairly decent OOB build, and that was in Armor! From that foundation, one block at a time was added till I'm at the stage you see now. Which for me is to add details both from AM suppliers and bits and pieces of my own to create a sort of one of a kind model.

Honestly, without posting my build blogs, asking for, and receiving so much feed back, I'd still be back near my starting point.

One thing that has never changed is my enjoyment of the build. I'm not a aviation enthusiast, I'm a plastic scale modeler from the early 60s to whenever.

Joel

Hi Joel,
Back in the seventies I was interested in military history and bought my first model at the age of 12. I didn't know of names other than Testors and Tamiya and Monogram until I was an adult and my model building got curbed by life.
I hadn't even heard of IPMS until shortly before I started posting at Aeroscale. I enjoy being part of this community and getting feedback and support from other people who enjoy this fantastic hobby we all have in common. I write 'Hobby', but a better word might be addiction.

Best wishes,

Gary

Gary,
I think that most of us joined Aeroscale and a few other sites for those exact reasons.
Joel