Hi Everyone,
Yellow 13 is finally finished! The final stages were giving it an yellow ochre wash, add a little more exhaust stains under the exhausts, spray with dullcoat, and add an aerial.

I feel the yellow ochre wash really made it look kinda green. Myh hope was it would give it that bit of yellow tinge that you see in some WWII color shots.

I went heavier in areas that I thought would be hit by spray from the wheels.

Of course, work still continues on the KA Gustav. When I started to paint the second Gustav, I knew that the colors would be the same, though applied in different patterns at different factories. So, I tinted the paints a bit differently as well. I've made a couple of comparison shots.

The yellow ochre wash adds a lot of contrast!

The KA Models Gustav just got a coat of future and will cure overnight before I give it a pin wash and start adding final details.

Thank you for looking!

Gary

Hi Gary,

outstanding work on Your yellow 13. I like it very much and look forward to Your second Gustav .

Oliver

Gary,
Outstanding to say the least. The comparison between the same color schemes is quite dramatic, and certainly eye opening. Well done.
Joel

Hi Oliver,
Thank you very much! I hope to have the second Gustav done within a couple of days.

Hey Joel,
I appreciate your compliment! The Kagero profiles were instrumental in my choice of paintschemes and markings. I highly recommend them if you can get your hands on them and want to build mid to late war 109's.

Due to the large number of paint suppliers, and online selections of paint chips which all vary I give myself a lot of latitude when it comes to colors. I'm not certain which color to use for the final wash of the second Gustav. I'm considering shades from gray-brown to black.

Gary

Hi Everyone,
It's been a long road, and I can report that I've completed this build, and will move on to another, shortly.
On to the pictures...

A refresher of sorts, this aircraft was flown by III JG 27 Gruppenkommandeur Ernst Düllberg.


I went out and bought some construction paper today. I bought various colors so I thought I'd try red.

I tried to dirty up the upper side, but couldn't make myself go too crazy. III JG 27 was based in southern Germany or Austria at the time.

One thing that really worked well for me this time was my hand made canopy masks. They peeled off leaving nice crisp edges and only a little filmy glue.

I dirtied up the belly quite a lot, but not as much seems to show in this photo.

Now we can have some comparison shots.

At this point, I'm doubting the wisdom of the ocher wash.


The landing gear and wheel covers needed work prior to painting that I didn't notice, so I ended up a bit splayed. The pegs from the oleos to the wings aren't very snug, so I would have needed to have held them in place with tape or something. Live and learn!







I have a few thoughts about the kits:

Both suffer from the fact that the kit makers tried to get the most kits out of the fewest sprues.

Both had great fitting parts and no flash.

The Hasegawa kit had the best panel lines and surface detail.

The KA Models kit had bulges that look closer to what I've seen in photos and more build options being equipped with two different tails and under wing rocket launchers.

The Hasegawa kit comes with an extensive set of decals, whilst the KA Models kit doesn't have all the small stencils you want to find on your 109.

The wheels of the KA models kit looked better, having deeper traction which cleaned up well.

For all of that, the KA models kit is less than half the price of the Hasegawa kit.

They were both a pleasure to build, and I'll be happy to have them displacing more of my wife's dishes in the glass fronted cabinet.


Thank you for looking!

Gary

Edit: typo

Hello Gary,

I like Your double G´s very much.




Don´t bother about this. Different areas of operation, different dirt .

Thank´s a lot for sharing!

Oliver

They look fantastic Gary! Love the colour schemes! I agree with you regarding the ocher wash. I use either carbon black and burnt sienna or if I'm feeling in a particularly filthy mood a combination of the two. They are Windsor and Newton oils I cut with Tamiya or Humbrol enamel thinner till they look like lightly dirty water. They dry quickly and can be removed easily with a cotton bud.

It's also my go to for adding shadows and dirt in a cockpit. My one rule of thumb is that whatever paint I use as a base coat, ie enamel or acrylic, I use the opposite for the wash. For instance my Pipistrello is an enamel paint and I thinned down an acrylic paint for a wash.

Gary,
Congratulations on bringing both builds across their respective finish lines. Never having built any German aircraft, the differences in the colors of the paint for the upper wings certainly stands out as one of the most obvious differences between the two builds.

So what's up next on your workbench?
Joel

Hi Oliver! Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed them.

Hey Chris, thank you! I appreciate the advice.

Hi Joel, Thanks a bunch! My next victim will be Japanese:



A while ago I enlisted in the Thunder and Lightning Campaign which just kicked off a few days ago. The Shiden has an interesting lineage and was one of the late-war Japanese fighters coupling powerful engines, powerful armament, sturdy construction and self-sealing fuel tanks. Another interesting feature was automatic flaps. It first saw action in the Philippines.

I'll be doing a blog here.

Best wishes,

Gary

Very nice pair Gary, I've been following along quietly enjoying your builds since the beginning.

I'm sure the wife will agree that they look much better than some old crockery!

Cheers, D

I like your choice Gary! I built the Kyofu Rex version of this for the flying boat campaign back in 2014. It's a great kit with good fit and plenty of detail right out of the box. But would you expect anything less from Tamiya? looking forward to seeing this one built.

Hey Damian,
Thank you! I'm glad to know you've been following my progress. My wife really wants me to get my own space, so I need to source some clear coverings that I can put over shelves. I don't really want to go the cabinet route.

Chris,
I had to go have a look at your Rex. A real impressive beauty! You did a great job on the finish. Did you mix your own green paint? It looks spot on for Kawanishi.

Best Wishes,

Gary

Actually it's Tamiya's Japanese army green and Japanese army grey. I kinda expected the Japanese to get the colours right for their own aircraft. They also produce greys and greens for the navy and cockpit green for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). For Nakajima interior colour I used Aeromaster's Nakajima interior grey green. Great paint if you can find it, it's an acrylic and it's wonderful paint to spray with. I used Tamiya's panel line wash in black for the underside and brown for the top to pick out the panel lines. The brown seemed to make the panel lines pop a bit more on top than the black.

Head over to my Photobucket to see all the pics I took during the build. (If you haven't already, all my other recent builds are thee too.)

Gary,
Interesting choice for your next build. If it's Tamiya, then it's going to be a well designed kit with a great fit. you can bet on it that I'll be following your build blog from day one.
Joel

Congratulations to these beautiful 109s, Gary ! Both looking fine, can t wait to see your George !

Thank you, Bernd!