Thanks again Gary!

Here are some pictures showing the extra heavy exhaust stains that have been painted on the K-4, towards the rear of the fuselage I wore some of that off to represent the soot washing off from rain or mist causing it to run towards the undersurface of the fuselage.





Matrixone

That has to be one of the diriest 109's I've ever seen, Les. Looks good!

Gaz

Gary,
That's why I chose to model this aircraft, ''white 10'' had one of the heaviest exhaust stains I have seen on a 109 and a model of this one would be a nice contrast to the weathering I usually do on my models which is often restrained.


Matrixone

Les,
I understand. I sometimes wanna do 'just a little more' weathering of aircraft models. But I always make myself pull back.

Your rain-soot streaking has given me some ideas to try, though.

Gaz

Les,

I am in awe, as usual!

Bf 109s, especially late-war, had some of the nastiest exhaust stains imaginable. (Ju 88s did, too.) I don't know why although I surmise it had to do with the quality of their scarce/synthetic gas.

P.S. I love your Dinah!

Fred,
Thanks for your comment on the models and also for posting those pictures.
Like what you said, I also believe the heavy exhaust stains on 109's and 190's were caused by the crap fuel the Luftwaffe used but also their engine designs leaked and burned oil which further added to the mess seen on the fuselages on many single engine fighters, I have seen one photograph of a newly delivered 109 that flipped upside down during landing at its operational airfield and even though it was a nearly new machine the bottom of the fuselage was already a filthy mess!

Two other models had work done on them, the Dinah trainer has had the undersurfaces and the wing leading edge yellow ID markings painted on.

The Dinah is pure what-if...no Dinah's ever had that much (or barely any) paint chipping, my model is being finished as a heavily used trainer about to be used by the Kamikaze to defend the mainland from invasion.

The Panther has its road wheels and tracks on and since this picture was taken some detail painting has been done.


Matrixone

Les,
Really love the chipped Dinah...fantasy or not. Sometimes I like to do something different, too.

The Panther is looking good, too. I'm curious to hear how you'll sag the tracks.

Gaz

Gary,
The sag on the Panther tracks might have to stay that way...this is a case where the side skirts would have been helpful on this model.

The unit insignia was hand painted on the Dinah, after that was done I could glue on the tail planes.




My next couple of models will be Me 262's both from Tamiya kits.

The Me 262A-1a will be put in the markings ''yellow 3''of KG(j)54 as seen on the EagleCals decal sheet, the Me 262A-2a will be put in the markings of ''white y'' of KG 51 and the kits decal sheet will be used for that.


Matrixone

The canopies on the Dinah trainer were popped off and the masking tape removed and I hand painted the canopy frames, after the green was painted on I then added some paint chipping on the canopies so they will match the rest of the airframe.
I also put on the Hinomaru decals, these markings came from a Techmod sheet, the kits markings looked to be in bad shape and I am glad I did not have to use them.




Matrixone

Hi Les,
Those decals look pristine. I'm a new fan of Techmod decals. What's tour preferred method of chipping decals?

Gaz

Thank you Gary,
I won't chip the Hinomaru's, the Japanese seemed to take good care of the rising sun markings and aside from captured machines I have not seen photographs of operational machines that had paint chipped Hinomaru's.

What I wanted was a way to tone down the brightness of the red on the Hinomaru's so they will look like they were a little sun faded. At first I was going to dry brush pale red paint inside the Hinomaru's but at the last minute I thought about using some notebook paper and cut out circles the same diameter as the Hinomaru's to make soft masks so I could airbrush the pale red paint on the Hinomaru's, I tried it and it seemed to work pretty good and now the Hinomaru's look properly aged so they better match the finish on the model.

I don't have any in-progress pictures today but should have some put up Tuesday.

Matrixone

Hi Les,

fine looking finish again, I am curious at the picures with the reworked decals.
gr TC

BTW gongrats on your MoM award!

Thanks Lars!

I take all my model pictures outdoors to take advantage of the natural lighting and its been so dark and at times rainy lately I put off getting new pictures until the weather improved.

Here is the Dinah after the Hinomarus were toned down after spraying the pale red on them through the soft masks, later I will do a tiny amount of paint chipping on the white surrounds to age them a bit so they will blend in with the rest of the models surface.



The Me 262's have had the cockpit parts sprayed with RLM 66 black gray and when dry they will get some detail painting.


Matrixone

More in-progress pictures of the two Me 262 builds, painting of many of the smaller assemblies has been done.



Because its an armor subject a dedicated thread of the finished Panther will not be started here at Aeroscale but here is a single picture of how the Panther turned out.


Matrixone

The Panther looks great, Les! Shoulda blogged it at Armorama.

Gaz

Thanks Gary!

I have browsed Armorama on and off the past few years and I must say I have read some threads where arguments broke out over basically nothing and I don't want any part of that scene...model building is supposed to be fun and I look at the hobby through that lens.
I might post some pictures of the Panther over there just for s**** and giggles.

Matrixone

The more interesting part of the Me 262A-2a build has started...painting the upper surfaces.

First RLM 82 green was sprayed on.

I have elected to paint the engine nacelles separately before gluing them on the wings, doing this makes painting the scribble camouflage scheme a little easier. They will be glued on after the rest of the model is painted.
RLM 81 has been added.



Below is a photograph of the full size Me 262A-2a ''white Y'' that I am trying to model.



Matrixone

Les,
You really have that fine squiggle spray pattern nailed! I haven't tried to paint any lines that fine as of yet.

Very impressive!

Gaz

Thank you Gary!

Painting the squiggles was not that bad of a job to do, leaving the engine nacelles off really helped. A few years ago I painted a 1/72 scale glass nosed Me 262 bomber in a similar camouflage pattern and remember how difficult it was to paint the inboard area of the nacelles and the fuselage next to them...not much space to work in.

Before painting this 'scribble' scheme I thinned my paint a lot more than usual and lowered the P.S.I. gauge on the compressor down to 8. On my airbrush I always remove the end cap and it was important to do so here because with this scribble scheme I was holding the airbrush very close to the models surface during painting, with the end cap off of the airbrush the spray pattern airflow is improved plus I can see where the paint is going much easier.
I have several large unused model parts I use as paint mules I use to test my paint before spraying any paint on the models and doing some test spraying kept any unwanted surprises from happening during painting...a goof during painting on this model would require a lot of extra work to correct.

Matrixone

Les,
Thank you for the 'how-to'. I've got a Revell 262 I want to build for an upcoming campaign. I can see how painting would be facilitated by doing it separately.

Of course, hoping that everything fit nicely without requiring putty would be a requirement.

Gaz

Les, you are a machine mate! Your work rate and the quality of what you put out is awesome, not to mention the number of really handy techniques you have posted in this thread.

Keep up the great work, I'm loving the pair of 262's coming through now.

BTW, just to the left of the "422" on your Panther, there should be 18 red spots, you have only painted 16

Cheers, D

Your thread is always fun to follow Les. Great work on your models ! The fading of the Hinomaru looks excellent. They really fit well on the Dinah.

I assume that the dots on your Panther were painted free hand? Looks very nice. Especially how the dots are 'grouped' together.

Impressive paint job on your ME 262 too!



Jelger

Thanks so much for your comments!

Before any paint touched the Me 262 airframe I checked and double checked the fit of the engine nacelles to make sure they will fit tightly enough after painting. There will of course be some small touch ups of paint needed but that should be easy to do.

The Panther was painted 100% free handed. I try to avoid having to mask things when painting as it sometimes takes a long time to mask something off for only a few seconds of airbrush work.

I expect to finish the Dinah very soon, the Me 262's are so much fun to work on I keep putting off any work on the Dinah.

Matrixone

While the paint on the Me 262A-2a fuselage was drying I started painting the Me 262A-1a upper surfaces.

This Me 262A-1a will be getting put in the markings of ''yellow 3'' of III./KG(j)54. This aircraft had what looked like a very thin coat of paint on the upper surfaces and a little of the filler putty was starting to show through, I tried to copy that effect on my model.


Those RLM 81 brown patches on the rear fuselage replicate where the old four character codes were painted over when the aircraft was remarked as ''yellow 3''.

Tomorrow both the Me 262's will get the upper surface of the wings painted.

Matrixone