A smidgen of progress on the Bf109K-4 got the canopy masked and painted. The wheel wells, wheel covers, prop boss, landing gear covers painted. I've painted the spine and the underside of the fuselage which shows me I need to do a little filling and sanding before painting.

Chris,
The little bit of extra time now spent, will pay big dividends in the finished product.
Joel

It's been a while since I last posted but I've been working on a 1/8 scale BMW R75 by Bandai as a break from wingy things. But I've got that to a point where I need to start decaling it so I've returned to the Bf109K-4 as that also needs decaling!

As you can see I've go her painted and part decaled, the decals by the way are quite resilient but love to curl given the opportunity. I've been taking Joel Willensteins advice (and others!) and placing them in warm water and sliding them off the decal paper and into place. However they seem to be able to wrap around the decal paper as I slide them off. it's been a trial especially with the smaller ones as the larger are easier to deal with effectively. There are some other parts to attach but I'll leave those till I'm done weathering etc.

Any how here are some progress pics for your edification!

Looking good, Chris. Been waitin' fer ya to get her done.

Gary

Sorry for the delay buddy but I'm back in the swing let's see how she looks once I'm done with her.

Chris,
Your making excellent progress with the decaling. From my view it sure seems like you eventually got them to lay down just fine.

Joel

Coming along nicely Chris, and I agree with Joel, I think the decals look just fine.

Hi Ernst & Joel my thanks for the positivity!

Well yes they are stuck down well but what you don't see was the patient struggle to get them that way! The "IngeBorg" decal broke around the B and flipped 180 degrees and promptly stuck to itself! I put it back in the water and managed to tease it apart and realign everything got it back onto some decal paper and realized that it was inside out so to speak. That's okay I figured I could stick it to a slight pool of "Klear", the reality was it had a greater affinity for the decal paper than my pool of "Klear". I managed to get it onto another piece of decal paper this time the right way round and slide it off onto the kit. I then gently maneuvered it into position and promptly quit all decaling till it was dry.

I've tried warm water, hot water and cold all provide similar results. The decals don't exactly float off the paper as most other decals do and adding a little setting solution helps with sliding it off the paper and onto the kit but the curl persists. I am toying with the idea to applying a little softener to see if that will temporarily allay the curl but I know from past history that Hobbycraft decals stretch wildly if you try to maneuver them after softener has been applied.

So I think I'll persist in slowly working through the decals and get them applied little by little. They have supplied the swastika however it's a multi part affair with both arms separate and the white outline separate as well. So that's four pieces per swastika. Getting everything satisfactorily lined up is a bit of a guess. It may be slightly out but I hope it won't stick out like dogs bollocks once finished.

Given that I've been almost exclusively working on the Helldiver I thought it about time that I did some work on the Bf109-K4. So after watching a couple of youtube tutorials on panel line washes I came to a couple of realizations 1. I was using a brush way to thick for the job 2. The cotton bud I was using to clean up was way to wet with solvent.

So armed with that information I did a pin wash of the panel lines and left it to dry. I reapplied the wash to a couple of lines that weren't dark enough for me and when dry I carefully wet my cotton-bud (Q-tip for you Americans) and then ran it across a paper towel a couple of times to remove the excess. Then proceeded to clean up with pretty good results. This wash was 100% better than the wash I applied to the Bv-141. As you can see the lines are nicely highlighted.

I've added the main undercarriage, painted the spinner and wheels. I think I've got a number of decals for the spinner so I won't have to worry about masking and painting white line going around the spinner. I'm finished with the decals, they weren't the easiest set I've put on a model and I had to replace the swastikas with some that weren't two part and applied a whole lot better, she's starting to look great!

Chris,
You're making excellent progress, and that's what counts, not the speed that you get there. Heck, I model a lot, and don't have much to so for it most of the time, but I eventually get there.

Decaling looks good. Believe me I feel your pain and frustrations as I've been fighting with the Academy decals for the B-25B, and nothing in my decal arsenal had any effect on them. So I'm buying Mr. set and Mrs. Sol which according to my brother work well with the Chinese decals.

Nice job on the recessed panel lines. They look perfect.

Joel

Thanks Joel coming from you the compliment means a lot.

I solely use Micro set and Micro sol on my decals and have mixed results depending on the manufacturer. Some of the Chinese/Korean decals seem practically impervious to just about anything. I have even read blogs where some have used Tamiya thin cement or similar solvent to soften decals to get them to settle in/over detail. HobbyBoss's decals though have given me very little trouble, I have built several of their kits with no issues ... yet.

I have also had issues with decals from ICM (brittle), Hasegawa (some very thick & inflexible), most of the earlier Airfix kits although the newer releases seem very much better (silvering, not settling well). Early Monogram decals settle well with MicroSol but are very thick, still quite visible after a matt coat.

Most aftermarket decals I have used have needed little "extra" help to settle well over the model. But some have been very thin and brittle. It's obviously not an easy road to find the perfect decal medium.

Anyway I'm in the home stretch now just some weathering to accomplish, some details to paint and some final assembly and I'll be done.

Chris,
Our lives would be that much easier if all manufactures used Cartograf. AM decal makers on the whole have outstanding decals, and I've yet to have any issues with them. Of course, I tend to stick to just a half dozen different AM companies.
Joel

Hi Chris,
Your 109 is really looking great! I recently had a bad experience with ICM decals. The only set I could find online that had everything I wanted were by Techmod. They were thin and delicate, but sunk right into the details by the time they were dry. I didn't use any decal softener on them.

Because they were very thin, I floated them onto a big bead of water wherever I put them. Positioned them, blotted them down, and that was it. I was really impressed with them.

Gary

I agree with you Gary I used Techmod decals on a PZ.11c build I did and while care was needed with them because of the frailty they stuck like s$%t to a blanket and conformed beautifully over surface detail.

Chris,

You are showing the potential of the old H.c. models. Great work.




Did you mean 1/48?

Thanks Frederick! While I think Hobbycraft kits are often underrated they usually give quite a good base to start from. The cooper details set really set this kit off beautifully.

Nope 1/8th! I built a 1-9th scale Zundapp for a friend and 1/8th BMW R75 was my "payment" for building the kit. They were his Dad's who passed recently and he wanted them built for sentimental reasons.

Nice work on the 109 Chris. I hear you about the decals, I have my trails and tribulations with them myself. Joel is right about Cartograph decals, they are the best for me and I can always achieve good results with them. The Zundapp looks outstanding by the way!

HI Ernest! Thanks for the compliment. The motorcycle is actually the BMW R75 although I think I have pics of the Zundapp somewhere if you're interested. (I'd have to go hunting through my folders to find them LOL)

I wholeheartedly agree about cartograf decals I've never had any issues with them. Always in register always behave impeccably.

Okay so we're in the home stretch now, adding all the small fragile bits. Gear doors, machine gun barrels, radio masts, df antenna, pitot tube and balance horns. I've got some weathering to do and then a dull coat and we're all good! Here's where I'm at as of last night.

Well would you look at that I've got her all complete, weathered dull coated etc and then I unmask the canopy and to my horror find that the super glue wasn't fully cured and the inside of the canopy has fogged! Oh well put it down to a frosty morning I guess. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

I'll investigate replacing the canopy , it'll give me a chance to remove the aerial mast that the instructions would have you put on as it was deleted in the K series!

Sorry to see this Chris.
I had a similar problem with the canopy of my Panther. After the fogging was compete hardened I used a cotton swab and applied it into a drill machine. The swab was coated with tooth paste and then The inside of the canopy was polished. But You have to use a rather slow rotation speed, so the canopy cannot be damaged by friction heat. After this You can additionally dip the canopy in future or klear. Maybe it is worth a shot before You dispose the canopy.

All the best!

Oliver

Chris,
That certainly is something that none of us want to see on your model or ours. That's one of the reasons why I don't use CA glues for clear parts as they're known to cause fogging. Rather, I use Tamiya Extra Thin very carefully applied and capillary action does more then 75% of gluing all the surfaces. The Extra Thin never has fogged any clear parts, but will instantly cause spot damage if you get it where it doesn't belong.

You should be able to remove the canopy with a debonder. Try to get one by the same manufacture of the CA glue you used. Not all are the same, or so I hear.

Polishing off the fogging is a viable 1st decision as CA glue doesn't melt plastic, so it's all on the surface. It was a bonding type glue, the damage wouldn't be fixable without removing all the affected areas, and that's a job that's nearly impossible on a canopy to do without causing more issues.

Once cleaned of the fogging, polish to smooth the surface out, but using a clear sealer on the inside surface won't have any visual effect as you're viewing it from outside in,. So strip off all the paint and then dip the whole canopy in Future/Pledge. If you used Acrylics it's easy to remove the paint. If not, it may be easier to just mask using the paint as a guide.

Joel

@Oliver:Thanks Oliver it's something to consider, I've used tooth paste before with mixed results.

@Joel: The canopy was glued into place with Tamiya extra thin cement Joel, however the gun sight was glued in with CA and I hadn't left enough time for it to cure apparently. Sorry Joel severe lack of information in my post. Since Falcon canopies is in Wellington (North Island I'm in the South) it'll be rather easy and cheap to simply replace the offending article.

Well the weekend started out with such promise! I'd found myself a canopy to replace the one fogged, removed said canopy with a minimum of fuss and no damage to the airframe. (Bonus!) The replacement canopy from the Academy kit was very thin and crystal clear, in fact so thin I broke it in half whilst masking it. D'oh!

So now I'm going to try to fix the original canopy because I've no idea when the replacement from Falcon will arrive.

Chris,

Your luck sounds a lot like mine of late.

Try very lightly sanding the fogged areas with nothing courser 2,000, then polishing through 12,000 grit if you have them, or use a non gel toothpaste, or my go to for final work a car scratch remover polish. Finish with a Future/Pledge bath, and you should be just fine.
Joel