Cough, cough. No, no, I'm fine. Just fine! By now...

Michael

Hi, I will be joining with Spitfire Mk I A by Airfix, 1/72 scale. This kit is a part of a 4-airplane BoB box set. It included Hurricane, Bf 109, Spitfire and He 111. Hurricane and Messerschmitt are already completed, time for the Spit now.

Ok guys. I'm back, hopefully to get my self esteem up. Time to do something known and trusted, namely a Hasegawa Bf 109. I've built a few before, namely Marseilles F-model, and a generic G, so I see no huge challenges here, except the fuselage mottling. However, that's quite some time from now! Wish me luck.

Nice! Is this Helmut Wick's plane?

Yes. it is. I got it long ago because I liked the odd paint-job, but noe it feels a bit challenging. It will be a mix of airbrush and sponge-mottling, I guess. Unless anybody have another good idea.



Took a first session yesterday, by cutting everything loose for the first gray. Interior, landing gear bays, and such.



Detail paint, and getting the cockpit together will be next step.

Onwards / Lillen

I'm no Lufwaffe expert, for sure; but wouldn't RLM02 be the appropriate interior color for early war fighters?

Michael

You would be correct, Michael.

Maybe I got it a bit too dark, but it suited a museum-emil on the web rather well. Stripping and repainting is not an option now, since the tub is glued, so I have decided to live with it.

Rats. Sorry Tony, I thought I might catch you in time. But I fully agree with your solution. Roll on!

Michael

Krzysztof, I was very close to buy the Airfix Spitfire the Saturday in my local shop. Looking forward to hear your opinion on the model.

Tony, good luck with the mottling! I haven't done anything as complex as that but I have seen other people using mottling stencils for airbrush and other people using a simple sponge.

I have been a few days immersed with my Arma Hobby Hurricane, I am loving it.

I found the tiny PE parts more scary than difficult and they were really satisfactory to put in place. (I am very happy I had and eye check just before the lockdown though.) Painting the cockpit was a blast with such a good detail.





I found the assembly of the cockpit between the two halfs really fiddly: I broke the bottom part of the cage and had to unglue and sand the instrument panel. After that the model come together nicely and only required a bit of encouragement here and there. This is how is looking now:



I need to tidy up he cockpit area, masking and hopefully I can start painting in a few days.

Carlos.

Just a little progress on the Spitfire before I closed up the fuselage. Very nice and easy build so far. Very relaxing after my last one. Model builds itself, very little extra work required. One thing I am not sure about are the panel lines which seem overexaggerated. I hope it will look ok in the end.

Your Airfix Spit is looking good, Iwan. I did one of these a while back - it is a great kit to build, especially that nice cockpit.

The little classic Airfix pilot looks right at home in there too!

I’m in with Armory’s 1/144 scale Messerschmitt Bf-109E-3/E-4 “Battle of Britain Aces”.

A bit farther. A pair of sessions with the airbrush and it't time to close up the fuselage and start masking.



Yellow started to sputter a bit and was not quite easy to dilute, but will hopefully look ok after a bit (not too heavy) of weathering. I wonder if the paint is too old, or it builds too fast on the needle tip.

This Armory Bf-109E is issued as a “Battle of Britain Aces” double kit with two complete 109 models, etched brass parts, and multiple open and closed canopies.




Best of all, it comes with no less than fourteen markings options. Awesome!

Howdy Y'all
This will be my entry, Academy's 1/48 Bf109E-3.


Hopefully I'll be able to complete an airplane for a change.
Take care,
Don "Lakota"

Great work going on here guys. Very nice indeed.

Whoa, Tim. 1:144 is tiny, especially a 109. That is a small bird in 1:1! Mine is 1:48 and it challenges sometimes.


Got on with main masking, but failed a bit with the starboard wing.


I missed an area on the starboard wing and the mid gray area should have been green. Bugger! May repaint, or touch up, if that feels likely to get a better finish.


The blue on the fuselage was hard to get even without covering all freshading. I hope the green mottling will hide that. Still a little nervous, but will go with a small sponge. An idea is another green hue for that. That must have been applied in the field, and they would never have had the same type of paint as the factory. I remember my squads terrain van in the artillery. It was "viggen-splinter", as regulation demanded, but had 7 shades of green, 2 black and a brown. Rather camouflaged!

Tony, your 109 camou is looking good!


Armory’s little 1/144 Messerschmittt is a beautifully made kit with accurate outline and amazingly delicate panel lines.



Unfortunately, the one-piece wings are marred by awful sink dimples over the wheel wells. This is especially annoying as some of the delicate panel lines on the wing tops will be obliterated in correcting this.

Krzysztof, good interior for the Spitfire. I think that Airfix tends to oversize the panel lines in 1/72 but, to be honest, in the few Airfix I have done recently panel lines look OKish at the end.

Tim, you got me really excited about a nice looking bf109 in 1/144 but the sink marks look horrible from here. All the best!

Tony, camo is looking great. I know exactly your feeling when there is some problem after lifting the masking tape. I had that problem this weekend. I redid the area and it looks slightly darker now but it is not too bad.

Anyway, an update in my Hurricane, I had a lot of fun painting this weekend. As I was saying not perfect but I am happy so far. It looks a bit too shiny in real life and rough in the photo but I will correct that after the decals.



Carlos.

Carlos, your Hurricane is looking good! I agree with you about the heavy Airfix panel lines;

I did their 1/72 Spit a while back and when all is done, the heavyish lines do look all right. Can't wait to see your finished Hurricane!

You are a sucker for punishment aren't you Tim. Hope the repair job works out.

Tony and Carlos, the birds are looking great. Nice to see the Hurricane getting an outing against all the Spits and 109's.

Well, this is where the British Bofors 40 mm Flak is at present - modified the AFV Club kit to back date it to BoB specs, which was not that difficult to do. I have lots of spare parts now though.

Peter, that Bofors is looking sweet!






As for my Messerschmitt repairs... Carlos and Peter, you are right – such a shame!

I was able to smooth the dimples out of the wings, but the panel lines did suffer. It should still look ok under paint, though. Anyway, the little 109’s fuselage and wings are now together.


Assembly up to this point has been fairly fiddly with separate parts for the cockpit back/floor, instrument panel, top of the nose, oil cooler intake for the DB601A engine under the nose, and the two radiators the wings. Fit is just ok, but after a little work shimming and fairing things in, the result is good.

Nice save Tim. I guess it really comes down to the scale. At 1/144th when does a panel line become a trench line? It is not one of the old Matchbox kits (bless 'em - I still love them anyway) where the panel troughs would be wide enough for the pilot to put his finger in...

... looking forward to seeing it with paint.

You are right, Peter - at 1/144 scale the panel lines should be barely if at all perceptible, so I can live with some of them having been smoothed away.


By the way, the model isn’t really ready for it yet, but Brengun makes some absolutely beautiful 1/144 etched Luftwaffe seats that are perfect for the 109.