rieser

Brilliant! Hat off, and head shaking slowly. Cheers, Ralph.

Thanks for the reply about the rivet application Jan - much appreciated. I can manage to apply rivets to the unassembled parts, but I'm scratching my head about how to do it so neatly on an assembled model. Cheers, Ralph.

Hello Jan: interesting start. Do you add the rivet detail before or after the model is assembled and primed? Cheers, Ralph.

Yep - liking the way she's coming together. Great stuff Bevan. Cheers, Ralph.

Hey Bevan - looks like the fun is just about to begin. Looking forward to seeing the colour pics!! Cheers, Ralph.

Hello Ralph. I used some strange mixes. For the upper grey I played with a for shades, namely: 1:4 XF-24 Dark Grey and XF-54 Dark Sea Grey; 9:1 XF-24 and Gunze Sangyo H75 Dark Sea Grey; and H62 Japanese Army Grey. For the undersides I used 1:1 XF-14 Japanese Army Grey and XF-21 Sky; and H62 Japanese Army Grey. Hope this helps. Cheers, Ralph.

Thanks for looking. Cheers, Ralph.

Great start Bevan. Looking forward to seeing her come to life. Cheers, Ralph.

"Danger Will Robinson..." That being the case, it might be time to dig out the Ta152 to get a feel for the Z-M stuff.

At best a wild approximation. Apparently when displayed at Farnborough in 1945, W.Nr. 415601 / VD358 had the armament and cockpit armour removed, and an open tailwheel bay. The markings are no doubt incorrectly sized as they were gestimated from profile artwork - a dangerous kitchen... No real idea how grubby she was, so erred on the cleaner side of "freshly painted in RAF colours..." Big thanks to Mal Mayfield from Miracle Paint Masks - Cheers, Mal: very much appreciated. Thanks for looking. Cheers, Ralph. WIP http://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/1465-132-hasegawa-bf109-g-14-farnborough/

Well perhaps something like Dottie II might have looked like at some time... Not sure about how the canopy should sit. Any advice much appreciated. Had intended to add the fin-to-wingtip antennae, but the elastic rigging thread I tried had different ideas so they didn't eventuate. Thanks for looking. Cheers, Ralph. WIP at http://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/2796-132-hasegawa-p40-e-dottie-ii/

Some progress... Turned out that the first go at gestimating the marking sizes from the profile artwork came up short. Mal Mayfield kindly agreed to recut them on new "measurements", so the first ones came off. Quick fuselage repaint... One with the new ones... Reworked wing root areas... Close to done... Thanks for looking. Cheers, Ralph.

Cheers Gents. Jonathan: the splash was done using very thin Vallejo 70826 German Cam. Medium Brown applied in at least four layers using a small piece of sponge. The mixture was so thin that it was very hard to see the first layer after it had dried. It was important to let each layer dry before deciding to add the next - helped to see how the effect was working (or not). Very small spots of neat colour were dotted in a few places while the final layer was still wet - in the hope that there was enough surface wetness to dilute them and leave afew deliberately darker bits. Hope this helps. Cheers, Ralph.

Underside close to done... Thanks for looking. Cheers, Ralph.

Hello Mike. Agree with Nick's sentiments about the very useful information that you guys provided. Have to differ with him on the scheme though - love those Italian repaints! Lovely work on a lovely scheme. Great stuff. I've noticed your prop tip wear a few times now. Can I as how you do it? Cheers, Ralph.

Cheers Gents. AK 045 Enamel Wash Dark Brown for Green Vehicles added to the topside recessed detail and then Dullcoted. Thanks for looking. Cheers, Ralph.

Cheers Paul. "Thumbs up" is good, Underside weathering commenced... AK 303 Grey Wash for Kriegsmarine Ships in most of the panel lines; AK 305 Streaking Grime for Light Grey Ships - which is a bit browner - in the gun service panels and flaps; and AK 082 Engine Grime in the forward centreline... Games Workshop Babab Black wash in the wheel strut bays, followed by drybrushing with about 1:1 Vallejo 70990 Light Grey and 70918 Ivory. Same Vallejo mix thinned with tap water and applied with a small piece of foam. Thanks for looking. Cheers, Ralph.

Thanks Gents. More markings. Tried the Montex masks, but it became clear that they are designed to be used before the camo colours go on. As I did it the wrong way around, I ended up with asymetrical halos around the stars, so the markings and wingtips were sanded back and repainted. I had masks from Mal Mayfield that I'd asked him to cut based on the kit decal sizes. These were much larger than the Montex masks, and where Montex has you apply the small markings to the fuselage and the large ones to the wings, Hasegawa has you do the reverse. And then it turns out that Montex makes two sets that include "Dottie II" - one for the REVELL kit (which I used), and one for the Hasegawa kit. Test-fitting Mal's masks as per the Hasegawa instructions seemed to indicate that the small markings were too small for the wings, and the large ones too large for the fuselage. Now completely confused by Montex, Hasegawa, too many Tamiya lacquer thinner fumes, and an inability to determine what should go where, I decided to use Mal's big masks on the wings, and small ones on the fuselage. Apologies to those in the know. The confusion turned to frustration when I couldn't decide whether the star should line up with the wing leading edge or the panel line. Neither the Squadron "In Action" nor the "Walkaround' was of any help so I went with the leading edge. Apologies if I went the wrong way here too. Fitting and refitting the components of the mask resulted in small overlaps at the edges of the star. Hoping that these will disappear under a flat coal. I didn't manage to fit the masks to well enough to get the star points to meet the edge of the circle either. Comments, criticism, words of wisdom about US markings very welcome as I'd like to build more US subjects - and avoid any repeat mistakes. Cheers, Ralph.

Cheers Gents. Alan: I can't claim any credit for these "techniques" as they've been used by many others before. Yes - it is fun, but it certainly adds time and a little extra in cost to the build. My biggest challenge it to retain the underlying prep work when applying the paint. Yet to find the balance there as the Tamiya acrylcis were thinned about 80% with Tamiya lacquer thinner, and sprayed with an Aztek A470 fitted with the 0.3mm tan tip at about 20psi (won't spray below that). The combination results in the colours laying down in a "spotty" fashion, meaning that I have to put more paint on than I want to fill in between the "spots". Maybe a different paint/airbrush combination would improve the painting stage. First markings using Montex Super Mask "P-40E REVELL" (item K32046): The mask was trimmed down to help fit it more easily. XF-4 Yellow Green was sprayed first to cover the green/brown areas and give an even base for the yellow... ... 4:1 mix of XF-3 Flat Yellow and Gunze H413 RLM04 Yellow ... ... some very light sanding should knock the rough edges off the lettering. Not sure about the shape of the "9" - wondered whether there is a corner missing from the inside bottom-right of the "hole". Big thanks to Mike Rinaldi and Diego Quijano for pushing me to try the indoor pics thing. Thanks for looking. Cheers, Ralph.

Sprayed some Floquil Old Silver into the wing roots and did the Maskol thing again, followed by some XF-4 Yellow Green. Camo colours went on over that. Thanks for looking. Cheers, Ralph.

Some light colours... A 4:1 mix of XF-2 Flat White and XF-55 Deck Tan in the Dark Brown areas, and some left-over "faded RLM 71" (2:2:1 XF-61 Dark Green, XF-58 Olive Green, XF-22 RLM Grey) in the Dark Green areas... Tape and Maskol removed... Have to say a big thanks to a guy called Bera Karoly for the inspiration to try this. He's been posting some very interesting weathering stuff on Face Book. Hope this sample link works. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202485358044637&set=pcb.10152361523279821&type=1&theater Thanks for looking. Cheers, Ralph.

Cartoon effect toned down by overspraying with the underside colours... Anyone know whether the rest of the wheel bays would most likely be interior green or the underside grey? More tape... Some Humbrol Maskol thinned with water and applied with a piece of foam...

Tape off reveals a very cartoon-like result. This should soften with a little bit of work. Perhaps the 0.4 mm AIZU micro masking tape would help too. Bogus line through the shell ejection chute panels. No colour - weather wasn't permitting. Thanks for looking. Cheers, Ralph.

Cheers Gents. The XF-80 undercoat showed up some very average construction so on went some more Mr Surfacer... Not really a fan of tablecloth preshading, but am looking for a way of adding surface detail without using the rivet wheel. Going back to something I first saw demonstrated by a guy called Anis some years ago (thanks Anis). Now quite the norm with many WWI subjects. 0.7 mm AIZU micro masking take laid down before another layer of mottled greys... More colour tomorrow weather-permitting. Thanks for looking. Cheers, Ralph.

Cheers Cees. Although I spent a lot of time trying to fill and blend all the inserts, the paint has shown up some very average construction results. Bevan: some cockpit pics... ... and some others... hoping for some topside colour tomorrow...