Bf109F-4/R1 (Trop)

[stona]

Finally done. It's the one flown by Wilhelm Crinius except I now reckon it should be a G-2 ... never mind hey.I'll post some better piccies soon.The head on one is not what you'd want to see behind you.

Cheers

Steve

The sharp eyed will notice I've borrowed a stand from a Spitfire as I haven't got around to making one for this yet!

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[jspitza]

Fantastic work!! I love the stand-how did you make it? I've been trying to complete any airplane I can but when I do I'd love to start placing them in the air as opposed to the earth. Take care, Jeff

[Junkers12]

That is a very nice Me-109. The camo job is very well done. Great work!

Curt

[colin m]

Brilliant model. I haven't yet tried this sort of cammo' scheme, but really want to - it looks great.

Colin m........

[Guest]

Absolutely stunning mate i love it the paint job it is superb, i like it so much i am giving you five large stars.

scott

[stona]

Thanks for the nice comments chaps.The insulators on the antenna wire are now the correct (grey/green) colour. I didn't notice when I posted the piccies that I'd left them white...that'll teach me to stay up late!

Jeff,for the stand I use an acrylic photo frame for the base (17cm x 12cm).This one was a bit pricey,though you get two halves,one clear and one black. I bet you'd find something in a "pound shop" type of store. The support is a 5mm acrylic rod. I put a 20cm length in a pan of boiling water,to soften, and then bend it to a template. Drill the centre of the base and glue the rod in,I find epoxy works best.

You need to fix a tube of the correct diametre to accept the rod into the model. I fit this behind the cockpit,running the depth of the fuselage. It's a friction fit so you can't do too radical a pose (unless you want to fix it permanently) but I like to be able to remove the model. I'm planning to do this one nose down and banking as if starting a "curve of attack" It's such an agressive looking machine.

Cheers

Steve

Like this:

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[Guest]

That looks stunning, like the idea of no prop blades for a flying model works well. Have anyone tried those photo-etch prop blur blades? Great build, can I ask what scale it is please?

[stona]

Hi Graham. It's 1/32 based on the Hasegawa G-6 kit (very nice). This is the second "flying" model I've done. On the first one I experimented with acetate discs,scored and painted in various ways to simulate a spinning propeller but didn't really like anything.It was after a visit to Duxford for the Flying Legends air show that I decided just to fill the spinner and leave the blades off. I couldn't see any propeller discs as various machines went whizzing past!

I quite like models posed in flight but hardcore (competition type) modellers don't approve,not that I care. Apparently by putting in a pilot and closing up the wheel wells you avoid having to detail these areas of interest!On the other hand you have to paint a pilot which is a challenge for me. I reckon if you fancy an in flight model you should build one,you can argue that it is posed in its natural element. I've now got The Bf109 and a Spitfire "flying" off my shelves and you can really appreciate the clean lines of both fighters.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Lovely work as ever Steve, the paint work is just spot-on, great mottling. Definately worth all that conversion effort! patrick

[yak face]

worth waiting for ,steve, just superb , lovely paint job. Great to see more planes on stands too , cheers tony

[Guest]

Beautiful work Stona.. may I ask how you did your mottle? (It looks like paper cut to several shapes and blu tacked down)/

[stona]

Thank you Maglar. The mottle was done free hand in several stages.

1 Finished all upper surfaces in the sand colour (RLM79)

2 Freehand mottle in green (RLM80)

3 Fade mottle with overspray of 2 or 3 lightened shades of green.It gives a bit of variation in shade.

4 Spray another coat of Sand colour selectively between mottles to sort out cock ups and blend edges.

5 Overspray entire surface with very light and highly thinned coat of sand colour to blend camouflage (virtually invisible)

6 After clearcoat,decals,clearcoat,overspray top of fuselage,horizontal stabiliser and wings (including Balkenkreuz) with very thin light coat of light grey,I used RLM76 blue grey, to dull down decals and fade upper surfaces. This aircraft sat in the Tunisian sun for weeks on end and the AeroMaster decals in particular were far too black!

After that it was normal weathering/exhaust etc and a quick coat of silk varnish.

Paints are all Xtracrylix sprayed with Either an Iwata Revolution or an Iwata Eclipse airbrush.I can spray at pressures as low as 10-12psi when,for example,filling the mottle.I think a good mottle can be achieved freehand,certainly at 1/32 (like this) and 1/48. 1/72 is a bit more problematic,I don't usually work in that scale but on the one occasion I tried it I used a card mask pierced with a selection of little holes.

I once saw some decals to simulate mottling. To me they were very unconvincing. The mottle patterns were applied in the field early in the war and at the point of production later. In both cases they were applied freehand and only in the latter was there a "painting guide". This means they vary considerably and are rarely neat. The field applied ones in particular feature a lot of overspray which is lucky for we modellers. The mottling was not masked and I can't remember seeing a hard edged version. Some are tighter than others,depending on the spraygun/sprayer.

The commander of I/JG26,Rolf Pringel, was shot down near Dover by a Sterling bomber on 10/7/41. He was flying one of the new Bf109Fs,he had only had it for two days. In the report of his interrogation the British make a list of questions they wanted answers to. Many are technical questions about the aircraft (can the wing be modified to carry more guns?) or tactical (what is the German opinion of our new fighter formations?). In amongst them is the intriguing question,"reasons for use of present varied and weird camouflage schemes?" His answer was less than illuminating. He stated that the camouflage of all German aircraft is officially standard and any variations are to be accounted for by variations in the taste or skill of the painter. The key word is "officially". Many units were using their own unofficial schemes at this time and Pringel certainly knew this.

Mottling.....a subject in itself!

Cheers

Steve

I have the report and follow ups,including a letter from Bader pleading with the RAF to get on with the assesment of the new F and get the information to squadrons quickly,as PDFs.I can't figure out how to post them,they are rather large files.They are in the archives at Kew.Unfortunately,during trials the captured Bf109F crashed killing the test pilot.You can find stuff about the trials here.

http://kurfurst.org/Tactical_trials/109F2_UK/109F2_ES906_AFDU.html

[Guest]

Thanks for the explanation, much appreciated!

[Guest]

Hi Steve, Very nice paint job, I am old enough to remember when the 2/- Airfix kits came with a perspex stand to support the aircraft, wish all manufacturers would provide these. Keep up the great work Derek

[stona]

Thanks Derek. So am I ,just about. I'm not sure about 2 bob but I remember the stands. Not many people,self included,do a lot posed flying which is a shame as they can look good. There are usually problems with the fit of wheels,gear doors etc which I certainly had on the 109. Also a lot of kits no longer include a pilot/crew so they can hardly be flying. Because of the gear problems, and having done the pilot ,I nearly did this one on the ground at the state of readiness called "sitzbereitschaft". The pilot sat in the plane,engine warmed,ready to be airborne in 45 seconds.I even sized up cocktail umbrellas to fit in the clips on the side of the tropical 109s meant to take a parasol (they thought of everything). Then it started getting a bit diorama like and I chickened out!

Steve