Jakko’s Messerschmitt Bf 110

[Guest]

First coat of paint is on. As I mentioned above, I decided to paint the plane all over with Humbrol 65 Aircraft Blue, the underside colour, because that should provide a light enough undercoat for the white top. After spending five minutes vigorously but carefully stirring a very old tin of said paint, I used a big brush to put it all over the model:

[ATTACH]384705[/ATTACH][ATTACH]384707[/ATTACH]

Well, not quite all over — I didn’t paint the central bit at first because I needed somewhere the hold the model You can see the tin in the first photo, I would guess it’s about 40 years old, possibly more, and though it had been used before (there was some paint on the rim) it was still basically full — and paints quite well still.

After this had dried, I just now painted the rest as well:

[ATTACH]384708[/ATTACH]

It’s a little glossy because the paint is still wet in this photo

Coverage isn’t all that great, as you can tell, but I already touched up the underside where this matters. The top will be overpainted in white anyway, plus drybrushing with green to suggest wear, so perfect coverage here isn’t overly important.

[peterairfix]

Coming along nicely.

[Guest]

White paint on:

[ATTACH]384768[/ATTACH]

As I didn’t have any Humbrol or Revell enamel white, I went for Vallejo instead. Not entirely (entirely not) period-correct, but it’s the only white paint I actually have that isn’t in a spraying can, so I had to use it. Obviously it’s not covering all that well yet, so when it’s dried a bit more I’ll have to do a second coat.

[Guest]

Two layers of white:

[ATTACH]384811[/ATTACH]

Three:

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And four (thinner and quicker than the previousj:

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At which point I think it’s not going to get much better, so I’m going to leave it like that. It looks like somewhat worn whitewash, so this should go well with the green I’ll add later.

I then went on to the yellow undersides of the wingtips, but that didn’t go entirely as expected:

[ATTACH]384814[/ATTACH]

The instructions recommend Humbrol 99 Lemon (light yellow) but I don’t have that, so I went for 24 Trainer Yellow instead. After spending another 5+ minutes reviving the tin that was almost as ancient as the last one I showed, actually painting with it gave the impression there was sand mixed in. Some more stirring didn’t help, so I shelved that. I’ll instead try the tin of Revell 15 yellow that I also discovered in the paint drawer, hoping that will still work.

[Guest]

I continued painting by drybrushing Humbrol HP5 US Marine Corps Green over the plane to represent wear of the whitewash, and painted the propeller blades with the same colour. The instructions say to use 91 Black Green, but I don’t have that, so I took the darkest Humbrol green I have — to be honest, it’s probably too light, but hey

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Also painted are the exhaust pipes, with Revell 37 acrylic, which is the equivalent of Humbrol 70 Brick Red that the instructions indicate. I actually have a tin of that same Revell colour in enamel, but it’s too thick to paint with and didn’t respond well to being thinned, so I had to resort to acrylics.

The machine gun and cannon barrels got a coat of Humbrol 27002, one of the light Metal Cote colours. The instructions say to use 56 Aluminium, which I don’t have, but I do have a tin of Revell 66, which is the equivalent, but on opening it, I discovered that it had completely dried out. Very bright Metal Cote it is, then

You may have noticed a dark blob on the left wingtip. I have no idea how that got there, so I’ll have to repaint it to get rid of it.

On the underside, I put three coats of Revell 15 yellow on the wing undersides and painted the bombs with the same grey I had used for the interior; I also touched up the undercarriage and wheel well doors with that:

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I get the impression Matchbox mixed up the wheel colours, though. This is as per the instructions, using the exact Humbrol colours Indicated:

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I think I’ll repaint them with the colours reversed, as this just looks odd.

Also, it dawned on me that I had the aerial mast in the wrong place … For some reason I had glued it into a small recess in the bottom of the fuselage, and completely not noticed that meant I didn’t have a mast for the top of the canopy … So after taking the photos here, I cut it off and fixed it in the correct place I just need to wait for the glue to dry before painting it white, together with the wingtip.

[Lee Drennen]

Looking good Jakko

[Guest]

Thanks, Lee

After touching up the wingtip, I added the decals.

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This went reasonably well, though I had to resort to Micro Sol, which I hadn’t intended to (for reasons of authenticity ) because the decals are so stiff that the wasp markings on the nose simply wouldn’t have gone on otherwise. Even the registration codes on the sides didn’t want to conform to the curve in the fuselage overly well, neer mind those wasps, so Micro Sol it was.

Once these had dried, I redid some of the worn off paint, because I didn’t feel it was heavy enough yet, using a mostly wet rather than a mostly dry brush. Then I repainted the tyres and added some exhaust stains while I had the black paint out — the catalog photo has them as well, so I thought it a nice touch.

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All that remained was to add the wheels.

This is now finished, and so I posted the remaining pictures in another thread.