Ghost Flitzer

[Weaver]

Would blu-tac or similar "sausage" masks give you the degree of soft demarcation you seek?

I just realised that there isn't a picture of the new mask setup on here - it's the old one cut in half, chopped up a bit more in various ways and then supported on..... blu-tack sausages.... I'll do a pic of it tomorrow: not starting messing with the camera again now (2.00am).

Anyway, here's the end, and I MEAN the end (fed up with it now), result:



The touch-up on the wings went okay and I managed to extend the "saddle" around the cockpit. The edge hardness wasn't uniform, but a bit of heart-in-mouth touch-up with a paint brush was surprisingly effective. I was going to spray a paler "saddle" on the underside too, but I can't face it now. Might still do a hard-edged F-18-style false cockpit though.

[Ed S]

I think it's looking pretty good.  The demarcation looks about right for the scale.

Ed

[Weaver]

Okay, Mk.II mask:



And how it was supported:



Progress:



False canopy mask made by sticking 18mm Tamiya tape onto a piece of glass, putting it on top of the instruction sheet drawings (which are 1:1 scale with the model), tracing the outline and then cutting it.

[ChernayaAkula]

Looks really nice! The false canopy is a cool touch!

[noxioux]

Looks darn good, if you ask me.  Sometimes they do fight you, though.

Soldier on!  I think we're all looking forward to seeing the finished bird.

[BlackOps]

She looks pretty doggone good in the grey paint scheme, nice work! 

[Weaver]

Cheers Folks!

The original idea was to use a mixed bag of the white markings off the original sheet for "low vis", but the more I looked at them the more I disliked the idea for various reasons. So last night I FINALLY got around to doing my own Luftwaffe markings in shades of grey, including the missing swastikas (which piss me off...). Not sure about colour tones yet (experiments with high-res printing needed first).

[Weaver]

All decals on - now in the LEAVE THE BLOODY THING ALONE phase until tomorrow, when it will get a bit of weathering.

I screwed up the grey shade on the decals because I didn't know how they'd react to the grey underneath them - they came out darker than I'd have liked, but they still fit with the scheme. All the minor decals came from the kit sheet and look a bit bright, but I figured that the RLM wouldn't be producing special fuel-filler markings for an experimental scheme in 1946.....

[Weaver]

The Ghost Flitzer.

During the surprise German counter attack of late 1945, the various new Luftwaffe jets appeared in a variety of new colour schemes. A number of Focke-Wulf Ta-178 Flitzers were encountered in variations of this low-visability grey scheme, which lead to them being dubbed "Ghost Flitzers" by Allied pilots due to their ability to disappear into even the thinnest cloud. The nickname subsequently got back to the Luftwaffe squadrons, and after the war, a photograph surfaced that showed that at least one aircraft, "Grey Five", was painted with a ghost mascot.





The effectiveness of the ghost schemes may have been exaggerated at the time, but it did lead to post-war research which culminated in the Air-Superiority Grey schemes now in common use. It's apparent from the few detailed photographs of the aircraft that although low-vis versions of the national markings were produced, many of the warning signs and notices remained in high-vis colours. This, together with the existence of a profusion of other schemes (such as the green splinter scheme dubbed "Goblin"), leads most to the conclusion that the ghost schemes were in the nature of a large-scale trial, or perhaps a "private enterprise" undertaking by a paticular squadron or group.







Unfortunately, the provenence of the Grey Five photograph did not accompany it, and was never established. Grey Five was never captured on the ground, there is no positive identification of it being shot down from the Allied side, and so many Luftwaffe records were lost when Berlin was atom bombed that it's fate cannot now be traced from the German side either. The Ghost Flitzer has thus lived up to it's name and  become a true ghost......

[Weaver]

Kit: Revel Flitzer in 1/72nd scale.
Mods: None.
Paint: Humbrol Compass Grey over Ghost Grey, mixture of airbrush and hand-paint.
Decals: Crosses, swastikas, serials and ghosts home-printed, the rest from the kit sheet.











Best bits: decals and build.

Worst bit: spray painting - had all sorts of strange problems and masking cock-ups (as ever, photography deceives to flatter).

[Mossie]

So, the Ghost became a ghost.  It looks great Weaver!  You seem to have got over the problems you had to produce a fine looking model.

[McGreig]

I'm really impressed by this - a great paint finish and so believable. 
Another one for the "wish I'd thought of that" file 

[Spey_Phantom]

great job on the Flitzer, i love the color sheme. 

i got 2 flitzers in my stash, i guess i better have a go at those once the worktable clears up 

that plane would look great in that color scheme with modern US markings 

[tanktastic43]

A very nice paint and decal job. Well done. 

[Weaver]

Thanks all for the kind comments.

They're a pretty nice model. Problem areas are:

1. Intake ducts don't match up perfectly, so you have to do a lot of fiddling around with a small fine file to make them look right.

2. The cockpit is too wide once the side consoles are on, so you have to trim it before the fuselage will go together.

3. The booms need some help to stay straight (see earlier in the thread for my solution).

4. The canopy's a poor fit: the angle of the canopy "sill" is wider than fuselage sill so it leaves a gap at the lowest point. This might have been exacerbated in my case by the many layers of paint on the anti-glare shield: trimming it all off and putting just one coat of black back on helped the canopy fit a bit better.

5. As the Wooksta pointed out right at the start, the wheels are WAY too thick for the wings. I didn't have anything suitable to substitute for them though.