Allan's new projects Raiden and two 109s

[Army of One]

Looking on the website they are £1.66 with a p+p of 75p per tin.....I'm sure I've read that right.....H

[NARSES2]

That's right mate and unlike some suppliers they will ship paint on its own. The more you order the cheaper the shipping gets 

[Allan]

here's the masking, just about complete...the other upper colors will be, maybe, green for one of them and perhaps tan or another darker grey for the other
I was tempted to use ordinary masking tape but was fearful of damaging the paint surface so plumped for Tamiya tape
Revell enamel in the tinlets here goes for A$3
Allan in Canberra

[Allan]

more masking in preparation for the coat of light blue/blue grey
it's ordinary masking tape torn to achieve the merged edge.....hope it works
Allan

[NARSES2]

I'll be very interested in seeing the result of your torn edge experiment Al, best of luck with it 

[Allan]

thanks Chris..toujours l'audace with my whiffing!!!
here's the masking complete with the tail section bagged for later painting...when I do that I'll bag the fuselage
not sure yet which color to use..the middle one is matt 89 and is a slightly bright blue so might look better with the Airfix 109F...this is the color I'll use with the Raiden...the Tamiya enamel is RLM light blue and looks nice..the WEM is French sky blue, but there isn't much left
Allan

[TallEng]

Looking good
I'd use the Tamiya RLM Blue; it looks like it goes with the rest of the Camouflage,
But then what do I know....

Regards
Keith

[dumaniac]

yes - looking good - nice progress

[Allan]

thanks Keith and Bernie
Here's the plane with the first annointing of the Tamiya---two things need to be said here...the weather here is pretty cold and I did the spray painting in the garage this afternoon at about 5 pm..perhaps that made the paint a little reluctant to pass though the brush...I wan't really happy about the way I applied the paint and feel perhaps that I've put it on a little too thick....better apply the next coat during the less cold daytime..also I think it would have been better to lay down a light coat of the matt Revell color and then put the Tamiya over it to give it something to grip onto......we always learn something with this hobby...I'll start masking the other 109 tomorrow....because of the cold weather it's just about impossible and unwelcoming to do some spraying in the garage when I get home, so that leaves the weekend...here're the latest shots
by the way the angle of these shots just about replicates the angle of my airbrush relative to the fuselage as I applied the paint...didn't want to get any under the tape
any tips on painting the exhausts?
Allan iln Canberra

[Old Wombat]

Looking good, Allan!

Keep up the good work!

Haven't checked the weather but I'm guessing it's colder in Canberra than here in Littlehampton.



Guy

[Allan]

thanks Guy, for your support..and I'm feeling I need it as I put on a coat of blue on the other side this morning...not really happy with the way the Tamiya enamel went on...looking back, the Xtracolor yellow and two shades of grey went through my Iwata like prunes through an old lady and was really impressive...maybe I should have used Xtracolor blue instead, but no matter..... alea jacta est!!!!!
one thing, though and this is something I might ask the Hyperscale crowd as well and that's how do you spray paint the underside of the air filter on the nose of the 109 once you've cemented it into position?  there seems to me no room to place the nozzle of the airbrush close to the filter..maybe everyone brush paints the underside before spraying..I dunno
now I'll let everything dry for a few days before turning my attention to the undersides and then perhaps putting on another very light coat onto the sides...then there is the dreaded mottling to do..speaking of which I wonder how it was done in real life?  I mean the mottling using two shades of grey...they sprayed it on so either there were two blokes doing it with a spray gun each loaded up with the two shades or one bloke doing one color then emptying the gun, filling it with another shade and applying it...some modellers do the mottlling randomly by putting a blotch here and then another one far, far away on the wing or fuselage to achieve the randomness, but really that's not how it was done....no, methinks the best way is to go straight from nose to tail or the other way, putting on blotches without jumping around and then using the same procedure with the other color..whaddaya think???  and I don't think the pilot had the time or inclination to have a look at the finished mottling and direct that another one be put here or there, do you?
Allan

[Tophe]

Sorry I discover this topic today. Good work, congratulations.
Another possibility  with one Raiden and two 109s could have been a twin-fuselage Bf109Z (pilot-less) with a central pod (Lightning-like) made with the Raiden, no?

[dumaniac]

Allan - yes the cold is a bugger for us in the tablelands too - I generally try not to spray below 10 degrees C - but after a couple of weekends of no painting - one gets desperate.  One way around the problem is to heat the paint and model in the house and wind up the compressor and hoses - and rush out at the last moment for a quick spray
cheers

Bernie

[NARSES2]

"went through my Iwata like prunes through an old lady " - Love it 

Going well Al

[matrixone]

Allan,
Not quite sure as to your question about how to paint under the air scoop on a 109, I have built a few Bf 109s before and never had an issue getting the area under the air scoop painted with the airbrush. What I do is hold the airbrush closer to the models surface and spray like I would any other part of the model, in the case of the air scoop I paint that area from beneath the front of the model.

Bf 109 mottling was usually done in the factory with a painter on each side of the aircraft as it was rolled through the painting department...this is why some 109s had slightly different styles of mottling on the left and right hand sides.
Unless the pilot was directing the groundcrew to put on additional camouflage paint he had no say as to how the camouflage was painted on the aircraft. Usually when a Bf 109 or Fw 190 was finished they would be flown to an air park and from there the aircraft would be collected by the pilots of whichever unit the aircraft was being assigned to.

My advice for adding mottling to your models is to look at many photographs of Bf 109s and choose the style that fits your needs and keep the photograph nearby as you are painting so you can keep your mottling spaced correctly.
Also you will want to thin your paints much more than usual and most important is to lower your PSI down to between 8 and 5. If you don't lower the PSI when spraying highly thinned paint the paint will tend to ''spider'' on the models surface.
For doing any fine detail work with the Iwata be sure to take off the end cap so you will get a clean airfow so the paint won't bounce back up ruin what you are trying to paint...this is quite important for painting mottling because you will need to hold the airbrush close to the models surface.
When I paint mottling on small scale models like 1/100 and 1/72 I hold the airbrush about 3/4 inch away from the model as I am spraying it.

HTH

Matrixone