Bf-109 E1

Roland Sachsenhofer
Whatever the weather forecast is like, you will stay in that weekend... I suppose 😮)

Holger Kranich
Thx guy´s, i´ll be damned if i not start to work this weekend! I´ll keep you posted with pic´s and news! But at first i have to find my camera, my son played with it... 😉

Aghis Barberopoulos
I have used lifecolor, and I find their color tones accurate. However, I do dislike the really matt appearance of the dried paint. If you wish to turn it to gloss or even semi-gloss, it is more difficult. This box says "special satin finish" so I guess they got the message. I am very interested to see the finished 109...

Holger Kranich
Its matt at all! I have to use future for decaling and washing!

Aghis Barberopoulos
Ooops! Have you tried the White Ensign luftwaffe colours ? On the other side, if you like acrylics, the Gunze luftwaffe colours are a favourire of mine.

Holger Kranich
I´d like to switch to Gunze but my supplier doesnt have it in his stash. I purchased the Vallejo Model Air acrylics, Luftwaffe Set 1, will see how they work! The Lifecolour-stuff is not bad but after every spraying i think i ruined everything. all is full of bubbles... After they dryed, everything looks perfect, its still a thrill to work with it but at the end it looks very nice!

Holger Kranich
So i added some photos from my 109. But my working-progress is much more advanced as the pic´s will show. I post some new with the wings mounted to the fuselage. Sorry for the bad quality, i still cant find my camera...

Aghis Barberopoulos
Although the photo is kinda dark, it is looking good. Are you using oils at all ?

Holger Kranich
Yes, i do! I think i washed my cockpit more often than my pant´s................... I use oils quite a lot! It´s one of my favorite procedures, whilst building a model...

Holger Kranich
I use them even for drybrushing, as well as Enamel´s like Revell or Humbrol!

Aghis Barberopoulos
Yes, quite. I find oils are also especially good for bringing to life mat surfaces such as leather seats, cloth, seat belts etc.

Holger Kranich
Yes , i agree! But the quantity makes the toxisity🙂 (Old german phrase...) ! I mean the more you CANT see the wash, the better is it!

Holger Kranich
Or even drybrushing with oil´s, for example!

Aghis Barberopoulos
Talking of seat belts, one little improvement you can do, try to bend the belts so they look less rigid against the seat, and more "soft" (maybe you have done it already). Hope to see your red 13 in great shape soon!!! I am jumping ahead a bit, but I am thinking we must try to get our witch-aircraft together in the same photo. Are you an expert in photoshop ?

Holger Kranich
No, unfortunately , i´m not! But i have a female collegue, who is very familiar with a PC and exclusively good in adobe Photo-Shop! Just send me a pic and i will figure out, how good the pics could get to bring togethter!

Holger Kranich
I love the idea!

Holger Kranich
Here are some new shots from my building-progress. You can see the problems, i´m dealing with. The wings are already not glued to the fuselage.

Zimmermaniac
same problem as I'm having with the helldiver leftwing

Holger Kranich
I hope not to loose all the details when it goes to filling and sanding... I´m not good in engraving panellines because of the lack of useful tools for that... 🙁

Aghis Barberopoulos
I faced the same problems...lots of filler, and sanding and rescribing...What I hate is when the panel line coincides with the kit part join line...that is what makes the difference between Tamiya, Hasegawa and the rest... the engineering of their parts! Do not give up ! That's the key 🙂 I took lots of breaks while working on this kit...

Zimmermaniac
instead of sanding use mr thinner with a cotton peg to remove putty, saves your details

Holger Kranich
I took a lot of breaks, too, to regain motivation but i do all now to finish with the result, i wanted! I´m looking forward to paint and put on the decals!

Aghis Barberopoulos
How are dealing with the wing gun trough ? The cutout in the leading edge is not symmetric as eduard has it...

Holger Kranich
I think i drill it a little bit up and set in a piece of a metaltube. Than filling and sanding and "Ab die Post"!(a phrase for finishing something) 🙂

Aghis Barberopoulos
Sounds good...you are making progress quickly Holger !

Holger Kranich
I do what i can... Currently i have a lot of work in my company, because we have the mainseason for tourist´s. So many people who need an accomodation or just help to disembark the planes or ships. But when the sun is shining, all of them are in a good mood and working with those relaxed people makes really fun! When it raines, i sometimes wish that i have the permission to give them drugs or pharmacy, so they come back to a good mood... 🙂 😉 🙂

Holger Kranich
Sanding the wings today and have a look at the canopymasks... I hope it works the way i want! 🙂

Roland Sachsenhofer
Hello Holger, i´m back from a week on hiking in mountainious Austria... jaja, auch bei uns macht der Sommer die Leut´fröhlich...😮) You are doing a great job in Eduards model! I didn´t know, that the E-1´s wing gun mountings where not symmetrical as Aghis Barberopoulos has wrote and you have confirmed. Do you have any information on this topic? I will stay tuned... on your Bf 109E! Great work, Holger....

Aghis Barberopoulos
Hello Roland! I have some close up pictures of the wing gun tube cutout, from various sources, but I have to get back home from holidays first...Your week in Austria must have been great! I am off to the beach now to work on my suntan...🙂

Roland Sachsenhofer
Hello Aghis, a look at your close up pics would be quite interesting!- whenever it is possible for you. Enjoy your holidays 😮)

Holger Kranich
Puh, i had a lot of work, but this time the kit-build was quite relaxing! Everything fitted into place, wonderful! 🙂

Holger Kranich
Hello Roland, i hope you had a great time! Thank you so much for your kind words!

Roland Sachsenhofer
Hi Holger, nice to know you had a good and trouble free time with your 109- the He-77 chart on the wall: one of your next projects?😮)

Holger Kranich
The He- 177 is one of my former projects, but the Revellkit fits so nice that i´m going to build it another time again!!!

Aghis Barberopoulos
I like your workbench Holger! It is more tidy than mine, and bigger... I usually need chairs and folding tables for additional space. The problem is I have the computer and printer in the same room and that cuts down the available space... I bet my PC is addicted to emanels by now 🙂

Aghis Barberopoulos
Glad to see your 109 coming together! Almost ready for the paint shop! Just a word of caution: test assembly the landing gear legs with the fairings as early as possible, If I remember correctly I had some little problem there (maybe it was just me).

Holger Kranich
I will testfit them asap! THX for the hint, Aghis! How you can see, the canopy is ready for painting and i will start with it soon. But i still havent decided, should it be open or closed... The cockpit didnt went as bad as i thought, so a look into it maybe would be nice...? Its a gamble!

Aghis Barberopoulos
I always keep the fighters' canopy open, as it is an area everyone looks into. It is up to you, however, since a closed canopy does not imply a 'bad'cockpit, just different display. A nice pilot figure is another option (if you are good with figure painting). Talking of canopies, do you polish the transparent parts before or after painting ? I use a polishing liquid bath (acually used for polishing jewelry) that makes the transparencies shiny clean. Maybe you know of an alternative method ?

Holger Kranich
I drown the clearparts in future before painting starts. If i find something from tamiyatape after demasking i erase it with lighterfuel an a q-tip. That works properly in my oppinion!

Holger Kranich
If i have to remove mold-seams on canopy´s, i use toothpaste or nailpolish- file´s, that even works very vell!

Aghis Barberopoulos
Aah, great! This about the nail polish I didn't know! Thanks for this Holger, I am going to have to try it ! 😉

Aghis Barberopoulos
Toothpaste and lighter fuel, more materials for modelling!!! 🙂

Holger Kranich
I like to get inspired by my environment, i´m always looking for something to get abused for modeling! The nailpolishfiles, i have seen by a girlfriend. Its only a file with different areas on, to sand finer and finer and it works great. Some areas are even finer than 1500 sandpaper!

Holger Kranich
@ Zimmermaniac: I totally forgot to say thx for your really good hints!

Zimmermaniac
you're welcome 🙂

Holger Kranich
😉

Zimmermaniac
my Helldiver has the same problem as in your pic no12, managed to fix it quite availlable with Tamiya putty, imeediately wiping it with mr thinner, will show picx soon, for the moment the uploader on the forum is out of order

Holger Kranich
I was thinking about, adding very liquid superglue but the chance to ruin everything seems to big to me!

Zimmermaniac
superglue is NO option on that problem, you'll indeed ruin a lot o' things

Holger Kranich
Ya, i think so, too!

Zimmermaniac
Holger, I tried a new method of working with putty and mr thinner. Apply putty, wipe it down immediatly with the mr thinner, it gives a very smooth surface, ya can do this with things like mr surfacer too,very nice results, no sanding aquired anymore, just wipe it down and wipe away the acces around the area ya fixed ( paper towel dipped in mr thinner helps a lot there )

Holger Kranich
Do you think this works even with green putty (squadron) and normal thinner? I think i´m gonna try it on an old model at first! But a good idea although!

Zimmermaniac
don't know, I use Tamiya putty, don't dare to try normal thinner cause it may be a bit too violent for the plastic, but who knows ?? let me know your expierences with it ( normal thinner costs peanuts, while the mr surfacer is 6,50 for a 100 ml bottle )

Holger Kranich
I think i´m gonna try it with lighterfuel, may see how it works!

Holger Kranich
So, i added the first coat of paint, but whislt demasking, i ripped a little bit away... Doesnt matter, i´m gonna fix it!

Aghis Barberopoulos
Splinter camouflage can be a pain... especially when unmasking 🙂

Aghis Barberopoulos
Only tamiya mask, yes, but certain acrylic paints do peel off easily, so I wear the stickiness down before finaly sticking it 😉

Holger Kranich
I always use tamiya´s tape! It happend around the guncowl´s. first coat was glossy black, then alclad, then masking the guncowlarea. then a coat of RLM02 and i let it dry (obvisiously not long enough...). Then RLM02-Area was masked and a coat of RLM71 was applyed. Then i unmasked after some time and the parts of the cowling wich got in touch with alclad, peeled off... (Not the masked guncowls!)

Now i calmed down and try it again!

Holger Kranich
Pix will follow!

Aghis Barberopoulos
Similar thing happened to me in the cowl area 🙁

Holger Kranich
Really? Crazy... Besides i used Vallejo, wich is very very liquid to me...
I have to stay with Tamiyapaints, they are still the best in my opinnion... But i´m gonna try Gunze at all, maybe its quite good?

Aghis Barberopoulos
Gunze is in my opinion the best acrylic out there. Love the colour tones too.

Holger Kranich
I heard this from different modellers, too! Are you still in holidays? Today is one of the sunny days here in germany. I hope i can hit the beach after working🙂!

Aghis Barberopoulos
Still on holidays until friday. Beach every morning, Ouzo in the evening... every day it gets boring... 😉 So this weekend hope to do some modelling for a change 🙂

Holger Kranich
And on wich project do you lay your hands at first, when you´re home?

Aghis Barberopoulos
Hmm, let me see, I have an Admiral waiting (Graf Spee), a nice lady called Peggy, also my favourite Fw189, and of course the Zukei Mura Ta152 is on the way cannot wait in the box for long...🙂🙂🙂

Holger Kranich
Ah, marvelous! So you wont get boring at home!🙂

Holger Kranich
I builded the "Spee" only one time. It was a paperkit in 1:295. Made fun but paper is not my thing. Just like the real one, it was destroyed by flames...

Christian Bruer
Hi Holger,
I noticed your discussion about peeled color. I dont want to be a wise guy, it is just to say - we all made the same experiences
My experience with masked color schemes and different layers of paint was also an experience of try and error. For my aeroplanes I usually use Enamel colors from Xtracolor. The colors are fine pigmented and trend to peel of when masked. It is necessary to clean the surface with turpentine or lighter fluid (works quite well) before you apply the first coat of paint (prime coat). After that even a fine pigmented color like Xtracolor or Vallejo should remain on the surface when you remove the mask. I remove the mask (Tamiya tape what else) as fast as possible after I applied the color. Aghis idea to wear the stickiness down is also important for a good result. Since I follow these rules I have no more problem with peeled paint.
By the way, a nice project😉
Happy modeling, Christian

Aghis Barberopoulos
I agree with you Christian, the cleanliness of the surface before the primer is crucial, as well as the application and choice of primer always in conjunction with what comes on top... Still accidents may happen, but following these rules usually works. Thank you for your comments, always constructive to hear other experiences! 🙂

Holger Kranich
Yes, i agree!!!

Holger Kranich
@ Christian and Aghis: Yes i´m still in a learningprogress and very happy to have you to give me hints, how to work better! Its very difficult fo me to ask someone, because of my location (I´m the only modeler on my island...!). So i also thank Tim for creating this site an giving me the possibility to talk and learn from you all! A big THX to you! 🙂

Christian Bruer
Holger, practice makes perfect - also in modelmaking😉
To pick up your comment, yep thats what this site should be for. Share information and tips and tricks - thanx Tim and happy modeling, Christian

Aghis Barberopoulos
We are all in the learning process, more or less, can't say I met one who knows all 😉

Aghis Barberopoulos
I am uploading the photos of the E-1 gun cutouts in my photoalbums. 😉

Holger Kranich
Oh, i´ll have a look at it!