1:48 Airfix Messerschmitt Bf109E-4

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Mon Aug 01, 2016 10:02 pm

Well its time for my second build. My first was a 1:24 spitfire bought by my wife and kids as a Christmas present several years back but it was only recently upon moving to a larger house where I found the space and more importantly some time to restart this hobby.

So I am sure many of you are aware of this kit, it was thanks to Paul's tutorial series that I have ended up here and also thanks to it for the large hole in my bank balance after starting from nothing other than a Spitfire start kit. Anyways as you all know this kit I won't bore folk with details other than a couple of pics and the fact that it does seem a far superior kit to my previous Airfix outing.

The box...

And the sprues

I am planning on building the E-4 variant mainly as I like its yellow nose and wing tips.

Although this will be my second kit since coming back into the hobby it is going to be my first where I am pre-armed with the knowledge acquired from you tube and this forum. Oh and also a shelf of Tamiya paints, Ultimate sanding sticks and my new Harder & Steenbeck Ultra airbrush. So here is my tentative start and first airbrushing in anger...

and a couple of closer shots (apologies for the picture quality these are just from my phone)...

Sorry there won't be much excitement from this buld for you guys but I'm already loving it, beginning to feel like a proper modeller (even if I just copying Paul's work).

Now time for some little extra details before the thinned XF-1 wash.

Cheers for looking and as always comments also appreciated,
Nige

Post by **agaman79** » Fri Aug 05, 2016 10:25 pm

hi could you tell me what colour you used for the cockpit please i am doing the same kit but am now getting paints together.

Many thanks

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 5:02 pm

A couple of folk have asked about colours. Hopefully this might help,

This is the list of humbrol colours from the box side. However, I'm trying something different on my second build! I have been buying tamiya paints as my local hobbycraft stocks these at quite reasonable prices. I have struggled a bit for true colour matches but below are some pics of my cockpit.

I've been following Paul's 13 part series but also trying to do my own thing as well. I may have overdone it on the colours used for the cockpit as below...

Oh and for the control stick stem...

Main colours where XF-22, XF-1 and X-11. All the others where just little drops here and there.

Anyways thanks for looking and I hope this is of use to somebody. Any comments and advice is always welcome.

Cheers

Nige

Post by **sheppsea** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 6:36 pm

Looking good

thanks for providing the colours as well - I'm hoping to be able to start my build next week

STASH · Post by **Cymru** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 7:13 pm

Nice to see someone not afraid to experiment, and its turned out well!

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 8:32 pm

Cymru wrote:Nice to see someone not afraid to experiment, and its turned out well!

Thanks for the kind comment there. I did try the thinned XF-1 wash but it didn't seem to really sit in the nooks and crannies like I wanted. The dry brushing added a lot to the cockpit though.

Post by **BMoore** » Mon Aug 08, 2016 4:11 pm

Nice job bro! Looking good!

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Wed Aug 10, 2016 12:36 pm

Building has stopped for a little while - mainly due to Olympics and going away on my holibobs!!!
But just for some info regarding paints, and as a reference for myself in the future, I have been investigating my choices for the main colour scheme of this plane for which I was originally planning on using Tamiya paints but have been struggling to find exact matches for the Humbrol call outs, see below:

Aircraft Blue Humbrol 65 - Rlm 65 - Mr Colour 115 - Tamiya XF-23
RLM 02 Grau Humbrol 240 - Rlm 02 - Mr Hobby 60 - Tamiya XF22:1 + XF49:1
RLM 70 Schwartzgrun Humbrol 241 - Rlm 70 - Mr Hobby 18 - Tamiya XF-27
RLM 71 Dunkelgrun Humbrol 242 - Rlm 71 - Mr Hobby 17 - Tamiya XF62:1 + XF49:1
Insignia Yellow Humbrol 154 - Rlm 04 - Mr Colour 113 - Tamiya?

I appear to only have a couple if straight conversions from Humbrol to Tamiya but all can be done via Mr Hobby and Mr Colour.

Unfortunately Mr Colour does not appear to be sold in the UK so its ebay for the RLM 04 Insignia yellow or I could try the Humbrol acrylic version. I've only used enamels in the past but have now grown up and bought an air brush - hence the switch to Tamiya. Or I could try and work out a mix for it from Tamiya? I am going to think about this for a while but possibly may try a few of the above options to see whats best as this is meant to be a build for me to learn the various processes.

Any advice or comments on experiences or simply what other people like doing is more than welcome.

Cheers

Nige

EDIT, please note I messed up on the Mr hobby numbers they are all Mr color range c# etc, sorry. See later for the Mr hobby aqueous list. H#.

Post by **sheppsea** » Wed Aug 10, 2016 3:56 pm

Not sure if it's helpful but here are the instruction from a Tamiya kit of the E-4, they suggest the nose should be:

XF-3: 10 + X-6: 1 + XF-2: 1

https://www.scalemates.com/products/img ... ctions.pdf

When mixing paints do you take the numbers as parts? For example, the above would be 10 parts XF-3 and one part each of X-6 and XF-2 (so 12 parts in total)?

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Wed Aug 10, 2016 7:51 pm

Cheers for that Shepsea more to experiment with - I'm beginning yo think I should have bought a few of these kits. Oh and yes that is how I interpret the ratios of paint. If you look at the colours XF3 is flat yellow X6 is orange and XF2 is flat white. So it's yellow with a dash of white and orange.

Post by **Johnj** » Sun Aug 21, 2016 2:28 pm

Hi nigel, i've just made a start on one of these and only having tamiya paint, i'm coming up against the same problems. I think i'm going to cheat a bit and buy the tamiya 1/72 kit.

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Mon Aug 22, 2016 10:22 am

No updates on this for a while as I'm enjoying a holiday with the family and a bit of rest.

I have noticed that I made a mistake in my previous post regarding the Mr hobby/Mr color paints. The numbers I listed where all for the Mr color range. I have done some more research and thanks to Shepsea for the tamiya instructions link got all the tamiya paint details. However even with these you need to do a fair amount of mixing and a few of them are only available from the tamiya spray can range.

I have theregore taken the plunge and ordered some Mr hobby paints from e models. Here is the list...

RLM 02 - Mr Hobby h70
RLM 04 - Mr Hobby h413
RLM 65 - Mr Hobby h67
RLM 70 - Mr Hobby h65
RLM 71 - Mr Hobby h64

So when these arrive and I get off holiday I'm.going to have a play at using the above and mixing up some of the tamiya combinations. I'll let you know how it goes....

If only things were straight gorward.

Cheers Nige.

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Sun Sep 04, 2016 11:46 pm

Well time for a quick update. Not much happened over the last few weeks due to holidays etc.

I have managed to get done more bits glued and the main body all primes up. masked the canopy by hand so we will have to see how well that turns out. I had a bit of trouble at first worth the Ultimate primer. I'm using white as it's that our black. At first I found the primer very watery as if it didn't want to stick to the plastic but i think this was me trying to put too thick of a first coat down in one go. After a few attempts I managed a decent enough hood that I'm happy with anyways. Flooded it a bit in a couple of places but it seems to have been forgiving for me.... Here are a couple of pictures.

Need to build myself up to the pressure. Although I am tempted to try pretty shading on one half and a black coat etc on the other. Maybe I should just get the basics down first.

Cheers for looking

Nige

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Mon Sep 05, 2016 10:01 pm

Well I took a deep breath and gave preshading a try for the first time ever.

Results were mixed. Not as bad as they could have been but not as good as I hoped. I struggled to get nice and thin lines using tramiya xf1 thinned with Ultimate thinner in a 50:50 mix. I'm using a harder and steenbeck ultra with a 0.2 mm needle at a pressure of about 20 ish. With tests it seemed OK but on closer inspection there is a lot of what I would call spluttering at the edges of the spray lines?

My lack of experience shows in not knowing what causes this but I'll do some research. Anyways here are some pictures...

Basically I'm going all in on the base coats covering a multitude of sins, as everyone seems to say you don't need neat lines.

Thanks for looking and all comments are helpful,

Nige

Post by **shortCummins** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 7:33 am

looking good

when I use heavily thinned paint I always drop the pressure to around 15 psi, give it a go it might help you also?

use light coats to cover the pre-shading, having non-perfect lines for your pre-shading helps the effect, just don't spay too heavy a top coat and hide all of you hard work.

best rgds
John(shortCummins)

Post by **sheppsea** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 7:43 am

Nice job, your pre-shading certainly looks neater than mine

Post by **Stokesy44** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 8:23 am

Looks good to me. You will not believe the way it starts to disappear when you start with the colours. Magic!! I agree with ShortCummins too. Don't over do it when you spray the colours. Take it slow and you'll get the finish you're looking for.

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 12:23 pm

Cheers for the support fellas, I think I am going to tackle some base colours on Friday when I have time off work and can concentrate with no kids or wife shouting at me

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 9:29 pm

Who would have thought it? I got a spare hour to myself after tea tonight. Decided to bite the bullet and try to lay down some bar colour on the underside of the model.

Using Mr Hobby H67 - rlm65 light blue, thinned with Ultimate thinner again at about a 50:50 mix. Ran at 20 psi.

Sorry about my shadow in this one

I think it's OK? Will see in daylight tomorrow. I must have started to learn something, though, as when I did a test spray I immediately thought the paint was a bit thin and it was so I sorted that and could then build up very thin coats reasonably well.

Anyways, thanks again, and as always any constructive criticism is happily received.

Nige

Post by **sheppsea** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 11:09 pm

I think it looks great

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 11:58 pm

sheppsea wrote:I think it looks great

Thank you, I'm actually quite proud of it so far. Lots of firsts for me on this build.

Post by **Stokesy44** » Wed Sep 07, 2016 3:41 am

Nigel1975 wrote:
sheppsea wrote:I think it looks great
Thank you, I'm actually quite proud of it so far. Lots of firsts for me on this build.

You should be proud mate. That's a great result.

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 8:45 pm

Well I've been impatient about getting some paint on this and too keen to use my airbrush. All i can say is I have picked what seems to me to be a difficult paint scheme for my first attempt. Lots of masking needed for the sharp, straight edges on wings but have held off what to do about the mottled effect on the sides until I work out what I'm doing.

So I ve got the rlm 70 and 71 down using Mr Hobby.

Went on reasonably easy, maybe I'm getting used to the airbrush, a couple.of places will need touching up especially the leading edge of the wing but will sort all that at the end. Here's a couple of pictures showing current progress. As I say need to work out how to tackle the sides then yellow bits and then ready for a gloss coat.

Really enjoying this build and looking forward to getting this paint finished so I can tackle the next step.

Again, thanks for looking and comments welcome.

Cheers

Nige

Post by **Johnj** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 1:45 am

Looking good nigel

i see you have left the rudder off as well for easy painting the yellow. I realise now it's a different scale i'm doing but for the painting and finishing it'll be pretty much identical to what your doing now. I'm hoping to get the primer on friday evening and i'll try and mirror you with the painting to hopefully avoid any mistakes. (I know it's cheating a little bit but not too much

)

I'll be following you closely

Post by **Stokesy44** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 8:37 am

Looking good. Colours have gone down well. Yellow can be a bit tricky to spray so take your time and build it up slowly. You should get a great result.

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 9:25 am

Cheers guys.

John, no worries I don't think it's cheating but be warned that I am making this up as I go along a bit. The only planned part was leaving the tail off to paint separately. I'm finding the Airfix colour callous sheet difficult to interpret, epically for the side panels. I think.this is due to the lack of contrast in the greens in their picture.
With hind sight I may have been better off laying down the lighter green first all over the top and sides and then adding the darker. Instead I tried to just lay it down where I thought it was needed and then mask the edges for the darker. This has lead to a couple of spots needing to be touched up.

Post by **sheppsea** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 2:13 pm

Nigel1975 wrote:I'm finding the Airfix colour callous sheet difficult to interpret, epically for the side panels.

I feel your pain regarding this - I found I had exactly the same issues try distinguish where one colour ends and the other begins

Your model is looking good though, certainly better than mine, I put the paint on the light green (which is the only colour I have paint so far too thick I think and the pre-shading isn't coming through as much as I would hope, but you live and learn. I'm certainly feel I am getting better at airbrushing now so am take steps forward

Nice work so far

Post by **Johnj** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 9:07 pm

Nigel1975 wrote:Cheers guys.

John, no worries I don't think it's cheating but be warned that I am making this up as I go along a bit. The only planned part was leaving the tail off to paint separately. I'm finding the Airfix colour callous sheet difficult to interpret, epically for the side panels. I think.this is due to the lack of contrast in the greens in their picture.
With hind sight I may have been better off laying down the lighter green first all over the top and sides and then adding the darker. Instead I tried to just lay it down where I thought it was needed and then mask the edges for the darker. This has lead to a couple of spots needing to be touched up.

I'm facing the same issue's and dilema's you are i'm also making it up as i go along lol. I've been using an airbrush for the best part of 20yrs on the cars and bikes but when it comes to aircraft i think i'm about similar experience to your good self

After i had painted the tamiya spit i wished i had painted the whole top the lighter grey colour before masking and painting the green as it would have been half the work but i'm pretty sure the pre-shading would have been all but covered up with the extra paint. I'm going to paint the fusalage sides with the same colour as the bottom of the wings and use the other two colours for the mottled effect done freehand with the airbrush and if it's rubbish just re-paint with the bottom colour and try again

Post by **Johnj** » Sat Sep 10, 2016 3:08 pm

Hi nigel, do you know if the edge between the top colours is a hard or soft edge ? Looking at the instruction book it appears to be a hard edge. I think a soft edge looks better although it is more work.
I bought canopy masks for it but when they arrived i noticed that i contained masks for all the markings. Looking at them i'm thinking on going for option two because it has more yellow and a definite paint line that runs the same height as the bottom of the canopy taking some of the guess work out of it.

Post by **Johnj** » Sat Sep 10, 2016 3:12 pm

Sorry, forgot the image

20160910_150625_zps5tc55b1n.jpg

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Sat Sep 10, 2016 4:49 pm

I'm no historian for this lor but have gone with a hard edge for the markings. The markings on those masks are slightly different to how I'm painting or up but if I had them I would choose option 2 as well. Look forward to seeing it.

I managed to get the yellow down today, it will need tidying up as I have some runs down panel lines understand the masking. Arrrggghhhh.

The yellow is a pain to put down as it takes lots and lots of thin layers to build up coverage. Something I struggle with due to being impatient.

Post by **Johnj** » Sat Sep 10, 2016 5:02 pm

Yeah, yellow is a pain to put down. I'm even thinking on using TS-34 straight out the rattle can then just going over it with the correct shade with the airbrush, i'll see how it goes.

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Sat Sep 10, 2016 9:24 pm

Been busy laying the yellow down. For this I've again used Mr Hobby paints, Rlm 04...

This went on OK as long as you build up the coverage with many, many thin layers. I may have rushed in places as it seepped under my make in a couple of places.

Will add this to the list of touch ups to be done.

Heres where I'm up to now,

Here are the sides which still need the RLM 02 loose overspray. Took me a while to work out what I'm doing here, still not sure. The light blue underside line need tidying up as well, added to the list.

And some other bits including prop, tail and a big bomb!

Thanks for looking, slowly getting there.

Nige

Post by **Johnj** » Sat Sep 10, 2016 10:05 pm

Nigel ! That looks superb !!!!!
I thought i was happy with the colours i have picked but looking at yours i'm not so sure now.

Post by **sheppsea** » Sat Sep 10, 2016 10:57 pm

I agree - the nose looks superb

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 10:20 pm

Well here it is all masked up to try to tidy up all the light blue bits, first time trying to mask with white tack:

And after a few minutes (I'm getting quicker at this spraying lark)

Not quite the nice smooth wavey line I wanted but it will do

and again not 100% happy with the wavey line

and finally the bottom;

Just need to mask up for the loose RLM 02 on the sides and then its gloss coat time!!!

Cheers for looking and any comments as always, gratefully received.

Nige

Post by **sheppsea** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 10:22 pm

This is really starting to take shape now - very nice work

Post by **Johnj** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 11:14 pm

Looking good nigel, bit of light at the end of a long long tunnel !
I've just finished my own touch up's thinking i'm ready for the gloss coat and then reading your post realised i'd forgot the mottled effect on the side's. I dont know if this a well known airbrush trick but i found out by chance that if you leave the end of the airbrush off (neddle exsposed) you can paint much finer lines. I havent found any downside to it apart from stabing myself with the needle.

Post by **Johnj** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 11:15 pm

Johnj wrote:Looking good nigel, bit of light at the end of a long long tunnel !
I've just finished my own touch up's thinking i'm ready for the gloss coat and then reading your post realised i'd forgot the mottled effect on the side's. I dont know if this a well known airbrush trick but i found out by chance that if you leave the end of the airbrush off (neddle exsposed) you can paint much finer lines. I havent found any downside to it apart from stabing myself with the needle.

Post by **Johnj** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 11:16 pm

Sorry, i dont know how i managed the double post

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Sun Sep 25, 2016 12:31 am

Well after coveting it in more masking tape and white tack than I've ever used before for anything I went ahead and attempted the final bit of came on this.

It didn't come out great, almost a negative of what I wanted you achieve. Maybe I should have payed the lighted shade down first and masked that or more likely just tried it freehand? Any ways this is what I now have...

Time for a gloss coat but need to buy some alclad first. And then an attempt to hide the mistakes under decals!

Cheers

Nige.

Post by **Johnj** » Sun Sep 25, 2016 11:40 am

Nige, if your thinking it's too dark you could always go over it with the fusalage side colour to soften it a bit. The good thing with paint is you can always go over it. Unlike drilling a hole to big or something

although i do think when the decals, and some weathering are on it will look great

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Sun Sep 25, 2016 11:55 am

Yes I was thinking of trying to sixteen the edges a little bit and then hide it all under a layer of decals and dirt!

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Sun Sep 25, 2016 6:29 pm

Well I've had another bash at softening the edges to see if that improves things...

It's somewhat better. This time no making and done freehand which I think worked better. I'm just not sure about the colour contrast it's a bit stark. Again maybe with decals and weathering it'll look better?

Post by **Johnj** » Sun Sep 25, 2016 7:14 pm

It looks good in the pictures your posting.

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Sun Sep 25, 2016 7:18 pm

Johnj wrote:It looks good in the pictures your posting.

Cheers I appreciate the kind words. Got to order up some alclad aqua gloss for the next bit. Looking forward to getting up to the weathering point and having a play.

Post by **Johnj** » Sun Sep 25, 2016 7:32 pm

I did use the alclad aqua gloss on the 109 but i'm gonna try the tamiya X-22 on the next one.

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 10:28 pm

Well after a bit of a stall due to life getting in the way and being distracted by other builds.....

I've have gone and managed to get some decals on it. Another first for me, first time using micro set and micro sol. Seem very good but appear to have discoloured a bit of paint here and there maybe not a good enough clear coat perhaps? I used Humbrol clear as it's what I had on the shelf. Also bought a couple of derwent water brushes to help as I almost knocked the bottles over several times in less than one hour. They are great and make the job very easy.

Well here you go.

Hopefully get the rest on in the next day or two them is weathering time!

Cheers for looking

Nige

Post by **Johnj** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 10:39 pm

What a difference nige with just the decals !

Post by **1975GinjaNinja** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 11:07 pm

Johnj wrote:What a difference nige with just the decals !

You're right, just not liking forward to the numerous tiny decals left to put on. I used to think my eye sight was OK but I'm beginning to have doubts.