1/48 Hasegawa Bf 109 G-6 (FINISHED)

[lawdog114]

Sorry I'm late for the party folks. The work over here is very humbling. I've been trying to get inspired on which particular 109 I wanted to build. I decided on a G-6 I got cheap off E-bay recently. My dilemma is finding a G-6 in defense of the Reich markings without the lower wing cannons. These just look out of place on a 109 to me. The only versions I seem to find that are void these "gondolas" are on the Eastern front. Nothing against that particular front, its just right now I'm interested in the Gustavs that went after the bombers. Why are markings for these so hard to find? Perhaps its my lack of Luftwaffe knowledge in sorting through these on Ebay and the like. I'm open for suggestions.

For this project I have the "Experten" boxing. This one will get a True Details pit (which I had in the stash) and perhaps some Ultracast wheels later.




If nothing jumps out at me for inspiration, I'll go with this one, Anton Hackl's III /JG 11 G-6, whose markings came with the kit.



Lets dive in shall we? I started with the cockpit. For the RLM 66 I used XF-63 German Grey lightened up slightly with XF-19 Sky Grey. XF-63 to my eye is too dark. I love True Details cockpits, but hate their instrument panels. They're generally oversized and hard to detail paint. I used the kit example which I drybrushed and washed.




The cockpit fit the fuselage without issue and I sealed it up. Here I did a test fit with the wings... No wing root issues. I also added the access door behind the pilot's head out of sheet styrene.



The following night I got the airframe together. These pretty much fall together. Its my understanding that there is supposed to be a panel line that runs down the spine, I didn't like the way it looked on my last 109, so I decided not to carve it in this time. Here we are primered and ready for paint, whichever scheme I decide on....



Joe

[CallSignOWL]

*like*

[LyleW]

Nice! Eager for more.

[Manny1943]

Hackl was one of my fav pilots...

[KSaarni]

That is a very beautiful pit Joe!

Hope you find right decals!

- Kari

[lawdog114]

Thanks folks...I decided on Hackl's bird..I 'll live with the cannons. I'll post more pictures soon.

Joe

[Von Hepp]

The paint job of your cockpit looks great !!!

Armin

[mostrich]

The I. II. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 5 was based in France in the summer of '44 to fight against the allied invasion troops. They both were equipped with G-6 and I have a book full of pictures of them showing not one with a gondola.

Tried to find some decals but no luck yet...

[lawdog114]

Thanks for the kind words. Mostrich, thanks but I decided to go with Hackl's markings. I was reading up on him and learned he served on every front at one point and had 192 confirmed kills with 34 being "heavies". Consider me inspired! I'll probably use the kit's tail scoreboard but will source the rest from my Aeromaster stash. I'm not that brave.....lol. I'll just live with the cannons. I like instrument decals too, but on my kit it came in black when it was suppose to be RLM 66. I decided to make mine a drybrush exercise. A question about the Airscale decals though, are they already pre-cut individually into circles or is a punch set needed? I may try these out. Can someone post a small tutorial on this?

Last night it was me, Net-Flix, and RLM 74, 75, 76 through my airbrush. I can attest to German mottling being somewhat challenging when your airbrush needle is going bad, for I'm having a hard time getting those fine lines down. Here I preshaded the panel lines and then added the ID colors (white tail, yellow nose and fuse band) which were taped off.



RLM 76 was next. For some reason I couldn't seem to get this right to my eye. I used the recommended 2 parts (drops) XF-66 Light Grey, 1 part XF-23 Light Blue and then 7 parts XF-2 Flat White, but it just looked too pale grey. I added a touch more of the blue. This is why I hate trying to make RLM colors out of Tamiya paint and use Gunze Aqueous for this. RLM 76 is the only one I dont have. Here we are with "F--- it...good enough". I streaked and weathered it with a diluted red-brown/black post shading.




I then pulled out the Gunze for the 74 and 75. I love the Aqueous line for RLm colors. They look right on to me. 75 was first.



I then used the instruction sheet profile for an Idea how Hackl's camo pattern went. It appeared to be field applied void of the normal splinter pattern. I am however skeptical since the sheet calls for this pattern on all three planes, two being on the Eastern front??? I decided to freehand spray on the 74. I then added a touch of XF-2 Flat White to fade it out a bit in the wings. As I said, needle issues prevented this from being a convincing mottling job and really tried my patience. Hopefully it will be passable after decaling and weathering later.




Decals soon...
Joe