Barracuda Roy’s Lockdown 2020 | Heller | No. 80229

[speedgraflex]

Lol! Hah! Truly, stealth wings!! I cannot assemble things until I have drilled out the third ammo chute, painted the upper wing insignias, and added the fuselage numbers. That’s today’s To Do List. Marked location for third ammo chute:

[jkim]

Awesome work on the fuselage painting! I guess we won't see the wings + fuselage until the very end?

How are you going to open up that last chute? Chain drill?

[speedgraflex]

John, Is the location slightly off? Should it be slightly closer to the others? I am having trouble locating the opening. To answer your question, yes, I’ll drill this out. The part is relatively thin.

Also for the canopy frame color, I have these notes from Anders... I am thinking I will go gray for the framing but I am open to ideas, I just want to get this right.

“Mtt Regensburg and Erla built 109s left the factories with the canopies in RLM 74 while WNF built aircraft were painted in RLM 75. If an aircraft was repainted in the field it seems that the canopy was often masked off and left in original color.

On an Erla built aircraft the canopy and windscreen framing was RLM 74 but the panel in front of the windscreen was RLM 75 which creates a clear "step" in the camo.

An anomaly on Mtt Regensburg aircraft that started showing in 1944 was that the color around the canopy was darker than the RLM 74 on the spine. That could have been due to an extra overspray of RLM 66 or even 81.”

- Anders

[jkim]

I think the location of the chute is ok. Here is a bottom shot of the Hasegawa 1/32 K-4 (not assuming that it is completely accurate) for reference...


Without context, I'm not sure which 109's Mr. Anders are referring to so I don't know which information would pertain to K-4's. JaPo lists 334265 as a Regensburg machine... the photos seem to indicate a darker grey on the canopy frames than the RLM 74 on the fuselage... RLM 66 was used as the cockpit interior color... Anders mention RLM 66 possibly being used after 1944, which could apply to K-4's. I would lean towards using RLM 66.

[speedgraflex]

Thank you, John! What a beautiful photo, for reference. Your work is simply exquisite! Also thank you for the advice and your thoughts on the canopy color. I greatly appreciate having your advice!

[speedgraflex]

[Stikpusher]

[speedgraflex]

Thanks, buddy! First pass on seam cleanup. The hardest parts to clean up so far are the injector pin marks inside the landing gear covers. The post it provides just enough “stickum” to hold the pieces and keep them safe from the carpet monster.

[jkim]

I use the thickest part of a toothpick to hold my 1/32 wheels in place... the paper clip shows how much smaller 1/72 wheels are! Sometimes you can bypass ejector pin clean up if it is covered by other parts. I've got my tail wheel strut painted on my Tank... I'll post an update soon.

[Stikpusher]

Post it’s for retaining small parts... good idea!

Too bad I’m not working anymore... could acquire plenty there...