SPA Modeler

And mask insignia markings?

Oh you betcha. I’m gonna try that out with my 1:32 Emil when the time comes. Absolutely. I don’t like these decals for the big insignias much, honestly. Because of this issue right here. I’d rather paint them on. More work up-front, sure. But it’ll save me work on the back end with filtering them down with oils, PLUS, there won’t be this settling issue.

I've resorted to a sharp x-acto blade when dealing with decals not settling into panel lines but this method doesn't always work out nicely, especially if you are forced to make multiple cuts... almost impossible to trace the exact line and you'll end up with a sliver of decal floating in the panel line.

I prefer using paint masks whenever possible. I like the Montex stuff. I also have a Silhouette Portrait cutter that I can use to cut custom masks. I paid $150 for mine but I see that you can pick it up on Amazon now for $115. Keep in mind that you have to some way of creating DXF file for the Portrait to use. I'm familiar with AutoCAD so its not a problem for me.

Yeah, I’m gonna need me a way to make my own eventually. Of course, I’m also spending $1,200/mo. on childcare, so... HAHAHAAAAA!! It won’t be like that forever though. Only like, three more years or so.

I am holy to say that I’m starting to see improvement. Look carefully and squint if you need to. I tried to position the light on the outline of the compartment door there;

You’ll be paying some bit, amount, or form of child care support for the rest of your life... My oldest is 28, my youngest 21, all are educated, gainfully employed, etc.... yet on occasion, mom and dad still need to help out now and again... it’s just life.

But as they grow up, you’ll get more time and money for this hobby... And cherish the moments that they are kids. They grow up far too quickly...

Carlos, my babies are already turning into a little boy and little girl. And it’s wonderful how fast they’re growing and how much they’re changing. And I’m definitely enjoying it every day. They won’t be little and cuddly much longer. That bit makes me sad. But it’s onay- maybe when they’re not so little they’ll want to fish with me and build models maybe! Who knows!

Okay so Bruce caught me privately this evening and we had a talk. He saw something he knew I wouldn’t be able to live with. The crosses Tamiya supplied in the kit were too big. And they weren’t placed quite right.

SO, I removed them.



I removed the |’s too. I disliked how they, and the crosses, went into the splinter camo on top. I have extra |’s. And I have crosses salvaged from an old Eduard kit of mine. Same style. In register. But smaller. Plus, Eduard decals hunker down better. With Micro Sol, so there we go.

Some paint came up when I removed the decals. So I touched it up. Will seal later on after the football game, and get the new crosses on tomorrow.

Big thanks to Bruce for the assist on that one.

Bruce, yeah buddy!

I got the surface taken care of last night just as the Saints game was starting. Then, when the game was over, I sprayed the Clear on it. Normally I give it more time but the touch-ups were minimal and the paint was minuscule. The surface was perfect, today.

My mind thinks I’m still on-call. Subsequently, I automatically woke up at 3:30 AM, wide awake, expecting that there’d be text from our automated system letting me know that there’s a Prioroty 2 issue concerning transaction locks taking too long on a database backend for our monitoring application.

There wasn’t, actually. Which, that’s great for whomever is on call this week.

Anyway, I stayed up, and used the time first to get stuff set up for the kid’s breakfast. Then I set about correcting this little issue. This is good, because it’s Bench Press Day at the gym and the weather is nice, I think I might like to take an extra-long run after lifting during lunch. So I squeezed-in some modeling time super early.

Now, here’s what we were looking at, for a reference:


I like this photo a lot. It fits my vision of how I want this aircraft to look, vis- I disliked how in V.1.0 the cross and | broke the demarcation line between the blue and the camo. That was a necessity because the crosses in the Tamiya kit were too doggone large.

Fortunately I have a full set of Eduard markings on hand, along with stencils too. I kit bashed them from a 1:48 Emil I have in my stash which I plan on building later, with aftermarket markings and painted insignias.

Here is how they came out:




Discussing the positioning yesterday with Bruce, whilst going over reference photos, we determined that lining up the cross along the panel line directly in front of it (#4) is the way to go. And that is what I opted to do. And I also dropped the positioning to where I wanted it, right along that demarcation line, trying to keep each side flush along those two guiding lines. The crosses still appear to be a bit too large, according to my vision and the photo, as well as a reference I was using:



But see there? Look at the demarcation line. Way lower than what’s called out in the kit instructions.

So here’s where I’m at. And being that it is in my nature to be a Mercurial, temperamental artist, I have to as myself the Tough Question...

Should I smash this project to bits with my sledgehammer?

My answer?

Nosir, I don’t think that’s necessary. I think it’s fine for these reasons:

1. The cross looks more correct at this smaller size, lined-up with the #4 panel line. Even though it is still a little big, I can indeed live with this as-shown in my photos. Easily.

2. The project fits my vision better with markings NOT crossing the demarcation line.

3. Who knows why the demarcation line in that photograph is lower. The instructions don’t call that out, this kit has been built a thousand times but a thousand modelers X 10,000 and they all seem to use that high demarcation line. Maybe they ordered the camo to be extended down the sides of the fuselage later on.

4. I like the high demarcation line. It makes the aircraft look like a roadster. I dig that.

So there we have it.

Now. Notice one thing- the kill marks on the rudder. The kit doesn’t include those. But I have extras. And I’ll be adding them, too. I gotta have Kill marks.

Oh, and one more thing- those Eduard decals are behaving WONDERFULLY:


Now that this is settled, I have another issue I wanted to discuss. The red decals we put by the wing roots which denote the no step zone (at least, that’s what I think they denote).

I hate them. They’re a pain to place and get right. They silver no matter what I do (they did on my Von werra Emil and my previous Galland Emil), and it distresses me. I’m contemplating leaving them off. Or figuring out how to paint them on. I’m not sure. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers folks!

Is that the same aircraft? The Tuefelhund marking should be visible behind the crewman’s leg. Or at least portions of that marking should be visible.

On a side related note, you might want to find a decal set or two of WWII German insignia, for future projects. Then when the kit crosses or swastikas are the wrong size, you have the replacements on hand. There are sets of them out there.

Carlos,

It came up in a google search for “Adolf Galland Battle Of France” and I am just as surprised as you to see the absence of that.

Here’s the page where the picture is published:

https://www.flying-tigers.co.uk/2016/ad ... uncements/

Looking at the photo compared to the profile there, I am still wondering if they are the same airframe. The kill marks on the rudder are different, different size fuselage cross, different fuselage camo demarcation line, no teufelhund.... I am wondering what photo that the artist used as the source for the profile. The Aeromaster Adolf Galland decal set I have has his Battle of France mount based off of that photo, and not the markings in the Tamiya kit.