SPA Modeler

Here is the start of my build, Eduard 1/48 Bf 109E-4 in this scheme:


Have most of the interior assembled, parts attached to the right hand side of the fuselage:




Going to spray a base coat of the black Mr. Surfacer followed by RLM02.

Also this build will be buttoned up and the gun mounts on the top need trimming, along with the upper part of the engine mounting. Next time I build this kit it will be opened up when I have more supplies and colors to really make it pop.

That looks super! I admire folks what ca build Eduardkits!

LyleW wrote:That looks super! I admire folks what ca build Eduardkits!

Thank you Sir Lyle!

I will have another 109 build but wont say what it is until it arrives! A clew is that it is not an Emil!

speedgraflex wrote:Wow! That is a beautiful kit and you are off to a great start. If I may, you could simply paint your color coats directly on your styrene, skipping primer, especially in the cockpit areas. Try this on scrap first with your colors. You and I use the same color system, I believe, you are potentially going to be surprised as I was how good the coverage is. Again this is an idea for you to try out, if you are curious. I find the detail is more fully revealed this way, especially in the cockpit. Anyway—great to see you building!

Thank you, Mr Hobby stuff rocks and helps when building! I may just shoot the RLM02 straight like you say and save the black Mr Surfacer for the exterior. Learned a technique from Doogs about black basing instead of pre shade lines.

Shot some Mr. Color RLM02 on the interior, some Mr. Surfacer 1500 (amazing stuff!) on the exterior since I painted some parts with it and did not wanting it going to waste. Looks like I am farther ahead than I really am. Some components are attached to the right hand side fuselage, did some dry fitting since I realized that the engine mounts had to go. I can see what needs to be squeezed into place but overall this kit is really nice. Good thing I have others to do since there is a lot of details I want to show off another time/build. Now I know it looks like crap right now, but once I get the rest of my stuff it should turn out pretty good for a first time since a long time build (granted there are those who could smoke this with better talent, but it is all for fun anyway, right?)





Now if you are wondering: “why in the heck is this guy painting the whole exterior black??” It is simple, I follow the “work smart not hard” line of doing things, aka, i get lazy and do not want to do pre shade lines. But in all seriousness, this method you build a base layer of your desired color AFTER the black base coat. When you do this you can control the “shading effect” you apply on top where the shading remains subtle but you also add depth to the model. This will get further enhanced later with a color filter. The best way to think of this is each panel on the aircraft will have a different amount of color saturation, some areas more, some less. But overall this will be subtle and the panel lines will still pop but in a more realistic fashion by enhancing depth of the panel lines and rivets. The color filter (which is one of the last step before the final dull coat) will change the temperature per say and enhance the color of the aircraft overall.

But I must give major koodos to the Mr. Airbrush and that needle adjustment in the back for being able to do amazing work (again even though it does look like crap right now) laying down the paint!

That is some very solid work, Atom! Nothing beats Mr Surfacer in terms of coverage and self leveling ability. I thin it with Mr Leveling Thinner by at least 60%. What's your way working with it?

Thank you gents!

Mostrich, I use Mr Leveling Thinner with Mr Color (7 drops of paint and 10 drops of thinner) and Mr Sufacer 1500 (7 drops of Surfacer and 14 drops of thinner) and the needle restricted to half movement and compressor set to 15/20 psi. Distance is also pretty close which I would say 6 inches? The stuff is pretty simple to work with for me, love the stuff, big believer in their products!