Greg…what I do is get up close and personal with the work piece, and hold the brush with one hand ( the right in my case) then cup my brush hand in the left hand kind of like aiming a gun, and use the right hand and fingers for controling the gun only, the left hand that cups the right is used for guiding the right. Its hard enough trying to work te airbrush alone much less trying to also make a straight line too. Of course get your AB ready and test several times before going live on your work. I only go one handed when I cant prop or position my work any other way but by holding it. Remember to dry run your desired area a time or two to make sure you can do as your wanting, before starting out, decide on and do small sections one at a time. And most important to me… keep moving, to slow and you will get too heavy and splotchy a line, too fast and you get uneven and various density and width of lines. Also it dosent have to be perfect, thats what pre shading does is varies the look of the finish top coat.
Doh!..back to square one. It said 1940 so I unwisely assumed it was out of France. I guess I’m going to have to piece something else together. At least I can use the insignias and such. I may try to piece togther S2+UN of 2/St.G 77. The cover subject is a 77 bird so this my work. Someone did this subject nicely over at Hyperscale and he claimed that Aeromaster did this sheet, but no sheet number was listed.
Unless I missed it, any suggestions on how to paint the bombs for a Battle of Britain Stuka? Everything I read so far said light blue (RLM 65?) with a yellow stripe somewhere…and where does this strip go? I plan to use the kit supplied bombs. Perhaps a picture. Any help or suggestions would be great.
I would imagine its either a misprint or they messed up, there were no German forces in N Africa or the Med in 1940 of course. As I say, its fully possible this aircraft was in use in 1940. It would just have needed a stripe and the DAK badge added.
I assume your going for a single SC500 on the fuselage and the SC 50’s on the wings. These should all be green. One source I have says SC 500 are indeed blue, but I have never seen a pic of one that colour. And yes, supposable they carried a yellow stripe, but this is not always evident.
Speaking of bombs, I have my wing mounted bombs now mounted. For all you guys out there with Hasegawa kits I found a problem with the fit of the bombs onto the bomb racks. It seems the fin contacts the rack which caused the rear lug of the bomb to not sit down in the mounting hole of the rack. So I grooved the bomb rack to allow proper fit of the bomb onto the rack and while not the clearest picture in the world, it shows what I did to correct the issue…
Here it is with the wing bombs mounted and the centerline bomb test fitted. I elected not to go with the yellow stripe on the bombs with this one…
Well, I’m gonna declare it finished. Not my best build, but it was fun and I’m happy with it. I learned a few things the plane looks decent.
A few rough spots like some of the decals, the antenna didn’t come out well.
Here’s a comparison from my build 30 years ago. Its fun to see how my skills have developed. Still along way to go.
Another comparison.
This was my first ever group build. Thanks, gang it was a blast. As I say a learned things from you all and really enjoyed the great builds going on here. I also appreciate the historical and technical information discussed. Makes the builds that much more enjoyable.
I’ll be hanging around watching the builds, so keep those great pics and commentary coming! Thanks!
Looks pretty good to me Tom! This was the first group build I signed up for too, and now I’m hooked. Like you I enjoyed the techniques, history, and technical information. I’ve learned a lot since coming here.
Joe, nice work on adapting those bomb racks. Are they moulded onto the wings. I would guess a tip for anyone else doing this kit is to trim the back off them before painting. You look close to the finish.
Tom, sweet work. You have done a great job with this old kit. And I am glad you have made this your first GB. Hopefully we will see you in plenty more. I think Mustang may soon have a GB a lot of people here will be interested in. I’ve added a pic to the front page, I hope you don’t mind me using the one with both builds in it.
Bob, glad your enjoying it. Its nice when people can stick around after they have finished their builds, but I know myself its not always easy.
I am about ready to procure a Stuka (finally [:$]). Thinking of going with a 1/48 Airfix to keep the cost down. Would anyone care to comment on that? I see at least two of you built them.
That said, being at the finishing end of my first Eduard kit, I’m not looking for a challenge, looking for a relaxing build. If the Airfix doesn’t fix that mold (no pun intended), I’d rather spend more on something that falls together by itself this time around.
Greg, none of the Airfix kits for this GB have been built yet. But I found a build on here from a couple of years back. He said it has a sparse cockpit, but there was no issues.
