panel lines and in random squiggly
patterns. This time I also added
some white squiggles, as this was a
relatively new machine with only 7.
hours flying time on the airframe
at the time of the flight to Italy.
I wanted to try out the new
Slovakian Mr. Paint range, so I
started by spraying the RLM 04 –
and instantly loved this new paint!
I planned to paint the model
like the real thing, so I first added
the yellow to the lower engine
cowling and wing tips. After that
had dried, I overpainted those
areas with RLM 65, just like the
real aircraft. This would allow
me to chip off some of the light
blue colour to reveal the yellow
underneath. The white fuselage
band was also sprayed at this stage,
and once dry was masked off.
I also masked the RLM 65 with
Tamiya tape before I added Mr.
Paint’s RLM 76 to the bottom and
side of the airplane. I had to use
some care to allow some of the
pre-shading to show through. Once
dried, RLM 75 was added on the
wings and the top of the fuselage
and mottled slightly on the sides.
One of the characteristics
of Erla-built 109Gs is that they
had a high demarcation line on
the fuselage spine. The strange
thing about this aircraft is that
the upper wing camouflage is an
earlier type of camouflage, more
common on Messerschmitt-
built aircraft. I used the Eduard
mask set for the Messerschmitt
camouflage pattern (EDEX509).
The RLM 74 was easy enough to
add, and the mottling was made
very easy, as the Mr. Paint doesn’t
clog up the airbrush like some
other manufacturers’ colours; the
paint is perfect for this fine work.Some RLM 02 was now added
lightly on the sides of the fuselage
and in the mottling on the aft
fuselage. On the actual aircraft,
all the theatre markings were
overpainted before the Italian
flight, the nose and wingtips with
RLM 65 and the top of the rudder
and fuselage band in a dark green.
I elected RLM 71 for this colour,
as suggested by RB Productions
on the decal sheet instructions.
I now moved to the propeller
spinner, which was painted white
and allowed to dry. Eduard’s
spiral masks (EX512) were then
placed on the spinner and the
black was added. After removing
the masks, the entire spinner
was oversprayed with a light coat
of Mr. Paint Red. This has to be
a thin layer, as the spiral shows
through on the original aircraft.
The actual colour is not known;
I postulated red because after
painting out the Luftwaffe theatre
colours it made sense to paint the
spinner red, as red was used by
the Allies for recognition in the
Italian region. Just in case those
huge flags couldn’t be seen.
Once everything had been
painted to my liking, I sealed
everything in with a coat
of Alclad Aqua Gloss in
preparation for the decals.
The Eduard kit decals were
used throughout the build for the
stencils. Despite it being a new
aircraft, many stencils Eduard
supply are not visible in the
photos, so I only added the ones
I could see. In my opinion, the
Eduard decals are some of the best
kit decals on the market and, as
normal, behaved beautifully.
Then it was time to add the RB
decals. These had been purchasedsome time ago and I hoped that they
would not disintegrate. Thankfully
they didn’t and worked perfectly.
After this set was originally printed
some additional information
about the work number has
become available. The RB decals
had this as 166139, but the correct
number is 166133. Thankfully the
numbers were separate, so I just
used all the 3’s on one side, then
modified the 9’s to 3’s on the other
side. Later releases of this sheet
corrected the number error.
Everything was now sealed
in with Future, then Alclad Flat,
and I could start the weathering.
In my view, weathering is where
the model becomes a miniature
airplane. I had already started
the weathering process with the
pre-shading, but the “formal”
weathering process starts with a
wash of burnt umber applied to the
panel lines and in random patterns
where dirt and grime would gather.
Now that I had dark recesses I
needed to add some highlights. This
is achieved with a dot filter layer.Little dots of buff and titanium
white artist oils are added to the
upper surfaces, while recessed
areas get a couple of dots of burnt
umber artist oils. These are then
blended in with a flat brush that
is slightly damp with turpenoid.
I blend them in a circle and then
from front to back on the wings and
top to bottom on the fuselage. This
gives the appearance of fading the
paint slightly. The more dots
of the light colours, the
more faded the paint
will look. Since this is a
fairly new aircraft I kept
the fading quite slight
by using only a few dots.
I now chipped my
aircraft with a couple of
different techniques.
The first was is a
silver stamp pad
with a sponge, which
produces a random16 • APRIL 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
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