STATIC CAPITAL

KōTARE 1/32 Me Bf 109K-4

Aircraft W.Nr. 332884 of 9./JG 3. Abandoned at Leck or Pasewalk, Germany, April, 1945.

The model was delivered to me by Brett basically fully assembled. My job was to paint all the exterior surfaces (see above) and any other external parts. The main colours used were RLM76 Light Blue and RAF Sky on the undersurfaces and on the upper surfaces, RLM75 Grey Violet, two shades of RLM83 Dark Green and my own mix of a lighter version of RLM81 Brown Violet. I did add to or replace some of the finer parts, such as the D/F loop, the whip antenna at the end of the FuG 16ZY kit part, the fuselage mounted FuG 25a mast and the pitot tube.

The hard-edged blotches on the upright tail surfaces were achieved by taking a copy of a line illustration from the old ‘MONOGRAM Close-Up No. 16 BF 109 K’ of a common pattern seen on many 109 Ks. Scaling this image to the correct size, I printed it onto self adhesive paper. Each blotch was given a hard outline and then carefully cut out with a sharp, new scalpel blade. The resulting stencils (see above) were stuck on to each side of the model’s tail which had already been painted RLM75 Grey Violet. RLM83 Dark Green was then sprayed over the cut out holes. The masks were removed and after a bit of cleaning up a pleasing result was achieved.

Shot of the under surface colours. Wheel wells were painted silver and weathered to represent unpainted aluminium. Weathering has also begun on the fuselage.

Painting and weathering basically complete. The AIMS decals that are supposed to represent the hand painted 884 numerals on the rear fuselage are very inaccurate so I hand painted my own.

The model almost finished, just waiting for all the dangly bits to be put in place. Note also in these pics that the radio antenna wire has been attached. This is made from nylon invisible thread with 3.5mm lengths of .3mm brass tube as insulators.

The dangly bits.

GALLERY

This entry was posted by Chris Wauchop.