Minicraft 1/144 JU-88 Pt. 6 – Decals

Catching up on some parked projects, I popped on the Finnish decals on my JU-88. These are fairly generic and aren't all-together authentic, but they look smart enough.

The canopies are masked out at the moment while I protect the decals with a light spray of varnish. My splinter pattern colours are a bit light, but I am going for a pretty weathered finish for this model anyway.

Next I will start my shading using the same charcoal powder technique I used on my 1/144 Me-109 G-6 as I work through the weathering stage.

WTM 1/144 Fieseler Fi 156 Storch Pt. 6 - Finished

After putting this aside while I experimented with different types of stands I have decided to get the darn thing finished off. To be honest it just needed some touching up...

I know the camo pattern scheme is debatable, but I like it. As a war game marker it is a generic symbol of the type anyway. It was a fun wee project and I fancy repainting some more of these ready painted models (Tim Gow over at Megablitz has a wonderful example of a Brewster Buffalo in Finnish colours for example, I'd like to do one of those).

Hope you like my Storch and the accompanying 1/144 Finnish JU-88 is in the works.

Eduard 1/144 Me 109 G-6 - Complete

Conclusion
Phew! I finished a model guys...Yay!

1/144 is a challenge, I found trying to directly scale down painting techniques I have been learning in 1/72 didn't always work. I also had to fudge the decals as I couldn't find suitable small numerals or the correct emblems in this size. Still, I kept reminding myself that I was building a war game model and not a historically exact display replica.

Minicraft 1/144 JU-88 Pt. 5 – Base coats complete

Not as much model time this weekend as I would have liked (where does the time go?) but at least I got all the base coat and touching up done on my JU-88. I thought I'd picture the underside as it's quite colourful what with the theatre colours...

I haven't attached the bombs as I think they might hinder my plans for weathering the underside. Same with the machine guns and aerials, these will all be attached once all the major weathering has been completed.

Well, I've hit a bit of a speed bump now as the Finnish decals I have are not quite big enough for this bomber and I've had to order another set (this time a 1/72 scale sheet which has small Finnish decals which might do the job). So, time to finish up my two other aircraft in this project.  

Minicraft 1/144 JU-88 Pt. 4 – Painting

Well, construction complete, though I have left off some of the minor and tiny parts - such as machine guns - until the main base coat painting is done.

It's a nice looking plane isn't it? I hope my painting can do it justice, I will start by spraying the underside with my Tamiya AS-5 Light Blue for the Luftwaffe RLM 65. All I masked out at this stage was the canopies.

The basic green was done with Humbrols lovely Dark Green spray (N0. 30) and there was plenty of masking to do to create a nice hard demarkation between the lower surface blue and the upper green. I do like masking, it's very relaxing!

And finally we get to the groovy bit - the splinter camo...

Unfortunately I didn't have a good match for the RML71 (Dark Green) for the splinter camo, so I used the nearest thing I had in my paint box - Tamiya's AS-4 Grey Violet. But with some weathering it should look OK I think...

The canopies still have their masking on as I don't want these to be spoilt when I varnish later on. I will paint the canopy frame last - perhaps with enamels.

Well, there we go. Now onto the touching up before I gloss varnish for the decal stage.

Eduard 1/144 Me 109 G-6 Pt. 9 - Bugger!

I've put my Me 109 on the back burner as I get the other aircraft in my Finnish air group to a similarly near completed state (I hope to finish all three at the same time). But putting this model to one side had an unfortunate result - I lost the propeller!

Don't ask me how, I do use a project box for each model but it still went astray. So I had to make a replacement prop spinner, luckily I had  couple of spare props in my Minicraft JU-88, though I had to sand the bomber's larger spinner down quite a bit...

I hope my new spinner looks OK. But this is another issue that illustrates the point that I need to get myself set-up with a special place for making my models, and not just a wobbly tray sat on my knee!

Minicraft 1/144 JU-88 Pt. 3 – Camo research

Photo source: Flickr

Luckily for me the JU-88 in Finnish service seems to be quite a popular subject for modellers and a lot of good information is available about colouring and decals.

Finnish JU-88s seem to come in two 'flavours' - those that stuck with the standard German splinter camo and those that adopted a slightly modified version of this scheme. Either way the colours seem to be the normal German combinations of RLM71 (dark gren), RLM70 (mid green) and TLM65 (mid blue).

I've made this quick sketch to illustrate this scheme...

The underside was all mid blue but displayed the normal Eastern Front yellow sections at the wing tips and underside of the engine nacelles.

I won't be buying special paints for the top side pattern but using what I have in my paint box by way of Humbrol spray cans (their Light Olive and Dark Green) as I think I have fairly good matches for these colours. Especially if I weather them a bit.

I have to say that the German splinter pattern camo design must be the model newbie's favourite camo scheme! Nice uncomplicated strips of masking tape seem to get you a passable impression no matter your skill level! (Famous last words yet again!)

Minicraft 1/144 JU-88 Pt. 2 – Construction

Being a 1/144 kit there aren’t that many stages or parts to this kit so it doesn’t actually take long to pop this model together. Maybe this is why 1/144 is growing on me?

Anyway, there are no tricky issues to worry about, the design of this kit’s construction is well designed and there’s hardly any flash worth mentioning. However, I was rather surprised that a couple of the main parts didn’t fit as snuggly as I had expected.

In particular it is worth mentioning the engine nacelles. Each engine housing comes in two halves, you glue these two pieces together and then glue this unit to the underside of the wing mating with the upper engine cowling. Well, it’s enough to say that some filling will be required, particularly in the resultant seam under the wing.

Above: The worst fitting parts were the engine nacelles. You can see the gaps here, but
basically if you get them to fit at the back a gap (like above) opens at the front, and vice
versa. Nothing some filler and sanding can't fix easily though.

...But it could have been worse I suppose, I was just a bit disappointed.

The rest of the parts – including the major fuselage halves – go together OK, with just a modicum of sanding. There was no warping or huge gaps

The main options you have with this kit are whether to have the undercarriage up or down and whether to add the external – wing mounted – bomb load.

One nice touch, which I think is worth mentioning for the war game modeler, is the inclusion of two extra propeller bosses. Aside from the normal bosses with propellers attached, which you’d expect, there are also two with no props so you can model the plane ‘in flight’! This makes it easier for me to add my fake prop spinner.

In this instance I have decided to fit my canopies at the construction phase – and mask them out for painting – and so I have dry fitted to make sure there are no problems with size or shape, no problems there. But, you need to be careful when fitting the lower nose gun nacelle - this sits slightly to the left of the center line at the front, but there is no reference holes for you to place this in the correct place. I referenced photos on the Web for the approximate placement (note that this part appears to be quite simplified compared to the real thing).

Finally, I drilled a small hole in the center of the lower fuselage, just between the back of the wings, to accommodate the short rod I am using to mount the plane on my homemade stand. However, before I fitted the two fuselage halve together I inserted a block of Milliput model putty to act as a firm anchor point for my stand rod.

Next: Straight on with choosing a Finnish camo scheme, masking and starting the painting.

Minicraft 1/144 JU-88 (Finnish) Pt.1 - Introduction

Well, I decided I was on a roll (of sorts), so it's straight on with the final aircraft for my late 1943/1944 Finnish war game army air group. This is my bomber, the notorious Junkers JU-88.

Background - The Finnish '88
23 JU-88s were bought from Germany in 1943 - presumably to bolster more obsolete types then in service like the Bristol Blenhiems and Dornier Do 17. Small in numbers they may have been but as usual the Finns got a lot of bang for their bucks (Marrka?) and they devised novel tactics to make up for the Soviet's numerical supremacy.

One cunning tactic was that the Finnish bombers would drop into Soviet bomber formations returning to their bases and rather unsportingly bomb the unsuspecting airfields, destroying aircraft and supplies on the ground!

The Minicraft Model
Well, I was completely impressed with this kit as soon as I opened the box. All sprues were bagged up nicely and there was a very useful A4 set of instructions. The model comes with two colour scheme suggestions and decals, one for a Luftwaffe example and the other Hungarian.

The quality of plastic and mouldings is very good - although I can't say about fit until the next post - and the parts have delicate detail, with raised panel lines and seams - nice.

I was also impressed with the level of detail and the number of parts. I think this kit would give some 1/72 models a run for their money. And talking about 1/72 scale, the main thing that caught my eye was the size of this 1/144 plane - it must be as big as a 1/72 WW2 fighter and will dwarf both my single engine Finnish planes.

Optional parts are provided so that you can build the undercarriage up or down, but other parts are simplified - notably the cockpit, which is the blanked off type I'm afraid (or am I relieved).

Finally, I was glad to see that Minicraft had exaggerated the canopy framework just a bit. This will give a newbie like myself a reasonable chance at painting reasonable looking and neat canopies.

Well, that's the unboxing - all good so far - so it's onto the construction.

WTM 1/144 Fieseler Fi 156 Storch Pt. 5 - Fake prop

Another small step towards completion, but I'm quite pleased with this - it's my fake prop...

It isn't quite finished, but I was so glad to get a decent circle of plastic cut that I'm posting this up anyway. So, a bit of touching up and that's that really. An enjoyable little project and a nice little plane.

WTM 1/144 Fieseler Fi 156 Storch Pt. 4 - Decals

Making the most of my sick day at home I rattled together the decal and weathering stage of this model. One change I have made from my earlier plan is to apply a camo pattern...

I came across this scheme online, it represents a Finnish Storch - ST-112 - from 1944. As this is the period of WW2 I am interested in for my Finnish war game army I couldn't resist applying this pattern to my Storch.

I'm not doing much more to this model, simply making the fake 'flying' prop and making a new stand for it. Hopefully I will have this in the bag at the weekend.

If you ask me which I enjoyed making more, the Eduard 1/144 kit or this ready made conversion I would have to say the kit. In the end there were lots of niggling little rough edges to this 'off the hanger' (pun for Tim) model. But I realise this model does fulfil my requirements for a war game toy.

Eduard 1/144 Me 109 G-6 - Part 8

Panel line detailing with charcoal
One of the advantages of being off work for a couple of days with a stomach bug (to put it mildly) is that I have had time to do a wee bit of model stuff between trips to the bathroom!

The Eduard Me 109 has quite deep panel line details - in fact some online reviews note that these 'features' are a little too deep - and I wanted to use these for trying out a technique I read about. I am using some charcoal filings to dust into the grooves and seam lines of my aircraft.

Above: I use a cheap nail file to sand off the charcoal stick's granules, then apply
them to the model's seam lines sing a nice pointy brush.

Now a couple of things. First of all this technique is normally done using artists Conte crayons and not charcoal. These two art mediums a distant relative but charcoal is a lot more messy and tends to spread around a lot more - Conte granules being a little more stable. But unfortunately in my hometown the last proper art store closed last year and proper Conte crayons were not available to me - this time.

Charcoal tends to go everywhere - and you end up with your fingers covered in the dust, so you have to be careful that you do not end up with unwanted finger prints on your model. luckily, however, if you do this work on top of a thin gloss varnish layer as I have the dust is easy to erase with an artists putty rubber or BluTac.

I know this is just a small stage on from my last report about this project but I thought the technique was interesting enough to warrant it's own post. Judge for yourself how effective it was - though, as usual, as a newbie I have probably exaggerated the effect...

WTM 1/144 Fieseler Fi 156 Storch - Part 2

Right, having drilled a wee hole and glued in my stand attachment rod I masked off the canopy. Then I decided a Humbrol grey primer was a good idea, to help cover the dazzling German camo, it's decals and provide the grey of the Finnish Storch's lower surfaces.

I did minimal touching up of the WTM model, just sanding down some noticeable seams but doing no filling whatsoever. This is a war game model after all.

Once dry I shall start masking off the lower surfaces so I can spray on the Olive Drab (Humbrol Light Olive) uppers.

Eduard 1/144 Me 109 G-6 - Part 7

Sunday is, naturally a good day for relaxing and getting some model making done. Tim may be glad to see that I've wacked on the decals on my Finnish Me 109...

Now, unfortunately, the only 1/144 scale World War 2 Finnish Air Force decals that I was able to find were the more common hakenkreuz with the white background circle. By 1944 the Finn's Me 109s were sporting their swastikas with a grey-blue background. So, I've had to make do.

Also, I'm afraid I am not going to send myself cross-eyed by trying to do the teeny-weeny aircraft numbering. :)

Anyway, it's getting there. As Tim Gow was hinting - I think - models look loads better once you get the decals on. So, it's onto the prop and the canopy.

Eduard 1/144 Me 109 G-2 - Part 6

More painting (mis)adventures...
So you won't be surprised that my progress with this little project is crawling along at a snails pace. Looking at other model blogs you see projects that are done and dusted in a couple of posts...Well, not here. Today I present a change of tone on my Finnish Me 109...

I've gone gray. Not as pretty as the Luftwaffe RML 74/75/76 but closer to the Finnish subdued camo that I'm seeing in the available reference material...

Source: Antti Lappalainen

1/144 is a really funny scale to work with, it's like painting a bird house with a paint roller. I've learned a lot about how not to do things with this model and I want to do more. When I started I got some advice from Tim Gow of Megablitz to go with brushes rather than a spray - I now see why (as usual I like to understand why by experimentation).

This small scale requires no less planning than a larger model, and maybe even more as you have to understand what techniques do and do not transfer down from larger scales (again, something Tim pointed out to me).

I'm finishing this up with some more experimentation and just putting this one down to experience. Just too many new things going on in one project for my liking and I'm not satisfied with the quality of the job I've done. I've ordered a cheaper Zvesda 1/144 Me 109 F and have planned this one using what I have learned so far.

UPDATE: Egged on by Tim Gow...

Eduard 1/144 Me 109 G-2 - Part 5

Painting (mis)adventures
Hmmm, I'm not really sure how this is going. I've had a few disasters with this one along the way.

First lesson - trying to get nice blended effects at 1/144 is NOT for a novice and certainly not for a first model at this scale (I cocked that up). On the other hand I'm pleased with the splinter camo pattern.

Anyway, I have a lot of tidying up to do.

The scary bit is the next stage where I am supposed to tone down the whole scheme with a subtle coating of grey, so everything looks weathered and more subdued. Like this...

Ah well, onwards and upwards!

Eduard 1/144 Me 109 G-2 - Part 4

Making a stand
For once I've tried - very hard - to do something as simple as I can. Not easy as when I looked around to see how war gamers made thier flight stands I saw some pretty nifty - and relatively complicated - stands made from telescopic radio ariels and little magnets and such like fancy stuff...

Well, I've stuck me little Me 109 on a pole! :)

My one concession to my tinkering side was that I wanted to be able to remove my plane from it's stand so I could put it on a different height of stand, and so...

First of all I installed a thin rod into the bottom of my 109...

This would slip inside a hollow rod...

I made the base out of some transparent plastic (stupidly I decided to try and cut a circle - idiot that I am)...

I'll paint the rod sky blue I suppose.

Er, well...That's it really. I can change out the stand for something higher or lower, or if I bend the main rod I could have the plane in a dive.

<-- Previous post in this project

Eduard 1/144 Me 109 G-2 - Part 3

Painting thoughts for a Finnish Me 109
I've had a look at quite a few pictures of 'Finnish Me 109s' - well, at least people's impressions of what they looked like. There seems to be quite varied and diverse opinion on the matter, especially when it comes to the colours.

I *think* the basic colour of Finnish Me 109s - as they were delivered from the Germans in standard camo patterns - was the RLM 74/75/76 (grey green, green violet and light blue).

Here's a drawing I did to illustrate 'a' (generic) Finnish Me 109 pattern from 1944...

Where the discrepancies - and my confusion - seem to come about is where the Finns may have over-sprayed the original Luftwaffe crosses and where these new, vivid, colours became faded. So some modellers depict these colours as far more subtle greys and less hard edged than my first drawing. Like this...

Anyway, if like me you like acrylic spray paints, the good news is that the Tamiya AS range of sprays makes this scheme easy to paint as they have:

> AS-3 Gray Green (Luftwaffe) Acrylic Spray Paint (RLM-74 Graugrun)

> AS-4 Gray Violet (Luftwaffe) Acrylic Spray Paint (RLM-75 Grauviolett)

> AS-5 Light Blue (Luftwaffe) Acrylic Spray Paint (RLM-76 Lichtblau)

...So, this is my starting point.

But here is how one modeller - S. Bathy - has toned these vivid pristine colours down to give a more war weary look to his Finnish Me 109...

Whether the Finns actually toned down the German colours themselves I am not sure - but in the reference book I have - Osprey's 'Finnish Aces of WW2' - many of the Finn's 1944 Messerschmitts are depicted in this more faded grey scheme (like my second drawing).

Anyone any opinions?

<-- Previous post in this project

Eduard 1/144 Me 109 G-2 - Part 2

Undercarriage up!
I mentioned that I was going to do some work to the undercarriage in order to model it in a realistic up position. Well I finished this off last night...

I also did some filling while I was at it. But you can see how the struts and wheels now look like they are in the correct flight position with the wheels laying under the struts. To do this I had to excavate out nice little alcoves inside the wheel wells so that the wheels looked as if they were under the struts. This involved scrapping away with the point of my scalpel until I had two suitably shaped indentations.

Of course this is just one way to do it, and it sort of belies my display modeler's ambitions rather than a war game modeler's practicality.

Wg Cdr Luddite, in a comment on part 1 of this project, pointed out the war gamer's approach quite succinctly...

"Don't worry too much about the undercart. The simplest way for a wargame model in 'flight mode' is to throw away the kit parts and just fill the recess with putty. (no one is ever going to look at the underside of aircraft during a game)."

...Er, oops, I suppose I could have done that really! Du-oh! Well I am a Kit Noob. LOL!

<-- Read Part 1 / Read Part 3 -->

Eduard 1/144 Me 109 G-2 - Part 1

Construction phase
Well, there are only 18 parts plus two canopies (why two I don't know, as they appear to be the same type), with some of the parts being optional - like the wing mounted cannons and the fuel drop tank.

Initial construction was very straight forward, particularly as there are no cockpit details to worry about, just a blank cover hiding the interior.

I did find the nose accessories (sorry not sure what they are) a little over-sized and not a terrific fit. In particular, the 'bumps' will need some filler to make them seamlessly blend into the fuselage. There are no wireless ariels, which is probably a good thing at this scale.

There is a noticeable seam join down the middle of the fuselage which I will have to fill.

A bit more filling will have to be done underneath where the wing joins the fuselage. But the major problem with this kit - from my point of view - becomes apparent when you start to put together the underside. Eduard only supply an undercarriage which is designed to be fitted in the down position.

Now this is a problem because I want to mount my model in a flying pose, undercarriage up. However, the parts provided do not fit into the undercarriage 'wells' as they are - some modifications have to be done if you want your Me 109 in the flying state.

In the above photo you can see an unmodified undercarriage group of components next to a wing where I have inserted one of the wheel struts which I already modified by trimming off the landing gear.

Having removed the gear from the struts, so they lay flush in the gear wells, I will have to slim down and cut my wheels so they fit in the wells next to the struts. In the above picture you can see how I am most of the way through doing this to the right undercarriage. I will have to take some more off the thickness off the wheel though, so it appears to be under the strut rather than flush with it.

As I mentioned, I will not be fitting the optional 20mm wing mounted cannon or the drop tank. Instead I will be fitting some sort of flight stand, and I will also be making a piece of circular transparent plastic to represent the rotating propeller. That's what I'll be doing next.

Read Part 2 -->