Magnus, really impressive work with your painting and masking. Are we going to see a whole Jagdgeschwader?
I must admit I have been tempted by some of these SH 109’s but so far my will power is holding and I’m concentrating on the South West Pacific.
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@Russelle Easy does it, combined with the fact that the white base crosses are ever so slightly smaller than the black outline, giving me a few tenths of a mm wiggle room. Not much but it’s enough, especially since you can see through the masks and confirm that they are positioned OK before committing to paint!
@Littorio Rather the opposite: I try to aim from one aircraft from each JG instead of a bunch from the same 
! The E-1 will most probably be JG 27 so with the two already started I will have done JG 26 and JG 51 also. I have a package from Arma Hobby waiting so I might see you in your corner of the globe (“corner of the globe” - obviously something badly wrong with that statement 
), at least a Wildcat is more likely there than a 109 !
Magnus
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Hehe, that reminds me of a sign I saw once, “The flat earth society global annual general meeting” 
My bad I did mean will you have enough 109’s to fill a whole Jagdgeschwader in total?
I have been looking at the new F4F-4 Wildcat but at the moment Arma want a minimum order value of £135 for the UK so I’ll have to wait until I can get it from a UK stockist. I’ll make do with the two FM-2 Wildcats I already have for now.
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@Littorio I toyed with the idea of making 2021 “the year of the 109”, it didn’t come to that but if I had then maybe, or at least a staffel !
A few more pics and after this, no more masks on these two !
Masks for chevrons and the vertical bar in place. As you can see to the right of the fuselage cross, I’ve had problems with paint not biting into the primer below. This is Mr Surfacer, for my next build I’ll be back to my trusty Tamiya Fine White!
Some NATO-black…
…and suddenly we’re finished!
Magnus
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Decal time, one at a time, slowly and methodically…
Just to prove that this kit can be built in an easier way, avoiding all those separate parts from the E-3 and E-4…
…here is the fully assembled wing of the E-1!
Magnus
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Lovely progress, Magnus! 
Decals are on, the E-1 is taking shape and an interesting discovery has been made!
Decals are on! Quite a lot of small ones on these, can’t do everything with the masks… E-1 waiting for the welder to come and close the fuselage !
These books are excellent references for anyone interested in the Jagdwaffe during the Battle of Britain. Recommended. Or just trust Eduard and follow the instructions, it works as well !
Now on to the interesting discovery: Eduard has introduced a kind of decals where you can (but you don’t have to) peel off the decal film after it is in place on the model. There is nothing in the instructions about it but both the Special Hobby decals in the 109 boxes and the Eduard “Adlerangriff”-boxing has them. And it works! They are really good as ordinary decals as well but getting rid of the decal film could win me over to the decals once again! I might go all decals on the E-1 just to try them “for real” since I have done all major markings with masks on the E-3 and E-4.
Magnus
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Looking good.
Interestingly I recently got a set of decals for Coastal Command Liberators that are exactly the same as that. Like a thin plastic sheet over them?
Can’t remember who prints them, but they’re the same set as Eduard included in their rebox of the Hasegawa B-24.
Nice to hear they work well as I had my doubts. Can setting solutions be used with them?
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Your Bf 109 Schwarm is coming along nicely, Magnus, and the painting on “Yellow 1” and “<+I” looks fantastic. 
Eduard has shown the “how to tutorial” in their May 2021 Info Brochure. Have a look at their webside, maybe the pdf is still there for download. I haven’t tried it yet, the Spits on my bench are the first with these new decals. Still don’t know if I like it or not. Maybe I give it a try. I was really happy with their Cartograph decals, like on my Hellcats.
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@phantom_phanatic They work very well as ordinary decals! Since I’m a bit slow and didn’t realise what kind of decals they were I had done them as I always do using Micro Set and Sol, they settled beautifully! If I were to use them as ordinary decals in the future, I would however trim the rather excessive decal film a bit around the designs!
@BlackWidow Thanks a lot Torsten! I’ll do my best ! All the old Eduard newsletters are online for download, I’ll check it out to read the official manual for the decals!
Things are still a bit slow around here modelling-wise but I have finally managed to get my act together and assemble all the loose parts of the E-3 and the E-4. The E-1 is assembled as well and will sit for a few days before sanding and filling.
Magnus
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When I finally sit down at the bench and start up the airbrush, things happen fast…
Magnus
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Wow, the colour sings 
No wonder they used it to tell friend from foe …
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@litespeed It’s really practical, helps me a lot separating the 109 from my Spitfire-collection !
Magnus
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Thanks for the advice. I’ll keep it in mind.
What brand of yellow are you using on the nose? I had trouble last year with Vallejo yellow on the nose of a 109. Just couldn’t get a good strong colour, even over the white undercoat.
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@phantom_phanatic I’ve had the same experience as you have with yellow: difficult to get to cover properly and also often difficult to spray. This is MrP RLM24 and it sprays beautifully like all their paints. Coverage was also good but I stayed on the safe side and made sure that I had a solid white undercoat where the yellow went! If you haven’t tried them, note that they are lacquers and do smell a bit.
Magnus
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Thanks I’ll have a look, not sure I’ve come across their range over here.
I’m not exactly sure what lacquer paints are supposed to be composed of. I’m more than familiar with acrylic and enamels, but lacquers are a bit of a mystery to me. What are they thinned and cleaned with? I’m assuming it’s not water or an enamel thinner, white spirit or turpentine?
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Preparations for painting the canopy frames using Special Hobby’s own masks. That are too stiff and/or not sticky enough so they raise from the edges all the time. I bet the E-4 masks will work just fine with all the flat panes but in this case I should probably have used ordinary masking tape!
After a few passes with the airbrush…
…suddenly the camo is just about finished !
I was a bit tempted to test the Eduard decals all over the kit but I think I’ll use masks for the crosses anyway.
@phantom_phanatic These are the paints I use, with MrP thinner to the right. The thinner smells bad, like a full-size car paint shop from the 1970’s, the Gunze levelling thinner smells a lot better and works well. Cleaning can thankfully be done using alcohol!
My main reason for using them is that they are a lot tougher than my earlier favourite paint, Gunze Aqueous, while still spraying almost as well.
Magnus
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Ok thanks, I wonder if that could be like a cellulose thinner? I know that stuff smells evil!
109’s looking really good. Hopefully the masks will have worked. I used to get similar trouble with Eduard’s old vinyl masks. They didn’t like curves at all and would always lift up.
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@phantom_phanatic Yep, it is some kind of cellulose thinner. The amounts that are used are however very small, especially since it isn’t needed for the clean-up that can be done with alcohol.
Magnus
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Back at a snail’s pace once again… Anyway, the E-1 is also starting to look fairly finished! I toyed with the idea of using the complete set of decals for this one but went for painted-on crosses. With hindsight, I should have done the numbers as well, they were a disappointment even if the film was peelable. They look rather bleak and a bit pixelated…
I’ll probably try to finish these one by one in order to get them not to look all the same.
Magnus
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