1/48 Hasegawa Messerschmitt Bf-109G-14

by David Longhitano

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    Here I am again with the new kit Hasegawa dedicated to one of the WWII most famous plane, the Me.109 G-14. The "G" was one of the last variants generated by the talent of Willy Messerschmitt.  And probably the best one...    

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     The kit is simply delightful. One of the best performance of the Japanese firm.  All the parts go together with a minimum effort and just a very tiny amount of putty. How the fuselage is inserted between the wings is simply amazing, with no need of trimming or filling. Great!...  The cockpit is simple but with the appropriate painting and and adding some scratchbuilt elements (as some wires and the seat belts, made of laminated copper) nothing else will be needed.

    The camouflage scheme consists of RLM 74-75 in the uppersurfaces and RLM 76 in the undersurfaces, except for the undercowl, which is painted in RLM 04 yellow.  I started by painting the black and white "Reichverteidigung" on the tail (you can use the decals, if you want, but painting it you'll achieve a better result) and the yellow undercowl.  After painting the belly and, not before having masked it, I continued with the 74-75 camo scheme, done freehand. I used Gunze Acrylics.

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    Now it's time for decals! I used the Eagle Cal's #43 sheet, chosing "Black 8" flown by Oblt. Rolf Schlegel, belonging to 10./JG4, in the end of 1944.  The decals are a bit thick (especially the crosses...) so I used some MicroSol.  The stencils are from kit's sheet.  After the decals I "gave life" to the model, doing some weathering.  I've done a panel wash with dark grey oil paint and made some scrapes with silver paint and a toothpick used as a superfine brush.  At the end of this process, I gave the model a coat of Model Master flat varnish.  The last step consists of simulating the oil leaks and exhaust smoke.  This process is to be performed after the final flat coat, because the smoke and the oil are simulated by using a very thinned semi-gloss mixture of black and brown sprayed at a low pressure.

I hope you like it...

David

  Rome (Italy)

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Photos and text © by David Longhitano