1/48 Tamiya He219

[Rory 298]

Well that was the most interesting 30 minutes of spraying I have done in ages! The kit is the 1/48 Tamiya He219 and the Paints are MrPaint RLM76 and 75 sprayed through my trusty Badger 200G. I am not doing the any aircraft from the kit but instead I am doing VO+BC based on the one photo I have found of it.

 

[URL=http://s33.photobucket.com/user/rory1282/media/IMG_4777.jpg.html][/URL]

 

 This aircraft is unusual in that it has green topsides , which according to K.A Merrick's book Luftwaffe Camouflage and Markings 1933-1945 ,Vol2, has a two colour green topsides which he defines as RLM 82 with a soft mottle of RLM83 over the top as at this stage of the war the Luftwaffe were more concerned with getting destroyed on the ground so this makes sense, this is a fair assumption and I have great respect for Mr Merrick but let me put forward another idea.

 

Men and materials were short, as was time so would the Luftwaffe actually apply a two colour topside camouflage? I am thinking that the topside is actually one colour green, RLM82, sprayed thinly and that the mottling is the older, RLM75, colour showing through giving it a mottled appearance. And this is how I will be finishing mine.

 

Now I hasten to add that a lot of artistic licence is being used here as the one photo only shows a wingless, tailless, undercarriage less fuselage on dollies. The one other option is that the aircraft was delivered in the two colour green topsides! interesting aircraft nevertheless.

[Rory 298]

Money where mouth is time.

I think thats ok ish.

[dr_g 865]

Impressed you've got it so randomly consistent. Or consistently random. Does that make any sense? I find mottling looks easy, but is incredibly difficult. I think you nailed it though.

[Rory 298]

I find the trick is to spray the mottle over the whole airframe at once instead of , for example , working from a wingtip in. Once you have a light mottle over the whole airframe you can then fill in between, again though, don't  just do one bit at a time. If you do get a bit that just looks wrong just respray and start again.

I must say how impressed I am with the MrPaint's used, no mixing, no fuss and no clogging of the airbrush plus I could get a consistent fine line.

 

[Grunhertz 17,283]

Nice you nailed it!! 

[Rory 298]

Just sorting out the decals for it now, a real mix"n"match. One of the things I have noticed is that the "C" in the code looks more like a "D" without the vertical bar. No doubt somebody will tell me its wrong.