German Three Tone Mottle Camo

[Neill]

Hi all

I am going to start on my three tone mottle camo scheme on my 1/72 Tamiya Fw190 D-9. Its my first time air brushing so I was thinking of the simplest way to begin this rather daunting first go. Let me know if it sounds an easy straight forward way to go about things considering I am a newbie.

I was going to mask the landing gear compartments off (a bit of sponge cut to size or Tamiya tape?) as I have pre painted these as per the instructions. I have also pre painted the landing gear seperate from the main body of the aircraft as per the instructions for ease of assembly/painting as well. The lightest colour is a mix of Taimya XF-2, XF-23 and XF-66 so with this mix (and I dont think Ive mixed enough!!) I was going to spray the whole underside and then up onto roughly half way onto the upper part of the plane and wings as this is the lightest colour. At this point I wasnt sure whether to use Blu Tack or just to leave the the other parts of the model unmasked prior to them getting a coat of their required colour.

Ive seen the Blu Tack technique on Youtube and it doesnt look to bad. Is it the easiest way to get a soft edged three tone mottle scheme?

Stona from what Ive heard you may be the man with the master plan on this one!!!:1newwink:

 

[stona]

Hi Neill, first the easy bit,the wheel wells. You can use tape or foam but I use damp kitchen roll. Wet a bit,wring it out (hopefully without destroying it!) and then push it into the wheel wells. You can use more than one bit if you have to. Being damp it will stay in and when you've finished you can pull the now dry masking out with a pair of tweezers. This works for intakes as well.

I'm not sure which scheme you are doing but that mix sounds like it would make a colour designated RLM76. This colour was applied to all the lower surfaces and fuselage sides,including the fin. I would do the same as you and apply this first to those lower and side surfaces. Don't go onto the top of the wings but do cover the leading edge.

There will be two colours on the upper surfaces of the wings,tail plane and fuselage. On a Fw190D-9 this may be a grey/green,green/green or even possibly a grey/grey combination,just go with the instructions. I spray this free hand in my large scale as the demarcations were not very hard but at 1/72 I think masking might be a good option. Blu-Tac raised masks should work. Spray at ninety degrees to the mask. If you spray vertically down onto the wings and tailplane you shouldn't have to mask the undersides and you'll get a nice soft demarcation along the leading edges. I think you'll have to mask the demarcation line that runs along the side of the fuselage.

Finally there is the mottle.Again I don't know which aircraft you are doing but this varied a lot. Many late Doras had very little mottle,apart from on the fin. You can do this freehand if you are confident or spray through a mask. Punch a few random hole in a piece of card,rough edges to the holes are good,and spray through a different hole in different places. Practice on a bit of scrap to get the hole/distance equation correct.

If you want to let me know which aircraft you are doing I may be able to find some good information and maybe even a decent profile for you.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Neill]

Hi Steve

Its two late war defense of the Reich colour schemes according to the instructions.One is for a plane with 4/JG301 flying out of Straubing, Bavaria 1945 and the other is for Stab./JG4 flying out of Rhein-Main airfield, spring 1945.

The two schemes are virtually identical (if there is any difference at all!!) I have a feeling that the decals are the only difference.

The other colours called out are for XF-61 - dark green and the third and last is a mixture of XF-24 dark grey and XF-50 field blue. Do you think a noob like me could do this camo successfully enough? I have an Iwata Sprint Jet and an Iwata BR airbrush to use. And Ive never used them and that includes practice!!

When you say raised masks of Blu Tack I take it it means just that? Sorry for the stupid question.

 

[stona]

Firstly Neill there is no such thing as a stupid question!

Those colours represent RLM 75 (the grey) and RLM 83 (green). Entirely plausible! There isn't by chance a Werknummer for either aircraft,the number on the fin above the tailplane?.

For a soft edge you can cut paper masks and apply them to the model on some blobs of Blu-Tac. Spray at 90 degrees to the mask and you'll get a slightly soft edge. You only want to raise the mask by 1-2mm. I use an Iwata BR from time to time,a good airbrush.

Give it a go,it's a cool scheme.

Cheers

Steve