Trumpeter 1/24 Bf 109G-2 'Black 6'
By Martin Planes
This project has taken me over two years to complete!
I hasten to add it wasn’t anything to do with the complexity or level of detail I put in just life’s rich tapestry of events that stopped me from spending time on my hobby.
Anyway enough of me let’s talk about Black 6.
Black 6 when she graced our skies at Air shows well over a decade ago was always a firm favourite of mine. Not just because she was a 109 but a ‘true’ 109 with a Daimler Benz 601. Something, at the time we had not seen for a very long time. When she first displayed she was an air enthusiast dream. Looking and Sounding every inch of that iconic Luftwaffe aircraft. Russ Snadden and the team did an incredible restoration and it was always my intention to build a model of her.
The only problem was that my chosen scale of 1/24th did not offer an example of the G-2 in that scale. However, when Trumpeter released their collection of 1/24th scale examples I realised I was up with a chance if I could convert their G-6.
The challenge was the tropical air filter to replicate and to create the cowling without the the nose cannon blisters.
Help was at hand with an article I found on LSP years ago by a chap I must confess I have forgotten his name but basically I used the end of a 1/48th scale 500 llb bomb stuck a piece of copper tubing down the oil intake and added some copper mesh plate for the details...simples!
The cowling was not that easy but basically managed to scrounge a set of f-2 cowlings via a guy over the Internet all the way from the USA! What a gentleman!
The next challenge was the markings.
Now I’m not bad with a paint brush but the thought of stencilling and masking the number 6 and hand painting the wolf’s head emblem did hold me in some trepidation.
Enter Paul Parkes of ‘682 decals’. If you have never come across this guy I urge you to try him. Just Google Paul Parkes 682 and you will find him. He was so attentive and he created all sorts of marvels and miracles for me. I have to confess I did not execute the application of his decals in the best way but the results were good enough for me. Thanks Paul!
The spraying and masking of the colour scheme was fairly straight forward. I always use Life Color paints as I considered them the best for spraying and Painting. Top surface is Sandgelb 79 and bottom was Hellblau 65. Under cowling Gelb 04.
I’ve glossed over the detail but I hope you like the end result. I had a number of problems but I am happy with the overall result.
Next one up the mighty Airfix 1/24th scale Typhoon!
© Martin Planes 2015
This article was published on Saturday, May 02 2015; Last modified on Saturday, May 02 2015