More Painting This Week

While fighting a cold, I managed to get downstairs and do a little more painting. I focused on my Italians while I wait on the new Luftwaffe paint sets. I had 3 partially painted MC200s left of the six that I had. The trouble was going to be matching the paint that I had used for under the fuselage. Fortunately, I found it. There were three old jars of Poly Scale that I had used years ago. This gave me additional base coat and undercoat as well as the yellow for the noses of the aircraft. The yellow may be more appropriate for Italians in Russia late 1941 but that is what I had for the first six. So those were easy to knock out. But I needed a color for the camoflauge spots. Using the Miniature Painter Pro phone app, I snapped a picture of the existing aircraft and it gave me a match with a color I had on hand. I really love that tool. One of the aircraft was missing its magnet and that had to be glued on as well.

I also worked on some Italian Biplanes. I finished the assembly of four Ro.37 observation aircraft and glued the magnets to them. These are now ready for some primer. Also I assembled what I thought would be four Cr32s. However, the top wing was missing from one of the models. So I am left with just three of these. These too received their magnets and are reay for base coating. These are both Tumbling Dice miniatures. The Cr32s were bought many years ago and the Ro37s were a recent purchase.

I have not yet glued magnets to the Cr42s that I have cleaned off of the supports. I was fortunate in that I was able to remove the supports without damaging these small and fragile models. These are Pico Armor sculpts. Even though I was disapointed that they were resin and not metal, I am pleased with how they look. I will need to figure out how to match them to the three that I already have painted. I think I prefer the Pico Armor models as they look cleaner but they do have some gaps in their line that Tumbling Dice have. I have picked up some 3d Models from Wargaming3d recently in hopes to try to print some of my own aircraft. These would be for either the Romanians or Hungarians. But I am not there yet.

On the Italian to do list, I have seven G50s that are waiting for magnets and priming. I need to get some plastic tweezers. The small magnets I have for fighters, I am struggling to be able to fix to the models. Even the larger ones that you see on the Ro37s above I struggled to get on. There are probably half a dozen magnets on my floor that I have not been able to find because of this. Maybe a trip to Hobby Lobby is in order. I also have three Sm79s that are undercoated. I have three others that have a rudimentary paint job that I am unhappy with. I may search for different paint schemes and redo them. I am a fan of the Sm79. The tri-motor design and the look of the Italian aircraft have always interested me. I want to do a better paint jobs on these but I am not a good enough painter to do the more complicated paterns. i can just barely pull off the spotted ones.

That puts the Italians close to completion. I have an order out with Pico Armor that will include a replacement for the G50 that broke as well as some additional MiG-3s. I have a few aircraft left for the British. A pair of Lysanders, four Blenheim Is, four Blenheim IVs and then I have some spare P40s and Hurricanes that I need to look at to see if I actually want to paint them. I'm not sure at this point. I have 8 of each painted. I should probably do 4 more of each to complete a squadron.

The Germans need the most work. I have a Ju52, three Ju88s, eight Bf110s and two Hs126s that have been undercoated with no magnets. I also still have two Ju87s that have an undercoat and a base coat but no other paint. I would need two more to complete out the staffel. I would need four more Bf110s to have a complete staffel. There really is no point of a full staffel of Ju52s as they were primarily transports and they would be a lone target that the Germans would be trying to protect.But the Ju88s, a complete staffel would be three more packs of them. I may do that at some point.I do not believe I will paint He111s or Do17zs for the desert. While they would be nice, I need to get to an East Front project at some point.