1/48 Eduard Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3 (Work In Progress)....FINISHED

Very inspirational work, Joe. Fantastic. I enjoyed reading your techniques. Even the photography is top notch. Keep it up!

Great finish Joe. I do like your post-shading. Great colors all around. The Raiden looks like a nice kit. Ever consider Montex masks? I used some on my  Ki-100, and dont' regret it.

Sweet, looking forward to that Raiden Joe, always have like the lines of it.

Really nicely done, Joe, and as you say, the detail is far better than the Tamiya offering.  Really nice paint and weathering job.

Nice job, the way you did the yellow on the nose really sets it off

Thanks for the kind words guys.  It's far from perfect believe me.  There's a few things I'll do differently the next ime I build one, hopefully an E-1.  Bvallot, I don't recall any issues with the oil cooler area.  I just glued that turkey in there.  Gary, I've never built a Lindberg kit, are they bad?  Jester, I'm thinking this is next:

I recently bought a Hasegawa FW190 A-5 off Ebay and they accidentally sent me this one instead.  When I contacted them, they told me to just keep this and they sent me the correct 190 Free.  Now thats good customer service...kudos to Omnimodels (highly recommended seller).  I've always liked the stubby "Fat Jack"  B-29 killer so now I'm inspired to build it.  The only problem is that I'm not particularly fond of the kit decals and there aren't any aftermarket ones available for it.  I would like to build Sadaaki Akamatsu's Raiden so I may have to find a cheap Tamiya kit which seems to have his markings as an option.

Joe 

Another great build, Joe!  No matter the subject, you could make it into a masterpiece!  I'm going to buy you a Lindberg kit and see what you do with that!  Something about "shinola"... 

Gary

Beautiful job Joe!  That's a great looking '109 my friend.  You simply turn out one stunner after another, and each one inspires me.  Maybe someday, I'll get one to look almost as good!

Gary

Joe this looks fantastic.  Merry Xmas!

I wanted to ask you about the ramp for the intake that serves in part as an oil cooler I think.  I had a lot of trouble with this piece.  What'd you do to tackle it?

She is a beauty Joe! Glad you discovered the liquid cement and clear parts, been using that for a long time with no ill effects and love it. I am curious as to what is on the build roster for you next.....

Beautiful build Joe, one of the best looking yellow nosed 109's I've ever seen.  Interesting tip on the Tenax, figured it would cause same issue as cement.  I wonder if since you used it on the main canopy, since the air isn't trapped, that's why it didn't fog?

What a nice replication! I always admire your work Joe!

Beautiful build Joe. Happy Holiday's. John

Joe, another beauty.  

Love the details, particularly photo number three - nice composition there.

regards,

Jack

Hello all, I had some free time last night and managed to get this finished.  I gave it a Flory wash, another post shade, then it was dull coated it with Testor's Dullcoat.  All of the bits and pieces went on without issue.  On this build, I discovered a new way to attach clear parts.  I discovered that a small amount of Tenax 7R does a nice job of holding these in place without fogging.  The hinged piece was not holding open with clear cement.  I got aggravated so I used a touch of Tenax at the joint and it work great.  Its a strong bond too.  I then used it on the rest with no issue.  Just put the piece where you want it then run a little in the joint. 

Anyways, its a Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3 done in Josef "Pips" Priller's 6/JG 51 markings from the Battle of Britain.  He was a 101 kill ace to include 11 US bombers.  What makes Priller's kill tally all the more impressive is that all kills were all on the western front, where the competition was a tad bit stiffer. 

To recap, the kit is the new Eduard example.  I believe its the best Emil in 1/48 scale, if not any scale period.  There I said it.  I did have a few hiccups here and there but it was mostly my doing.  The only complaint is that to my eye, the landing gear angle seems to be a bit too tall and narrow.  I like the Tamiya "sit" a bit better, as it is a little more squat for lack of better words.  I love the multi part wheel hubs which look great.  This one was built right out of the box, to include decals.   Thanks for following the thread and Merry Christmas to all.

Joe

Glad I could help with the stenciling issue, Joe.  Like I say, in no way a definitive answer, but all the references I see show no stencils in the yellow distemper area.  The kill marks and swastika were exactly the area I was referring to, and thanks very much for the answer.  It's always been a bit of a stumbling block for me, not wanting to ruin the first decal, but not wanting too many layers of paint on the piece.  Since that works out for you so well, I'll have to adopt that technique in the future when next I encounter it.  

AndrewW

do you do a layer of gloss between them, or is it just one decal on the other?  Micro Sol in between, or just on the pair when they're down?  I've always been a little scared of laying one decal right on the other, so I'm just curious about other folks' techniques.

Thanks guys for the compliments.  Andrew, thanks for looking in to the stenciling issue for me.  As I said, that seemed logical to me.  Reference placing decals on top of each other, I believe your referring to the fin swastika and kill tally, I put the swastika down, hit it with Micro Sol, then let it sit for a while to give it a chance to "melt" to the surface. After I was done with all of the other decaling, perhaps 20 minutes later, I went back and added the kill tally decal with more Micro Sol.  By now, the first decal is firmly down if not dry so theres no worry of it moving.  After decaling, I wipe the model down with water then shoot a coat of Alclad Gloss to seal the decals.  Theres no need to gloss coat between decals. 

Joe

Thats an excellent Emil, I thought I had my E-3 looking good but you totally blew mine away lol

HA!!! I know just what you mean Joe.  My first Eduard kit was a Fw 190 and I thought it was gonna be so much fun and come out looking like a million bucks...until I got the MG and cowl area.  And then it was literally my third plane I'd made while still trying to learn the ropes.  So frustrating! lol.

Those are some nice kit decals. Looking good.

PS, from what I've seen, a lot of the stencil information is lost in the nose area when they've painted yellow.  That's not a definitive answer, but looking through my Squadron book (Messerschmitt BF 109 in action pt. 1) all the color plates and photos show no nose area stenciling.  While I don't have a photo of Priller's machine, I would assume that to be 'the norm'.

Again, beautiful work, Joe.  Thanks for the information.  Another stupid question for you, as I've always struggled with this part, when you're laying one decal over the other, do you do a layer of gloss between them, or is it just one decal on the other?  Micro Sol in between, or just on the pair when they're down?  I've always been a little scared of laying one decal right on the other, so I'm just curious about other folks' techniques.

bvallot

AndrewW

Beautiful work, yet again, Joe.  I had a quick question for you, as I'm working on a similar Tamiya project (with a bunch of resin added to bring it up to the Eduard level of detail).  I have a resin set of elevators which are smooth, the kits' elevators look similar to your ailerons, ribbed.  I'm having a hard time seeing in the photos, on your kit, are the elevators smooth or ribbed?

Andrew: Eduard definitely puts out the effort in making super accurate depictions of these aircraft. The ailerons/elevators/rudder are all ribbed and raised detail. These kits can make you feel like you're a lot better at modeling than you might be. lol   =D

Unless your building one of their FW 190 subjects.  Then its the exact opposite and they are totally capable of making you feel completely inept in every way humanly possible. 

Jester:  Alclad Gloss Clear is fantastic.  It smells a little like mineral spirits so I'm sure its oil based, but the smell isn't overpowering.  Once I discovered it I haven't really looked back.  Goes down nice and smooth at about 15-20 psi and dries rock hard in a few hours.  No need for that Future junk anymore.  I hear they have a water based version too but I haven't tried it.  If your looking for a new gloss coat, look no further, this is it.

Andrew, all control surfaces are well done.  Its something Eduard is quite savvy at.  Heres a close up for you. 

Anyways, as you can see, I did get it decaled last night.  I'm very happy with the way Eduard's decals performed under Micro Sol.  I decided not to add the nose stencils because I figured they got painted over when it was painted yellow.  Is there anyone who can offer insight on this?  I still have to paint the trim tabs red and add the decals there, unless I forget which is entirely possible.   

Thanks for all the kind words guys,

Joe

AndrewW

Beautiful work, yet again, Joe.  I had a quick question for you, as I'm working on a similar Tamiya project (with a bunch of resin added to bring it up to the Eduard level of detail).  I have a resin set of elevators which are smooth, the kits' elevators look similar to your ailerons, ribbed.  I'm having a hard time seeing in the photos, on your kit, are the elevators smooth or ribbed?

Andrew: Eduard definitely puts out the effort in making super accurate depictions of these aircraft. The ailerons/elevators/rudder are all ribbed and raised detail. These kits can make you feel like you're a lot better at modeling than you might be. lol   =D

Thats some nice paintwork. I have a pic of Priller's topside wing camo, and Eduard's intructions are pretty close. Obviously, it was still in the splinter scheme only at one point or another.

That mottle work is astounding. I'm really liking the way that looks!

Looks great Joe, just love the streaking and fading!! How do you like the Alclad gloss? I have been looking for a good non-acrylic gloss coat to spray through the ab instead of the old rattle can Testors stuff. What medium is the Alclad, lacquer? It looks like it goes on really smooth.

Beautiful work, yet again, Joe.  I had a quick question for you, as I'm working on a similar Tamiya project (with a bunch of resin added to bring it up to the Eduard level of detail).  I have a resin set of elevators which are smooth, the kits' elevators look similar to your ailerons, ribbed.  I'm having a hard time seeing in the photos, on your kit, are the elevators smooth or ribbed?

I did get in some modeling time last night.  I left off pondering the amount of field moification to the camo scheme I would be doing.  I was combing through my decals and found my Xtradecal Battle of Britain decal sheet which happened to have Priller's E-3 on it.  It showed to have the normal splinter scheme as opposed to Eduard's heavily RLM 65'ed version.  I've read  that Eduard has been known to be erroneous on occasion, so I gambled that Xtradecal got it right, or perhaps they just depicted the machine at an earlier time.  I decided to go with the stanard splinter scheme with heavy mottling on the fuselage.  I taped off the splinter scheme and sprayed Gunze RLM 71.  This was then lightened with XF-57 Buff and the condensation streaks were added.  I mottled the fuselage with Gunze RLM 02 followed by RLM 71.   A postshade was then added to weather the surface a bit. 

I then added a touch of XF-1 Flat Black to the mixture and added the exhaust staining.  I highlighted the streaks with XF-66 Light Grey to simulate heat staining.  The "less is more" method tends to work best for me.   

The frame was then shot with Alclad Gloss Coat for decaling. I hope to get going on these soon. 

Joe