Hello, with my new compressor up and running, I thought I would take you guys along on a build for a friend. It's the 1/48 Hasegawa Bf 109 K which will be in "Operation Bodenplatte" markings. For those not familiar, Bodenplatte was a last ditch effort for Germany to catch the Allies with their britches down. On New Years Day of '45, the Luftwaffe attacked numerous allied airfields at one time in the hopes most of the airmen were still hammered from the festivities of the night before. There was initial success but was ultimately unsuccessful. The 352 FG particularly were not fooled and were waiting for them. Col. Myers even got a 190 as he was still retracting his landing gear, but thats another build on my bucket list. Anyways, this one will get a CMK cockpit, Quickboost Exhaust, and Ultracast Wheels.
I started with the cockpit. The CMK resin is nicely detailed and has some photoetch, particularly the instrument panel. This will need painted but does have clear acetate for the dials. .I also like the separate seat belt "top piece" that goes on the top of the back sill to give the appearance the belts attach to the top (see pics, I have it blue-tac'd to the top the seat). It seems that the K interior was less busy that earlier models. I'm used to the yellow fuel line on the starboard wall which is void here. I preshaded everything XF-1 Flat Black then sprayed everything Gunze RLM 66. I did some detail painting from a True Details K picture I found on line as CMK's instruction sheet is worthless. Once finished, I did my usually process on the cockpit. If you would like to see in detail my cockpit process, see my Stuka build here:
http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/161025.aspx?sort=ASC&pi240=1
I was toying around with the fit in the fuselage and it doesn't seem to fit very well. I'm used to the True Detail pits for these which pretty much drop in. I have a feeling my Dremel will get some exercise soon.
Joe