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Finished: Eduard 1/48 Bf-109E3 Condor Legion

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34 replies
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  • Member since
    March 2015
  • From: Streetsboro, Ohio
Posted by Toshi on Friday, October 27, 2017 7:51 AM

Very cool WIP!  I love what you did with the cockpit, great job.  Looking forward to more.  And as always, your builds are of an exceptional quality.

Toshi

On The Bench: Revell 1/48 B-25 Mitchell

 

Married to the most caring, loving, understanding, and beautiful wife in the world.  Mrs. Toshi

 

 

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Cleveland, OH
Posted by RadMax8 on Thursday, October 26, 2017 9:19 PM

Cockpit looks great so far. That’s a real shame about the motor. I think Eduard probably could have rigged up a better method for finishing it with the cowl closed. 

I read a lot about the Bf109 today (yes, I was bored at work and Wikipedia makes it through the firewall) and it amazes me how this plane was utilized for such a long time so successfully. Think of all the aircraft that were developed the same time that got obsoleted much quicker. Very cool!

  • Member since
    January 2015
Posted by BrandonD on Thursday, October 26, 2017 4:07 PM

I got some work done on this one. I finished the cockpit and got the main assembly done last night.

I'm going to keep the rudder off and just paint the markings rather than dealing with the decals, and I'm considering painting the side markings with masks made with my sweet new Thinnerline circle cutter. 

Untitled

 

 

UntitledThe only thing I need to do before adding the cowl is mount the engine. The engine mount is the one place this kit really falls down on. With it all buttoned up, there doesn't seem to be room to use the actual mounts, and that leaves it just sitting without positive locating points inside the nose, which is problematic, given that's how the prop and exhausts mount.

I've built one of these with the cowl off, and it was fine, and I managed to add the exhaust at the end of the build, so I'm hoping to do that here, too, so I don't have to mask them. I'll probably stick the prop on it and use that to line it up inside, then super glue it wherever it touches inside, because the last thing I want is to go to add the prop at the end of the build, push it onto the nose, and break the attachment points so I'm left without a prop shaft and a rattling engine.

-BD-

 

  • Member since
    January 2015
Posted by BrandonD on Thursday, October 26, 2017 4:07 PM

RadMax8

Hey if you like how it sprays and it's close, it's good enough for me. I've found that it's not really worth it to get so bogged down in the minutia of details like that. You're the one enjoying the kit, right? 

A friend of mine recently picked up a ton on Eduard Bf109 kits, how do they go together? I've built a Tamiya E4 before, and of course that was a cracker of a kit. I don't really have much from the Luftwaffe in my stash, always looking to add to it. 

Looking forward to seeing more progress on this one. 

 

Thanks! And yeah, the more I look at the color, the more OK I am with it.

As for how they go together, I think they are a little more fiddly than the Tamiya kit, but worth it for the increased detail.

THere aren't as many locating pins on the fuselage, but I found that adding the rear bulkhead and firewall to one side, then lining them up with the other side for drying, helps center the whole thing and keep it from drifting around when you close the fuselage halves.

The engine mount (if you're closing the cowl) is not idea (see next post). Other than that, it's an exceptional kit, and even the Weekend Edition Bf-109E7 tropical comes with superfabric seatbelts for around $20. The only problem with that kit in that boxing is that it doesn't give you anything to texture the extended tropical air filter (which has a PE shroud around it in other boxings). I ended up buying their detail set for cheap just for that part, but messed it up, and just built it with the cowl off to compensate.

-BD-

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Cleveland, OH
Posted by RadMax8 on Saturday, October 21, 2017 10:04 PM

Hey if you like how it sprays and it's close, it's good enough for me. I've found that it's not really worth it to get so bogged down in the minutia of details like that. You're the one enjoying the kit, right? 

A friend of mine recently picked up a ton on Eduard Bf109 kits, how do they go together? I've built a Tamiya E4 before, and of course that was a cracker of a kit. I don't really have much from the Luftwaffe in my stash, always looking to add to it. 

Looking forward to seeing more progress on this one. 

  • Member since
    January 2015
Finished: Eduard 1/48 Bf-109E3 Condor Legion
Posted by BrandonD on Thursday, October 19, 2017 2:01 PM

Ok, I got started on this one for the Pride of the Luftwaffe Group Build. I am building the 1/48 Eduard Bf-109E-3 in Condor Legion markings from this boxing:

I'll be building the box art version, because it has a beer mug the pilot put on the plane in reference to a game that used to be played in the U.S., where he had spent time, that revolved around drinking beer.

I started last night with some small cockpit buildup before I went to painting base coats.

I primed it with Mr. Surfacing Finisher 1500 Black, then sprayed it with Mr. Paint RLM 02. I'm not sure about the color, so I'm curious what you all think of the shade. It's a little different from Model Master RLM 02, which lookes pretty close to my eye, but in the end, I just really like the way Mr. Paint sprays, so I opted for it over Model Master.

Untitled

One thing I'm certain of is that the Eduard color PE gray looks pretty far off from RLM 02 to me, so while I will use it on the instrument panel, I am not using the switches on the right side of the cockpit and will opt to paint them instead.

I'm not going to weather this pit too heavily, as the pilot (and presumably the plane, as an E-3) arrived pretty late, and he didn't score any kills in the Spanish Civil War.

I built the shell of the engine, which is needed to hold the prop and exhausts, but I omitted most of the detail parts simply because I'm building this one with the cowl on. I already built one of their E-4s with the engine and guns exposed, which was fun.

As of now, it sits with the wing halves together, and I will do it with neutral ailerons, dropped flaps and extended leading edge slats.

That's all for now.

-BD-

 

 

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