Messerschmitt BF109 GB 2012

Almost there Nathan!! Looking great!

Here's my progress, decals on and sealed with Gunze gloss. Drying now, washes to come.

lawdog114

lawdog114:

Hey PZL66, can I get into this Group Build?  I have a 1/48 Bf 109 G-14 waiting to be built.  I'll have to search the net for some interesting markings.  I've never participated in a Group Build.  Are there any rules?

Thanks,

Joe

 

The decals and TD cockpit came in today.  I'm read to go.  If I can only decide on which of these 109's I want to build.   

Being a HUGE 109 fan (my favorite aircraft ever produced), I'll be looking forward to see your work.

Whatever you decide Lawdog you'll like that TD cockpit. Simple, but they look great all painted up.

                              Looks great Satch 

lawdog114

Hey PZL66, can I get into this Group Build?  I have a 1/48 Bf 109 G-14 waiting to be built.  I'll have to search the net for some interesting markings.  I've never participated in a Group Build.  Are there any rules?

Thanks,

Joe

The decals and TD cockpit came in today.  I'm read to go.  If I can only decide on which of these 109's I want to build.   

satch_ip

 

Heinz Bar's stable of mounts so far.

 

 

 

They all look great satch!  You bring a smile to my avatar little "Pritzl".... oh that's right, he's always smiling but he does approve of the job you did on his a/c.

Excellent job Satch!

PM me which three pictures you want me to showcase on the front page!!

Nice job Satch. All of Heinz Bar's mounts look cool, from the Emil's to the Fws. What are u using for the antenna? I use stretched sprue and attach with superglue. I secure one end, and only pull enough to keep it tight, the hit the other end with accelerator. Try heating up a razor blade over a candle then hold it over the sprue and it should tighten up.

My third Heinz Bar mount is complete.  His Bf 109F-2 of I/JG77, Kerch, Russia, 1942.

Heinz Bar's stable of mounts so far.

The Luftwaffe Experten shelf.

The Kit was the Hasegawa 1/48 F2 built OOB except for the belts.  The yellow is Vallejo and the 74/75/76 are MM Acrylics.  Decals are a mixture of Techmod and kit decals. 

My Achilles heel is radio masts and antennae.  I just can't get them tight.  When I tighten the wire, the mast breaks off or gets loose.  Oh well more practice.  Thanks for the GB.  I love me some 109s

Satch

No problem, Satch.. Like I said, I swear by the stuff..

Doogs, point to you on Cartograph.  They are good quality.  The Academy 109E Heinz Bar had Cartograph decals.  Even ones for the wings and fuselage splinter cammo.

As for Peddinghaus, I found them beautifully printed and they covered some rare subjects, they were just fragile.  I stopped at my LHS today and bought some stuff to fix that.  Thanks Hans for bringing that up.

Good to know Jack. But this still doesn't solve the out of scale, too large or too small markings problem. Or the fact that i had to pay $20+ for them. So its good to have comments like these so others know before they buy.

About Peddinghaus decals, although I've never used them I have seen complaints about them.  Did some digging and learned these are created on an Alps printer (some guy working out of his home?).  If it is a one man business that would explain the lack or very little instructions supplied with the decal sets. 

To use them you will have to first apply a protective clear coat and coat them again once placed on the model.

regards,

Jack

Satch, 

Like Nathan, the stencils really depend on the plane you are modelling. I would say a good majority of later year 109s had the stenciling mostly painted over in the field at some point. There really isn't too much stenciling over all though. The area under the rear stabilizers have a few notes, the fuselage panels are numbered on the left side only and there are a few more here and there. I take the middle ground, usually on the bigger planes I'll do the stenciling, on the 1/48s not so much unless I know for a fact (based on pics or research) the plane I'm doing had them. The one I'm working on now I was doing the stencils and gave up, the decals have been a pain in the a$$ on this one for some reason. So just the key markings for this project....

Satch- As I wrote in my last post I had some limited success with Techmod, but stay away from Peddinghaus! There's so many aftermarket decal options that I tend to stick with what I know is good(Aeromaster, Superscale, EagleCal..ect..) As far as stencils I usually look at photos from the period and whatever stencils are visible on the real thing those are the ones I put on. It usually includes the fuel octane ones, oil tank, trim tabs, external power, and sometimes the wing walk, and sometimes the stencil data on the cowling. Thats it.

Satch - Cartograf is European, too...guess others have to bring balance to the Force. 

Personally I do stencils until my eyes start crossing, then I say screw it. 

Haven't done one yet but it seems like they number all of the fuselage panels among other things.

A couple of questions for the 109 builders here.

1)  Why are European decals such shite?  Peddinghaus and now Techmod decals look great.  They cover subjects no one else does. But they are so thin and fragile that they are totally useless! 

2)  How many 109 builders out there put on all the stencils?  There must be a hundred tiny little decals.  In 1/48 you can't even read them or see some of them with out your Optivisor.  So do you put them all on anyway, some of the more prominent ones, or just stick to the main markings?

Satch

Cockpit's about ready for paint...

But I gotta do the floor first:

Since the floor didn't have the foot-rests (or whatever the heck the Germans called them), I had to make them.. I used sheet styrene for a base, and stretched sprue for the detail.. I heat-formed the curve in the edge piece, then glued it into place.  I then cut each individual cross-piece and then glued them into place..

Now, onto the trim-wheels and cannon breech! Yay....

Is there another way?

Looking good Hans, nice to see somebody else also uses tape with metal wire for seat harness.

OK,  gotcha.. Thanks..

Meanwhile, I finished the seat.  I had to grind down the seat sides and make them more squared-off than the kit seat was.  Once ground down, I added a strip of Evergreen styrene to each side...

Here's the seat and floor assy.

I then added two stretched sprue "posts" in the top of the rear bulkhead as attachment points for the shoulder harness. I made the strap's hardware, and after sitting the top buckle onto the posts, I used a knife heated with a lighter to melt the tops of the posts and secure the harness-straps.

The buckles and keepers are wire that bent into shape, with Tamiya tape straps...

More to follow..

The seam is there, top and bottom, but hardly noticeable compared to the other panel seams on the aircraft. In 1 48 it should be barely visible. I think on most models I see it is overdone.

Great looking builds going on in here ,hope to get mine started as soon as I wrap up over at another g/b. The dorsal seam debate has been kicked around here on another thread and on other forums I frequent. I 'm not saying it is prominent but its hard to see the seam in pics

I know from research that the construction process of the fuselage did have a join area there in the dorsal spine, but how visible it was on the finished product is questionable.

I do'nt make any claims about being an expert on the 109 but the seam is hardly visible to me in the pics

Hans von Hammer

Are y'all talking about the one on the underside?

I was talking about the dorsal seam.....

Hans von Hammer

Are y'all talking about the one on the underside?

Isn't there one on top and bottom?

Are y'all talking about the one on the underside?

satch_ip

I think most RC know about the cowl seam.  It's the spine of the fuselage seam that worries me.

satch

I was guest judging at GraniteCon (Nashua, NH) last October and one of my categories was 1/32 a/c, which had two 109's entered. The fuselage spine seam was prominent on both, and as my team and I were discussing this a member from a team judging the next category over briefly joined in. He noted that the seam was accurate, so there's awareness of the spine seam in this neck of the woods among six people, at least.

I think most RC know about the cowl seam.  It's the spine of the fuselage seam that worries me.

satch