2015 Messerschmitt Bf 109 Group Build

Matt, that came out really well. Nice job!

-BD-

The tailwheel door plan came together fairly well. May need a little clean up yet, but pretty happy with the results. The proof is in the primer, Mr. Surfacer 1200 in this case.

Jay

Jay,

Gotta say that is a great job on fabrication. I would not have thought to do it that way, but I now will!!

The rivets and scratch work on the rear bulkhead are also top notch!

Jay: Good Lord! You are a Wildman with that interior!!!!! I can't begin to tell you what a great job you've done!!!!

Matt: Any you sir!! Wicked work with the AB man!! What an amazing use of color and patterns to produce a splendid looking paint job!!! I'll gladly post the updated photo you were speaking of.

There is some great stuff going on in here fellas! Work and personal obligations have got me tied up to the point that I am really struggling right now to finish my automotive builds to enable me to get in here and build. I am, however , getting a point to where I'm going to work on two engines at the same time. A 429 Boss on one side and the DB on the other,

Jay: You really are a modlin' machine! Impressive work sir! I always learn something from watching you work as with everyone else here. 

Matt: Nice to see what an AB can do. I'm making a folder of camo pics for when I get to try my hand at simple to complex pattern work. 

Doug & Lawdog: Thank you both for the tips on my recent AB woes. I was indeed thinning too much and using the wrong thinner. Picked up a jug of Tamiya LQ and reduced it to 25%. I'm quite pleased with how nice it flowed. MUCH better and encouraging results for this newbie. Appreciate the feedback. Here is the results.

I'm continuing on with detail work on the LG struts, shrouds and the final fiddly bits. Hope to get decals and a wash on in the next week or so. Work begun on exterior painting and a new roof on our home. Life is busy.

Cheers,

Bob

I'll agree with Jay on that about the smooth paint job on that F-2 Bob!! Can't wait to see decals on that thing!

Man I miss a few days and wow.

Matt Jay and Bob excellent work  can't wait for more. John

tempestjohnny

Man I miss a few days and wow.

Jay... I'm not saying much even though I'm watching, Its hard to talk when the work your doing leaves one speechless... Just Beautiful work is all I can say!

Bob... Much nicer... You can see how nice the paint is flowing now. Its all a learning process my friend, and there are many good teachers here. Keep up the good work. OH, by the way, I agree with my fellow 109ers... work bench is WAYYY to clean! LOL...

Doug

Thanks Doug. I appreciate it brother. Doing a little work on the belly pan as Hasegawa didn't make any changes from the G series, even though there were several. Added some vent pipes from Minimeca stainless tubing and made an ejection chute for the 30mm cannon.

Jay

Man Jay,  I like the tubing idea!! Your attention to detail continues to "wow" me in both the aviation and automotive worlds. Great work bro.

That's some nice detail under there jay, not sure I would have thought of that one. Nice work.

Thanks guys. Tonight I hoped to get the cockpit installed. Painted the fuselage portion 66 and applied a raw umber oil wash. I taped the cockpit pieces together and put it in as a unit. Used a fair amount of white glue and CA to secure it om the bottom and glued the sidewalls and clamped them to the fuselage, trying to get as much room as possible for the IP. Quite often with AM cockpits you run into clearance issues. The G-10s and K-4s widen out in this area so I was hopeful. It does fit with no modification, but I need to do a few more things to it such as the gunsight.

Jay

Fits like a glove there Jay! Looks like you've got just the right amount of wash usage on that pilots storage door. Lots of times I'll see either gobs of wash in this area that makes it look sloppy or none at all. This is just right.

Thanks, Joe. Yes, usually less is more for washes. When you think it's right, take off a little more.

Jay

Finally..................an update!!!!! Well there for a while I was stuck at how I was going to handle the coolant reservoir retaining straps but ended up figuring it out. About a month ago I ordered an already started/ spare parts boxing of a 56 Ford F-100 for my WIP over in the Red Hot and Rollin' GB. Whoever the seller was he threw all kinds of stuff in that box that didn't pertain to any part of the F-100 build. One thing he threw in was a half cut up set of 1/16 light gray racing stripes which I promptly threw away right along with 1/2 of the junk (and it was junk!--stuff like a 1/12 or 1/16 cut up / half build exhaust from something, 1/12 scale wheels, etc). A couple of days later I had an idea flash through my head. What if I cut the decals the width of the straps and used those?? Well that's exactly what I did. My small trash can was sitting there right beside the bench so I went through it and found the decals. I cut 'em the width of the straps and after a couple of coats of Microsol  I had a winning result.

I have painted up and installed a lot of the accessory drive items at the back of the engine and will start on the weathering process once I have a few more items on here. Right now here she sits and clean and purdy ( complete with my usual dust and plastic shavings that I can never seem to take care of before a photo shoot!)

Good idea, Joe. They look perfect.

Jay

Worked out great Joe... good lookin engine! I've been using either a metalic tape or the bare metal foil for straps and such, but the decals sound like a good idea. I need to check out the RedHot Rolling site you keep mentioning. I'm stepping way out of my box, and building a car for the 1945 GB, and brother, its been a LONG time since I've built a car, but so far its been fun!

Ok folks, sorry it's been so long since my last update on this build, but I am just beyond busy with other projects.

I finally managed to get the engine completed and the detailing done on it. I added several resin bits and some PE to it as well as a great deal of scratch items. I plan to have only the left upper cowling open  on this plane for display so I focused on detailing only what can be seen. The left side of the engine is complete with wires and tubing but I did not do the same thing to the right side or the front of the engine as I will be covered up anyway.

I used lead free solder and aluminum wire to form the oil and coolant tubes and wires. The engine was given some PE bits on the supercharger, ignition harness and engine lift brackets. I added a resin intake and resin exhaust stacks as well. I then completed the ignition harness from each cylinder all the way up to its beginning point between the machine guns. That was a huge PITA!! I also added the hoses from the valve covers to the gear housing assy and ran many of the oil tubes over the top of the engine and underneath. But, like I said, I didn't complete all the wiring or tubing to its final destination/s as it just won't be visible in the end anyway. I just about lost my mind taking it this far.

I am nearing completion of the cockpit and will get shots up on it ASAP.

Engine looks great Brandon! You did an amazing amount of detail to it.

Doug

PS... Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most!  lolol...

Looks like that came together nicely Brandon! I like all that detail you put into that engine. Really sharp!!

Howard:  To quote McDonalds..."I'm loving it".  

Bob: Looking great man.  I was going to recommend you switch to Tamiya, but you already did.  Pure airbrushing bliss.  I just wish they made RLM colors.  I can never get the formulas right to my eye.  As Doug said, you can thin your Tamiya paint with Isopropyl alcohol...I use 91%.  Indeed, Tamiya Lacquer thinner is like painting with silk.  

Matt:  Excellent work on that 109.  Reference dull coats, I've been using Testors Dull since puppies were the oldest animal and IMO its by far the best out there.  Is your bottle old,?  The dulling agent may be breaking down.  Try replacing it and or thinning it with lacquer thinner.  Make sure you stir it real good too.  

Brandon:  Nice Mill....perhaps you'll be spared the fit issues because your not closing it all up.  

Joe

Lol,  Joe you're cracking me up. What you don't understand is I've already decided to make this kit my b$*@h. It's not gonna beat me, no way no how. It just can't be worse than that Revell F4U, it just can't.

Sorry I haven't had any updates recently.  I decided to take a break from modeling for a while.  Call it a funk if you will.  I guess it happens to all of us at one time or another.  I suppose the fact that my air compressor is dying and I need a new airbrush needle hasn't inspired me much either.  Last night me and Net Flix hit the bench for a while.  As I indicated, I want a plain Jane Emil, nothing fancy.  I have enough yellow-nosed 109's.  I ultimately decided on Horst Tietzen's JG 51 Emil from the Battle of Britain.  I just love their deranged penguin emblem.  I have no idea which variant Emil he flew, nor do I really care.  Its my understanding the only visual difference between the 3 and 4 is the canopy.  The Sky Decals sheet I'm using says it was an E-5.  I seriously doubt a 27 victory ace was doing it in a recon version, so this is probably erroneous. 

Theres nothing to say about Tamiya Emils construction-wise.....complete joy.  I preshaded all panel lines flat black then started the scheme.  I made my own concoction of RLM 65 with XF-23 Light Blue and XF-2 Flat White, about half and half.  Once down, she got a post shade of diluted XF-69 NATO Black and XF-64 Red Brown for weathering.  I wanted it dirty so pushed past my comfort zone again...

This Emil would apparently carry the standard RLM 02/71 uppers.  I then realized I was down to merely drops of my Gunze Aqueous RLM 02.  Using the said remaining as reference, I decided to recreate it with Tamiya.  I used XF-22 RLM Grey and lightened it with a touch of XF-2 Flat White.  I then added a few drops of XF-49 Khaki and it seemed to be an identical match.  I sprayed it down and was pleased.  I then faded it with more white and added condensation streaks.

Next up was the RLM 71.  I taped off a typical Battle of Britain splinter pattern using an old Aeromaster Battle of Britain sheet as reference.  I then used Gunze Aqueous for RLM 71.  Once down, I added XF-57 Buff to add condensation streaks. 

I added a bit more underside grit...

I ordered a few resin goodies for this guy (guns and tires) which should be here anyday. 

Joe  

You know Joe, I hear you. I wouldn't call what I'm going through a modeling funk , but a switch in interest as of late. I just finished up with that Dodge Challenger re-build that I took on starting in November and got hooked...............and right in the middle of this GB!! I'm sharing the bench right now with a 56 Ford F-100 and progress on both is slow.

 I haven't reached the point of a slump yet but can see where it would be easy to fall into. Your builds do not , however , reflect a slump. This is just as good as any I've seen you build bud. Sorry to hear about your AB woes. Hopefully you can get that sorted out. I know if my compressor took a dump I'd be calling up my Mac or Matco tool truck and paying that sucker out on the truck. lol

Joe, that is art -- straight forward procedures, yes, but so precisely done! It is an absolute joy to see it coming together and makes me itch to get my schwarm to the painting stage! I love your mix ratios too, I'll write them down!

M/TB379

Beautiful work as always Joe... Gotta love an "Emil", Years ago I couldn't bring myself to pre shade an aircraft thinking they were better maintained then that, but after working (in the mid 70s) at a company that made the stretch presses for shaping the aircraft skins, I finally realized why they did like they did. Even after shaping (most skins were not much thicker then a post card) and washing the skin in "Tri-Chlor" the oils used would still gravitate to the edges and was further added to by the riveting process where dirt and grime would adhere to them. Never had a problem pre or post shading again, lol... Again, your work is spot on!

Doug

Looks like another beauty coming together there Joe. We can always count on you to produce splendid work.

Joe - Tietzen's mount is looking great!  I wonder if it's a typo on the instructions, and they got the 5 confused with his staffel number?   Here it is described as an E-3:

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/275907-sky-models-48-027-messerschmitt-bf-109

regards,

Jack