Beychevelle

I have so much respect for all you Wingnutters

Wow! Even at 1/32 scale...when you fill that thing with torpex...uhm...scary!

Happy birthday Fran! Rob

Now a bit boring information, but it might be helpful for people who want to build this model (like PILOTE109). Manual stage 32, parts 100 and 108. It's much...MUCH easier when you do this before you glue the underside wings to the fuselage and upper wing roots. So...before stage 31. You can add the "control pins" to open or close the intake. Just drill a small hole (0.3mm or so) and insert stretched sprue. Drop of glue on the inside...cut off on the outside...light sanding and done. Extra detail with very little effort. After this.... The infamous parts 84A (on sprue B and A26 (on sprue A). They're not in the manual. And a minor fitting issue... You can cut off the 2 pins on the rear side of the under wings and replace them with some Evergreen. The pins don't support the wing root and outer wing there. When you push it down, you'll end up with a wrong edge and the flaps won't fit. Apart from this...the wings go together really well without much effort.

Nice!

So true! But now I face a problem I don't know how to solve... The Eduard Brassin WGr.21 rockets are a bit of a mess. The tubes are bent....not straight at all. Tried to bend them straight, but that doesn't work. The material is also way too thick and I cant reduce it from the inside because of the 3 L shaped guide rails there. Can't sand the outside either, because of the rivets, weld line and attachment points. No idea how to get this right. And...the opening is egg shaped instead of round. Maybe I can push it in shape again, but not sure about that. Last...one of the attachment rods is missing. I can scratch it with sliding brass tubes, but not nice. I expected better from Eduard Brassin...pretty poor performance imho

Wonderful! The engine is just stunning and I really like the non standard camo scheme. Neat little Simca...also nice!

Update again.... Although I'll never reach the level of greatness I see on this forum...I do try hard to improve! Finished the fuselage. I now spend more time and energy to ensure a good fit. I also doubled my efforts on filling and sanding to make things look okey. It's a great kit and the parts go together nicely, but it's very sensitive to "man made errors". A bit too much glue on the outside of the pit and the fuselage halves won't come together properly....just an example. It's my third Revell 109, so by now I'm aware of all the possible pitfalls you can encounter. Still not always easy to get it right. Apart from the pretty poor beules, the top of the engine cover (part J44 or J45) is most likely the only really nasty part in the box. The shape isn't right and it will leave you with a dreadful seam to fill. It's not a natural panel line, so it has to be filled and cleaned up with great care. To make it worse...it's too much rounded. I scored a line lenghtwise on the inside...dropped the part in hot water and bend it outwards to make it more or less fit. Solved! On many photo's I see wide gaps between the front part and the engine and oil cooler covers, so I did some scribing. The wonderful Barracuda beules. Great stuff! Scribed the missing hatch on the bottom of the fuselage. Well that's it for today...fuselage done. Wings next. Ohh...and found a very helpful photo of the plane I'm building... I was wondering about what type of headrest to use...here is the answer...the armored glass version Also good to see...the soft edged 1/3 white prop hub and the sloppy wavey camo line on the wings. Smooth tires, ribbed hubs...check! More soon! Rob

beautiful! The rigging always scares me...I tried some 1/48 WWI kits, but the rigging is just not for me So....I now stick to admiring builds like this

Update... Pit about ready to drop in. The instrument panel....not much changed. I used the Revell decal...cut in 8 pieces and soaked it to death with Micro Sol to make them fit. Only added a red handle and a "Hilfsgerätetafel" (weapons panel). Still have to make a tube and valve underneath the right side of the panel. The North Star Revi gunsight can wait for a bit. The pit...Revell parts, HGW seatbelts and rudder pedals...the rest I scratch build using brass rods/tubes, Evergreen, stretched sprue and PE scraps. Weathered the floor with Mig "Industrial city dirt" pigment...washed in with water. This took me a week, but from here it gets easier! More soon Rob Edit: forgot to add the stick!

It doesn't look like a model...it looks like a real plane Stunningly good this!

That's it! number 17 is ground level, 19 first floor and 21 above us...2nd floor. The window with the rounded top is our bedroom. I think it is...or was...a typical Dutch way to to build city appartments (portiek woningen). Ours was build in 1917. We love our house, old fashioned high ceilings and it just feels good. Quiet neighboorhood also.

Yeah, true, but the exhibition overall was a bit of a let down. Somewhat meagre, I expected more from it. What's nice...a few years ago they placed information boards across the city with what happened on those spots during the war. Most of them are Atlantik Wall related, but also about other "events" like the british blooper bombardment of Bezuidenhout. Instead of the V2 launch sites the RAF bombed out a residential area on 3rd of March 1945. 550 dead by mistake just before the end of the war. What made this extra bitter...you can't bomb a V2 launch site because they were mobile and only showed up shortly before the actual launching. The missed target area was an empty forrest.

First bit to show... Filled the details that shouldn't be on an early G-6 (Matt & Mike review), dropped in the side panels, because it's much easier to glue from the inside and fill the faux panel seam now. Also opened the 4 air scoops and removed the plastic behind the prop, so I can drop in the exhaust stacks later on...it's a pain to mask them. Worked on the oddly shaped air intake. The Revell version isn't rounded...it has some straight edges (hope that makes sense). Sanded the thing to a smooth rounded air intake, added the weld seam with stretched sprue and beefed the size up with some layers of enemal paint. Will do...for me anyway Finished the pit. I shamelessly copy details I see on aftermarket pits Time for some paint now... More soon Rob

About me building the Spit...I'm afraid it's not my comfort zone and I know very little about Spits. I can share a bit more about the double edged sword....going personal now. My father had to hide (onderduiken) during the war to avoid deportation and slave labour in the german war factories (the 109s I love to build now?). My mother is half German...my grandmother came to the Netherlands after WWI to find a job...like many other German girls she became a maid here. Mother and grandma suffered during the hunger winter of 44/45 and were discriminated for being German....or half German. When I was a kid I met the farmers family where my dad found shelter during the war, I also met my grandma's family in Germany. An uncle with one eye and one leg...a StuG driver who lost bits and pieces...and above all...his mental sanity in Russia. He hanged himself in 1968. It's a pile of sadness and I can't show a model of a 109 to my father inlaw...he freaks out when he sees something WWII German. More than a sensitive subject! War, a sad thing

Looks good! Rob

Den Haag...The Hague....bomenbuurt....Populierstraat number 19. In a strange way this neighbourhood had it's share of "occupational hazzards". When the Germans lost the initiative..this neighbourhood became part of the Atlantik Wall. Whole streets were "evacuated" and the houses demolished...just 50 metres from were I live. Street names vanished to make place for a tank ditch. So...now it's a mixture of lovely streets with houses from the twenties and thirties...and ugly post war fifties flats. The tank ditch is no longer there, but a keen eye can see what happened on Google Earth. btw...I'm thinking of some sort of brass plaque to commemorate, but I'm struggling with the text to go on it. Soon nobody will remember and that's sad.

Shortly after we bought our house back in 1996 an older man rang at the door...a complete stranger. He had an amazing story to tell... "You know this is the adress where the engelandvaarders (people who fled to the UK after the German occupation to continue the war) made their plans and gathered before they made their escape?" Hell no...I didn't knew that! He continued... "The son of the family who lived here was one of them. He became a fighter pilot. Killed in action in 1944" After some research....the family who lived here was the family Burgwal...the son was Rudy Burgwal. He served with the 322nd squadron flying Spitfires. Holding the prop, Rudy Burgwal. (Note: the 1940 style orange with black borders triangle national marking) https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Burgwal (in Dutch) Shot down by AA on the 12th of August 1944 near Le Genestet St. Isle (Loire region, France) while escorting Lancasters. History can be very close, rest in peace Rudy Burgwal. Rob

A Trumpeter G-10, 3 Claes Sundin profile books and a pile of Airscale 1/24 goodies. The new Airscale (it is new right?) 1/24 instrument panel looks fantastic!

When it's such a nightmare, perhaps use the Revell parts and copy the Aires details? Looks like there's not much wrong with them, just less details...not even that much less. Can use the Aires bottles and the rest can easily be done with a bit of evergreen it seems. Looks great so far!

I'm not familiar with the Mig metalics, but I tried the Vallejo acrylic Metal (Airbrush) Colors and I like them a lot! A nice range of colours and very easy to work with...and no smell etc. Can also mix them with other vallejo paints. I mixed the Model Color gold with copper and a bit of brown to create my own brass. It dries a bit slower compared to "normal" Vallejo Air acrylics. Rob

Been a while since I posted something, sorry about that. Busy life and some health issues kept me from doing much, but 2 other 109 WIP topics urged me to start again. Where was I? Finished the JG 5 G-14 (Kagero decals) and the JG 52 G-10 (Barracuda decals) and lost it while building the Eduard E-3. Nothing since then A few weeks ago I started to check out this forum again....trying to find the inspiration and courage to start or continue something. So let's do something I feel comfy about...a G-6 will do nicely! Here we go again... A workhorse JG 53 G-6 with WGr.21 rockets and a very basic 74/75/76 scheme. Not much aftermarket stuff...just HGW seatbelts, HAD decals, Barracuda prop and bulges, Eduard WGr.21 and (new, now 100% correct) North Star Revi-16B gunsight. Some other stuff I scratch, fix or adjust myself. Like...the pit, exhausts, pitot tube, opening vents and what more. I'll use Vallejo (Air) acrylic paint. pit almost done, just a few more wires. Another 109? Yep...well, I just love this plane and the Revell kit is pretty good and dead cheap! More soon Rob

A 109 with some extra love given... makes me happy Mike and Matt did a great review of this kit. http://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/1238-132-messerschmitt-bf-109g-6-early-and-late/ Looking forward to see it all come together. I'm sure you'll love this build. It's a great kit with some very minor hurdles to take. Enjoy! I'm just dusting off a mothballed build of this kit myself now. More about that soon.

Needles to say...I'll follow this. I have a question about the interior...the radio to be precise. Only a few of them were radio equiped. (212, 219 and 221?) Also...not seen a wire from the antenna to the tail. The 237 and 241 (with orange triangles) in flight photo for instance Were these antennas installed later? (with plans to add radios to all planes?) I've also seen a photo from a line of planes (212, 213, 214 and 215...with roundels) none of them had an antenna. All knowledge is welcome