Mikester

Cees, I've used Tamiya Extra Thin cement on these with no problem. Looks great, Rick!

Maybe? Unfortunately all the writing on the package is in Kanji!

The Revell kit provides big bumps on the wings (only) but it looks like this aircraft has small ones? Anyone have confirmation? Revell kind of screwed us on this one, most of the photographs of Erla G-10's show smaller wing bumps but Revell elected to only give us the large ones. I purchased both sets of Roy's BarracudaCals decal sheets and it seems all of the cool schemes are for aircraft with small bumps.

I needed a new general purpose ruler so I headed down to the "haku-yen" (hundred yen) shop down the street to buy a plastic ruler and came across this: It's kind of hard to tell from the pic but that lower green line is actually a slot that my RB riveting tool fits into perfectly! I trimmed down one end to facilitate getting in angled areas. A couple of test runs and it works beautifully, perfectly straight rows of rivets every time! I'm thinking this should be relatively easy to find in any office supply or stationery store.

Amazing, we're truly living in a golden age for large scale modelers!

Very impressive, engine detail work is outstanding!

Beautiful Aaron, that really came out nice! Paint scheme really is striking.

Excellent, Peter! Are you using the bezels that you produce on this?

Looks excellent, Aaron!

Nick, yes the brackets are resin. As much I'd like to see Eduard get into turned metal products they're a different beast than the landing gear. The landing gear are cast using relatively low melting point metals which is very similar to casting in resin, you can even use RTV molds with some alloys. Turned metal parts require a lathe and machining which is a different discipline. I've seem aluminum tubing at hobby shops that would present a more realistic scale thickness than either Eduard or S-M. Some Archer raised rivet and weld seam decals could be used for the details on the tube. Lion Roar also makes Nebelwerfer tubes (abeit in 1/35) that might be able to be adapted as well.

Bf 109G WGr 21 for Revell Kit (632034) Catalog # 632034 Available from Eduard for $19.95 US Bunny Fighter Club price: $16.96 US As the 8th Air Force began to flex their muscle the Luftwaffe was obliged to find ways for their fighter aircraft to effectively deal with the "Viermots". The tight formations flown by USAAF heavy bombers allowed their defensive heavy machine guns to provide mutual cover to one another, and such a combat box was an extremely dangerous environment for a fighter aircraft to fly through. The WGr 21 air launched rocket enabled the German pilots to attack their bomber targets from a safer distance of over a kilometer, where the risk of being hit was much reduced. Although extremely inaccurate, the rockets did not have to destroy the bombers, only cause them to take evasive action that would disrupt their protective formation, making them vulnerable to conventional attack. While a single fighter's payload of two or four such rockets was extremely unlikely to score a hit, a mass launch by an entire fighter squadron (12-16 aircraft) as it arrived to intercept the bombers would likely score two or three hits, about 15% accuracy. The rocket's huge blast radius also compensated for inaccuracy, and even a non-lethal hit on a bomber by a showering of shrapnel would have psychological effects and perhaps cause it to take evasive manœuvres that would drive it from the protection of its fellows. JG 1 and JG 11 were the first front line units to utilize the weapon during the spring of 1943. During the autumn of 1943 the Bf 110 G-2 Zerstörer of ZG 26 and ZG 76 were also equipped with it. These weapons were also sometimes used against ground targets from late 1943 onwards, such as in the Italian campaign 1943–44, the 1944 Normandy campaign and during the Ardennes Offensive. Surprisingly this item has been long neglected in the large scale Bf 109 world. Neither Hasegawa or Trumpeter elected to include it in their 109s and it's absent in the Revell kit as well. Jerry Rutman did a resin set back in his hay-day and Schatton-Modellbau produces the tubes (only) in metal but a comprehensive set has been lacking for some time. Eduard to the rescue! We finally have an add-on for the rocket launchers complete with the tubes, rockets and mounting hardware. This opens some very cool possibilities for paints schemes including Graf's G-5, "Green 1" from JGr. 50 with the red tulip on the nose! Examining the contents of the blister pack we're treated to what's become the norm for Eduard's Brassin series, razor sharp casting free of any bubbles or flaws, they've got this stuff down! Some of the initial buzz on this item was that the tubes were a little thick. I can't disagree with this however I've included a photo of the Schatton-Modellbau metal tubes for a side by side comparison. As you can see the Brassin resin tubes are only marginally thicker than the metal ones. Additionally they have all the detail present that's much harder to replicate on the metal tubes, indeed it's conspicuously absent on the S-M metal tubes. The set includes a set of full sized rockets as well as tips only for installation inside of the tubes. These are every bit as impressive as the tubes in terms of detail. The mounting brackets are accurately portrayed but will obviously be a bit fragile so some care exercised on the front end will pay dividends later. A small sheet of photo-etch parts completes the package including a template for locating the brackets and the hook, very nice touch! Although these are marketed for the Revell Bf 109 they should be easily adapted to fit on other aircraft that used the WGr 21, including the Fw 190 and Zerstörer aircraft. So what's the verdict? The set is long overdue and fills a big hole in the 109's arsenal. The quality is superb and this set opens many possibilities for Luftwafffe grognards. These are the droids you're looking for! Highly Recommended Review copy courtesy of my wallet.

Stunning!

They said it should available in June. If you scroll down that thread they have a link to their ebay store.

Bf 109G Cannon Pods for Revell Kit (632035) Catalog # 632035 Available from Eduard for $19.95 US Bunny Fighter Club price: $16.96 US By the time of the introduction of the Bf 109G-2 the standard armament of the Gustav was starting to showing signs of obsolesence. Although the MG 151 cannon and two 7.92 mm machine guns were adequate for engaging most fighter aircraft, it was proving inadequate against larger adversaries. The Soviet Il-2 "Sturmovik" in particular, which many Luftwaffe pilots jokingly referred to as being made of cement, was incredibly difficult to bring down. Luckily the Bf 109 was nothing if not versatile, and was designed to accept various field modifications or "Rüstsätze". One of these (R6) was the installation of an additional MG 151 gun pod underneath each wing. This modification substantially increased the fire power of the aircraft, which would prove a welcome addition when confronting the "Viermots" when the battle for control of the skies over the Reich began in earnest. Of course this additional firepower came at a price, the increased weight and drag further decreased the maneuverability and speed of an aircraft that was already becoming over-weight and under-powered. When Allied fighters gained the capability to escort the heavies to targets deep in Germany the gun pods became more of a liability and fell out of favor, especially since the 109 was beginning to be equipped with the 30 mm Mk 108 cannon. The Revell 1/32 Bf 109G-6 has been well received by the modeling community and will be a staple in most large scale enthusiasts stashes for years to come. Unfortunately, unlike Hasegawa and Trumpeter, Revell did not include the MG 151 gun pods that were present on many of the iconic Gustav paint schemes that we've become familiar with over the years. Eduard has produced numerous add-ons for the Revell Gustav so it's no surprise they've stepped in to fill another void on this kit. The Eduard package is comprehensive and superbly done. The resin gun pods feature more detail than any of the previous injection molded offerings. As you can see, in addition to the gun pods, fully detailed MG 151s are included as well as extra parts to portray the gun pod in the open (maintenance) position. The gun barrels incude the leather boot that was often (not always) present on the barrel where it protruded from the gun pod. The only drawback I see with the MG 151 barrels is they're not hollowed out so some careful drilling will be in order to open them up. A small sheet of photo-etch is also included. So what's the verdict? The set is really is a gem. If you're a 109 nut like me, doubtless you have some spare gun pods in the spares box that will work just fine. However if you're looking for something a little more sexy this set will definitely fit the bill. Highly Recommended Review copy courtesy of my wallet.

Gorgeous!

Nice start, Tom!

Nice work, Cees!

Voted!

Beautiful work!

Any advice on photographing light colored plastic on a white background? Seems to be disappearing on me.

OK, I think Ralph is getting a little lonely and in the interest of not letting the new guy show us up figured I better post some progress! The cockpit is pretty much OOB. I did add a CMK radio set since the radio arrangement on the G-6 was different than the A-1. The seatbelts are Verlinden hardware with lead foil. The other parts and some of the decals were included with the AIMS set and the rest were sourced from Airscale's "Luftwaffe Placards". The PE instrument panel didn't have a whole lof of "pop" so I scratched one using plastic and Foto-Cut bezels with the AIMS decals. I didn't feel like doing a complete rivet job so I used the rivetting attachment on my "Mr Brain" soldering iron and gave it some rivet detail along the panel lines. This attachment gives a divot while raising the area around it, nice effect but difficult to get consistent results because you're using heat to do it. The AIMS set provides a vac-u-form belly pan but I really didn't like that so I converted the kit belly pan to G-6 specs. I'll cut the gun pod off the vac part and affix it later.

Very nice!

Nice work, Rick!

Thanks, Matt! That did seem to help. Re-did the first pic, that's with 1/3, F22, ISO 200.

OK, I'm still having depth of field issues. The following were taken on a tripod and using the timer, ISO 200, and truthfully I'm not sure about my other settings "1/20 and F11", can't find any thing with the lower case "f." When I set the upper case "F" to 22 the picture becomes almost black so obviously doing something wrong. EDIT: Using a shutter speed of 1/3 seems to help depth of field focus but washes out the photos a little. Is this just a matter of playing with my settings until I find something that works with my particular lighting setup?