DougN

Thanks for the kind comments! So far the kit has been a pretty vice-less build, just a little modelling skill needed to fix some errors @GUY - no canopy fairy yet, supposedly I have a replacement on the way from Trumpeter, but I just went ahead and got another kit (for a great price) and borrowed the front windscreen from that kit. Another small, but important update - ready for paint! But first, a shot of the modified control surfaces, compared with the unmodified kit items: And, overall shots ready for paint! Thanks for looking! Doug

Update time again for those still following along I applied a little Mr. Surfacer and sorted out the slight gap between the windscreen and the fuselage panel: I also took the opportunity to address another small issue in the kit. The ailerons are one-piece in the kit, but are a two-part affair on the real aircraft. To replicate this better, I simply used my razor saw to make a deep cut on each of the kit parts to give the appearance of a two-part aileron: When I tried to fit the clear part over the new landing light, I realized it would be difficult to fit it properly and still keep it looking nice. So I simply filled in the entire area with several layers of superglue, and then sanded it to the correct shape. The actual lens is rounded on both top and bottom, and smaller than the insert, so I will mask it to the appropriate lens size: That's all for now, thanks for looking! Doug

Thanks for the kind comments! Not much to update, but slowing getting to the painting stage. In the meantime, there were a few things to take care of. The prop as provided in the kit is a bit "fat" so some sanding was needed to get it to look acceptable. Before: After: Added the underwing radiator fairing, fit was excellent: I also attached the front and rear canopies. The rear one sat a bit lower than the spine, but a little sanding and all was good. The front also sits a bit lower than the next section up, in future builds I tweek the part in front of the windscreen to get it to sit a little lower. For this one I'm afraid I'll need to do a little sanding as well and replace lost detail to get it closer. That's all for now! Thanks for looking, Doug

Looks great! Looking forward to more Doug

Happy Birthday James!

This model represents aircraft No.37 of Grupul 7 Vanatoare, Forţele Aeriene Regale ale României, based at Pipera-Bucharesti, Romania, as delivered in March 1941. There are many photos of these aircraft at the time of delivery and shortly thereafter, which show them in RLM 70/65 . Note that Luftwaffe paint was semi-gloss when applied, so I represented this on my model as well. Not really visible in the accompanying photos, but barely perceptible on the model, are the original German markings and camo scheme on the upper wings showing through the new RLM70 overcoat, based on photos of this airframe. I used the excellent RB Productions Romanian Bf109E Part 3 decal sheet. Other than an initial self-inflicted problem, the decals went on beautifully and I would highly recommend them (or Part 1, Part 2) to anyone looking for a colorful and out-of-the-ordinary scheme for their own 109E. Other aftermarket used were the excellent Airscale instrument decals, Master 109E barrel set, and an MV lens for the gunsight. "Scratch-built" details include the 11 part aerial wire and assorted parts, some stainless steel wire for the rudder control cables, plastic tube for the fuselage MG "blast tubes", some aluminum tube for the spinner cannon tube and some stretched clear sprue (painted) for the wingtip lights. Thanks for looking! Doug

Looks great Florin, always nice to see another Romanian marked aircraft! Doug

Another small update. As I already have more models than I can realistically finish, I try to limit my detailing to things that can be easily seen on the completed model. As my goal is to have my own "mini-museum", the more models I can finish the better The landing light on the leading edge of the wing is represented in the kit by just a recessed area with a clear plastic cover. This would look a bit plain, so I drilled out the recess, and then cut a piece of aluminum tube, which I stuck into the hole: I'll put an MV lens on the end of the tube, and then add the kit clear part to cover it up. I also decided to abandon the kit plastic parts and make the thermal barrel tubes from some aluminum tube as well. I cut and then sanded them at an angle (like on the real aircraft) and attached them in place with superglue: Finally, I decided to add a cross bar at the rear of the cockpit framing to attach the back of the quickboost seat to: That's all for now! Thanks for looking! Doug

Looking forward to watching this build! Doug

Any updates on this one Nige? Love to see some more of your great work! Doug

Just a minor update. I painted and installed the sans-radio rear deck in the cockpit: In reading other builds, it seems that some had issues with the forward wing root inserts (A11/A12 for those following along in your programs). So, I decided to install them before adding the upper and lower nose cowls to give me the most flexiblity in that area. The fit was pretty good, I just needed to use a little Mr Surfacer 500 at the front to blend them to the rest of the wing: Now that I've finished up my other (109E) build, I can start moving quicker on this one! Doug

Very nice Mike! Doug

Thanks again guys! It was a fun scheme to paint, and I really like the way it turned out as well. And Rog, as you guessed, I've left the mantlet armour plate off intentionally, as IIRC this was common. I've got it all painted up matching the rest of the tank in the event I ever want to add it in future Doug

Can't wait! Will get a few of these for sure! Doug

Another quick update. The kit use PE hinges and rod to attach the control surfaces to the airframe. The PE hinge is designed with a notch in it that slots into a tab on the wing/tail parts to "lock" it in place: As I wanted to be able to attach the control surfaces after assembing the wing and tail parts, I simple cut the hinge off at the front side of the notch, which allows me to add them whenever I want, and still keeps the hinge in place (to fill the slot): I also thought some more about the cockpit, and it seems to be the concensus that the airframe I am building did not have the radios installed. I fabbed up a replacement "tray" from sheet stryrene and some old PE parts I had in the spares bin that looks close to the real thing (sans radios): I put some styrene strip into the slot at the rear of the cockpit, and filled it in: I've still got to paint the new tray and rear fuselage, and will get them installed. After that, it will be time to join the wings and fuselage together. The "canopy fairy" has not shown up with a new canopy, so if anyone has a spare from an abandoned/wrecked build, please let me know That's all for now, thanks for looking! Comments/critique/questions welcomed! Doug

They have used clear resin for their canopies on their resin kits so far, so if these are resin, I would assume they would be resin as well. Doug

Thanks for your kind offer Florin, but for now I'm just going to try to get a replacement, or worst case, pick up another kit if I can't get one by the time I need to attach the windscreen Moving on, did some work on the wings. I attached the flaps in the up position, as 99% of photos I looked at had them that way when parked. Eduard does a nice PE set for anyone that wants to put them down. Since the aircraft I am modeling did not have the slats on the wings, I needed to get rid of them. While the slats fit well and look great when they are in the "out" position, they don't fit that well in the "in" position. Some old fashioned putty was applied to blend them into the rest of the wing. I then applied a very heavy coating of Mr Surfacer 1200 with my airbrush, and when dry, sanded it all out That's it for today! Thanks for looking, comments/critique/questions always welcomed! Doug

Fanstastic job on the camo, I think you've nailed it! Doug

Thanks for the suggestions Dennis and Cees. Unfortunately, the mid part has some compound curves that would make it hard to replace. Also, with the windscreen also being part of the fuselage, a vac part would not work well for someone allergic to vac canopies like me It's too bad replacement parts from Trumpy are impossible to get. Looks like I'm going to have to hope the "canopy fairy" will show up with one, or I might need to buy a second kit to get the part. Thanks, Doug

Disaster has struck!! As shown in the photos Johann posted above, the windscreen does not have any framework, other than that going around the outside. So I was sanding it to reduce/remove the frame and it snapped in half. Unfortunately, it did not snap on the frame line, and is not repairable, so I guess this build will not get finished until I can find a replacement... Doug

Johann, thanks for posting the info/photos. I should clarify that my goal with this kit is not 100% color accuracy. I patterned my cockpit colors off of the ones seen in the crashed photo (4th one down) and what can be seen in "blue 8" (5th one down). I admit the colors might not be exactly the correct shade, but they are close enough for my purposes. I have spent several hours on Massimo's VVS site researching the aircraft (and did the same for my Yak 1b when I built that). That being said, I appreciate, and encourage you, to post any relevant information for this aircraft. I tend to search for previous builds before I start a new kit, so having the info here is a good thing so that anyone looking at this build thread in the future can make up their own minds as to what they want to do when they build there own kit. Often people are afraid to point out any inaccuracies in a build for fear of insulting the builder, and then those inaccuracies end up being replicated by other modelers looking at that build for information. So again, I encourage everyone to post and discuss freely in this (and any of my) WIP thread Ok, on to the modelling! I've been working on the less exciting parts of the build. One area I felt was worth improving was the control surfaces. All of them have what I consider to be a pretty heavy fabric texture, and look like they are stamped metal instead of fabric covered: I started to correct this by first spraying a very, very heavy coat of Mr. Surfacter 1200 on all the control surfaces: After drying for a few days, I started sanding them back down, finishing off with some steel wool: I'll work on them a little more to finish them off after I assemble them into their finished parts. I also glued the fuselage halves together. Fit was great, with the exception of a small area at the bottom near the wing attachment point, where I think one part was warped in a bit (since everywhere else fit great). I put some Mr. Surfacer 500 on the area and started smoothing it out. However, when I was about finished, I realized that I had wasted my time as that area is actually covered up by the radiator fairing!! Oh well... That's it for now. Doug

Thanks for all the interest in this one, I hope don't disappoint you all! After researching cockpit colors, there seems to be several options. Evidence can be found to support an all light blue cockpit, all interior gray cockpit, as well as a mix of grey and green (and a restoration was also done in these colors). I decided to go with the most colorful option, and painted the sidewalls interior grey, the framing, seat back, rudder pedals and rear deck green, and added a aluminum seat pan as recommended. I'm happy with the result: I couldn't resist dry fitting it all together to get an idea of what it will look like when I get it all installed: Thanks for looking! Comments/critique/questions always welcomed. Doug

That looks great Iain! Did you do anything to the windscreen, as it really looks the part on the finished model? Doug

Looks great, well done sir! Doug

As my other build is nearing the end, and the "quick build" P-26 turned out to be anything but thanks to the awful, inaccurate Yellow Wings decals, I surveyed the stash to see what I wanted to build next. The Tamiya Spit IX almost won, but with so many parts it did not look like it was going to be quick at all. So, being winter time, my eyes were drawn to this kit: Having generally good things about the kit, and since there are a couple slackers here who started builds, but have yet to finish them I decided to build this one. I used to think Luftwaffe colors were a mess, but after researching the colors for my Yak 1b, and now starting to research colors for this bird, I can only say that Russian VVS colors have to be the biggest mess. I decided to get started as I usually do, and put together the cockpit sub-assemblies and paint them black: I will be building this kit OOB, with the exception of a Quickboost seat and exhausts. I thought about the Aires cockpit, as it is more accurate, but in the end decided the kit parts will be good enough for me. I modified the kit gunsight slightly, and drilled out the optical part so I can add an MV lens for a better look. The kit clear part is pretty rough on one side, so I will cut a piece of acetate to shape and use that instead: After reading through the good info on Massimo's (and other) sites, I think I am pretty close to getting the colors I want to use for the interior nailed down. Stay tuned for more later. Thanks for looking! Comments/critique/questions always welcome. Doug