Late War 109G-6

[John Irwin]

I'm posting this over on ARC but having just signed up, firgured I'd post my build here as well. Hope you enjoy it:

 

I'm usually the first one to voice annoyance about the sheer number of WW2 German models being built, as I mostly prefer to build much more obscure subjects. That being said, I've always had an interest in German aircraft and armor, especially late war subjects when you could see some very unique and unusual paint jobs.  So when Revell released their 1/32 Bf-109G-6, I started thinking about taking the plunge and building a late war -109.

First order of business was to find a subject.  As noted, I lean towards subjects that are a bit uncommon.  Whilst surfing through a very nice website ( http://theprofilepaintshop.blogspot.se/ ) I came upon a profile of "Yellow 5" a very unique looking very late war G-6 that was captured by US troops in Kassel, Germany at the end of the war.  The profile in question is a couple of pages in on the above referenced website.  For some reason, I can't post a direct link to it.

Yellow 5 is painted in a very unusual (for a G-6) mix of late war colors - brown violet (RLM 81) / dark green (RLM 82) uppers and the yellowish lower color also somewhat incorrectly referred to as RLM 84.  What makes the aircraft even more interesting is the mismatched cowling that is painted overall light blue (RLM 76) with some random dark green / brown splotches.   After corresponding with the man behind this great website (Anders Hjortsberg, who graciously shared some previously unpublished pictures with me), I discovered that Yellow 5 apparently had a replacement wing added.  The starboard wing appears to be painted in standard mid-war colors - green grey (RLM 74) & grey violet (RLM 75) topsides, RLM 76 undersides; while it is believed that the port wing was painted in late war brown violet & dark green topsides with natural metal undersides.

This pretty much adds up to a perfect example of a late war German aircraft.  Towards the end, the normally meticulous Germans threw out uniformity.  Anything that slowed down production was abandoned and many haphazardly / partially painted aircraft were issued to front line units.  Most of these seem to have been older aircraft re-issued by specialized repair / refurbishment facilities as the large manufacturers still managed to achieve some degree of uniformity on newly produced aircraft.  These small repair facilities tended to simply replace damaged components with whatever was handy in their spare parts inventory, without much thought to repainting them.  At the same time, for whatever reason, it appears that the fuselage was often given a quick (and usually crude) paint job using late war colors and then off to the front they went.  

It is almost certain that Yellow 5, being built during the mid-war period, was originally painted in the standard day fighter scheme of RLM 74/75/76.  At some point, the aircraft was either damaged or simply needed refurbishment and was rebuilt by one of those many small rehab facilities.  At that time, a replacement cowling / port wing were added and the fuselage given a quick overspray in late war colors.  It appears that this aircraft was then issued to JG.53 (hence the black band on the aft fuselage).   

 

EDIT- someone more knowledgable than me has indicated that Yellow 5 is not a rebuild but came from the factory in this paint scheme.   In matters like this, I defer to the experts!

To illustrate how some of these rebuilt aircraft appeared, here are a couple of pictures of another Bf-109G.  Note the late war colors crudely applied and the variations in the paintwork. This aircraft is incredibly unique in that it's the last Bf-109 that remains in it's original paint.  All of the others that exist today have been "restored" using often inaccurate colors.
 




And lastly, here is the subject of my build, sitting forlornly after capture. At this point, it has already been partially dismantled but you can note the late war colors on the fuselage and the lighter mid war colors on the starboard wing.  As mentioned above, I have other B&W pics that show the aircraft in better condition but don't feel that it is appropriate to share them at this time.



More to follow....

[rkranias]

love the research and welcome to LSM.  have fun!

[John Irwin]

Anyway, here is the obligatory shot of the kit and aftermarket sets I've got.  I also broke down and ordered the Aeries resin cockpit set which should arrive in a week or so.  



The Revell kit is a nice one (at an equally nice price), most folks feel it is superior to the older Hasegawa kit. However, Revell made some mistakes.  The biggest ones (and hardest to correct) are the undersized mg bulges on the cowling and they have the mg troughs too close together.  The Alley Cat sets address these issues (and many more).  I'll go into details later.

[Paulster]

Greetings and welcome to LSM. You will find good company enjoying your G-6 build.

[John Irwin]

Just received the Aires resin cockpit set.   Cost was ~ $26 at Sprue Brothers (amazing service, had it delivered within three days of placing the order).  All in all, it's a definite improvement over the kit parts.  One of the aggravations with the kit cockpit was that for some reason, Revell opted to mold in the pilot's harness.  It's quite hard to remove, given the shape of the bucket seat.  The Aires set comes with a PE harness, instrument panel and some odds and ends.  Here are the major components compared to the kits (sorry for the crap lighting):




In all honesty, if I wanted to spend the time, I could probably scratch build additional details onto the Revell cockpit but time is somewhat at a premium these days and compared to other aftermarket sets (Eduard!!!), I thought the Aires price was fair.  I was hoping Barracudacals would release a resin Bf-109 cockpit (their cockpit for the Tamiya P-51 is probably the state of the art for resin cockpits) but at the current time, they haven't announced anything.

I'll still add a few bits and pieces to this set.  I was originally thinking about going for one of those new photocut fabric harness sets but I think after I anneal the PE harness, I can make it work nicely.

 

Update - while looking at the rear bulkhead of the Aires set, it appears to have a partial cover over the upper part of the pilot's backplate.  Hard to describe in text but check out the pictures of the resin compared to the kit piece.  The Revell piece is just flat sheetmetal, which seems to be similar to all the pictures I've seen of the real thing (minus the lack of the triangular piece at the top which Revell missed).  I've never seen the bulkhead as Aires has represented it.  Any Bf-109 experts out there who can weigh in on this?

[John Irwin]

It took some time but I was able to remove the resin backplate (or whatever the technical term is for it).  I had to cut off the beams on either side, to replace them I carefully cut out the ones on the kit bulkhead and superglued them into place.   While at it, I drilled out the two holes in the bucket seat and added a couple of bumps to the bulkhead that are shown in references.  

I applied a quick coat of silver to highlight any flaws.  There is still a bit of a rough spot on the bulkhead. I'll touch it up a bit but once I apply the dark grey and the harnesses, I think it will look fine.  It looks a bit rough in the pics due to the hand painted silver and my crappy photography skills so you will have to trust me on this!

I think I'll backcharge Aires for the time I had to spend cleaning that mess up :)/>/>

 

And the latest update:

 

I've made a bit of progress on the cockpit.   I added a chain and pulley to the left of the pilot's seat and connected it to the outer trim wheel.  It's a bit crude but from the angle it will be viewed at, it will add a nice bit of clutter.  I also added a couple of additional levers to the sidewalls.  After that, it was time to start painting.  

First off, I painted the seat a dull silver and then, using a trick mentioned in the "Building Revell's Bf-109" publication to simulate chipped and scratched paint, I coated the seat with three layers of hairspray.  I then painted the three main interior parts RLM66 (a dark grey).  I lighted the Testor's paint with a couple of drops of white for scale effect.  I then wet the paint over the seat and using a hard bristle brush and a sharp tooth pick, I scratched and abraded the grey paint to expose the silver beneath.  The hairspray, being water soluble, assist with the removal of the top coat of paint.  The seat and rear bulkhead would have been heavily scratched by the buckles on the pilot's harness every time he entered or left the cockpit.  I'm pretty happy with the overall effect, still need a bit of practice but I think it looks better than my old method of painted silver scratches on top of the base paint.  Keep in mind that a good deal of this will be hidden by the harness.

After that, I began the detail painting.  It seems there was a great deal of variation on these cockpits.  Using pictures of the cockpit of the Bf-109 featured in my initial post (completely unrestored), I decided to take a slightly minimalist approach to colors.  Some modelers go heavy on the various bright colors but since my subject is a hard-worked veteran, I wanted to show the cockpit in a bit of disrepair with a good portion of the original fittings replaced by whatever the mechanics could get their hands on.

I painted the oxygen regulator blue (the Germans used color coded fittings - blue for oxygen, yellow for fuel, etc).   While some modelers opted to paint the rat's nest of oxygen tubing blue, I decided to keep the tubing bare steel.  I also painted all electrical wiring a dinghy shade of yellow. I added a dark wash to selected features for a bit of depth.  Here are some pictures, keep in mind that I still have a long way to go. My final weathering will tone down all of the colors.  








The starbord sidewall.  The section at the bottom is just extra resin and will get trimmed off.  Makes for a handy palette as well!

[wackyracer]

Welcome to LSM and great start to the G-6. Look forward to next update.

[Dave J]

Great start! Looking forward to the next update!

[Paulster]

Gordon gets about 95% of my mail business  now that GMW is gone. Always great service. Have you test fit the Aires cockpit yet? I usually have fit issues with them. Maybe it's me. 

[Mikester]

Interesting project, John, thanks for sharing.  I think Roy has some parts for the 109 in the works but he hasn't made an announcement as of yet.  I'm thinking new cowl Beule might be one of them but that's just a guess.

[James H]

Welcome to the site John,

 

Very much liking the look of this one and your reference info too. You're doing a sweet job of that pit 

[John Irwin]

Interesting project, John, thanks for sharing.  I think Roy has some parts for the 109 in the works but he hasn't made an announcement as of yet.  I'm thinking new cowl Beule might be one of them but that's just a guess.

 

Thanks for all the compliments guys.  I was hoping Roy would be working his magic on the 109 but nothing so far.  If he does, I'll have to start another one, his products are great.  

 

WIth regard to the beule, those are acknowleged as being one of the main drawbacks of the Revell kit.   I've got the Alleycat correction set (very nice BTW), which includes enlarged beule.  I also sprung for their revised upper cowl with the widened MG troughs.

 

Regards,

 

John

[efrick]

Hi John,

 

You have chosen an incredibly interesting subject! I REALLY like what you have done with the cockpit so far. I don't have the Revell 109 yet but am looking forward to building it.

 

Regards,

Ed

[wemattson]

John,

 

Nice job! I'll be watching your build closely.

 

Cheers,

Wayne

[John Irwin]

Done with 90% of the cockpit painting.   Still need to tweak the weathering.  After that, I'll try those PE seatbelts and then move on to the instrument panel.  I've heard that Aires is notorious for poor fitting parts.  After all this work, I'll be extremely bummed if none of this fits.

[BevanBrooks]

Following this!!.............? What did you use for the "muddy" effects on the cockpit floor? Cheers Bevan

[John Irwin]

Following this!!.............? What did you use for the "muddy" effects on the cockpit floor? Cheers Bevan

 

Hi Bevan,

 

Nothing exotic, just a mix of Testor's sand to replicate dried mud and then went back with a custom mix of primarily Testor's dark tan to replicate wetter mud.   I'll end up hitting everything with a light dusting of pastels before I button things up. Want to show a grimy, dusty cockpit.

 

Regards,

 

John

[BevanBrooks]

Hi Bevan,

 

Nothing exotic, just a mix of Testor's sand to replicate dried mud and then went back with a custom mix of primarily Testor's dark tan to replicate wetter mud.   I'll end up hitting everything with a light dusting of pastels before I button things up. Want to show a grimy, dusty cockpit.

 

Regards,

 

John

Nice, going for a derelict - abandoned look? Thanks for the feedback cheers Bevan

[John Irwin]

Nice, going for a derelict - abandoned look? Thanks for the feedback cheers Bevan

 

Sort of.  All the pics of this aircraft show it after being captured, in varying states of disprepair. I'm going to model it as an operational 109, right at the end of the war.  At that point,  crews didn't have much time or interest in cleaning them.  Some newer aircraft where actually in great shape since they hardly ever flew due to lack of fuel but since this Gustav is an earlier model, it will be showing some wear and tear.

[wemattson]

John,

 

I really like the worn look you've added to the cockpit.  The mud reals adds a nice level of realism.

 

Regards,

Wayne

[John Irwin]

Thanks for the compliments guys.   The -109 cockpit is tough to paint realistically.  It's small and mostly RLM66 black grey so you have to work at it in order to have it come to life.  I just hope the darned thing fits!!

BTW, on another site I came across this link.

http://virtuaalikuvat.com/jamiflyin/?p=0&t=2

 

It's a great 3D view of a Gustav 'pit.  Especially since this one appears to be un-restored and shows some nice authentic weathering effects.  Quite a useful reference for anyone interested in the subject.

One other thing I noted was the size of the harness belts.   Most aftermarket sets appear to be much wider than the real thing.  Notice how relatively narrow the belts actually are.  I also like the well-worn color of them.  Beats just painting them white.

Regards,

John

[rkranias]

pit looks great

[John Irwin]

IP is pretty much done.  I didn't go heavy on the colored gauges, just a couple of yellow (fuel) on the right hand side.  The Aires panel is pretty decent, resin with a smaller PE cover and a piece of printed film in between.  I learned a trick from the "Building the Revel 109" magazine and used future to fix the film and the PE sections.   It dries extremely clear and gloss so it looks like glass over each gauge and you can tweak the pieces into place (unlike superglue) since it takes 5 minutes or so to set up.

Still have a bit of work to do on detail painting and cleaning up some paint errors (also need to add the gunsight but I save that for later since it is much too easy to break) but this is how the panel looks so far:


Notice how the future looks like glass over the instruments:


Just a couple shots of the dry fitted cockpit:

[James H]

Great looking pit John. Almost a shame to close it all up.

[John Irwin]

Cockpit is pretty much complete except for the harnesses and some resin bits that will be added later to prevent them from being broken off during the assembly.

I used a mix of tan and brown pastels to add some dust to the sides and floorboards.  I don't think many late war German aircraft had clean cockpits.  The spring of 1945 had heavy rain throughout most of April and since most Luftwaffe aircraft were parked in the woods and flying (if they had the fuel) off of grass fields, my guess is that there was a fair amount of mud / grime tracked into the cockpits.  This would also explain why the landing gear covers on Yellow 5 were removed (a standard procedure to minimize mud build up against the wheels during take-off / landing).  The pastels were purchased at a local Michaels art supply store.  A box of 20 colors cost me approx $6 and will give me a lifetime supply.  Beats paying exorbitant prices for "weathering pastels".   I then added the fuel line that runs from the aft bulkhead, along side the right console and then down into the floorboard.  This part was from the Revell kit and was molded in clear plastic to replicate the clear sight tube on the original.  Some modelers paint the entire fuel line yellow but one reference I have of a late war, unrestored G-6 shows the line partially in natural metal, so I went for that look.  I also added some scratches and carefully picked out the metal hose clamps that connected the steel fuel line to the clear site tube.

Lastly, I added the control column which is a particularly nice bit of resin.  Many pictures show the canvas "boot" being loose at the top.  The Aries stick replicates this, although I don't know how they were able to cast something this fine.  Kudos's to whoever made the master!

The floor section (note the loose fitting canvas boot):


The floor with right side dry fitted.  Note that the weathering colors are not this bright in real life.  I was working with some crappy light when I took these pics.

 
Right sidewall with oxygen hose added (kit piece):


Left sidewall: