Schweizer Fliegertruppe Me 109 DB from the Fliegerkompanie 21

[Gerhard]

Brilliant work Peter. You have some serious skills.

[Basilisk]

Brilliant work Peter. You have some serious skills.

Thanks Gerhard.

 

Got a bit more done on the 109 last week. I added the various parts to the cockpit sides. Where to put them was a bit vague in many cases and the location pins at wrong spots too.

 

Also added a slot to the throttle console (bottom right) and replaced the throttle with an airscale part.

 

The sides contain now most parts.

I will add some of the smaller parts I have already prepared after I painted the cockpit.

 

Next up is the placement of some of the visible wiring in the cockpit.

 

I also assembled the engine to the bare minimum as it is needed to hold the exhausts, propeller and radiator in place.

Thanks for watching.

Cheers, Peter

[Kais]

Basilisk,

Nice work.

Love the fix for the seat.

 

One thing that might have got past you; in post one, picture of the IP, the image shows a 109 with manual pitch control.

 

In the center bottom row of the upper panel is a round knob.This is the airscrew pitch adjustment. Top is marked Großer ( grosser= bigger) bottom Kleiner( smaller) and through a cut out further down Segel( feathered). This is a spring loaded recentering rocker switch.

 

Left to right bottom row; Airspeed, turn and bank, manual airscrew adjust, revs per min, then on the right, airscrew pitch indicator.

 

The kit shows a blanking plate fitted to a/c subsquently refitted with a rocker on the throttle handle. E4 on in Luftwaffe service.

 

I hope that is of assistance to you.

 

With ref to engine/ cowl fit, assemble the cowl off the a/c. If  I can get Photo bucket to play I'll show you what I've done so far.

I'm in  Newcastle area NSW, I see you are Melbourne. PM me perhap we can share images another way.

 

Salute.

Edited May 6, 2017 by Kais

[Basilisk]

Thanks Kais for pointing out the missing pitch control leaver and for explaining how it worked. This kind of feedback is terrific and is of tremendous help in learning and building

 

I looked at IP pictures a lot and totally missed it   Will be fun adding it to the IP as it is rather small - even in 1/32 scale. But I will have a go at it.

 

Cheers, Peter

 

PS PM sent

Edited May 7, 2017 by Basilisk

[Basilisk]

This dam pitch control leaver didn't get out of my mind so I had to mend it sooner than later.

I actually had the panel already painted ready for detailing. Hopefully that is it. This little sucker was a real challenge - its size is 0.8mm by 2.2mm and the handle is from an airscale set with a little PVC glue to represent the knob.

 

Now I can sleep again.

Cheers, Peter

Edited May 7, 2017 by Basilisk

[Kais]

Nice!

You've got mail.

[Bomber_County]

Just bought my first 109 albeit 1/48 but really want a LSP 109 so watching your build with interest ........

[ade rowlands]

To get the engine in and panels buttoned up, from memory, I no longer have the model, I basically omitted everything apart from the engine block and the oil tank on the front. None of the plumbing parts were added, I think I also had to fettle the engine bearers a little too, or I could be getting that confused from my 1/32 Bf 110. There was a lot of sanding and fettling of the the engine covers, I added the bottom panel first as that can butt right up to the fuselage, the main top panel, there should actually be a small gap between it and the gun cover part as seen on real 109's, it's a slim gap but it's there all the same and gives you a little leeway with fit. To get the gun. breach cover to fit I left out the canvas cover for the rear of the instrument panel, I had to sand around the contours along the instrument panel a little too, just a little. I also left out the ammo feed parts for the guns. But the Swiss used different guns so I don't know how you're going to approach that so that might be something you need to fix when the time comes. The Swiss also had a different throttle handle/lever to a standard 109E too. Also for a Swiss 109 you need to sand off the bumps on top of the breach cover and replace them with oblong ones, different guns require different bumps it seems. I did this by infilling the indents of the bumps from underneath with milliput smoothing the inner part out and backed it with thin styrene sheet and then sanded the tops away. The new bumps I made from spare styrene strips slightly rounded at both ends. The radio aerial where it snakes down to join the fuselage needs to be moved one panel forward too. I got a lot of the differences from the Squadron 109E walk around book. There may be more differences but that's all that comes to mind from my build a few years back. Oh, the wing cannon had a different muzzle ending too, more of a conical end than the German ones. I used some Japanese Zero cannon barrels I had in the spares box as a substitute. I apologise if you're already aware of these things. But basically to get the engine in and panels glued shut there's a lot of fine tuning and tweaking and not a little sanding here and there.

Edited May 7, 2017 by ade rowlands

[Basilisk]

Thanks Kais and Phil. Also many thanks for the explanations ade - some great information and it is always good to know what I still have ahead

 

I have the Squadron 109E walk around and it is indeed a great reference for the Swiss 109E showing all the changes. But the pictures show an aircraft in its 1949 configuration. The aircraft I make is in the close to delivery configuration and there are some noticeably difference. Like the different throttle handle/lever which was changed later.

 

Out of curiosity, what happened to your Swiss 109E model?

 

I managed to get a bit more done. As I have the Brassin wheels which also includes the tail wheel, I decided to use it. But as it is designed for the Eduard kit, it needed a bit of adapting to make it fit the Cyber Hobby kit.

 

But when I checked my references, I noticed that the Swiss 109Es all had the tail wheel well covered

 

 

 

This cover looks to be of a rather complex shape. Does someone has some more information on it?

 

At least the Brassin tail wheel does look more detailed in comparison to the kit item.

But I wonder how strong it is

 

I added some more detail to the cockpit side walls in the shape of some pluming.

 

All the cockpit parts are now ready for primer and painting.

 

I decided to paint some of the smaller parts prior assembly as I think it is easier that way.

 

That is all for now. Looking forward getting some colours on.

Cheers, Peter

[ade rowlands]

Peter, mine ended up damaged beyond repair. My builds used to sit on some shelves before I invested in a cabinet and it ended up getting knocked off the shelf by my wayward elbow whilst I was concentrating on something else. Old old builds have now been boxed up and moved to the attic, the. Ew cabinet will be populated eventually by new stuff.