Revell 1/32 Bf109G-10 Erla

[MikeMaben]

This is, once approved, my very first post here

 

 

          

[Thunnus]

After the notch fix, I re-dipped the canopy in Future.  Here is a close-up of the filled-in notch.

 

 

The painting of the cockpit has been ongoing.  I think I'm nearing the end of the detail brush painting stage.

 

 

Not sure how much weathering I'll do  but I'll probably run a pastel wash on the interior.

 

 

Posing the cockpit parts after painting.  The view into the cockpit gets very limited when both sidewalls are attached.  The Bf109 was a very small aircraft and the pilots quarters were cramped.

 

 

 

Another view of the instrument panel after some detail painting.

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Thunnus

[Daniel460]

Cockpit looks great! Excellent detail paint work!

 

Dan

[speedgraflex]

Hi John, your work looks great! I was thinking about the port side alignment issue you mentioned. Have you resolved this to your satisfaction yet? (When I look at the overhead view I wonder if the port wingspan is a touch short when compared to the starboard.) I could look at your work all day. The other note I have concerns the resin to styrene joins of the cowling. What are you planning to do to make sure these joins are rock solid? (I use strips of native resin—the resin of the Reaver canopy looks like "de-aired" resin to me—and thin CA to make a connection, not styrene to resin but resin to styrene.) I have to add that your work inside the cockpit is just exquisite! So good.

[Thunnus]

Thanks Dan!  The cockpit was given a gloss coat, dark pastel wash and then a flat coat to seal the wash.

 

 

 

Here's an idea of how closed off the cockpit will be once enclosed within the fuselage.

 

 

 

I'll probably add a touch of weathering to the seat and floor before I put in the lap belts.

Edited April 17, 2018 by Thunnus

[VintageEagle]

Georgous cockpit! The yellow fuel line and throttle look so smooth. Have you masked them and used your airbrush or did you use a brush? If brush, what paint are you using?

[alaninaustria]

Really nice work mate!!

[dodgem37]

Looks great!

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[Martinnfb]

EXCEPTIONAL WORK , As always  

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!

 

 

Georgous cockpit! The yellow fuel line and throttle look so smooth. Have you masked them and used your airbrush or did you use a brush? If brush, what paint are you using?

 

The fuel line was masked and sprayed with an airbrush... white base coat and then the yellow, Tamiya acrylic thinned with iso alcohol.  The throttle was hand painted yellow/black, again Tamiya paints.

[Gazzas]

Beautiful looking pit!

 

Gaz

[Thunnus]

Thanksgiving holiday busy-ness has conspired to keep me off the modeling workbench but I assume that many people are experiencing that as well.  So just a few updates on the G-10 build.

 

The Aires Revi gunsight has been painted.  The reflector glass pieces are cut from the same acetate that the instrument panel dials came from.  The outlines are pre-printed by Aires.

 

 

The loop antenna atop the fuselage needed a bit of work.

 

 

I started by cutting off the loop.  I'll keep the loop handy to help me size the replacement loop.

 

 

I built up the antenna base, which looked a bit flat, with Milliput White putty.

 

 

I always have a hard time attaching the loop back onto the base so I had the idea of pressing little grooves into the soft putty to help secure the loop.

 

 

After drying, the antenna base was smoothed out.

 

 

The antenna loop is strip cut from a Coca Cola can and pressed around the handle of a paint brush.

 

 

I'm still figuring out the nuggets of wisdom contained in Airfixer's great post about the Erla G-10.  His suggestion to use canopy part #59 instead of #58 didn't make much sense to me as the two parts LOOKED the same.  I noticed that the Montex masks contained masks for BOTH canopies and upon closer inspection, I finally noticed that the difference is the joint between the bottom frame and rear frame:  #58 has an angled joint while #59 has a curved junction.  Re-reading Airfixer's post confirmed exactly that but I was a bit slow on the uptake.  Doh.  So... I am fixing canopy part #59, with the curved junction, the same way as I had previously done with #58.

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Thunnus

[speedgraflex]

Hi John,

 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! Your attention to detail is inspiring and full of considerable feats of skill in craft as well as art. Your sculpt of an antenna mount is a case in point. Your work looks properly sized and formed; you built the modification with simplicity of design that has truly captured the feel as well as the dimensions of the actual components. Look forward to your next moves after the holidays.

[Thunnus]

Thank you Bruce!  Happy Thanksgiving to you too!

 

I actually spent a bit of time on the workbench today.  So here's a short update.  I've been trying to figure out which wheels and tires to use on the G-10 with the small wheel bulges.  I had previously assumed to use the tire/wheel combination that was specified in the Revell G-6 instructions as it had the small wheel bulges on the wings.  However, I did a bit of internet research and found a photo of this Erla G-10, W. Nr. 491353 in Italian service.

 

 

A close-up of the wheel shows me a likely configuration.

 

 

Of the Revell tire choices, one of them (top left) is wider than the other two so that's not the one.  It's a choice between the treaded narrow and smooth narrow.  Based on the pic above, I am going with the smooth.  Like my previous build of this kit, there is some bad molding on this set of tires that will need some putty work.

 

 

Revell provides two wheel types.  Again, based on the G-10 photo, I am choosing the wheel with the serrated edges.  In the pic below, the tires have been puttied, primered and flattened to depict weight upon them.

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Thunnus

[Thunnus]

The reversed HGW harnesses have been put into place on the seat.  I've added just a bit of pigment weathering on the floor.

 

 

 

One last look at the finished cockpit before I start gluing it together.

 

 

After gluing in the starboard sidewall to the cockpit floor, I realized I forgot the fuel line!

 

 

 

The instrument panel is wedged in between the two sidewalls and secured using CA glue.

 

 

Now that the cockpit tub is glued together, another round of dry-fitting ensues.  I've added some tabs to the gun breech cover to help align the parts when the time comes.

 

 

Some small adjustments are made every time I go through a dry-fitting run.  This time, I had thin the bottom of the cockpit floor and the top of the wing spar as the whole cockpit was riding just a little too high.

 

 

 

Finished up this session with a couple of small details.  The kit instructions show the tail wheel incorrectly placed.  The long tail wheel needs to placed in the forward set of locating pins and requires the hole on the bottom of the fuselage to be opened up.

 

 

I've added a small rod in the front center of the oil cooler intake as indicated by photos of the G-10.  It will be trimmed to fit once I install the oil cooler mesh piece.

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Thunnus