nmayhew

hi Jeroen, nice work so far - the aftermarket cockpit stuff looks very cool, and kind of puts my stuff to shame a bit anyway, nice choice of aircraft: von Werra came down a few miles down the road from me just outside Marden at Love's Farm (not sure what's there excatly now - probably some ghastly housing estate, but that's another story ) do you have pics of the original aircraft? there are quite a few here, along with pics of vW with his lion cub Simba (sadly it died when he was in captivity), and of vW on his return in Germany... http://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Bf-109E/Bf-109E...2-(+-Werra.html one thing of note in the small print there is that the original RAF crash report said the nose was blue (RLM65 presumably), rather than the white one which i think Eduard suggests not sure if you have your own view / research, but as this is is also on my "project list", i'd be interested in seeing what the experten say, or seeing the original crash report myself a shame, because it would look waaay cooler in white, but hey ho anyway, good luck with the build (check out my build on here to see what NOT to do! ) and if you have any pics of the bird which are not on the site, above, i'd love to see them cheers, Nick

the problem i have with all this metal tubing stuff is it is a ba$tard to cut properly! without a small hobby / full size work-shop vice and saw, how do you do it, as i have neither the vice nor it seems the right saw? if you guys use a saw, what brand etc? cheers, Nick

hi Roy, Given that Jerry is probbaly in the land of nod at present, i'll do the decent thing... here on the Vendors' forum: http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=26961 N

hi guys, I have the update set in front of me and all i can say is that the pictures Jerry has posted only go some way to doing it justice! Lovely detail, good casting and good fit to kit parts. If you are thinking of doing the PCM 152, Jerry's update sure would make a noticeable difference, and is well worth it. Cheers, Nick

hi guys, I have the update set in front of me and all i can say is that the pictures Jerry has posted only go some way to doing it justice! Lovely detail, good casting and good fit to kit parts. If you are thinking of doing the PCM 152, Jerry's update sure would make a noticeable difference, and is well worth it. Cheers, Nick

very interesting discussion, and once again PCM doesn't come out well which is a shame - oh well - and i thought it was just me spotting some differences between their aircraft profiles and the info on say Spitfire Site (i was prodding around there last night...) completely off topic and rather cheeky , Erik can i ask do you plan to use your bomb carriers and bombs from your Tamiya kit? i have a couple of schemes in mind for my (poor cousin) PCM kits that need to be "bombed up" to be accurate. don't ask, don't get and all that.... thanks, Nick

i tried to test fit the canopy and found that it was too cramped - i think this was because i had move part of the cowling to give the (correct) gap between parts A6 and A11, but since there are no locating pins / marks, there was always a risk in this... i needed to sand off nearly 1mm from the canopy parts which i took most off the front piece here is the resulting test fit i then added the grab handles to the front piece - i took a big gamble using CA glue here, hoping that the future coating would stop any "crazing" of the clear parts luckily it seemed to work!!!

hi guys, i've had a mixed couple of days with my 109... on the plus side i finally stumped up the cash and bought a compressor (Iwata Sprint Jet Pro), as i had an old Italian p-o-s that blew oil everywhere and after investing so much effort in this kit, no way was i going to have it ruined by a crappy compressor! having this on order made my a little impatient about getting the plane prepped for painting, and we all know what impatience leads to in modelling don't we? anyway, here is some of the cockpit stuff done recently: firstly i used the PE update parts to make the armour / headrest...see compared to kit part... then painted it and weathered it a bit i also added some detail to the rear of the cockpit at the bottom of the rams which jettison the last piece of the canopy in emergencies (i think)... they were made from strangely spare PE parts from my update set, and seemed quite a good match compared to the real thing...

very good description Dennis -never thought about them like that, but that's definitely spot on!

hi Dutik, i've been tryiing to find info on your plane - i see it has the squared off canopy...but i'm not sure what else makes it an E-1 ie can it be an E-1 with that canopy? there are some very good close ups of the aircraft here, along with a bio, but maybe you have these already?? http://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Bf-109E/Bf-109E...+I-Bartels.html i plan to make a number of 109s all of which were shot down relatively close to me...the joys of living in Battle of Britain countryside! take care, Nick

the way in which you combine quality of build along with prodigious work rate is simply amazing! very impressive! dare we ask what's next??? Nick

veeeery cool! will follow this one with interest! all the best Nick

ok, surface texture, especially the control surfaces... now i could have blurted yet more money on EagleParts lovely resin bits here, but to be honest i thought they are not good value, when you can probably achieve the same effect with a bit of 800 grit paper... it seems the flaps etc are TOO detailed / raised, so a bit of judicious sanding should tone thngs down a bit if it had been the other way round, you really have no choice as there is no way i could add this kind of detail from scratch... so after a bit of sanding we had this (not too sure how well this photographs so sorry if you can't actually see any difference! the "dusty" bits should show you where and how much i sanded... i also took this opportunity to sand the underwing radiator housings RIGHT DOWN - the fit was poor and they really stood out (see earlier pics)... a bit tedious and fiddly, but well worth it as they are now flush with the rest of the wing surround fyi i just snipped a 1inch strip of various grits (starting at 800 and working up to 1200) and used my finger to manipulate the strip -i found the paper just moulds itself to whatever surface / shape or bump you run your fingers over... i've done some of the cockpit stuff too (thanks again to those who helped with the reference material) but that will have to wait now as i have to go and pick up my fiancee from the station, and light the fire when we get back...aaah domestic duties!!!! Nick

the internet gods appear to be smiling on me right now so, making hay whilst sun shines, i shall continue... firstly the supercharger intake: the plastic part is pretty poor, so definitely go for the PE part in the update set if you can i thought about cutting the grill bit off the rest and just sticking that on the front of the plastic part in case i goofed the PE construction by the way... always good to have a back up plan! here is the PE part under way and and then ta-daaah... i ended up applying some CA after all the folding, let it dry and then diamond filing the edges a bit, but in general i was happy with this next, the intake "join" - the plastic aperture is waay too chunky... it wouldn't normally matter but with the PE being wafer thin, i had to make an effort to sand this part and yes, this would have been easier before attaching it to the rest of the plane, but why make things easy for yourself right? after sanding... we'll look at surface texture next...

hi guys firstly thank you to Hakan, Russ, Gary and Matt for your kind words and help both in this thread and on the main forum - much appreciated. so, just a quickie for the time being... firstly elevators and rudder: i wanted to have them angled so as to give the kit a bit more "life" even though i doubt i will pose it with cockpit open it seems elevators can either droop down or be slightly raised when the aircraft was completely at rest...i went with the "droop" as intuitively i thought this might look a bit better the rudder was also angled slightly both required a bit of extra sanding to get the angled fit right, but nothing too drastic: looks a bit boring in this one and i wondered whether i had angled them enough... but in this close up it looks quite good i think, so i am a happy bunny! next to the ailerons - i consulted the powers that be and they can / should be drooped down (rather than one up one down as in flight) provided the flaps are at maximum (not sure if i dropped the flaps enough, but hey ho...) and the slats - only minor clean-up required (shock horror!), and suddenly we have what is starting to look like one of Willy Messerschmitt's creations... depending on how friendly my computer and photobucket are feeling, there may be another update in a few moments, but don't hold your breath! Nick

thanks Matt - i will use the PE part provided hopefully with a bit of judicious bending...

cranky fabric texture or not (all it takes is a bit of sanding...) that is something i would LOVE to see!!!! Nick

hi Chris, no, i didn't mean to doubt you at all! my reference to needing pictures to go with the writing was meant to be funny... as to Lynn, well i often post simultaeously on "that other site" - a more the merrier kind of mentality... thanks again Chris, Nick

thanks Kevin

excellent stuff! this is exactly what i was after! having said that, it's probably beyond my detailing abilities anyway! am i right in thinking that with the canopy closed there would be a wire / rope etc dangling down behing the pilot, which when the canopy opens acts to limit the swing of the canopy? if so, this would be quite cool to add to my model, just that i have never seen it before... cheers again, Nick

thanks for those pics / diagrams - unfortunately they don't really show in close enough detail the back plate itself i am looking for detail of just around the locker and above it, as i seem to recall there was some wiring / plumbing / hydraulics etc etc round there i am sure someone posted a pic here on LSP but for the life of me i cannot find it lesson: right click and save to hard drive without delay!! oh well, and thank you very much for trying to help cheers, Nick

hi, seen that pic on ARC - careful as the gun sleeves have been moved on one side ie the sleeves should match up, highlighting the fact that the guns are off-set...hope that makes sense! Nick PS got any pics of the cockpit looking backwards?? ie of the backplate just behind / above the seat? am stuck on my build at the mo because of this!!!!

PS sorry as someone has helped on here before, but i'm loking for a picture of the "back plate" at the rear of the cockpit (sloping bit, where there was also a flap / locker for stuff) in prder to detail it in my kit... does anyone have a pic? have searched the 109 site and also 109.info and there is every possible angle of shot except that which i am looking for!!!! cheers, nick

i'd forgotten about that site - cool as that is another picture i don't like the fact that you can't save the pics though - what a pain in the b-side it's not like i can actually do anything with, it's just a fag to have to keep going to a particular link for a reference shot oh well

just read your new post, and also thank you Dave - so i guess i go with the full head rest - just as well as that's what i've made!!! (better lucky than good) N