bdthoresen

Brian, a pair of stunners to be sure. Your work, as I have said countless times, is an inspiration! Thanks for sharing! THOR

ShelbyGT500- Thanks, man! Awesome shots! I have not worked on the 109 in a few weeks due to other household commitments. Unfortunately, I once again will not complete this in time for the deadline. I am not sure why I keep entering these groupbuilds, as I do not have enough time in my personal life to complete anything in a decent amount of time. Alas, I still want to be involved, and feel bad about it. But it is what it is I suppose. Thanks for the pics- All the best, Mate! THOR

Yeah, Russ was a bang up modeler. Mr. Cauchi is AMAZING....His old Revell Corsair and P-40K builds are out of this world! Awesome work. THOR

Welcome Back, Brian! It sure is good to see you are still at it. Loving the information in this build. I hope to see you here more often. You have always been one of my modeling heroes! Thanks Again for sharing. THOR

Howdy All- Help Needed! I am trying to find some pictures of wartime layout of the 109E-4/7 cockpit sidewalls, and I am coming up with nothing via the Google, or my books. Can anyone help a brother out? I have been stuck on this for a week or two! Thanks All- THOR

Hello Alain! Thanks for checking in. I will take all of the help I can get for the cockpit sidewalls, as I do not have any real clear shots of their wartime layout. Any help would be appreciated! THOR

Sorry about the picture sizes all; I do not know how to resize them in Imgur; Will try again tomorrow; THOR

Good evening, everyone. Back again with an update on the 109, and I have been busy working on the cockpit interior.... One of my favorite modelers of all time is a gentleman who used to frequent here regularly, Brian Cauchi. Brian is the epitome of a "classic basher".......using old kits, aftermarket, and scratchbuilding to produce some of the finest models I have ever seen. He has a ton of articles on LSP, and if you have not checked out his work, do so. You will not be disappointed. Two of my favorite articles of his involved rebuilding a Revell P-40E, and a Revell Corsair. Both builds used aftermarket, and some killer scratchbuilding to turn out the best builds of these kits I have ever seen, not to mention they were both built previously by someone else when he started them! I intend to use this thread as a bit of a tribute towards him. Thanks Brian! Here is the kit seat; I have thinned it out, and opened up the hole in the seatback that the harness passes through; I used a German buckle set leftover from Fotocut, which, with wine bottle foil straps, made a respectable harness. I have also built the harness support bar from styrene rod and sheet; Here is the cockpit tub; I have fabricated the anit-skid on either side of the stick with brass screen; I also fabricated the seat adjustment tracks from styrene "c" channel; The rear hatch was fabricated from .010" styrene sheet; I still need to fabricate the latch mechanism (as soon as I can find a close-up picture of it); The plumbing was made from armature wire, and was modeled after a picture of a captured aircraft I had in one of my books; Here is a shot of the seat near the tub; as you can see that the seat should slide down the tracks into place; And here it is in place where it will sit; Here is a shot of the instrument panel in its early stages; I have made the overlays from styrene, and will be making the bezels from scratch as well; the only concession is I might have to splurge on some Airscale instruments to "church" it up a bit; switches from copper wire; Here is a shot of the kit's rudder pedal (broken off the one piece rudder bar) next to a leftover True Details 109E rudder pedal; I might have a go at trying to cast a second one, as I do not have both; I am not even sure where the first one came from! And some of the interior parts. As you can see, they need some serious help; I have not decided how much I will attack them yet, but one battle at a time as they say! That is all for now, folks. As always, comments, questions, and critiques always welcome. Thanks for checking in! THOR

Hi Alain. Yes, the kit definitely looks every bit a 109E, but it does suffer from thick/chunky detail parts, as well as trench-like panel lines that were typical of the period with Matchbox. But, I am going to see how much work it will take to make the model presentable, if not 100% accurate. I have completed some work on the cockpit, and will photograph and post it this evening when I get home from work. Thanks for checking in. By the way, did you ever finish your 262 kit-bash? Thor

You are so right Thomas! We have come along way. I prefer to look at it like you cannot appreciate the present, without looking towards the past. This kit is a lot of fun, and it is a nice break from my more serious projects at the moment. Thanks for stopping by..... Thor

Hey Gaz, thanks for checking in. There definitely are some curious details present here. The panel lines are typical Matchbox of the period..... if you run a finger over them, you will trip your hand! But, this kit seems fun overall, and that is what it is about! Moving on to the cockpit tonight, so we will see what comes out of it. Later man! Thor

Hey thanks for checking in, Kev. This kit is pretty rough, but it has a nice shape. I am truly curious to see what some minor scratchbuilding, some sanding, filling, thinning and a slick paint job will do to bring it up to a more modern standard. I am actually enjoying the hell out of this right now! Thanks again! Thor

Assembled the engine tonight, and the styrene has proved to be easy to work with, being a bit soft, and responding well to Tamiya Extra Thin. There is a bit of flash on all parts, and the detail is a bit chunky, but I find the details surprisingly good for 1977! I have assembled the whole power-egg, which I plan to paint in a bit of Spanish-style to try and make some of the details pop a bit more; Even though the cowling will be closed, it should still be a great experiment. Anyway, onto the pics! That's all for tonight folks; Cockpit work next! THOR

Good Evening All- I have decided to enter yet another groupbuild with this ancient monstrosity........... I will be using the ancient Matchbox kit to build either the famous Black 3 or Black 8 from North Africa, Jg 27. I intend to keep the build as simple as I can, and add a few scratch details as I go to improve certain areas. The aim is to try and prove what can be done with a small amount of effort on a kit that is as old as I am......A real "Classic Bash". This kit had a small amount of assembly done on its motor, but it is cleanly done and well bellow the 25% threshhold. Hope you will follow along with me and see what kind of trouble I will get into. Some areas I see need some improvement are some cockpit details, and lack of sufficient gear bays or exhausts. This will be an adventure using what I have on hand.......

Oy, Thanks Kev- Cheers man- THOR