Dragon Bf110 C-7 Converted to a BF110 G-4

[Greif8]

I decided that I would concentrate on building a few of my bigger box kits this building season.  So after completing the TBF-1c Avenger I pulled out the Dragon kit for which I have Pastor John's excellent conversion set for.  This build will be pretty technically challenging for me, and hopefully fun as well; we will certainly see if my skills are up to it.  I have mentioned in the past that my youngest great-uncle, on the maternal side of the family, was a radio/radar operator (Bordfunker) on German nightfighters during WW2.  In a nice piece of serendipity one of the marking options in John's conversion set represents an aircraft that my great-uncle flew a few missions in as a temporary replacement for the normal Bordfunker and I plan to build that aircraft.  I plan to start this weekend if the Minister of the Interior, also known as my spouse, does not have any "honey do" projects lined up for me.

 

The kit with conversion set on top of the already huge amount of plastic.

 

A little closer shot.

 

Ernest 

[Iain]

Fabulous project Ernest - and even better that it has a family connection...

 

Will be following!

 

Iain

[D.B. Andrus]

1 minute ago, Iain said:

Fabulous project Ernest - and even better that it has a family connection...

 

Will be following!

 

Iain

 

+1

[Mal_Belford]

WoW....another epic about to start, also very cool choice of warbird

 

 

Looking forward to seeing this one being built.

[Thunnus]

Ooooh... Nachtjager!  I've always been interested in John's Ju-88 conversions so I'll be living vicariously through your build, Ernest.

[Troy Molitor]

Oh yes!  Go Ernest go!   

[Kagemusha]

Great project Ernest, I have no doubt your skills are up to it.

[Gazzas]

Look forward to watching this come together, Ernest.

[LSP_Ron]

How long will this one take? a week?  LOL 😃

[Greif8]

2 hours ago, Iain said:

Fabulous project Ernest - and even better that it has a family connection...

 

Will be following!

 

Iain

 

2 hours ago, D.B. Andrus said:

 

+1

 

2 hours ago, Mal_Belford said:

WoW....another epic about to start, also very cool choice of warbird

 

 

Looking forward to seeing this one being built.

 

1 hour ago, Thunnus said:

Ooooh... Nachtjager!  I've always been interested in John's Ju-88 conversions so I'll be living vicariously through your build, Ernest.

 

1 hour ago, Troy Molitor said:

Oh yes!  Go Ernest go!   

 

52 minutes ago, Kagemusha said:

Great project Ernest, I have no doubt your skills are up to it.

 

10 minutes ago, Gazzas said:

Look forward to watching this come together, Ernest.

 

9 minutes ago, LSP_Ron said:

How long will this one take? a week?  LOL 😃

 

Given what looks like a fair amount of interest in this build, I can only hope I don't disappoint.

 

Iain & D.B.:  The family connection is important and I hope it inspires me to push my technical limits much as the USS Constitution build did.

 

John:  I have had this in the stash for a few years now and have always put off building it due to other projects - and I admit, to a bit of trepidation.  Time to push that aside though and see what I can do,

 

Gary, Mal, Troy and Kagamusha:  I really hope your faith in my skills is justified because this is one very technically complex project.  And Mal, I will not be flying through this one like I did with the Avenger.  There is a large amount of planning and triple checking that will occur with this build and I plan to follow the old cabinetmaker's rule - measure three times then cut.

 

Ron:  This build will be much slower then the TBF for sure.  Being mostly retired I have a lot of time to spend at the bench and do my best to take advantage of that.

 

Ernest

 

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent choice of project, Ernest! I have a couple of these Dragon kits, and a couple of John's conversion sets to go with them - though I'm honestly really only interested in the G-4. Will be following along with great interest!

 

Kev

[mozart]

You have my full attention Ernest! Are you planning the earlier or later G4? The latter had a larger rudder, fatter tyres and different types of nose aerials not to mention Schrage Muzik on some, this involved a different rear section for the canopy. 

Edited November 7 by mozart

[Greif8]

41 minutes ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Excellent choice of project, Ernest! I have a couple of these Dragon kits, and a couple of John's conversion sets to go with them - though I'm honestly really only interested in the G-4. Will be following along with great interest!

 

Kev

 

30 minutes ago, mozart said:

You have my full attention Ernest! Are you planning the earlier or later G4? The latter had a larger rudder, fatter tyres and different types of nose aerials not to mention Schrage Muzik on some, this involved a different rear section for the canopy. 

 

Hi Kev and Max. thank you for your interest.  I have spent the evening reviewing both the kit instructions and the very extensive ones from John.  Given that there are a few issues with the kit instructions and the fact that adding a pretty complex conversion, that has a bunch of sub-variants, I am definitely going to go slowly step by step with this build.

 

Max:  I plan to build the I/NJG6 aircraft that flew out of Deelen in mid-July 1944 while forward deployed there.  My youngest great-uncle, who was assigned to 4.NJG6 at the time, was attached to the group staff flight as a temporary replacement for one of the radio/radar operators normally assigned to the staff flight who was on sick leave.  Right now I am sorting out John's instructions to make sure I highlight the sections that apply to that aircraft, which I think (I don't have the instructions in front of me right now) was 2Z+GM.  I know you and Andy have built this conversion in the past, and I plan to look through both of your works in progress threads to glean tips as both of you built the conversion to a very high standard.  

 

Ernest

[nmayhew]

+1 with the popcorn , if for no other reason than the family connection, which is super cool.

 

are their pictures of this airframe, and / or do you have pics of your great uncle in the war?

[denders]

I’ll be watching too. I have one of these to build in the near future too. The Bf110 I completed in the recent past was to be familiar with the basic kit before I started the conversion. I also have a Ju88G-6 and Ju188 conversions too.