Trumpeter 1/24 Bf 109G-6 (late)

[one0nine]

I posted some photos of the completed item over on Hyperscale at the end of October, but I thought I'd post some "in progress" pics here as well as the completed item. I built the model straight from the box, with no aftermarket whatsoever, for the forthcoming second Modellers Datafile on the 109 (this is one of 25 individual builds for the book). Here's the kicker... I had it almost completely finished within 48 hours.

 

The kit was sent to me by a good friend in Alaska, Tony "Wookie" Flynn, and it arrived on Saturday, August 26, around 11:15AM. By Sunday night, August 27, the entire thing was built, preshaded, and halfway camouflaged. That's one way of saying that the kit goes together extremely well, even if there are a whole host of niggiling accuracy issues. But I'm not here to talk about those... I'm here to show you the kit can be built.

 

I started with the wings- drilling out the holes in the inner gear bay, etc. No pics there. Then I built the cockpit assembly and sprayed all the bits, detailing the sidewalls as necessary:

 

 

 

 

The panel actually came out quite decent... I didn't add the fuel valve at the bottom, or the various handles on the panel. OOB, remember?

 

 

 

 

While the cockpit was drying, I built the engine, everything but those stupid rubber ignition leads. Steve Gallaci has mentioned the engine is undersized, and he's right... it looks a little lost when mounted in the fuselage. Of course, the engine bearers are all screwed up too, but no fixing'em... OOB, remember? Once the engine was built (which took less time than I thought), I sprayed the whole thing black, then drybrushed with Titanium White... I rather like how it came out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While all this was drying, I had mounted the engine covers to the fuselage- too much work to correct the errors in the engine and to fix all the ejector pin marks in the door interiors, I was on a tight schedule. The good news is that the fit was absolutely superb... I was able to clean up the inaccurate seams at the aft bottom of the doors with no trouble at all, and the whole thing fit VERY tight.

 

So, with all that done and the paint dry (I shoot enamels thinned with lacquer thinner to speed drying time), the whole affair was attached to the fuselage and it was closed up. I had already cleaned up the wing mating surfaces and dry-fitted everything to make sure it would go together well (it did), so while the Zap-A-Gap was still drying on the fuselage, I attached the upper wings to the fuselage, followed by the lower wing about five minutes later. Cleaned up all seams in short order, added the tailplanes and rudder, followed by the pre-masked windscreen and canopy. Out came the ModelMaster 66, followed rapidly by the yellow and black stripes and markings on the aft fuselage. It took me three tries to get the camo scheme where I wanted it, then I cut masks for all national and unit markings from Tamiya tape (except the swastika, that's an Aeromaster item) and let fly with white and black paint. The spinner spiral and kill markings are masked and sprayed as well... yes, I know there aren't enough kill markings compared to the photo of the real thing, spare me the email.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still need to relocate the antenna lead on the fin from a mast to the leading edge of the fin itself, but that's about all I'm going to change... I did go back and respray the wingtip lower surfaces in yellow, which was dead easy in this huge scale.

 

 

 

 

(Additional images in next post)

 

 

There will be a more thorough writeup on the build in a forthcoming SAMI, and a more thorough evaluation of the kit itself in the forthcoming Datafile. Hope you guys enjoy it!

 

Lynn

[one0nine]

Additional pics:

 

 

 

 

Lynn

[Rob Colvin]

Really great looking!! Looks like a 109 to me.

S!

[LSP_Ray]

48 hrs??!?!!??

 

That's......just......plain........sick!!!!!!!

 

It looks great, Lynn!!!

[maverick728470]

MR.109,(aka)Lynn,

48 hours to do that 24th 109.Not sick.Just INSANE,NOT!U got it covered and the paint job is OFF the WALL.Larry

[DrDave]

So its not as crap a kit as the nay sayers would have us believe then?

[DrDave]

I've done 2 meself!

Quite liked it

 

Did you drill out the wheel wells? Tidy. I tried the Verlinden pit twice. Needs a sledgehammer to fit in the fuselage.

 

Reasonable job!

 

No its lovely

[one0nine]

So its not as crap a kit as the nay sayers would have us believe then?

 

 

Depends on your definition of "crap", dunnit?

 

If you're looking for a kit that goes together quite well, then no, it's not crap by any means... it builds up quite well. If, however, you're looking for the "ultimate Messerschmitt", the Trumpy kit ain't it, not by a long shot.

 

That said, I'm happy with it... but I've also got a "regular" G-6 that's getting The Treatment®, and it's taking for-bloody-ever to make things right.

 

Cheers,

 

Lynn

[LSP_Matt]

Nice 109 Lynn.

 

Glad to hear it all fits nicely together. Am really looking forward to your book ( no pressure BTW ). The first one was really comprehensive.

 

Cheers Matty

[Guest LSP_Jay L]

Very nice build Lynn.

 

If I could get a model to look like that in 48 hours I could think of at least six people (my bank manager included) who would be very pleased... Seriously though, that is a tidy build with some very nice paintwork.

 

 

 

Cheers mate,

 

Jay