Trumpeter 1/32 109F-4 Trop

[Metallicus]

That is some impressive work Phil, will be watching this!

 

Cheers

Brenden

[Firecaptain]

Phil,

Is there a reason one of the gun barrels is set back and one protrudes?

 

I finally got both Trumpy kits out side by side and there are nearly no parts the same between these 2 109's save maybe

the engine parts.

 

One trivial thing I noted.....the newer kit has a much more lighter weight boxtop, but still the same rugged box bottom....lol

 

Enjoying your build and fixes.....

[PhilB]

Phil,

Is there a reason one of the gun barrels is set back and one protrudes?

 

I finally got both Trumpy kits out side by side and there are nearly no parts the same between these 2 109's save maybe

the engine parts.

 

One trivial thing I noted.....the newer kit has a much more lighter weight boxtop, but still the same rugged box bottom....lol

 

Enjoying your build and fixes.....

Hi Joe,

Apparently they had to stagger the guns to get the ammo boxes to fit around the breeches.

One muzzle protrudes and apparently the other is level with the hole in the cowling

Think you had better weight and measure those box tops.................

 

Phil

[Descarrier]

Hi Phil, I am Eric from London Uk. A chaps at Hannants modelshop told me it is a G2. Well it is a good news for me because black 6 at Hendon RAF Museum is an early G2

and I am lucky person because few years ago I was able to climb into this superbe aircraft and took a lot of pictures. In any case don't worry guy's it will be easy to revert it to a F. I opened the box couples of weeks ago and it look superbe to me including a details engine and photoetch for an interesting price of £35

(Pound Sterling). A bargain. Take care Phil and enjoy your build.

 

Eric Descarrier

Lonon

UK

[eagledocf15]

Thank you for doing this forum topic!

[Guest Ta152H1]

Here's a better picture of the Has screen to Trumpy fuse join

I popped a bit of white paint in the screen edge to highlight the profile:

 

 

Worse case scenario is that its the same shape as the Hasegawa screen but a bit lower.

With the naked eye it looks slightly more rounded at the top than the Trumpy fuse.

All in all I don't think there is a profile problem here.

If there is the Hasegawa profile is also off too and possibly by an even larger margin.

 

That's enough measuring and comparisons for the time being.

Got to get on with BUILDING!

 

Phil

 

 

Looks like a very nice 109 to me ....I've seen beautiful builds outta old Hasegawa kits and beautiful Tamiya Zekes hastily put together....go on with tjhis build Phil...gonna follow your thread with GREAT INTEREST !

Cheers

Lou

[DarylH]

Good work so far Phil. I spent my evening on my F-2 project, filling scoops and prepping the cockpit for paint. With the small fuselage mods done I turned my attention to the prop and found those wide G-series blades. A look around the 'net did not show any aftermarket props for a 109F-2 so I may have to try re-profiling those blades. To get all three reshaped and still have them match is a daunting task for me. Any thoughts on an F-series prop?

[PhilB]

Hi Phil, I am Eric from London Uk. A chaps at Hannants modelshop told me it is a G2. Well it is a good news for me because black 6 at Hendon RAF Museum is an early G2

and I am lucky person because few years ago I was able to climb into this superbe aircraft and took a lot of pictures. In any case don't worry guy's it will be easy to revert it to a F. I opened the box couples of weeks ago and it look superbe to me including a details engine and photoetch for an interesting price of £35

(Pound Sterling). A bargain. Take care Phil and enjoy your build.

Thanks Eric and enjoy your build, after all thats what its all about!

 

Thank you for doing this forum topic!

You are welcome!

 

Looks like a very nice 109 to me ....I've seen beautiful builds outta old Hasegawa kits and beautiful Tamiya Zekes hastily put together....go on with tjhis build Phil...gonna follow your thread with GREAT

Thanks Lou.

 

Good work so far Phil. I spent my evening on my F-2 project, filling scoops and prepping the cockpit for paint. With the small fuselage mods done I turned my attention to the prop and found those wide G-series blades. A look around the 'net did not show any aftermarket props for a 109F-2 so I may have to try re-profiling those blades. To get all three reshaped and still have them match is a daunting task for me. Any thoughts on an F-series prop?

Thanks Daryl

Hell of a job to re-profile the kit blades.

Think you need to put a request in over on the traders forum for anyone with a spare E prop or try and get hold of one of the older E kits cheaply.

 

Spent most of yesterday measuring etc so I hope I can now move on a bit.

I mentioned the strange method of attatching the round tank to the back of the prop and not the engine:

 

There are spacers that keep it just off the back of the spinner.

The inside of the cowl has two tabs that locate on the tank.

As the tank fits the round orifice (must stop using that word so much) this then lines

up the spinner backplate on the front of the fuse.

It also centers the engine laterally. Bit weird but it actually seems to work:

 

 

The backplate might need a wee bit of sanding but I might have to put a very thin shim in which I can remove later to leave a thin gap

between the backplate and the fuse otherwise the fit is too good.

 

Phil

[PhilB]

I've done some more work on the undersized rudder.

This is it with the filler added, rescribed the panel lines nearer the tail joint.

I used 0.5mm plastic rod to re-do the lines on the rudder.

These were then sanded back and softened with Mr dissolved putty:

 

 

Gave it its first shot of primer and the scribed lines came out ok but a bit more work is needed to refine the

lines on the rudder.

Trouble with that sort of putty is that you can't really see what you've got until you prime it.

The shape is now correct and it fits the fuse well so that's the main problem overcome:

 

 

I'm waiting on the Trop decals to see the full profile which will tell me if I have to round off the wheel wells or leave them square.

 

Phil

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent work Phil, most excellent indeed.

 

Kev

[MikeMaben]

Hell of a job to re-profile the kit blades.

Think you need to put a request in over on the traders forum for anyone with a spare E prop or try and get hold of one of the older E kits cheaply.

 

The F-2 prop was unique. The E blades were thinner and the F-4 blades were wider.

Unfortunately, for an F-2, one will have to reshape or find a spare Aires conversion.

[Out2gtcha]

Excellent work Phil, most excellent indeed.

 

Kev

 

 

Definitely agreed on that one for sure!

 

Brian

[Allok]

Hell of a job to re-profile the kit blades.

Think you need to put a request in over on the traders forum for anyone with a spare E prop or try and get hold of one of the older E kits cheaply.

Phil

I agree with Mike here.

I have both the old Hasegawa kit and the new Trumpeter E. Neither prop has any wash-out.

You would be better off with an old Matchbox one or a 21st Century F prop, which you will still have to re-shape.

 

Looks good so far.

[Guest Ta152H1]

I got my Trumpeter Gustafriedrich last Saturday for €35 (a steal for the level of detail included!) and boy...it's really beautiful !With little effort it can be fully "upgraded" to what it really is,i.e. a nice G-2,even if I'm more and more fondling the idea to turn it into an "opened-up" G-6 before Trumpeter will release it.It will require an Aires' engine sets,Radu's wheel wells and canopy,homemade prop blades,either an AM or reworked spinner (most likely an Eagle part),a spare Hasegawa windscreen (that will fit like a charm as Phil has shown us),a resin copy of the Hasegawa rudder and upper wing bulges,a set of AM late-style wheels and few corrections here and there.The cockpit detail is nice but I'll use a MDC cockpit set,which is a gem.

The mid part of the lower wings has the opening for the "empties" chutes but it will be covered up by a panel (issued easily solved) and as far as I've seen so far only a few screw heads are missing on the upper and lower wings.

The rivets are nicley rendered and definitely NOT overdone like in many of the previous Trumpeter kits (even the best ones) and the priming/painting stages will further tone them down.The exhaust stacks are individually molded and amazingly hollow.They're devoid of their very prominent weld seams but nothing that cannot be added easily enough,but the lazier amongst us will benefit from their mold seams !

The underwing gun pods are of the correct lenght,yet look a little too "skinny" to my taste...better replaced with lenghtened Hasegawa part.

A fuselage fuel tank is included but no radios,even if there's rib detail inside the fuselage.

One funny thing is that the detailing on the ceiling of the port wheel well is "softer" than on the starboard one,but this is not a "fatal flaw" by any means!

To make a long story short I can say that I really love this kit and as far as I'm concerned it doesn't have no "fatal flaws" to it (if you leave the engine cowling buttoned up),it's nicely detailed,looks enough like a One-O-Nine to me and will make for a very pleasant and enjoyable build!!

Phil....sorry for hi-jacking your thread mate,but I'm enjoining it very much and I wanted to chime in as soon as I'd have got hold of my F/G!

BTW,I love Mr. Dissolved Putty..this stuff is amazing but it's very hard to see once it's cured.I've (sort of) successfully sorted out the problem by adding a drop of red (any color will do) Gunze Laquer to it to a small amount of the putty!

Keep up the good work!

Cheers

Lou

[PhilB]

Phil....sorry for hi-jacking your thread mate,but I'm enjoining it very much and I wanted to chime in as soon as I'd have got hold of my F/G!

Keep up the good work!

Cheers

Lou

No problems Lou!

I'm grateful for all comments. Seems some people don't think they can comment on this one but I initially said I would welcome comments about the build but not

a revamp of all the old comments about the kit itself.

Anyway, I've been very busy doing my crashed 109 on Russ's group build and that one has a deadline but this one does not.

 

I have finally got the Eagle Cals F-4 trop decals. I have decided on a scheme and I was hoping for a lead from the profile about squared off wheel wells. A topic that seems to raise blood pressures again!

As we know some F-4 trops did have square wells, indeed there is a walkround on 109 Lair of a 3/JG27 ship in Johannesburg that has got them.

There is a 3/JG 27 ship on the sheet but there is no info about this area in the profiles.

In keeping with the initial spirit of the build which was to see what could be achieved and with how much work, I thought I would make life harder for myself and do rounded wells just for the hell of it.

One of my (few) criticisms of the kit is that Trumpy should have done rounded wells a la Hasegawa with the option to remove small pieces to make square ones.

 

First of all I removed the square sections from the wells on the lower wing:

 

 

You will actually have to sand a small rounded area on the wing openings as the flat "turn" starts too early to make a circle.

I then made some thick card circles about 22mm in diameter that matched the circle of the well.

I blu tacked these in place then used strips of 10 thou card to make the rest of the circle using my discs as a guide.

I ca'd these in place where they touched the wing then used another piece to wrap around the outside to give more support.

Two lots of 10 thou is easier than one piece of 20 thou to get a good circle.

You will have to sand and trim the height of these to fit inside the upper wing to get a snug fit inside the well:

 

 

On the other side you have to infill the two small triangles in each well.

I made one large piece from card that covered both these areas and then trimmed and sanded it back.

I would imagine it would be very tricky to do them individually:

 

 

Well there you go, that's my way of doing it but I am sure some of you will see a far easier method than mine.

I should be able to close up the wings soon and get them on the fuse.

 

Phil