Gazzas Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 (edited) Hi everyone, Back in the late seventies I was a young boy with no money and little on his mind but models. One summer my father gave me this while I was visiting him on Summer vacation: Until that time, the only 109 I had known of was the Monogram 109 E Adolf Galland kit. Needless to say, it was the best gift I ever thought I was given before I became an adult. But the story was to take a bad turn. My father lived with a neat-freak on-and-off again girlfriend. I had set the kit to dry after adding the wings to the fuselage and was then shipped off to the grandparents for a few days. When I got back, the kit was gone. Nobody copped to it, not did anyone offer to replace it. Pretty much ruined summer vacation. Since I returned to modelling a few years ago, the kit had occasionally come across my memory and when I saw the box at the local big model show show, I grabbed it like a drowning man would grab a life preserver. I was going to recapture that stolen part of my childhood! After having the kit for 6 months, I got down to it. Old fashioned sprues and parts with hinges... I can tell that man y of the parts are a bit... shall we say... inaccurate. Because the decals are only a few years younger than me, I decided on a great profile by a great artist Claes Sundin. Did I mention I have a Silhouette Portrait? Image for discussion only. Painting the pilot was the first hurdle. A hurdle because my figure painting skills are pretty unskilled. No point in doing the boots... they'll disappear. He's pretty huge and completely blanks out the sides and bottom of the cockpit. This allowed me to dispense with doing more to the lower cockpit than a coat of RLM 66. What was supposed to be a simple exercise in thinning the trailing edges of the wings turned into opening the radiators and dropping the flaps turned into some major transplant surgery as a slip of the saw ruined one of the Revell Cooling flaps. The Trumpy ailerons were too narrow in chord as they neared the wing tip. So, no more gray parts. This was supposed to be OOB. The engine didn't deserve too much love as it wasn't going to show anyway and the IP wasn't even close, so I blackened the instrument faces and dry-brushed the indicators. It doesn't show so well but the pilot is so big, that I don't think it'll matter. The pilot was only painted with tube acrylic paints, so I covered him with the tip of a rubber glove for protection. I filled all of the hinges in with milliput and used white card to shim the cowl and wing-to-fuselage joint. You may have noticed hints of brass in the machine gun troughs. These are some Master Barrels MG 131's that also came with a brass Pitot tube. The Kit is inaccurate. I know that... but I've really enjoyed getting to this point. I've fabricated some small parts with card, and I have some scribing to do to add some details like the fuel hatch behind the canopy. Thanks for looking! Gaz Edited January 29, 2019 by Gazzas Alain Gadbois, sandokan, MikeC and 22 others 25 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmayhew Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 Nice. usually I can’t understand why people build old kits like this but the backstory makes it just seem ‘right’. even more so because I have one of my own versions of this to do myself - the last kit my Mother bought me before she passed away. enjoy your project. kind regards nick Gazzas, Pete Roberts, Scale32 and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted January 12, 2019 Author Share Posted January 12, 2019 Thank you, Nick! BiggTim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozart Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 Yep, I'm 100% with Nick here about old kits (excepting the Matchbox Tiger Moth because there's no alternative!), but your story makes this kind of special, good luck with it Gaz. BiggTim and Gazzas 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 Lovely project, Gaz! I have one of these in the stash, too, and have every intention of building it some day (possibly turning it into a G-12). Kev Gazzas and BiggTim 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Molitor Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 Gaz, Lovely story. I’m totally with you on this build. I must have built this kit at least a dozen times in the last 35-40 years. Man, I had so much fun with this Kit in my youth. Fun with finger print glue seams, to paint striper melt downs, to attaching it to the back of my Schwinn Stinray to see if the pilot could fly freakin straight and level. A Daisy Red rider BB gun target of opportunity. Magnifying glass bullet hole candidate. Man, I have all your stolen summer memories tied into this kit. Rock on with this kit and have fun with it. Enjoy your time with it. The rubber condum over the pilot for protection is also hilarious. All the best Gaz! Troy Tnarg, BiggTim and Gazzas 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted January 12, 2019 Author Share Posted January 12, 2019 Thank you for the kind wishes, fellas. Though I'm enjoying this build, and finding it great for my mental state, I am not sure that I'd do another. While one mental need is being fulfilled, the other need - to make things as close to perfect as possible - has to be held in check. Gaz Scale32 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark_C Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 I remember my father bringing this kit back for me from Europe when I was about 12. I was thrilled, especially as it just wasn't available locally. I doubt I built it at all well, but it was a lot of fun. Thanks for the memories. Gazzas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted January 15, 2019 Author Share Posted January 15, 2019 Hi Everyone, I'm not sure which segment takes longer: The finish, or preparing to get to the finish. I suppose I could have slapped it together as I might have as a young feller, but I just had to fix a few things, change a few things, add a few things, and try to get rid of the seams that didn't belong. BUt regardless of all this, I am getting closer. There are quite a few things a master modeller might do, like add wheel wells, add a proper vent for the oil cooler, and close up the space beneath the engine that exposes the bottom of the DB605 engine to the elements. But I haven't done any of those. Here's where I am now: Added the Beulen, the supercharger intake (to which I added a hideously large weld seam), and a bit of clear plastic for the reflector gunsight. See, he's zeroed right in! When the early G6 was introduced, it had a tailwheel that was too large to be retracted into the fuselage. So, they gave it a small leather boot around the oleo to keep it clean. My boot is made of milliput. And now that I've added the dreaded aileron balances, the plane will stay on the jig until completed. Finally I have the canopy on. But, it had some unevengaps, and If I filed much more off, it wouldn't have been long enough to cover the space. So, once I got it glued in place and let set for a while, I used a little Mr. Surfacer to ensure no overspray got into the cockpit. Thanks for looking! Gaz Shawn M, BiggTim, johncrow and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted January 15, 2019 Share Posted January 15, 2019 Fantastic work, Gaz! Kev Gazzas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale32 Posted January 15, 2019 Share Posted January 15, 2019 Looking really good Gaz. Cheers Bevan Gazzas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted January 15, 2019 Share Posted January 15, 2019 Like it, a voyage into a simpler time, I must build a 1/32 Matchbox Spitfire again sometime as it was the kit that lured me back into modelling and into 1/32 scale. Cheers Dennis Gazzas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn M Posted January 15, 2019 Share Posted January 15, 2019 well done Gaz, Im a total sucker for the old kits and enjoy building them in any way shape or form. Gazzas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted January 15, 2019 Share Posted January 15, 2019 Hello Gaz! I also remember building this kit some 40 years ago! It had retractable landing gear did it not? I have a vague recollection of lubricating the joint with Vaseline. Gazzas and Out2gtcha 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted January 15, 2019 Share Posted January 15, 2019 Looks great so far Gaz! 5 minutes ago, Thunnus said: I also remember building this kit some 40 years ago! It had retractable landing gear did it not? I used to have a SUPER fascination with aircraft kits that had retractable landing gear. I used to LOVE the 1/24th MPC line of kits (Fw-190, P-51, Me-109 ect, ect) because of that very fact. Gazzas and Troy Molitor 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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