1/32 Hasegawa Bf109K-4 Weisse 8

[MikeMaben]

7 hours ago, D.B. Andrus said:

   the wingtip light covers were not clear plex, they were tinted red/port and green/stbd. The bulbs themselves were clear.

 

I've never seen that to be the case.  Do you have photos that show that ?

 

 

 

 

[Thunnus]

Maybe both styles were used?  Here's a photo of a K-4 that seems to indicate a tinted lens cover...

[Thunnus]

I've glued on the supercharger intake.  I added a weld seam using stretched sprue, which will get sanded down a bit.

 

I messed up the windshield.  When trying to attach the armored glass, the capillary action of the Tamiya Extra Thin seeped in and made a mess of things.  Thankfully, Hasegawa supplied a spare windshield.

 

I've glued the backplate onto the spinner and painted it to match.

 

Prior to the windshield mishap, I was gearing up to attach the clear parts and glued in the instrument panel.  A little delay to see if I can salvage the armored glass that goes behind the windshield.

[monthebiff]

Those landing gear legs look very interesting John. All coming long nicely.

 

Regards. Andy 

[nmayhew]

9 hours ago, Thunnus said:

I got a surprise package in the post today.  A prototype landing gear replacement set for the Hasegawa kit!  As this is not released to the public yet, I've been asked to give an evaluation and keep the source anonymous for now.  :shutup:

 

The landing gear struts are an ingenious mixed media product comprised of a stainless steel tube core, which lends strength to the legs and also gives the oleos a shiny metal finish without having to paint it.  The rest of the landing gear leg is molded in resin using the kit landing gear as a master mold.  As you can see, the metal extends into the mounting peg, which should make the legs significantly stiffer/stronger than plastic or pure resin legs.  The molding edge is thoughtfully placed so that is will be hidden from view by the landing gear covers.

 

The landing gear legs are basically identical to the kit gear legs, with the exception of the additional tow eye that was placed at the wheel end of the leg.  All of the mounting tabs and sockets are replicated as to work seamless with the kit parts.  I've already verified that these fit very positively into the wing bottoms.  Casting is of the highest quality with no visible roughness or air bubbles.

 

I love the ingenuity of the mixed media approach.  Metal legs are nice but they can be a pain to clean up.  The resin is much easier to handle and the metal tube gives the legs an upgrade in strength. Double thumbs-up from me! 

holy crap they look good!!!

 

whoever he is, tell him to get them to market ASAP

 

oh, and get a decent website that you order from worldwide as well

 

seriously they look gorgeous

 

now back to my popcorn eating - enjoying this build immensely!

[Landrotten Highlander]

6 minutes ago, nmayhew said:

whoever he is, tell him to get them to market ASAP

 

oh, and get a decent website that you order from worldwide as well

I second that

 

[zaxos345]

Amazing build As all of yours John!!!!

 

John

Edited November 30, 2019 by zaxos345

[rigor]

Yup that gear looks awesome I'll be in for a few sets hopes he makes others as well 

[Thunnus]

Thanks for the comments!  

 

I replaced the aerial attachment tab with a piece of brass sheet.  Filippo suggested that I replaced the rudder tabs but I'm not really motivated to do it at this point in the build.  But I'll think about it.

 

The Revi 16 gun sight is finally glued into place prior to the attachment of the clear parts.

 

I got lazy and ordered a set of Eduard masks for the clear parts.  As usual, the fit is PERFECT!  This build will have the canopy in the closed position so the windshield and canopy are glued into place permanently.

 

You can see the modifications/corrections I've done on the bottom per Vincent K's excellent article.

[Wackyracer]

John, as always inspirational work.

[D.B. Andrus]

On 11/30/2019 at 1:52 AM, MikeMaben said:

 

I've never seen that to be the case.  Do you have photos that show that ?

 

 

 

 

 

My mistake, not all 109's had tinted plex covers. The K-4's appear to have had tinted covers, as well as some late G-6's, G-14's and G-10's.

 

G-6/G-14:

 

 

 

G-10:

 

 

 

 

 

K-4:

 

 

HTH,

D.B.

 

 

 

 

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!

 

Now it's time to start painting.  I left off this summer trying to re-think my pre-shading technique.  In the past, I free-handed black mottling to impart some tonal variation to the preceding camouflage colors.  Basically an inverse of the popular black-basing technique.  I wanted to stay with this personally-developed approach but I started experimenting with different masks to randomize the edges of my mottle pattern.

So... using a brillo pad and some artist templates, I came up with this...

 

This technique utilizes highly thinned mixtures of paint, applied in successive layers to build up opacity and tweak the pre-shading effects to the desired level.  For the RLM 76 Light Blue, I am using AK Real Colors and the following photo is at about the 50% stage of coverage.

 

Eventually, the pre-shading is just barely noticeable and I stop. Keep in mind that this is just the first stage in the weathering process and I don't need the pre-shading to accomplish everything. Just enough to  complement the upcoming layers.

 

Some pre-shading work on the drop tank...

[nmayhew]

[MikeMaben]

13 hours ago, D.B. Andrus said:

   My mistake, not all 109's had tinted plex covers. The K-4's appear to have had tinted covers, as well as some late G-6's, G-14's and G-10's.

 

I think that's the case. Considering the disorganized condition of production towards

the end of the war, different suppliers were used depending on the manufacturing site.

Thanks for the help D.B.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 2, 2019 by MikeMaben

[Out2gtcha]

The 109 looks excellent John!

 

Man, those mixed-media gear look fantastic!  That is exactly the approach I use when making my own gear to correct stance, strength ect, ect; just take the normal OOB gear and then I normally inert a stainless tube for the oleo (normally a "turkey injection needle". This would save a ton of work!   Looks like a really handy product.

 

It might even be better still, if he could offer the gear with the stainless tube and the resin parts separate, so the stainless part could slid up and down in the gear, letting the modeler choose the stance/length of the gear (in flight, on landing approach, fully compressed ect, ect) as they needed for any situation.