Me109 E Trop JG27 Black 8

[nmayhew]

Next project on the bench: Me109 E-7 Trop from JG27; going to do the well-known Black 8 when I get the masks made for it (courtesy TopNotch / Sean Middleton).

 

Although the rivets on my recent Spitfire by Revell would have Trumpeter’s Mad Riveter salivating, I did quite like elements of the overall effect. To that end, I am using my Rosie The Riveter tool for the very first time (the 1/32 DML kit is moulded ‘Hasegawa clean’).

Fuselage done, and half way through the wings in these pics, and quite liking it, despite a few wobbles. 

 

 

 

 

 

On reflection the whole riveting process was really quite simple and I think i am going to do this for all future WWII builds

 

 

 

[nmayhew]

Many have said that the cowling does not fit and had to graft various parts off in order to force things so I wanted to tread carefully here.

 

Conclusion:

1. the cowling fits around the engine complete with all the oil cooler pipes etc installed underneath just fine.

2. the nose MG parts do need to be grafted down or the cowling part just behind the engine / in front of the cockpit will not sit correctly. This is not a big deal as the parts you graft are not visible (whereas the engine and some of the pipes underneath will be).

 

The cockpit also fits nice and snuggly.

 

I made a conscious decision to disregard the instructions and fitted the engine to the fuselage without the cowling piece in place - with it in place it's really hard to see where everything should be located.

 

 nothing is glued here; snap fit is excellent and really nicely engineered.

 

oil cooler pieces in place - these were painted before gluing

 

painting inside here after construction is not impossible but i found it easier to do it beforehand

 

proof all this pipework fits!

 

engine mount is not glued here, but shown to give you an idea why it can be fiddly to locate 'for real' with the engine attached, and the cowling over the MGs

 

cowling over the MGs just resting - fit is excellent once you graft down the MG mount parts

 

 

[nmayhew]

colours came out funny on my phone but hey ho; Quickboost seat with moulded on belts - quite pleased with how that came out

 

 

 

i guess this is an example of why OPR is just superior to washes and pigments etc - the latter just do not stand up to super close up scrutiny. the chromatogram look that so often occurs with diluted pigments etc is virtually impossible to see with the naked eye, but looks pretty grim in this close up.

I don't have any oils at the moment but will definitely be investing!

 

fuselage fit was very good and only the lightest of pressure is needed to keep the two halves together. again, fit is excellent. no cockpit parts are yet glued to the fuselage in this shot!

 

one weakness of the DML kit is the MG cowling where the guns poke out. the real guns had small 'sleeves' just at the end which married to the contours of the cowling holes, but the kit doesn't give you anything. I made a mine with some styrene tubing. It's a bit of a crude solution but better than nothing, and also the best I could do.

 

109 experten will know how wrong this looks - sorry!

 

 

[nmayhew]

test fit...like a glove!

I should add that the underneath panel which forms the bottom of the fuselage is not glued here - held only by virtue of snug fit. Not Tamiya, but pretty cool nonetheless.

 

and glued! a bit hairy, and I could have done with a third hand, but all in all no real dramas for what is a critical part of the build

 

cowlings on.

lots of sanding not because fit is poor but because i was lazy and missed a stupid seam mold line that for some reason runs diagonally across both cowling pieces on each side!

I'll remember that for next time as it would have been *a lot* easier to sand the parts beforehand.

rivet detail was added back after sanding which although tedious is actually very easy.

 

that's all for the moment

 

if anyone has detailed specific questions about construction and wants to know part numbers etc just let me know and I will do my best to answer

 

Nick

[monthebiff]

Lovely job on the cockpit Nick, liking this one a lot 

 

Regards. Andy 

[MikeMaben]

Lookin' good Nick , super cockpit . I did find a fatal flaw in the kit tho ...

 

https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/82384-dragon-cyberhobby-109e/&do=findComment&comment=1160010

 

OK maybe not fatal  

 

 

[nmayhew]

1 hour ago, MikeMaben said:

Lookin' good Nick , super cockpit . I did find a fatal flaw in the kit tho ...

 

https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/82384-dragon-cyberhobby-109e/&do=findComment&comment=1160010

 

OK maybe not fatal  

 

 

 

yeah I saw that, thanks

i effing hate scribing lines at the best of times, and only saw it after I had put the wings on, so the omission will stay on this one I'm afraid

 

anyway, some additional 109 construction notes which may help people...

 

I chose to go quite off piste from the instructions once more with the wing construction, and attached the top half of the wings to the main spar and the fuselage just on their own.

The reason behind this was to focus on the wing root join, which I did not want to have to re-visit after gluing.

Sadly I forgot to take a pic of just the top halves in place, but it worked out fine and was actually very easy.

 

I also painted and weathered the wheel wells as it seems easier this way.

 

The flaps require a small area to be cut out if you want to show them dropped (which I do); see pics for this. Finally, I also painted the grills and inside of the radiators before fixing in place.

 

 

 

 

 

kit barrels chopped off and drilled out to accept Master MG FFs which will be inserted right at the end

 

covers in place and most of surrounding painting done

when it comes to priming and painting the rest of the kit, these areas will be avoided

i will add the small brace at the opening after main painting is done, as filling this area with masking sponge / tissue paper etc will risk snapping them off even if i replace with brass rod (which i intend to do)

 

 

that's all for now

[Alain Gadbois]

Very nice work here! I am reassured about the fit of this kit as some really struggled with it and made me hesitate to start mine.

I will be following your assembly method, as it gave you very good results.

 

Alain

[Kagemusha]

Nice start Nick. 

[Out2gtcha]

Looks lovely so far! 

[nmayhew]

small update on my 1/32 Me109 E-4 Trop 'Black 8'...

 

I used to be a 'dipper' - a clear part Future dipper that is - but results were erratic and it was only when i investigated no-blooming CA and also saw one of Will Pattison's canopy polishing vids that I thought "I don't need that **** any more"!

All of my DML E canopies have 2 ridges / seam lines on the rear canopy part. I didn't use a scalpel / blade - but probably could have done - but achieved pretty decent results with some sanding and then polishing with some T-Cut (automotive polish). So the canopy can now be masked inside and out and we can move on.

 

 

 

 

 

and after buffing...

 

 

A few other construction notes...

The rudder involves some photo-etch to simulate the hinge (in fact most of the control surfaces have something like this). I thought this was a bit gimmicky but you can actually see a bit of PE once attached, so it is worth going through with. For some odd reason, the bottom hole in the tail does not match up with the PE hinge part on the rudder - not even close. A new hole was drilled - no drama. Depending on the scheme you are doing, it may be worth leaving the rudder off and painting separately eg a yellow tailed bird (mine isn't).

 

 

 

The elevators also had the PE hinge thing, but the piece which fits over it leaves a large gap on the tail plane which needs to be filled. I used some Deluxe Materials putty smeared down with my finger, having masked the trench that needed filling. Looks a bit shoddy but it's dead quick and once the taoe is peeled away you have a very neat bit of putty and only minimal sanding. Maybe there are better ways but this worked quite well for me and i will be using this technique again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[nmayhew]

not sure if there is a 10 pic limit per post - is that right?

 

anyway, one last pic...

 

[Gazzas]

Love your detail work!

[chrish]

Great attention to details!

[Out2gtcha]

Looks great!!   

Skys the limit on the new software as far as pics go IIRC.