JG 52 Messerschmitt Bf 109K *Completed*

[BradG]

A good time to break out a nice Hasegawa kit over Christmas. I will build the aircraft of Hptm. Adolf Borchers, who flew this aircraft while in command of Stab/ III Jg 52. Borchers would see action during the Spanish Civil War and from the first, to the last day of WW2. He scored 2 victories during the Battle of France and Battle of Britain before being transferred to the East for Operation Barbarossa. He would go on to score a further 130 victories in some 800 combat missions, being awarded the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross.

 

Post war, he was turned over the Russians by the American's, however he made it home, reunited with his wife, Olympic gold medal skier Christl Cranz and set up a ski school which they owned until 1987. Borchers passed away at age 82 in 1996.

 

Edited January 21, 2020 by BradG

[chrish]

Pulling up a chair.

coffee and recliner, and ready for the show...

[Scale32]

Great scheme choice Brad. Looking forward to the start.

 

Cheers Bevan 

[BradG]

A small start tonight. With the modular design of these kits, you need to scrape off the late model G cockpit interior on the starboard side of the cockpit and add the part now glued in. Fit is very good though. Not sure that I have any 1/32 seat belts left so I might have to acquire some.

 

[BradG]

Dragging my heels on the airbrush at the moment, so I've just been doing a little cutting and gluing. I hope I have some RLM 66 left in the paint stash.

 

[BradG]

A little paint plus I added the instrument panel decal which with a little work sits down nicely.  

 

[BradG]

Work continues. A little modelling and a little wine tonight. The wings will need some careful gluing to make sure all the joints are nice.

 

 

 

[BradG]

Slowly goes it. Ok, fuselage looks pretty good on the upper surface.

 

 

...and not so good on the lower. Not sure how this happened, will require a larger hammer I think.

 

 

Well I'll let that sit for a minute and put the wings together.

 

 

Need to shim the inner part of the radiator flaps to clean up the gap. A little sanding here after the glue dries should do the trick.

 

[MikeMaben]

 

 

[BradG]

Wings and tail now on, prepping for some further paint.

 

 

Looking good so far.

 

 

I do like Hasegawa instrument panel decals, they always fit well and settle down nicely. I'll do a bit more clean up and make sure the joints are all nice and smooth then it should be on to some more paint. I do like these Hasegawa 109's!

 

[Azgaron]

Very nice work so far!

 

Håkan

 

[Lud13]

Nice progress Brad.

When I work with Hase 109s I don't follow instructions for fuselage like u didi it. I firstly glue tail section with each front section separately then both halves together, its much more easier that way at least for me.

[BradG]

5 hours ago, Lud13 said:

Nice progress Brad.

When I work with Hase 109s I don't follow instructions for fuselage like u didi it. I firstly glue tail section with each front section separately then both halves together, its much more easier that way at least for me.

 

Yeh, I probably should have done it that way, ah well, it didn't take long to knock off that step on the lower surface.

[Scale32]

Did you scribe upper and lower fuselage seam lines along the length.?

 

Great progress so far and yes the Has 109's are a great thing.

 

Cheers Bevan 

[BradG]

5 hours ago, Scale32 said:

Did you scribe upper and lower fuselage seam lines along the length.?

 

 

 

Nah, I just glue 109's together then run a little sand paper over the seam line and leave it. It's only a very fine line on the real thing and not always that visible, so it doesn't really need a scribing.