Messerschmitt Bf-109-G, Erich Hartmann - Finished

[Dpgsbody55]

On 11/15/2023 at 11:04 PM, Phil Smith said:

Excellent so far. And extremely helpful - thank you for the details on the construction and what things to watch out for. The kit is a fun mess of detail, which is exactly what I like

 

It is also encouraging, since I did get ZM's Ho-229 a year ago...

 

Thanks Phil.  Yes, it's a very good kit so far.  Wonderfully well detailed and excellent fit.  This is my third Z-M kit and has me thinking seriously about another as a follow up.

 

2 hours ago, chaos07 said:

Looking forward to the final product - quite a good start so far!

 

Thanks a lot.  I've almost finished the cockpit now so more pictures to come soon.  IP and upper seat belts to go.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

The cockpit is now finished.  After my last update, I started on the sides commencing with the left side which is easier.  It's just the throttle and some rods and chains for the flaps and tail trim.  There are also two tiny decals to apply on the quadrant itself and the small panel in front of it.  Unfortunately I broke one of the rods trying to pose the piece for this shot.  It's the lower rod that connects to a linkage on the firewall.    I later glued on a piece of stock rod as the broken bit pinged off into the never never.  That's two parts of this kit disappeared now, probably to be found when I tidy the desk after the model is finished.

 

 

Here it is, not yet glued but held in place with a small piece of tape.

 

 

And again, posed in the fuselage.  Another small decal added to the fuselage side here, as well as to the cannon breach cover.

 

 

Right side next, which needed more work.  There are seven more decals applied to this piece.  I did try to pick out the wiring, but mucked it up a tad.  It won't be that visible anyway, so no big deal.  The drop tank fuel pipe was a bit "heart in the mouth" stuff too, both because I was hoping and praying that no paint would get under the mask over the sight glass, but mostly because the part is very fragile and easily broken.  A trick I didn't manage .

 

 

Here is both parts placed onto the floor assembly.

 

 

And again posed in the fuselage.

 

 

My next task was to glue each part in place, then immediately add the top frame and first aid/battery box shelf.  Both the cockpit sides have to align with the top frame as they must not lean in or stick out, the latter causing fitment issues when the fuselage is assembled.  As I thought, the cannon shells in the feed tray were not worth the effort of painting.

 

The fuel tank is just placed on to stop the cockpit from sitting on it's rear end.  The top is yet to be painted.

 

 

 

 

The machine gun magazines and fuel tank went on next.  You can see the linkage that the throttle rod from the cockpit connects to, here picked out in RLM02.  In reality, the fuel tank could have gone on at any time as it doesn't interfere with other parts yet to be fitted.

 

 

So this left the instrument panel to make up, as well as the etch shoulder seat belts.  Here's the instrument panel in it's final glory.  I used etch components from Z-M/Eduard which are very fiddly but went together well enough.  Some of the parts are very very small - can we get a Mr McGoo emogi please, Administrators??  It somehow seems appropriate for this forum... 

 

 

Here's the seat belts and IP now in place.  The IP is wiggled into place with no cement, then held in position by part I-7 which glues to the back of the panel and also to the top frame.  Very clever!!  The undercarriage mounting brackets are also glued on here.  These attach to the bottom rear edge of the firewall and also to the bottom of the floor.  Take some care with the positioning of these parts as the mounts need to be a mirror image of each other or the undercarriage will look strange.  I used normal styrene glue rather than Tamiya's extra thin for a better bond on these parts.  It needs to be strong.  Readers familiar with this kit may also note I haven't drilled out the pin holes for the battery as this plane has the battery mounted in the rear fuselage, and not behind the pilot's head.

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for now.  On with the fuselage.  I need to find out if the plane I'm building, W/N 166221 which is a G-6, had MW50 injection.  If not then I don't need the tank that sits behind the fuel tank.  Any assistance here would be appreciated.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Gazzas]

that cockpit looks great.  I was sucked into painting the ammo too...  but never saw it again.

[Phil Smith]

Coming along very nicely!

[Dpgsbody55]

On 11/20/2023 at 1:40 PM, Gazzas said:

that cockpit looks great.  I was sucked into painting the ammo too...  but never saw it again.

 

Thanks Gaz.  I'm pretty happy with this part too.  As to the ammo painting, I did it purely as an exercise in trying to improve my skills.  Bullet feeds are one thing I have trouble with.  Also, I suspect there's going to be more parts in the fuselage that are being painted but never to be seen.  I'll do that, but I don't think I'll bother with control cables and electric wires etc.

 

7 hours ago, Phil Smith said:

Coming along very nicely!

 

Thanks Phil.  I'm working my way slowly through the fuselage now and have installed the MW-50 tank.  It's likely it was in there on this plane.  If I could just find a picture of the right side, that would confirm it.  No such luck yet. 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

A bit more progress on the 109, with the fuselage now closed up.

 

The first part that went in was the elevator control, just under the cockpit, followed by the font and back fuselage frames, then the MW-50 tank and air bottles and then another frame with an RLM66 painted doofer (technical talk there ).  Another frame, with radio boxes is also ready to go in between the blue bottles and dark gray doofer.

 

 

More frames followed one of which also had the master compass which I painted light green as per a picture I've seen.  No idea if it's actually correct, but it's going to be difficult to see anyway so no great matter.  Lastly the tail wheel and it's mount were built up and glued in place.  The rod sticking up is the operating rod for the elevators, in case you're interested.  One of the best things about this kit is that you can build almost any G-6 or it's derivatives with the fuselage gun breech bulges, and I've picked the tailwheel that applies to the plane I'm building which had a cover over the fixed tail wheel opening.

 

 

The next part to go in is the cockpit.  The undercarriage hinges fit exactly into a notch in the fuselage, so glue was applied here as well as on the top of the main wing spar.

 

 

So in a case of going, going, gone, here's all that detail covered up.  Before I installed it, I made sure all the engine connection were cleaned of paint.  Easier now than when assembled.

 

 

The last job done so far is the rear cockpit cover, with a plain access hatch.  No shelf mounted battery in this one.  The Erla canopy ejector bar is also added, though difficult to see.

 

 

Here's a few pictures of the cockpit now.

 

 

 

 

 

The next bit, according to the instructions, is to add main wheel legs, tail and engine.  All are either built or built and painted ready to go on, but I would rather see if I can add the undercarriage after painting, ditto the engine and I don't like adding tails until the the wings are on.  So for the moment, I'm going to concentrate on the wings and then dry fit stuff to see what works best for me.

 

So after a few days away from home, that will be my next step.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Loic]

Nice progress 

[mozart]

As a new/late comer to this GB I’m trying to catch up on all that’s been going on here! Most impressed with your fine and neat work with your 109 Michael, looks like a superb kit. 

[Dpgsbody55]

The wings are now built, but not yet attached to the fuselage.  There's quite a few parts to these, but I found it a bit of fun to assemble all the parts.  As is often the case, I didn't exactly follow the instructions, as I wanted a finished inner structure to airbrush rather than paint bits and assemble later.

 

On the right is a complete right hand inner wing structure, and on the left is all the bits that will go into the left wing innards.  If you follow my method, the trick to watch out for here is the front half of the wheel well which must sit flush with the bottom of the wing structure as the glue dries.  Quite a few parts, and lots of mold tabs to cut off and tidy up before assembly.

 

 

Now both sides are completed and ready for paint.  As well as a heap of mold tabs removed during the build up.

 

 

A closer look.

 

 

Next is radiator assembly and mounting these in the wing.  The radiator assembly is quite staring forward, but be careful mounting them in the wing.  If you glue them in place and push them all the way in then let them dry, the top of the radiator will sit above the wing structure making top wing attachment impossible.  Make sure the rear outer part of the rad sits flush with the wing spars.  After the rad is mounted, you then start adding the wings skins, starting with the two shown here.  The wing has four lower skins and two upper skins.

 

 

I painted the radiators themselves in steel colour paint, then painted some black wash over the top.  Thankfully, it looks better IRL than it does in this next picture.  There is an oxygen bottle that goes inside the wing, but I've left that out as it's totally sealed in and invisible once finished.

 

 

After the lower skins have gone on.  Notice also that the wing leading edge under the slat is painted RLM02.  The slats can be made moveable on this kit so if you choose this option, make sure both inner surfaces of the slats are painted.

 

 

Here we have both wings now finished, together with the completed wing centre section.  I've picked out the radiator pipes in aluminium, but I have no idea if they'll be visible when it's finished.  But it looks good during construction.   I think none of the centre section will be visible later, but since I had the airbrush out.......

 

 

Now that the wings are done, I can start to look at what I can fit after painting the model during final fit up.  Dry fitting the wings has shown that the undercarriage legs are best fitted now as fitting later may still be possible, but getting the stance right might be more difficult.  So on they went, and I'll just have to mask some more.

 

 

 

Next, the brace goes in.  This needs to go on both because parts of it can be seen when the model is done, and also because it has tabs that locate the wing centre section left to right when that part goes on.

 

 

 

So this is progress to date.  My next step is to attach the wings and I think I'll be attaching the centre section first.  The wings slot into the main spar centre and then flop about a lot, so that is why that centre section will go on first.  After that I'll add in the front wing fairings then add the wings, followed by the top fairings.  That should ensure proper dihedral.  That needs to be done in one sitting, I think.  I'll also be test fitting the engine to see if I can leave that till later.  If not, it goes in before the wings and masking for paint will be more difficult.  Either way, once the wings are on, then the tail will go on.  Hopefully, that will all be in my next update.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Gazzas]

Looking good...   if memory serves, the wings won't flop once the center section is in.  I remember having trouble adding the fillets after the wing-fuselage joins had dried.  The tubing sections caused my wings to stick out too far, so I had to break the joins...  literally break...   and cut off the tubing sections.  Coulda just been operator error...  but it may prove useful to dry-fit test the fillets before you set it up to dry.

[mozart]

Complicated or what! With the build up of tolerances possible this has to be a very precise kit and assembly procedure! 

[Dpgsbody55]

5 hours ago, Gazzas said:

Looking good...   if memory serves, the wings won't flop once the center section is in.  I remember having trouble adding the fillets after the wing-fuselage joins had dried.  The tubing sections caused my wings to stick out too far, so I had to break the joins...  literally break...   and cut off the tubing sections.  Coulda just been operator error...  but it may prove useful to dry-fit test the fillets before you set it up to dry.

 

I've got the centre section on now and it's dry.  Dry fitting the wings shows that they fit well, though I may just slightly ream out the holes in the fuselage that the radiator pipes for through for a more sure fit.   My thinking presently is that I'll add the top wing fillets with tape, glue the wings on, then run a bead of Tamiya extra thin around the fillets.  That's after I've put the front set of fillets in place and to do that it looks like I'll have to put the engine in place first, as there's no way the I can get the engine in later as all the mounts and pipes won't fit over the front fillets and undercarriage support.  I suspected this would happen as the kit is so finely engineered so it's not a big disappointment.  I just like to make the paint and mask process as easy as possible.  When I made my Z-M Dornier 335, I left the front engine off until after paint and decals, which was much easier and I have visions of doing the same again.

 

5 hours ago, mozart said:

Complicated or what! With the build up of tolerances possible this has to be a very precise kit and assembly procedure! 

 

Yes, it is complex, but the kit is very well engineered so it's a pleasure.  I'm very much enjoying this build and the challenges are all part of the fun.  I should add that some of the challenge is down to me, as I always look for what I think is a better way to put the kit together.  In this case, I'd say Z-M have nailed the construction process.  One of the things I like about this kit is that it gives a much better idea than other kits about how the 109 was built.  I like that a lot.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[MikeMaben]

10 hours ago, mozart said:

                     ... With the build up of tolerances possible this has to be a very precise kit and assembly procedure! 

 

I call it error stacking ... happens to me too often 

 

Progress looking quite nice Mike 

Edited December 5, 2023 by MikeMaben

[Dpgsbody55]

20 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

 

I call it error stacking ... happens to me too often 

 

Progress looking quite nice Mike 

 

If I'm honest, I'll admit to having my heart in my mouth right now in the hope that the parts I add on in the future all fit.  I take these complex builds fairly slowly and spend more time test fitting and checking alignment than I do actual building.  For me, it's part of the challenge and hopefully making me a better modeller, but having added the engine yesterday, I'm taking this very slowly.

 

Thanks for the encouragement, Mike. 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

The wings are on at long last, and it's taken longer than anticipated since my last update, but I've taken this process very slowly to get it right.  And not exactly followed the instruction sequence.  If I had, I'd have felt the need to do all the steps in one go, and perhaps finished up with cement daubed everywhere .

 

So the first step I took was to put the tail plane on.  I decided to do this now as the model is on it's undercarriage so should be level.  This was supposed to be done earlier, but I felt that it would be too easy to glue this piece on skewif so I left it for later.  Measuring the tail plane tips from the desk top ensures that the tail surfaces will be properly straight.  This will also help to ensure that I get the wing dihedral correct and even on both sides.  In this picture, you can also see that the wing centre section is glued in place.

 

 

The next step was to mount the engine, another step previously not done.  I had hoped to leave it off altogether until after paint, but that would have meant gluing the then painted wing front fairing and similarly painted undersides together, leaving possible glue marks which might then be painful to clean up.  So the engine was attached and taped into place, then that front wing fairing added.  This also gives better fitment of the wings, which will no longer flop about front to back.

 

 

After that lot had dried in place, I started test fitting the wings.  The next two pictures shows the wings in place but not glued, and the right wing (left of pic) has a bit of a droop com pared to the left wing.  The tail fin is also now on.

 

 

 

Above, last view of the radiator pipes..  .

 

So I now decided to add the upper wing root fairings and let them dry.  This would give me a very strong wing joint too, and avoid having to snap this part in place later as per the instructions further avoiding a cement debacle.  It also helps to ensure all gaps are even and minimal which means that dihedral is correct.

 

 

Now at last I felt comfortable adding the wings and being entirely sure of even and correct wing dihedral.  Here it is with the wings held in place with tape.  That right wing still wanted to droop about 1.5mm in comparison to the left wing, so this was evened up with the help of my steel ruler and left for twenty four hours.

 

 

A clearer view with all the tape removed, as the model is now.  The leading edge slats slide in and out nicely too.

 

 

My next task will be to add the machine guns, shell ejector chutes and some other small details around the back of the engine.  Then it's on to wing ailerons and flaps, gun sight and canopy.  I think I'm starting to get close to paint.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael