Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-4
Comments
23 June 2017, 18:05
Christian BruerI recently bought the Airfix new tool Bf 109 E-4 and could not withstand to start building this nice little kit. I plan to build it as Franz von Werras's 109 using the decals coming with the kit. Although the kit is nicely detaild for that scale I use Eduards interior set, Quickboost seat and control stick and the Master weapon set.
I start with the interior. There are some details missing, like the trim wheel on the port side. But these part comes with the Eduard interior set. You have to remove some casted details to add the PE parts, but that was quit easy to do. Some ejector pins has to be filled and sanded, also quit easy.
I do not like the overlap of the back side of the cockpit, so I cut of some material from the back side of the cockpit tub to get a proper fit. I also cut out material on the instrument panel to make sure to adjust the part once the PE instruments are in place. From my point of view the instrument panel is placed much to far backwards, with the modification I can control the position and get a good fit.
Next I have to cut of some material left and right of the cocpit tub to get a good fit to the wing section. Without any modification the fuselage halves with the cockpit tub in place will be 0,6mm to width. You can better cut of material from the upper wing sections but I have them glued togehter before I notcied the mishap. So it was a better choice to cut the cockpit tub.
Another mishap, there is a casting error at the front window. The error is in the frame and so I hope I can fix it using a 1,0 mm diameter styrene rod.
Some more progress soon.
Cheers, Christian
23 June 2017, 18:21
Markus Kutsch The Plastic BenchI got no doubt that you correct the flaws out of nothing.You are a Master at work. I enjoy watching this. 👍
23 June 2017, 18:26
Alec KI loved Von Werra's 109 ever since I got the Profile No. 40 back in the 80's (one of my first reference books), where it was prominently featured. Did not make it to the bench yet, but this is inspiration indeed. Thanks for the great "how-to" narrative 👍
24 June 2017, 02:27
Christian BruerThank you all for your kind words and your interest. Today I add some cables inside the cockpit and managed to modify the seat superstructure. Some other parts were cleaned prior to assembly and painting. Now I have to research the outline of the break pipes.
Cheers, Christian
24 June 2017, 09:25
Christian BruerThx for the thumb up Christian. This is much appreciated 🙂
Today I attached the PE pedal to a 0,3 mm brass rod, modified the seat superstructure and add some cables made of 0,1 mm brass rod left and right to the consoles.
The interior is finished and ready for some RLM02.
Cheers, Christian
26 June 2017, 14:48
Markus Kutsch The Plastic BenchJust insane, Mate...0,1mm....insane..Top ..Top...Top..👍
27 June 2017, 17:19
Christian BruerThank you very much Mike and Markus for your very kind comments. I much appreciate it!
27 June 2017, 17:43
Christian BruerThank you very much Alec and Holy🙂
Some switch boxes and cables bring more life to the interior. Another topic, the oxygene bottle, Eduard provide the perforated sheet cover, but there isn't any plastic part with the kit to represent the bottle. So I made my one one from styrene rod. Not perfect, but I think it will be ok for the scale.
I also add brake pipes to the undercarriage made from copper wire. I'm not an expert with the Messerschmitt but I guess I made a mistake with the strap. Possibly it should be in the forward direction?! However, I will leave it like it is bacause the wheel will cover the strap at the end.
Cheers, Christian
28 June 2017, 15:53
Łukasz GlińskiI can only watch it thanks to the macro-photos, otherwise I'd lose my sight😉
29 June 2017, 06:18
Bart Goesaertnice work on the cockpit... must be a joy in this rather "large" scale.... 😉
29 June 2017, 08:38
Christian BruerThx Bart! Yep, but I feel dwarfish to work in that unusual and big scale 😄
29 June 2017, 13:53
Christian BruerThe Cockpit and undercarriage was painted in a RLM02 scheme. I used Vallejo 71.044 and shade it with white in a ration 1:2.
All the small details are hand painted using Vallejo colours except the few PE parts I have added after painting. The resin seat comes out really nice, I paint the seat Vallejo 71.056 toned down with white to represent the seat in RLM66.
Now all need some time to dry compeltely before I go further on with a wash and highlights with oils.
Cheers, Christian
1 July 2017, 15:06
Stefan SchachtHi Chris, nice work so far, i take a seat. By the way, do you know this figures: scalemates.com/kits/1081240-..res-ek72-f005-der-adler-1940
Cheers Stefan
3 July 2017, 11:16
Christian BruerHi Stefan, yep thx, still in my wishlist😉
Hehe Holy, dat mokt ok Spoß un Freu 🙂
3 July 2017, 15:46
Christian BruerFor the first step of weathering and worn effects in the cockpit I applied an oil wash. I used a mix of green, brown and yellow to get a darker tone than the basic colour. After that I let run a wash of brown oils along all edges and contours. Some dirt from footsteps was also applied on the cockpit floor. Now it need some time to dry before I can start with the highlights. Even in a small scale it took some time to get it right and not overdone. Hope it will come out nice in the end?!
Cheers, Christian
9 July 2017, 14:06
Christian BruerThank you Markus 🙂
Today I had some time to highlight the interior parts. I used white oils and different types of brushes to add the highlights to small and wider surfaces and details. Before I applyed the oils I slightly retouched the dark wash using a cooton cloth wetted with lighter fluid.
When I was finished I glue the cockpit floor into the left fuselage halve. The seat was also glued in place. The extra details like the Eduard PE and Quickboost seat and control stick looks very nice even in this small scale.
Well, I'm looking forward to glue the fuselage halves together.
Cheers, Christian
13 July 2017, 19:08
Martin Oostrom'it looks quite nice'
You're being too modest CB. It looks great, because of YOU.
Keep it up mate 👍
14 July 2017, 06:46
Christian BruerI glued the fuselage halves using Tamiya Thin Liquid and Tamiya CA. Because of the soft plastic I start in the cockpit area to get the best fit there. Then I glued the rest from the front to the rear.
Now it need some time to dry completely before I can clean the seams and add the engraved panel lines along the upper and lower fuselage side.
Some little more work is done, I replaced the injection moulded MG 17 with turned brass parts from MASTER. It need some carefull drilling and sanding to get a good fit, but it was it worth.
There is some overflush along the mould separation of the propellor that has to be removed carefully. The soft plastic is easy to sand, but it also tend to break if you do not take care.
Cheers, Christian
16 July 2017, 16:09
Markus Kutsch The Plastic BenchIrre Christian....Wie so oft.Hast du mal drüber nachgedacht ein "Querschnitt"Model zu bauen(hoffe du weisst was ich meine).Damit all die fabelhaften Details mal sichtbar sind.(Falls du nicht schon eines gebaut hast)
19 July 2017, 04:27
Christian BruerDankeschön Markus!
Ach nö, das ist dann doch noch ein wenig aufwendiger, da bleibe ich lieber bei den wenigen versteckten Details🙂
20 July 2017, 17:43
Christian BruerOnce the fuselage halves dried completely I cleaned the seam lines. The fit was quite well, so there was not much work required to get a nice and smooth result along the seam lines. Unique at some Messerschmitt designs was the fuselage manufacturing made of half shells. To represent the prominent seam line I engraved a line along the top of the upper and lower fuselage side. Some cleaning was required using fine steel wool and fine sanding sticks. It looks quite nice so far and I could glue the wing section into place. The fit here is also very nice and with just somewhat sanding you will get smooth fit.
Cheers, Christian
23 July 2017, 10:57
Cesar Munizexelent job Chris! very impressed with the interior!you should do one tutorial about filling ejector pins!
23 July 2017, 11:14
Kerry COXYour gift with the finite items is something to behold Christian. 👍
Are you a watch maker by day ,mate. ??? :-O
Yes. An other masterpiece for sure. 🙂
23 July 2017, 11:49
Christian BruerThank you Cesar and Kerry, I much appreciate your very kind comments.
24 July 2017, 16:45
Christian BruerThe fit at the tailplane wasn't that well as the rest of the fit. Attention was required at the tailplane. One of the struts wasn't filled completely in the mould and broke in half while I seperate it from the frame. So it was a little bit tricky to get the correct angle of the tailplane and a correct fit of the struts. Filling and sanding was required at the seam line between the elevators and the fin. All in all it took some time because of drying time of the reapired strut and the filling, but it looks ok so far. The rudder was fixed in a slightly angle. I used 0,4mm brass rod for fixing the rudder. Now it looks more and more like a OneONine.
Cheers, Christian
26 July 2017, 18:40
Alex-Ovidiu MihailescuAwesome looking 109 . I love well done 109's ! Keep up the good work !
28 July 2017, 22:22
Christian BruerI cut out the closed air flaps and replaced the flaps to represent them in open position. I used 0.2mm flat styrene.
The engine cover is fitted now - don't forget to paint the engine in a dark colour because you can see the tip of the engine throug the air vent holes oin front of the cover.
I checked the position and angle of the main landing gear. The angle taken from the side view looks ok to me, but there is some adjusting required to get a correct fit of the wheels. It is better to control the fit before I start the painting process.
Cheers, Christian
6 August 2017, 10:53
Christian BruerThank you Bart and Stephan. It is just slow progress, but better than none🙂
Cheers, Christian
6 August 2017, 18:18
Martien LourensCoincidence. I also started last Saturday. With this kit. Yours is very detailed. Splendid work
6 August 2017, 18:43
Hanno KleineckeChapeau Christian, that Cockpit and the gearstruts look far more like 48 than 72nd ! Excellent detailing !
Did you scratch the oilcooler flaps ?
6 August 2017, 19:23
Spanjaardi would say slow is a point of view, but that the progress is excellent, it is probably unanimous 🙂
6 August 2017, 21:22
Bill GilmanVery nice work, Christian! I love this Airfix kit, it's quite nice especially for the price. It builds into a great replica, and you're doing some excellent work to give it the extra amount of detail it deserves. Can't wait to see it finished. Cheers!
6 August 2017, 21:42
Christian BruerWow, thank you so much for all your very kind comments 🙂
@Hanno, the oil cooler flaps are scratch build, but the landing flaps comes with the kit.
@Yes you're right Bill it is a very nice kit and I think it will not be my last oneohnine.
Cheers, Christian
7 August 2017, 18:17
Kerry COXWhen looking at your work Christian, it is easy to forget that it is 1/72, as this scale of detail is something that is usually afforded something in the range of 1/48/32 scale, but this detail is just something to behold and admire. 👍
A BIG salute for your abilities and skills.🙂
Simply amazing mate. 👍 👍 👍
12 August 2017, 18:53
Christian BruerThank you very much Burkhard, Irving and Kerry for your very kind comments.
13 August 2017, 09:21
Album info
I recently bought the Airfix new tool Bf 109 E-4 and could not withstand to start building this nice little kit. I plan to build it as Franz von Werras's 109 using the decals coming with the kit. Although the kit is nicely detaild for that scale I use Eduards interior set, Quickboost seat and control stick and the Master weapon set.
