Bf-109G-6 - Bartel's 'Marga'
Basically I'm building my '109 using these detail sets. Engine and Radio Compartment, Cockpit, Bronze landing gear legs and accompanying photo etch for control surfaces and miscellaneous panels.
Just to make sure the fit is correct, this is the G-6 re-tool. I kept the original for another day.
The detail in the cockpit floor is incredible for the scale, fairly accurate to my reference materials.
Test fitting the canopy floor to see that it mates up correctly before I begin building.
These are the rudder pedal mount frames. they are mounted behind the rudder pedal
The rudder pedals are a little more involved than Eduard's typical offering for other kits and even their own. In this version there is a second bend in the metal to make the heel step before the stirrup.
The mount frames slides in between these arms on the rudder pedals. There's a tiny actuator that is fitted to the cockpit floor for both pedals, and the mount frame provides a 'lip' to glue the pedal assembly to the actuator behind it.
I have two workbenches in my study. I use this one when I need to do some very small detail work, and the other one for general construction and airbrushing. I'm spoiled 🙂.
Fresh off the air brush, Tamiya XF-63 German Grey. That 'stick pin' next to the access hatch on the kabuki tape is actually a photo etch of a pull handle.
I think I overdid it with the thinned wash (AK Interactive's Landing Gear Wash). I put the wash on without the benefit of a gloss coat first.
Close-up of the starboard side wall. The wash is super evident now.
Close-up on the port wall. At least I overdid it consistently!
Detail paintwork complete. I use mostly Gunze-Sangyo Mr. Hobby, the occasional Tamiya as well. A 3-0 and a 4-0 spotter paint brush to apply, and not necessarily rubbed on either.
I referenced photos of the G-6 at the Smithsonian, and a little guesswork. Wiring harnesses tended to be white, so for scale effect I used camouflage grey. Chain links were rubbed on with Tamiya Titanium Silver.
XF-66 drybrushed. Same effect, I'm pleased, and the grey has picked out some definition in the oxygen regulator, too.
I tidied up the wiring harnesses to the left of the fuel line; probably won't be seen after the instrument goes into the notch above. There's a gap in the yellow fuel line if you look closely. A clear resin 'sight tube' goes there.
Some of the more involved work happened on the port side with the trim wheels. This is a 5-part assembly of resin and photo-etch: first there's a tiny resin post that goes into the port wall, onto which the trim wheels and their chain drives slide over.
After the post is mounted (bloody tiny!) the elevator trim chain drive goes on, then elevator trim wheel. before each additional component I dry brush the detail on, and fade it out to match the port wall. Here I've added some range marks in red & white
I thought I would be slick and placed some small card stock around the trim wheel after mounting the flap trim chain on, but that didn't work. I ended up settling for a simple scrap of copier paper to space the wheel out from the elevator trim wheel.
Completed starboard cockpit wall. There is a miniscule piece of clear resin that serves as the sight tube between the two yellow fuel lines. Also, the handle and rod. I had to glue the firewall on in order to attach it.
I couldn't resist. On the right, a camouflage grey stripe across the top of the T-handle, and little dabs on the mounting bracket to represent positions of the T-handle to mimic the reference photo on the right.
Port cockpit wall, finished. Painted the red knob correct to the reference photo on the left. Don't always stay true to the photos, tho; I put range marks on both trim wheels that I saw on a photo elsewhere. Now on to the cockpit floor!
Cockpit Floor painted to the reference materials and weathered. All that intricate detail in the rudder pedals will probably be lost at assembly🙁. Rudder belts are made from coffee filter paper. Not overly happy with them...
The majority of the weathering effort was in the bucket and the back wall, and I used a combination of greys, a little brown, then some Tamiya weathering pastels
I'm really pleased with the dirty effect along the side walls of the 'chute bucket, and I decided to use (very sparingly) some Gunze Silver and Tamiya Titanium Silver.
Close-up of the rudder pedal assemblies from behind. These were really tricky to attach: first the resin actuator posts, then you rest the tab of the back of the rudder assembly on top of that. Then paint. And they aren't that sturdy, either!
I didn't use the etched brass rudder pedal straps because I couldn't manipulate them in a way that looked natural, so I used coffee filter cone paper instead. The material didnt' work as well as I had hoped, tho.
Control stick. Quite pleased with myself on this one, especially the lid effect of the button at the top of the handle grip.
Breech cover for the nose-firing cannon, completed.
Opposite side
Top. That placard is supposed to be a list of basic instructions for removal and inspection of the breech cover.
Coffee paper filters, albeit I didn't use these because the material was too difficult to cut without tearing. I ended up using the brown ones instead.
The coffee paper filter experiment didn't work, so I decided to make nother set this time out of Tamiya tape. This worked, but this time I airbrushed the belts instead of hand-painting them.
I airbrushed them Tamiya Buff, but I felt they came out a little too brown for my taste, so I brushed on a little flat white to lighten them up.
Next I painted the buckles a gunze light grey to match the general background (without lustre) of silver. Then I went over the straps with a dusting of flat white, and buckles again with a light coat of gunze silver.
Attaching the seatbelts. I use micro liqui-tape (white glue) on the back side of the seatbelt to pin it down properly to the bucket and the backrest/wall, but a dab of super glue on the belt anchors themselves to keep them firmly in place..
I like to suspend the belts so as to make it easier to arrange them.
Cockpit floor complete. I struggled a little with the fitment of the yoke, but got it in there eventually. Access cover went on nicely. Next is the instrument panel...
The lap pads I cut out of black cardstock that came with the xtratech belt buckles, airbrushed them brown, drybrushed with tan and then Tamiya buff, then took my curved x-acto saw and rolled it over the top to give that stitched effect.
IMPORTANT TIP: do NOT attach this piece (PE11) to the cockpit floor as it says in the instructions! instead, superglue the completed/painted piece to the cockipt wall, then manipulate the tail to seat to the cockpit floor through trialling...
Contents of the Big Sin Kit. Before I can get to the motor, I'll need to fit the radio compartment.
The Revi 12c gunsight, sitting on a microSD card for size comparison..
I spent 3 hours assembling this. It comes in 5 pieces.
Mount Arm was painted XF-63, and a landing gear wash to pick out depth before dry brushing of Gunze H305. Gunze Black on the apparatus and the sight window apertures, H37 Brown on the pad with a dry brushing of H66...
...One of the reasons I don't like pre-painted photo-etched brass. Any attempt to try and sand off any frets usually results in the paintwork coming away altogether, as you can see on the round steel disc on the FuG17 Transmitter.
And the other reason I don't like them is that the colouring isn't very accurate, as can be seen here. Nevertheless, I accept it. I've added an additional T-handle on the lefthand side of the instrument panel.
It pays to dry fit the compartment halves into the fuselage before going any further. You may need to trim off about .5 to 1mm of wall off the top on both sidewalls because if you attempt to assemble, the fuselage won't join up.
Painted flat black adopting a technique I picked up off an Opel lorry I saw here on scalemates.
I REALLY DIG this effect after laying down a moderate coat of RLM02 Grey...! I am sold on this technique.
dry-brushed the wiring harness, then lightly touched over with landing gear wash to pick out some of the depth, then reapplied the camouflage grey on the wiring harness again for effect.
Battery on the left and the FuG25 transmitter on the right. The diagonal marks on the FuG25 were actually two keys with a morse code combination cut into them and were used as a crude form of IFF in those days.
A really light touch of landing gear wash to the ventilator grill and I got the right effect. Nice touch indeed!
Repeated the effect on the Amplifier(?) cabinet, too.
Battery and mount rack. If it looks like the rack is bent a little, it is, the result of a patch job when a section of the rack was broken away during trimming of excess flash.
Final shot of the Radio compartment pieces and instrument panel. Everything's done, assembly is next and then the fuselage will be cemented together in preparation for the motor assembly.
The result of some fitment issues with the radio compartment, that I will have to consider during final assembly in the fuselage.
Final assembly of the cockpit. It looks cramped even from a modelling perspective!
The instrument panel has 'pushed out' the port cockpit wall and seperated it from the firewall. Other joins have suffered some stress as well. However, the fitment into the fuselage was Very close.
On to the radio compartment. The only thing that fits here are the walls on both sides, and even at that they overlap a little on both the top and bottom, preventing the fuselage halves from coming together fully.
I used JB Weld epoxy because I needed setting time to get this radio rack positioned correctly. Notice the gaps surrounding it to the side wall.
I needed to be careful here in the fact that I plan on running some control rigging in the background, through the gaps.
5 Amp fuse wire is the heavy cabling, while a couple strands of steel speaker wire not much thicker than a human hair were used for the rest of the rigging.
Welded in some card stock to serve as spacers to cement the control cabling to. This was a little tricky since I had to 'weave' the control wires around and behind everything. I decided not to paint the cabling; it looked better this way.
The finished result. That black placard that looks like a data plate is from a Waldron hobbies detail set for a P-51 Mustang...
Seems almost criminal, cutting away at a plastic kit for the sake of progress. when I do such surgeries, I like to cut large swathes out, and then leave a bit behind to sand off gradually. Far easier to subtract than to add on...
The surgery in progress. This took me 2+ hours to do. I like to take my time.
The cockpit seated nicely into position. some minor puttying and this will be flushed level.
The engine cowlings do NOT fit the fuselage by about .8mm which is a bit worrying.
I try to dry-fit as much as possible. Unfortunately the firewall and gun carriage doesn't seat neatly so I'm not positive how to progress with the rest of the fuselage...
..so I'll move on to the engine block. Incredible amount of detail here, more than can be picked out properly, so much of it will need to be dry-brushed black-gray for depth.
Surprisingly not a lot of flash, mostly in the nooks. The plug cable on the left had to be replaced with fuse wire because I snapped it off trying to remove the web flash under it. A coat of semi-gloss black and the accident is hidden!
The bottom cylinder is the barrel housing for the 20mm cannon. The square plug is the inertia reel starter, off to the right side I (think) is the alternator, and the top triangular plug is the ignition coil and points.
These are the supports that hold the MG barrel troughs(?) and are mounted to the engine rear lift points. These come in two pieces, and the trickiest part of assembly was the folding into shape.
the support arms are the only thing left to be folded into place; again, poor fit meant that they need to be bent in over themselves in order to fit to the attachment points on the barrel troughs the way the instructions require.
These are the completed parts that go on the rear of the engine. I wish (for scale effect) I had not painted the areas instructed aluminum; it looks far too shiny to be realistic. I won't make that mistake again.
The retaining clamp is a long piece of etched brass that is painted RLM02. I should've attached it to the glycol tank before painting. In order to make the retaining ring fit, I had to roll the brass strip with a sharpie marker...
...to get the initial shape, then finished it off in a plastic circle template just a little smaller than the tank to give it some snugness. The excess strip (.5mm) I bent over to simulate the clamp's knuckle.
I masked off the rest of the tank and hand-painted the ring in RLM02.
The assembled engine block with accessory components (inertia reel, alternator, magento) and MG barrel flash guards attached.
I originally started painting the oil tank a medium grey but wasn't happy with it, and switched over to an IJN Sea Grey. Not a brilliant job, but its early days. Notice the barrel flash guards. One's not set quite right.
The oil tanks are supposed to be silver, but I chose IJN grey instead for scale effect. Rubber black sleeves and RLM02 straps, Med Sea Grey plumbing on the bottom, IJN Sea Grey piping over the crankcase. Not a brilliant job, but I'll do better next time.
Starboard side oil tank. Better job than on the port.
Beginning the plumbing below the oil tank. Tamiya Rubber Black on the pipe joins, Med Sea Grey on the jubilee clamps.
Port side in work. After which some weathering to the engine block, then fitting out the front of the motor. Note the flash guard snapped off on this side. I'd recommend putting them on after the weathering and before the engine bearers.
Preparing to airbrush another batch of components before I start building up the front end of the motor. But first, I needed to dry fit them to be sure I had them shaped correctly... this is the turbocharger and ignition piping.
Now that's NOT what I was expecting... the conduit mates nicely into the magneto at the top, but comes out in entirely the wrong position beneath the turbocharger. Just so you're aware so you aren't surprised when this happens to YOU.
It's supposed to curve inward and mate up to the conduit pipe that runs along the cylinder bank.
When I made a physical comparison between the instructions and the part, I discovered the mould tool had been designed wrong!
So now, I have to fabricate my own. I used some telephone copper wire to wrap around a small length of 0.5mm .925 Silver wire (for malleability) and some 5 amp fuse wire that will serve as the secondary spark plug cable on the back cylinder.
When I think I have enough length, I cut off the ends and start sizing up and shaping the fabricated pipe.
Superglued the conduit to the back of the turbocharger where it will be nicely hidden from view.
I decided to replace the lower half of R52 and keep the upper half since the fit to the magneto was superb. That was a mistake. I lost the upper part in the hungry carpet that lurks beneath my workbench, where many a fiddly-bit is lost.
I retrieved the unused bit of fabricated piping and finshed off the rest of the conduit up to the magneto, then painted XF-1 Flat Black, and the coiling XF-85 Rubber Black.
The oil tank valves (R45, R46) don't go on until Step 8, which is after the Glycol tank w/reduction gearbox (R41). I chose this way instead to give me more room to manipulate the valves into position. Notice the gap between the tank and valve.
Both valves fell short of the connection by around 0.3mm, and they had to be positioned to centre on the connector. This is why I use epoxy resin instead of superglue in most instances - I like to take my time and work the part into place.
Once the epoxy is sufficiently hardened, I'll slip a dab of epoxy resin between the fitting and the hose pipe, then touch it up with paint when I start going 'round the engine to clean up the errs.
This is R53 from Step 3. Both R53 & R54 were too long and didn't quite fit, either. I had to shave off a smidge from both ends of R53 to get it aligned.
Two sections of 0.3mm wire run from the port side of the crankcase, around the reduction gearbox, and up to a thermostat valve on the circular oil tank. This is the first piece of wire, and I've done a bit of damage to the paintwork fiddling it about...
The instructions called for 0.3mm wire, two lengths, one 8mm and one 9mm. Here they've been formed and ready to go. The lengths were good for the fit, the longer one is the top wire and it will be the first one to be set..
Lots of trial and error. Once I got the shape correct, I set that one aside and worked on shaping the second line...
Because it followed the same path to the thermostat valve. Here both lines have been glued into place. This took me about an hour to sort out, arguably the most difficult part of the build so far. I have another line to attach on the right side now.
I used a very slow-setting epoxy when I positioned these two wires, and I had to wait a few minutes for the tiny dabs to get sticky before laying the first wire on, this way I could take my time getting it into the right position before the epoxy hardened
The weapons access hatch.
The hatch required a bit of milling out in order for it to properly seat into position on the fuselage.
Completed prop.
Completed build.
The tiniest piece of etched metal I have come across - I was lucky to be able to get it in position.
I used a strand of speaker wire for the antenna.
I replaced the etched brass equivalent of a brake line with my own, but kept everything else.
Scuffs, marks and oil stains along the wing root.
The National markings were airbrushed on with a camouflage gray.
I'm not overly happy with the decal set I used (EagleCal decals #28) - I couldn't get the carrier film to settle down properly even when I hit it several times with setting solution.
canopy retaining wire
This is the first time I've put a gunsight inside the cockpit!
Radio access panel.
A nice shot of the port cowling panel inierior.
Rather pleased with how the underside turned out.
Lets hope the next model I build won't take me 2 years!
Komentáre
22 4 August 2019, 10:54
Tom OThanks, Michael. Any questions about anything I do, techniques, tools, ect. just ask I'm happy to share!
4 August 2019, 18:14
Sergej IFollowing, looking really good so far. Will use as a reference on my Hartmann's Gustav.
4 August 2019, 18:35
Michael HickeyThanks Luftfanatic, I'll be curious to see how well the construction of the DB engine goes, I plan to put an Eduard Brassin engine set Bf 109G-10/U4 engine in my Eduard Bf 109G-10, and put her on a neat little dio.🙂
5 August 2019, 02:03
Michael HickeyYou're work on the cockpit is amazing, and those rudder pedals, beautiful.👍
5 August 2019, 03:49
Tom OLesson learned. Don't use the brown coffee filter paper to make your seatbelt fabric from. Simply put, the paper really soaks up the paint and gives off a very "ragged", hairy look... I went back to my old stand-by (Tamiya Kabuki Tape) and probably won't go back, either. The real test will be when I mount the seatbelts and see just how easy or difficult they are to manipulate into haphazard positions without losing any of the drybrush detail.
17 August 2019, 15:38
Björn SvedbergLove your attention to detail, and the progress pictures! 👍 Following. 🙂
19 August 2019, 05:35
Tom OThanks for the good words, everyone! I'm really impressed with the fitment so far for this detail set. Despite how small everything is I haven't lost any parts (miraculously!) and everything is just progressing along as it should. Nearly finished with the instrument panel - I just have the Revi sight to assemble/attach and that will be done. Then I'll do some fitment tests in the fuselage before I move on to the radio compartment...
20 August 2019, 20:27
Tom OThe cockpit is now complete, I added a few bits, and now the major components need to be assembled into it's box-like enclosure, but I've detoured a little and decided to start working up the radio compartment. Before I can check the fitment of the completed cockpit, I need to add the radio compartment and check it for fitment since its completely enclosed. Once that's done, I'll know about how much clearance (if any) there will be between the instrument panel and the ventral guns, because I'll need to scratchbuild something behind the instrument panel to mount the Revi gunsight to: The gunsight seats into the instrument panel, however its a little loose, and you'll notice from the pics its terribly tiny, so I don't want to chance any disasters!
26 August 2019, 08:06
Tom OPhoto 58. When I started working up the radio compartment the first thing I did was a dry-fit. Frankly none of the pieces fitted well with each other, and that was the prelude to what was coming down the line. It's not as well-thought out as the cockpit. First, the compartment sidewalls, even when they were pressed into the fuselage sidewalls left some overlap, far too much to be able to close up the fuselage when the time came, so I fitted them into their positions (the Eduard kit has a raised impression on the fuselage wall where the radio compartment sidewall seats up for ease). Reducing the sidewalls also meant reducing the room inside the fuselage as well, which in turn meant a potential challenge getting the battery and auxiliary frame mount settled inside. I had to tape the sidewalls together loosely enough to squeeze the auxiliary frame in, a bigger challenge since I had already glued the battery to it. For those out there planning on doing the radio compartment on the eduard kit, you'll want to consider the assembly steps in the instruction sheet more as recommendations than gospel, I'm afraid. After the components haves been painted/completed, it's best to first fit the auxiliary rack to the starboard sidewall using the opposite sidewall as the guide, and be prepared for the possibility that the rear attachment point won't meet flush to the side wall edge for gluing. Looking closely at photo 58 and you'll notice the attachment point sits away and over the lip; I had to sand off a good portion of that to get it to sit flush in the fuselage, thankfully it won't be seen anyway when the fuselage is buttoned up.
6 September 2019, 19:19
Tom OSecond step, after the glue has cured on the auxiliary rack, will be to attach the photoetch wiring to the sidewall BEFORE putting the battery box on top of the rack. I made the mistake of 'going it alone' and drilling out a small hole to fit some copper wire through from behind in order to reach over to the battery box. Had I used the photo-etch wire instead I would have had less headache – in point of fact, I could've attached the photo-etch wire at the very beginning and it probably would've been even better! The reason I say this now is that, once the photo etch wire is in place you can set the battery box in position, glue it in from behind and underneath, then gently push the photo-etch into place ensuring a solid connection to the battery posts. When everything is buttoned up inside its very cramped and difficult to see most of the detail anyway, even with a penlight.
6 September 2019, 19:20
Bryn CrandellLooking good so far. I have this kit in the stash. This will be some inspration for me when I build mine.
18 September 2019, 12:03
Tom OThanks Bryn! I'll continue to post pics and commentary where I think it would be useful to the group. Feel free to ask me anything about the construction, materials, etc I'm always happy to share and I do like getting tips from others as well!
18 September 2019, 22:17
Jim JLooks awesome so far. I haven't mustered up the courage to tackle any of the Super Experten 109's or 190's yet. You're really doing justice to Eric Hartman's plane. I'm following along closely. Thanks for sharing the details.
19 September 2019, 00:54
Tom OI departed from the detail kit and added some control cabling into the radio compartment as this would be prevalent in the real thing - and the fact I've got some pics to prove it helped, too! They add a nice touch. As mentioned before, when I dry-fitted the fuselage halves together there was a considerable gap (~0.4mm) because the lips of the radio compartment sidewalls extended past their respective fuselage halves, bowing them out slightly. These sidewalls were a struggle to firmly seat into their respective fuselage sides fully; fortunately the resin wasn't allowed to cure for too long in order to allow a little 'give' in the build. Naturally I shaved the top and bottom lips of the sidewalls after fixing them into the fuselage to get a better fit. While this allowed me to get the top spine seam fully welded, the underside refused to play ball and I still had a slight gap of (now) 0.1mm to seal up with some Gunze Sangyo dissolved putty. We'll see what the finished result looks like after I do some slight sanding to remove the offset and excess plastic cement. Photos forthcoming...
13 October 2019, 22:06
Tom OThanks, Christian. I've only recently come back to my project, hence the delay in response. For all of you out there in scalemates-land, beware! I found a moulding error in this detail set from Eduard (shock-horror-gasp!). Reference the last 4 pics for my recent discovery...
9 December 2019, 19:25
Tom OI've placed all of the components onto the engine up to but not including the engine bearers at this point, because putting them on in the order as described in the instructions would've severely restricted my ability to patch up/repair any boo-boos I might have made in the process, especially with the bearers in the way. The next piece of this is going to be even trickier than what I've had to contend with because there are a series of lines I have to fabricate from wire to attach to the motor that go under AND over the bearers, so I'll need to pause and think carefully how I proceed.
Eduard makes a very competitive cockpit so far as detail, accuracy and fitment goes, while their radio compartment, surprisingly accurate as it is, desperately needs to be reviewed for fitment issues, especially since this is supposedly designed for their own kit.
The level of detail in the engine kit thus far is certainly impressive, and reasonably accurate as well, but the fact that none of the pipework (R52, R53, R54), let alone one of the pipes (R53) was molded backwards(!) and countless other fitment issues elsewhere on the engine itself continue to plague me during the build process, which raises some fears about the final fitment/alignment between the engine, the engine bearers and more importantly the firewall. I wonder if the blast guards have sufficient clearance to the MG17 barrels, and ultimately if it will indeed fit into the compartment its designed to fill.
Stay tuned. More to discover, more to tell.
27 December 2019, 23:50
Tom OIn the meantime, I hope everyone out there in Scalemates-land had a memorable and peaceful Christmas, as have I. I promised myself I would devote some time to my G-6 and I've done that now, even though I plan on doing more in the coming days 🙂.
27 December 2019, 23:52
Tom OCompleted build - enjoy the pics. Lets hope the next model doesn't take me two years to build!
21 April 2021, 18:46
Album info
The topic for my Messerschmitt initially was one of Erich Hartmann's mounts while he was serving in Russia with JG52, however in the past 15 months I've had a change of mind and decided on Heinrich Bartel's 'Marga'; I liked the contrasting camouflage scheme and white ID markings made this a more interesting subject that Hartmann's at the time.
