Hasegawa 1/48 Bf 109E-3

[SimonT]

Evening everyone, I can't resist this one, I do like a 109!

 

I'd like to join with Hasegawa's old E-3, which is one of the first kits I ever bought, a very long time ago.  I wan't to do her as White 13, as flown by Heinz Bär in the Battle of Britain.  As you can see below, the decals have yellowed quite badly, so I shall look at getting the Montex set and see if I can get away with the decals that aren't supposed to be white still.  I'm hoping I may be able to finish this and hopefully another E but as I failed in the F-16 STGB I'll be thrilled if I can get this one done.

 

Obligatory box shots:

 

 

 

Looking forward to starting tomorrow!

 

Si

[GREG DESTEC]

Nice!

 

I lock forward to watching your progress.

 

Cheers

 

Greg

[BerndM]

Looks like a good build with an interesting marking scheme. These decals need some time in a bright window.

The Hasegawa Emil is a joy to build.

[SimonT]

@BerndM Yes, you're right, I should try that really.

 

I've managed to steal an hour here and there to get a few bits done, this build will be out of the box so please excuse the rubbish painting, i need finer brushes and a lot more practice...

 

First up, cockpit assembled, main tub and sidewalls sprayed in Ammo Mig RLM02, instrument panel sprayed with Revell Aqua Blaugrau (I'll get Ammo Mig RLM66 in the cockpit set I think) then left to dry for the night.  Alclad Aqua Gloss then sprayed over all part and again left to dry overnight.  Wash applied with Ammo Mig Dark Yellow enamel wash (from Ammo Mig's early Luftwaffe cockpit set), left to dry for an hour or so  then various bits and bobs picked out and left to dry overnight again.

 

 

Close-up, it'll do, lessons learned at least.

 

 

Tonight I put the tub together and then took over an hour to close up the fuselage, I had to do it carefully as it seemed ever so slightly warped so the panel lines wouldn't line up.  I think my patience paid off though.  The cockpit tub then just slotted in, I test fit the wing and they just "snapped" in so a little cement strategically placed to take advantage of capillary and we have this (I had put the wings together a few nights ago while waiting for things to dry).

 

 

 

 

The nose is only dry fit for now.  Hopefully I can steal some time over the weekend to add the last few bits and get a primer coat on.

 

Thanks for looking in, all the best!

 

 

Edited May 11, 2017 by SimonT

[BerndM]

Looks great so far.

[SimonT]

Well, I've made some progress, I sprayed AK Interactive RLM 04 on the nose and rudder, let it dry overnight and masked them off.  

 

A quick pre-shade of the major panel lines was done in the morning, with highly thinned Tamiya Flat Black and in the afternoon, Ammo's RLM 65 on the undersides was next, again, left to dry overnight and the top fuselage was masked ready for Ammo RLM 02 application.  I didn't do any masking of the top surfaces at this stage, I thought I might get paint lines if I did, so I marked the sides and undersides for the splinter locations and sprayed it freehand, slightly going over the imaginary lines just in case as I wanted to keep a little of the panel pre-shading to show through to break up the monotone look.

 

Next I masked ready for Ammo's RLM 71 ( I went way over the top with my masking by the way, but weirdly I enjoy doing it!?) and sprayed that last night then put it back in it's container to dry overnight.

 

This evening I came home, said hello to the wife, reasoned with my little one who wanted to skip dinner and go straight to desert (I sympathise mind!!!) and rushed upstairs to check out my handy work...

 

I thought I had taken more pictures at each masking phase, but alas, they're nowhere to be found (lucky you  ) so there's just the one from which you can see how overboard I went!  It shows what I mean about marking the tape for free-hand spraying of the RLM 02 and the overspray done on purpose at least:

 

 

Masking tape off for the reveal, this is what I have on the underside.  Weirdly I didn't cover the yellow overspray on the wing leading edges very well, so I'll have to do some remedial spraying there:

 

 

Top side head on view, the cockpit and leading edge slats (which are just push fit at the moment, they'll be glued downwards at rest when it's finished) still need to be painted RLM 02 as do the wheel wells, the machine gun barrels and scoop need sorting too obviously:

 

 

Next up is a side view, showing the pre-shade, I'm quite happy with it, not sure what will happen after a gloss coat though.  I apologise to the purists at this stage, The fuselage demarcation lines should be wavy but inexplicably, I just did straight lines subconsciously and only realised after the RLM 02 had been sprayed:

 

 

Rear view, just because they're my favourite shots (ooo er):

 

 

The last shot of the day are the decals, they've had a few days in decent sunshine and the yellowing is definitely fading back to white, really pleased, just need a few more sunny days and they might be there (huge difference if you compare to the picture in my first post ):

 

 

Next up, remediation work, at the same time I'll paint the remaining little bits, wheels, prop etc, gloss coat or two or three, decals, then a wash.  I am tempted to do some post shading but not too confident on that...

 

Any and all comments welcome, only way we learn   Hope it's not been too boring a post!

 

Si

Edited May 19, 2017 by SimonT

[stevej60]

Any progress Simon?look's great so far

[SimonT]

I've been away for a while and work took over before that. Will re-start work during the week hopefully. Been enjoying your builds coming along though

[PlaStix]

Fantastic modelling so far. Looking forward to seeing more. 

Kind regards,

Stix